What We've Been Up To-August 2014 Homeschool Edition

It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly four months since I’ve shared our last homeschool update. My how time flies! We had a wonderful summer visiting Branson, MO with family, playing at local parks, swimming in friends’ pools, and playing at children’s museums before resuming our homeschool studies in July. Since then we have enjoyed getting back into a groove and tackling our 2014-2015 homeschool curriculum.

Teacup’s View of Homeschooling

This year Teacup is enjoying getting to do big girl work “like sissy” via my Encompass Preschool Curriculum. Sometimes she even forgets to finish breakfast and wash her hands before venturing into our school room to start her “boxes.” What can I say? She’s one eager beaver.

“B” is for beans.

Teacup loves to color and draw in her workbook “just like sissy.”

Teacup painting a masking tape letter “A” with red paint.

Peanut’s View of Homeschooling

As you can tell from the picture, Peanut’s personality is really starting to come out this year as she embarks on her K/1 curriculum. Currently, she’s enjoying learning about the Ice Age, African art, and mummies.

Peanut creating an optical illusion hand print.

Handwriting practice

Learning spanish via Middlebury Interactive.

Homeschooling Together

And both girls have enjoyed learning together no matter what the occasion.

Playing in the rain. Let’s just say this was one of the cleaner pictures I had. They loved jumping in the mud puddles.

Keeping it cool at the local library. At least once a week all summer we took a trip to the library to get another bag of books. And nearly every week we had to take at least one statue pic, at least until it got so hot that the statue started to burn!

Digging for buried treasure. What did people who lived here a long time ago do? What did they eat? How did they get around? “I don’t know but how did a piece of Dad’s garden hose get in here?” LOL. Got to love their matter-of-fact honesty.

Making floam. This was just cool!

All of us have definitely been learning a lot through our history curriculum this year and one of the highlights so far was hosting an African Feast. Would you believe it? My somewhat picky husband actually loved everything we created and served at this meal? It was delish!

Papaya Stir Fried Rice (okay, so I used raisins instead of Papaya…still the same idea…hehehe)

Chicken with Figs

Date Chewies

Fried Pantains

Date and Banana Bars

*All recipes can be found on pages 39-41 of The Story of the World Activity Book One.

We have also been blessed to have my hubby, Goose, come on staff as the PE instructor. Not only has it been great to have Goose’s involvement with the girls’ education, but all four of us have enjoyed getting more fit with the Family Time Fitness Core 1 curriculum. I highly recommend it! So fun and easy to do and adaptable for the whole family.

This past month alone we have read over 50 books as a group and have developed several new favorites so for those of you looking for some great reading material for your 3-6 year old, I highly encourage you to give some of these a try. My girls loved them!

Our Top 10 Children’s Books of the Month (In No Particular Order)

The Wonderful Way Babies are Made by Larry Christenson I was a little apprehensive about reading this book to my girls at first, because I wasn’t exactly sure how much S*E*X education I wanted to give my children at this point, but Larry Christenson did an excellent job of presenting the story of the way babies are made in a gentle and honest way. If you are looking for a book that explains the creation of babies from a conservative Christian perspective then I highly recommend this book.
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems Peanut loved this book and thought it was hysterical. Maybe that’s why nearly 300 people have given it 5 stars on Amazon.
The Answers Book for Kids, Vol. 1 by Ken Ham This book is a fabulous way to introduce the truth about Creation and the Fall. However, I do encourage that you break up the reading into more than one session as this isn’t light reading. It could also serve as a good basis for 22 quick devotionals. Each day presents a question asked by a kid, a Bible verse, and a devotional thought answering the question presented.
Noah’s Ark illustrated by Peter Spier This book is a fabulous wordless portrayal of the Flood. On the day we read this book, Peanut said she would rather look at her school book than go to recess. That’s saying a lot; the pictures, although somewhat fictitious, are amazing!
From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman This book is one of the best simple explanations of metamorphosis that I’ve ever read. Very well done.
Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Treehouse Series, No. 1) by Mary Pope Osborne This is the first of the Magic Treehouse Books that I have read to Peanut, and she is hooked. She liked this one so much that I read the entire book to her in one sitting, and she demanded that I record it so that she could listen to the story again and again.
Wacky Wednesday by Theo LeSieg I’ve read a lot of Theo LeSieg books, but this one was new to me. Not only is it a story, but there are several things wrong with each picture. Each page resulted in a search for the wacky things and held the attention of both my girls for quite some time.
People illustrated by Peter Spier If you are looking for a book about all the different people of the world, then this is it. It’s a great book about how everyone is different. It’s like eye candy; the girls could look at it for ages.
The Listening Walk by Paul Showers This is a great book to read right before you go on a nature walk. Teacup got so lost in the story that she started to echo all the sounds the character in the story was hearing, and Peanut sat for some time on the couch afterwards just to see how many different sounds she could hear in her own living room. So fun!
Life in the Great Ice Age by Michael Oard Life in the Great Ice Age was probably the biggest shocker of all the books we read this month…in a good way. I just assumed it would be a not very interesting text on life in the great Ice Age from some scientist, but how wrong I was. Peanut was mesmerized from the first chapter and had me record these stories so she could listen to them over and over again. The best part? It’s from a Christian perspective and explains very simply how the Ice Age fits in with the story of Noah. While a fiction story, it does an excellent job of providing a possible rendering of what life in the ice age might have really been like after the life of great great grandfather Noah.