February Lessons and Learning Games

One thing that is huge in our homeschool is learning games. Everything we can think of to help improve eye coordination, memory, thinking skills, and such is a winner in our book.

Sometimes I am just amazed at how good some of our kids are at puzzles...

Richard Scarry's Eye Spy Game

Playing Checkers

Our Lessons for February: 

This is basically what our school days look like.

Our morning starts with breakfast and me reading from their Story Bible. 

After that we start school work with an Opening Prayer - The Lord is My Shephard  

Next we start Memory Work and Recitation:

• How many letters in the alphabet? Name them
• What are the two sizes of letters? What are the two types of letters?
• What are the short vowel sounds? What are the long vowel sounds?
• What is the mark we use at the end of a sentence? At the end of a question?
• What punctuation mark shows ownership?
• What are two types of numbers? Even and Odd (Count by even numbers from 2-20)
• What word do we say when we want to ask someone to do something for us? (please)
• What words do we say when someone does something for us? (thank you)
• What do we say when we have wronged someone? (I am sorry, will you please forgive me?)
• What do we say when someone has wronged us? (I forgive you)
• What is your phone number? What is your address?
• How many days in a week/months in a year? Name them
• What line goes side to side? Horizontal What line goes up and down? Vertical
• How many senses do we have? Name them Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Smell

Bible verse:

John 14:1-6 (KJV)

Let not your heart be troubled:ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

Poem:

Little Things by Julia Abagail Fletcher Carney

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land.

So the little moments,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of Eternity.

So the little errors

Lead the soul away

From the paths of virtue

Far in sin to stray.

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Help to make earth happy

Like the Heaven above.

From there we dive into our Phonics and Spelling. We will review any new flashcards for words, blends, or diagraphs. We do the flashcards together with all the kids during phonics time. The kids are allowed to go at their own pace for spelling. If someone learns their spelling words quickly they are allowed to move right into the next lesson. Because of this, everyone is on a different spelling lesson. 

Once we are finished with Phonics and Spelling, the kids have a snack and a break time for about 30 minutes - 1 hour so they can run around and play.

 

Once they come back inside from playing, we start our history reading. This month we are learning about George Washington and Betty Ross. We will also read our science books during this time. We are learning about teeth and hygiene. We will be doing a science experiment with eggs to see how they react to different things to simulate how teeth react to the same things. (tooth paste, vinegar, soda, and then one that has nothing done to it - we will leave it in a solution for several days to see the results). We will also learn about seeds and sprouts and start some seeds in the window which we will later plant in the garden once they are big enough.

Each month we focus on one composer and one artist. This month we are listening to works by Mozart and learning about him. During math class we will listen to the music by the composer of the month.

After we come back inside we work on math while listening to our composer of the month then move into writing. The music helps create a calm relaxing mood while the kids are working hard. 

After math we start on cursive writing or copywork depending on the day of the week. M, W, F the kids work on their cursive, and T, Thur, they work on copywork. 

As the kids finish up, they play learning games (pictured above at the top of the blog) until everyone is finished. 

When everyone finishes their work, we do math drill with flash cards. 

After our math drills we have lunch and play outside. Each child takes a turn reading their book to me after lunch then runs off to play again while the other kids take their turn reading to me. Once everyone has had a turn reading to me, we head back inside to have an afternoon circle time. 

(We use a folding black board that contains our circle time learning. While some of the things on the board are made by myself, the idea and some of the content of the boards comes from Jady A. You can find her on Youtube. I did one of her training courses which went over 18 weeks of learning using a board like this with sheets to download in pdf. While we do not stick to what she showed in her training course to a T, we do use several of her ideas and printables and want to make sure she gets credit for that. She has a great channel and we have bought many of her workbooks from Amazon. She is a homeschooling mom and is very inspiring in many areas from homeschooling to parenting.)

This is the time where we look at pictures by artists, practice skip counting, practice our poem, learn a hymn, work on civics, geography, our Bible verse, and do our language lesson (we are currently learning Spanish but later this year we will start learning Latin). This month we are learning our colors in Spanish. So far the kids have learned to count 1-20 in Spanish. 

For geography we are learning the cardinal directions. We are learning skip counting by 4s this month, we have worked on counting by 2s and 3s already. For science we are learning about vertebrates and invertebrates. In civics this month we will be reviewing our US leaders as well as practicing the pledge and how to stand properly and which hand to use during the pledge. 

Our artist of the month is Jan Vermeer. We will learn about Vermeer and look at artwork done by Vermeer. One of Vermeer's most famous works of art is the Girl with the Pearl Earring. 

We also learn a new Hymn each month. This month's Hymn is Trust and Obey. 

 

Once we have finished our morning circle, I will put on what the kids call School Songs. Basically, it is a youtube playlist of what they have learned that day and in most cases everything is put to music and the kids love it, such as skip counting, our poem and hymn of the month, and things like that. We have a laptop that we play it on and the kids love it.  It pretty much their only time they get "tv time" during the day as we do not have a tv in the house . It also has things like little mini videos for the kids about the people we are learning about - George Washington, Betty Ross, Vermeer, Mozart, etc. 

At the end of the youtube playlist, we typically have an art lesson with Art Hub for Kids. 

After "school songs" the kids will play outside if it is a nice day or play inside if the weather is not good. 

If anyone had trouble with any of their work earlier I will stay and help that child. Often it is not a matter of not being able to do their work, it is more a matter of having trouble focusing. Somehow having mama stand there while they are working seems to help them stay on track or just to remind them to subtract when they want to add.