Homeschool Week 3

Here is a look at what we did in school last week. 

Ben counting eggs that the hen laid.  He loves counting and sorting.  I am using Abeka K4 math with him this year.  Someone had given me all the materials several years ago.  I didn't use it with Cruz because he was in Spanish school for his K4 year.  I am glad to get to use them with Ben.  He loves these posters and the counting objects that go with them. 

Here he is writing the number 3.

When he finished I asked him what happened to the number 3 in the middle.  His response, "oh, I gave that one some muscles!".  In his mind he is a tough little guy and he loves muscles.  Almost daily he asks to put muscles on something that he is writing.  He makes me laugh.

Cruz's math lesson for the week focused on the color blocks but as you can see he thought they would be a lot more useful as roads for his trucks.  He loves building with them!  He is using Math U See Alpha. 

Ben finished his study of colors with a fun review day.  I gave him some magazines and he had to cut out something of each color.  He loves to cut so this was a lot of fun for him.

Ben with his color poster

We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?  and made a poster. 

That book has always been one of our favorites. 

Ben began studying shapes.  This week we focused on the circle.  Here is Cruz helping him make shapes out of play doh. 

A cut and paste circle craft he did 

tracing, painting, and cutting more circles

circle poster

My sweet boy who is really having a fun time in school. 

In Health we studied the food groups and learned the importance of eating a healthy diet. 

Cruz sorting pictures of foods into the different groups. 

This day I gave them a plate and they had to pick a food from each of the food groups to "eat".  We did this several different times and they enjoyed it. 

Of course Cruz would pick black beans and corn, ha.

Ben's plate

We then took all of the food pics and made a poster.

learning about the food groups

I added in some "junk food" to talk about some of the foods we love but don't need to eat as often.

In Science we learned about density.  Cruz says Science is his favorite thing about school.  I think he likes the hands on activities we do most of all.

In this activity we poured oil into a cup of water and watched it float on top.  We were supposed to add another layer using molasses but I didn't have any so we just used water and oil. 

This was simple but fascinated my boys.

We added a few things to see what would sink and what would float on the oil.  We also added drops of food coloring and watched it float on top of the oil.  Eventually it would work it's way down and the bubbles would bust in the water. 

fun with Science

Another day we shaved colored chalk into a pan of water to make marbled paper.

the colors were really pretty in the pan

our marbled paper we made

I sent them on a nature walk to collect a few items to test as floaters and sinkers.

Grass and leaves float.  Rocks sink.

In History we continued learning about Christopher Columbus and also about Ponce De Leon. We made a map of Christopher Columbus's travel from Spain to the New World using a brown paper bag, some watercolor paints, and a black magic marker. 

Cruz painting his map

outlining the land

his map

They have enjoyed learning about Christopher Columbus

We learned about Ponce De Leon discovering Florida and talked about how he thought it looked like a paradise.  Cruz's assignment was to draw a picture of a paradise. 

I asked him what it was (because I really had no idea).  His response, "you know, those square things with the black dots on them.  A pair of dice".  I didn't know to laugh or cry.  I never know what is going through that little mind of his.  He definitely keeps me on my toes!

After a little further explanation he got another chance to get his assignment right.  This time he did much better.

We learned about the State of New Jersey. 

Our art lesson for the week was drawing this baby deer.

Cruz's baby deer

Ben's baby deer

(Bless his heart.  He tried)

Each week we have so much fun and I wonder how it can get any better.  It just always does.  Most of the time I think the boys forget we are doing school and just think we are having fun together. I hope they continue to think of school that way for a long time.