MFW Adventures, Week 3

We're actually already into week 5 and I'm just now having a tiny moment in time to briefly update you on what we've been learning. Hopefully, one of these days I will get back on track and will get to update on time. We've had so much going on and trying to get school done has been a real challenge but we have managed so far. I always go into the beginning of a new school year knowing that there will be unforeseen things come up and that we may have to play catchup for a while. I'm ready for things to slow down! Sigh! I need prayers.

Now, for a quick update on our week 3.

Bible

We spent this week learning about:

• the meaning of Jesus' name...the Lord saves
• what the Lord saves us from
• the meaning of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?)
• Jesus' obedience to his parents
• That His obedience made him wiser and stronger
• That His obedience made him more and more pleasing to God and to people

Verses we read:

• John 3:16
• 1 Timothy 2:4
• 1 John 2:6
• Luke 2:51-52

Little Man makes an art piece for WWJD. Step 1.

Step 2. Done coloring!

Step 3. Throw water balloons at it to spread the beautiful colors. I got the idea from another blog mom but can't seem to find the blog. I would love to give credit to the mom who came up with this idea. So just know, this was not my wonderful idea.

The water balloons would just bounce right off of it and bust on the ground.

We moved it to the ground. Looking good right now!

Then we realized that every time the water hit it the force literally blew the color off the canvas. Ugh! So we stopped and hopefully will have time in the near future to go back and either paint or recolor it and hang it on his wall ... so that he will be reminded each time he looks at it to think about what Jesus would have done! I'm not sure where I went wrong with this project but it was fun trying to make it work.

Then here is his awesome Jesus Window Poster! I absolutely love looking at this every time I walk into the school room. Such an easy project with an incredible outcome!

History/Geography

• John Smith
• Jamestown
• Pocahontas
• Squanto

Here's an awesome geography atlas that I bought at a very, very low price. It has huge maps and lots of great information. Fun to pull out in the middle of a study.

His note booking page for Jamestown.

Spelling

• Rod & Staff, Level C

Don't you just love the hair? We'll have to work on that! Ha!

I called his spelling words out. He used the magnetized letters to spell them out.

Art

• I Can Do All Things (drawing)

Of course, we did our math, some more science about air, reading, handwriting, and our read-aloud (Squanto, Friend of Pilgrims).

We also had a special night with some yummies!

This was theirs!

This was mine! Only about 2 ounces of Blue Bell, topped off with chocolate syrup and honey roasted peanuts.

Field Trip

We went to a local farm and enjoyed looking at all their cool animals.

Texas drought has dried up this pond.

Ground is cracking up.

Huge crack!

Scary looking! lol

This is their maze that is completely dried up and needing much repair. They felt so bad that they let us in for free. They had a lot of work ahead of them for the upcoming "Pumpkin Patch".

This turkey was very vocal. Only if we knew what he was saying!

This peacock was just out wondering around the driveway.

Workboxes and Sample Day

Here's a look at our workbox system. 

I have Sue Patrick's system book but have personalized it for us.

You can find these cute activity cards here:  http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/search/label/Workboxes and the cute workbox number cards here: http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2009/07/preschool-corner-workbox-number-cards.html. Thank you Jolanthe!

On the left side, I use the little subject cards to represent what needs to be done that day. If there are 2 subject cards on one drawer, Little Man is to do whichever one comes first. He does not remove these, only the numbers.

On the right side, I use the numbers to show what order they need to be done in. As he finishes a box, he takes the number and attaches it to his workbox daily grid which I got here http://www.homeschoolcreations.com/files/Workbox_Weekly_Grid.pdf.

Here's some close up pictures.

I keep the numbers and objective cards in a little plastic bowl tucked neatly behind the red basket on top of the workboxes.

Here's one of the daily grids and when it's not in use, it's placed in the little red basket on the picture right above.

Here's one days worth of workboxes. These change daily.

Here's the first. His calendar book purchased from http://www.clp.org/product/calendar_book_2209 is used daily. For September, he will be documenting cloud formations on his calendar page. 

Then you see the number 13. He is to place this on our big wall calendar.

Then the 3 red tickets. He can earn 3 tickets a day. First for completing his school work with a good attitude and no complaining. Second for completing all his work in a timely manner. Third for just completing his work. These tickets were for the day before. We are still working on our reward system. We started a couple of weeks ago and I still have no idea what he will be able to trade the tickets in for. lol It makes me go cross-eyed thinking about it. My husband did tell him that if he collected 60 tickets, he could earn a day off of school. Ummm, sounds good except it's really hard to plan a day off when we've got so much to do. I'll work it in though, it's well worth that good attitude and all work completed! Ha! And he seems to love the idea of getting tickets every day.

The Pledge of Allegiance and Prayer card is to remind us to do both before we get carried away and forget. You should never start a busy school day off without prayer! It could ruin your whole day! When they're completed, they return to the little red basket on top.

The star stickers on the side of the picture are for placing on his "Count Up to 100 Days" poster. See one more picture down.

Here's our large wall calendar.

Here's the months. He moves the green arrow to the next month when it is time.

In this drawer is his music and Bible. For his music, this week we have been working on memorizing the song "God Bless America". For Bible, he worked on his Bible verse and also, memorizing it. It was John 8:12. Then he had a Bible activity.

Here's his box for the materials of his Bible activity. He was to make a salted candle with the words "Jesus Light of the World" on it. Then we placed this on our dinner table and ate a candle light dinner for the whole week.

Here's his Bible verse worksheet. You can find this at:  

http://www.thecraftyclassroom.com/HomeschoolPrintableBibleVerse.html

His reading drawer:

His math drawer:

His handwriting drawer:

His spelling drawer which includes his spelling workbook to look over. The little jar has all of his spelling words cut up. Consonants blue and vowels red. He has to put them together as I call out his spelling words.

I loved that one of his spelling words this week was "Word" with a capital. God's Word! Awesome curriculum!

Then his history drawer...oh and on this day he had two history drawers. We have been study Native Americans. So I read this book, then discussed it, and last, he made a wigwam.

Second history drawer...only because it was a mess and too confusing trying to put everything into one drawer. He was going to make a tepee. Oh, and a Indian Chief.

Little Man...too big for a drawer! lol Just kidding!

And one last drawer had a little index card that said to work on his "already in progress project" which on this day was his WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) poster. There will be more pictures of this on another post once he finishes it. There's one more surprise to it. He's not just coloring it but will also throw waterballoons at it. Can't wait to see how beautiful it will turn out.