Homeschooling Update: November 2013

This month has flown by! In October, I updated this post weekly and published it at the end of the month. I  didn't do that for November, so it will be an even briefer synopsis.

*Each day we start with Bible time and prayer, then learn our verse for the week and review the previous verses.

Week 1 was 11/4-11/8:

• This week our character trait was courageous and we read about Daniel and how he was courageous and loved and worshiped God, even when he was told not too. He was also brave and courageous when he was thrown into the lion's den. Our verse for the week was Psalm 56:3.
• The book of the week was Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.  
• Arabelle also made an owl collage:

• We also studied the phases of the moon and made the different phases out of Oreos. That may have been Bo's favorite thing ever! He was suddenly VERY hungry. 
• They both made some astronaut helmets! 

• We also talked about the constellations and had checked out several library books about the moon and space. Arabelle drew this constellation:

• This week we worked on the short 'O' sound and added more sight words, such as too, to, so,  for, off, etc. I made her a bingo game with the sight words and made a cube with the words on them and we each choose a word to see which will get to 10 first. 
• Arabelle is doing great with her math. She has memorized all the adding through the 5s. Here's one way she practices:

• I also got some Unifix cubes this month to help her understand the tens and ones places. Arabelle and Bo both love making new patterns with them too!

Week 2 was from 11/9-11/13:

• This week our character trait was joyful and we read about Paul in Acts. He remained joyful and loyal to God despite persecution and being in prison. 
• Our verse of the week was Psalm 118:24. 
• The book of the week was Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. Arabelle made this winter landscape art. She painted a paper 3 different shades of blue, then made 3 different sized evergreen trees and placed them on the black paper and dotted white paint for snow.

• Our Social Studies for the week was all about the Arctic and Antarctic. We looked at the map and located them, then compared and contrasted the climate, habitat, animals, etc. I had checked out several library books to help with this.
• We had a penguin snack too, using Oreos and M&Ms. Another favorite snack! I read a few cute library books about penguins who wanted to leave their habitat for something more fun, but realized home was where they belonged. 

• This week added the letter "B" and new words with 'b' in them. Arabelle also read from her Phonics reader and we started reading some level 1 books from the library.
• We continued on with math and did some review work.
• The Friday of this week, we talked about solids, liquids, and gases. We started with ice and talked about the properties of a solid, then melted it and talked about the properties of liquids, then boiled it and talked about gases. 

Week 3 was from 11/16-11/20:

Our character trait this week was thankful and our verse was Psalm 136:1.Our Bible story was from Luke 17, the story of the 10 lepers whom Jesus healed and only 1 came back thank him. 

We read several books from the library about Thanksgiving and talked about the Pilgrims and Indians. 

We also made several Thanksgiving crafts! Somehow, I only have pictures of these two. 

• This week's letter was "D". We really worked on writing a lot this week to get her letter formation just right. 
• We also kept on with the sight words and played different games with them. I also made an ABC bingo game for Bo and we all played that. Bo works on letter recognition and sounds and Arbabelle will tell us words with the letter. 
• This was the week that Mae was sick the entire week, so I don't know if that's all we did or not. :)

Week 4 was from 11/23-11/27:

• Thanksgiving week! We made some Indian hats and finished up the few things that we didn't get to the week before. We also read a lot of library books and took it easy!

Bo is with us on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. He usually does a fun/educational activity or looks at library books. As busy and loud as he is, he sure does love books!!