Unit 3 and Unit 4

This week we finished up unit 4, the letter 'C',

and unit 5, the letter 'D'.

We studied the story of Abraham and Sarah and their promised baby boy Issac.

Then we went on through the story of Issac and his two sons Jacob and Esau.

In one of this weeks activities, I wrote her name with black marker, then she used different colored markers to try to cover up and camouflage her name. We did this to understand how Jacob tricked his father, by hiding himself and pretending to be Esau.

I also used this activity to explain camouflage and showed her a few examples of animals that use camouflage to hide themselves in the wild.

They traced the letters 'D' and 'd' with a deer and a doll.

The finger play for the letter 'D' had to do with a Dusty camel.

So, I printed out a photo of a camel in the desert and we took a few minutes to learn a little about camels.

Where they live, why they have a hump, how long they can go with out eating/drinking, their long eyelashes, and their self closing nostrils. I don't expect her to remember it, but seems like a good idea to introduce a little extra science.

This curriculum is so easy to use that it is possible to just read along as you go, but I am finding that if I take the time to look ahead I can add a little more information to cover even more subject areas. This makes it even more of a unit study type.

That being said, I am taking care not get carried away and add too much information. I want this preschool study to remain light and easy for her so that we can just have fun with it and to make sure we still have time to enjoy our summer.

I set out our year to have one week off each month. Next week will be our first week off. It just happened to fall on the week that Cora will be attending VBS at a local church. This works our perfectly. In light of this, I combined a few of the days for week 5 so that we could finish this unit before our break.

It also works out well that the 5th Unit is a review unit. So the week after our "break" we will look back over all the finger plays and letter sounds that we have learned so far.

I honestly didn't plan it this way, but it just works out perfectly. Hopefully, we'll be able to follow this same pattern in the future.

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Every unit, there is an activity that uses the "Count on Me" page. This week she drew two tents in every square. Then she wrote the numbers below the boxes. After she is finished we count the boxes, then count them by 2's, and finally again in Spanish.

Today the math activity was a lesson on distance. Something being near or far away. She was to pretend to be Jacob who had to travel a long way to get to Rachel. So we marked her jumps from a starting line. Later we used the tape measure and looked at the numbers to determine the length of each of her jumps. I attempted to get my youngest to join in the jumping, but he wasn't interested. He just ran around the yard.

Unit 3 Lesson 3

Today we acted out the story of Abraham.

I dressed her up in my robe, scarf, and head band. We took out all her stuffed animals to be the sheep.

Then we set up a tent and cooked dinner for the travelers who had a message from God. My youngest didn't want to dress up, but he did enjoy playing in the tent.

Later, while Caleb was taking a nap, we used a pop corn box, ribbon from a gift bag, and valentine's glitter to make a "picture" of the story.

It was a really fun day.

Started Unit 3 last week
Will finish it up this week.

I was sick last week and we were packing for a weekend trip so it was a bit of a hard week.


Once again, didn't have the suggested materials, cotton balls, so we used some Mardi Gras beads and torn paper left over from the rainbow activity.

Friday School Day

"After the flood, God sent a rainbow."

Bouncing the Bears on the letter B

Unit two

This week went well.

On Monday we finished up Unit 1 Day 5. Then Tuesday -Thursday Unit 2.

We have been learning the letter B and the number 2. The unit is based on the story of Noah and the Ark
(Big Boat, 2 by 2).

My oldest is enjoying the material, and my youngest is pointing to the letter cards I have taped around the house and says "B."
I asked my oldest what sound "B" makes and the youngest answered "Ba."
Too cute.

For a change of scenery, today we did most of our lesson at a little cafe with a kids playscape that just happens to be near our RV site.
I let the kids run around and play with the other kiddos, then we read our bible story in the cafe and she did the two paper activities for the day. It took about 10 minutes, then they were back to playing.


After we returned home, we did a science experiment on what items sink and which ones float.

She loved it!

We did it while the younger one took a nap. Easier than trying to keep him from dumping the water on his head.

Our normal "schedule" would have us off of school tomorrow. But since we are going to be out of town the end of next week. We are going to use this Friday to fill in for the day we will miss next week.

Day Three and Day four

Unit 1 Day 3-4

Yesterday was another gym day, so the day looked much like it did on Monday.

I did not have the "dried beans or o-shaped cereal" to outlines the A's. But we did have some beads, so we used that instead.

We completed all of our activities in the morning so we were able to watch a movie and play with dad when he came home early from work, due to a rain out.

Today (day 4) was a hard morning.

I got a little off the morning routine we had created this week, and that caused some problems.

I was not as motivated this morning and I let them watch Sid the Science Kid and eat breakfast in their PJ's instead of getting dressed for the day first.

Then, instead of going straight into our bible story after Sid, I let them play together for a few minutes first.

When it was time to sit down and listen, they broke down. Not listening and not being nice to me or each other.

It ended up with them going back to bed for 15 minutes until they were calm enough to listen.

Next we did a little bit of stretching and then were able to complete all of our activities for the day before lunch.

My oldest really enjoyed the activity with the rope "snake" today. Then she asked to act out the bible story like we did the other day. She really likes that.

We did not have any magazines to look for pictures of trees for her to cut out. So, instead I found one in a coloring book. My oldest child colored the tree then cut it out and glued it onto the Number One page.

My youngest is only 19 months and isn't really into coloring yet. So I did a shape puzzle with him while my oldest colored. After coloring my oldest wanted to do puzzles also. So I gave her an alphabet puzzle to do.

We ended up spending about 15 minutes doing puzzles today.

Today was a little bumpy, but it's been cloudy and raining for two days so that may have something to do with it.

We are scheduled to have tomorrow off of school.

I think that will be a nice break for all of us. Even though these activities are fun to do, it will still be nice to have a shorter "to do" list.

We are going to try to have an outing every Friday after going to the gym. We may try to visit a local petting zoo tomorrow.

The first week of the Little Hands to Heaven has been good. I like how easy the material is to use. The activities are fun and short. My kids have seemed to enjoy them so far.

Unit 1 Day 2

Unit 1 day 2
I'm not really sure that I plan to update this everyday, but for now lets go with it.

I am happy to report that I have received all of the materials that I ordered. But I failed to order the correct bible. I ordered Jesus in Pictures for Little Eyes, instead of The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes. It's a good book, but now I need to go down and buy the correct one. Oops.

Today we completed the second lesson. Instead of hitting the gym, I took the kids to story time at the local library. Just so happens that it was the kick off day of their summer reading program. So we were there about an hour and a half longer than planned.

Another joy of home schooling....flexibility.

Even though some unexpected activities were added to our morning, we were still able to complete all of the sections. With the exception of the music section, which we will cover after rest time, but I did have to change my plan a bit. In one of the sections today, they made different colored circles and then were to find things around them which had that color. My plan was to take a nice long walk while we searched for the colors. Due to the lack of time, I opted to give my oldest a basket to collect items in the house which matched the colors on her paper. While she did that, I sat with my youngest and named colored blocks in English and Spanish. When the oldest returned we reviewed the colors she found in both English and Spanish.

Side note: After our bible story, but before we begin the other activities from the book, we also review today's date and the days of the week in both English and Spanish. (We use a song she was taught at church.) Then we draw a weather symbol in the calendar for today's weather, i.e. a sun for a sunny day.

Today was a little more stressful, but an over all good day.

Day One

Unit 1- Day 1:

Today we completed our first day of Little Hands to Heaven.
I do not actually have the book yet, it's still in transit. But on the website they have the first week in a PDF form, so we are using that until the materials arrive. Also do not have the CD yet, for music time we just listened to Raffi.

We had a really fun first day and accomplished more than I expected to do.
So far, so good. (Oops,I did forget to take any photos, maybe tomorrow.)
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Here's what our day looked like:
6:00

• I got up, had coffee, said Good-Bye to my hubby, got dressed for the gym.

6:30

• Kids woke up early on their own. I had planned to wake them up at 7:00.
• Kids got dressed.
• We all had breakfast together
• Read the Bible Story (Genesis 1:1-5) from my own bible.
• Did the Bible Activity.

7:30

• Watched Sid the Science Kid on PBS

8:30-11:00

• Left for the Gym for my 9:30 class.

11:00-1:00

• Made lunch
• Had lunch with the kids
• Prepped Art supplies while kids finished up their lunch
• Completed Art Activity with older child.
• Younger child sat in time out for hitting his sister.
• Did letter Activity. Did not have the "flashcard" from the book, so we made our own. (A a) I made two extra cards. Taped one on the door, one in their room, and one in the bathroom. So she would see them all week.
• Did Fingerplay. Had a blast acting it out.
• Youngest just walked around and played in his room.

1:00 - 1:30

• Pretend play with Mom.

1:30 - 3:00

• Clean up and put away toys.
• Nap time for youngest, rest time for oldest.
• Movie or Wii time for oldest while youngest sleeps.

This is the plan for the remainder of the day:

3:00 Wii or Movie time

4:00 Outside play time

5:00 Free play while I make dinner

5:30 clean up before Dad comes home

6:00 Dinner

6:30 Playtime with Dad

7:15 Get ready for bed

8:00 In bed.