Homeschool Weeks 4,5, and 6 (2nd and K)

Wow, I am really behind on my homeschool posts.  This will be a combined post of what we have been doing over the past few weeks.  After this maybe I can get back on my regular weekly schedule.

We have always started our homeschool days saying the pledge (to the American and Christian flags) and singing a patriotic song.  Afterwards we have our Bible class.

We have had some great lessons in Bible.  Our themes have been "God Makes Man", "The Garden of Eden", and "The First Sin".  Our character trait lessons have been on responsibility, obedience, and self-control.  My favorite thing to teach has always been Bible.  I love getting to introduce my boys to God's Word.  It is the most important thing I can teach them.

their drawings of the Garden of Eden

 Cruz's drawing showing how Jesus can change someone

Ben's drawing showing him and his brother fighting over a toy and then them getting along

Cruz's Bible drawing of how he can show love to God.  He drew praying.  Notice the corner cut out of his paper...

He drew a heart on it and taped it to the back of his paper.  When you lift the flap you see his heart.  I love his creativity!

Ben's picture of sharing

their self-control drawings

As you can see we do a lot of illustrating in our Bible class.

We began reading through this book about Ancient Greece in our History class.  We read a few pages a day and the boys always beg for more.  They love it!  It has been a very interesting study so far and we have a few more weeks to go.  History is probably my second favorite subject to teach.

one of our activities was to make shields like the soldiers used in battle

ready for battle

The boys have always loved science.  It is probably their favorite subject.  This year we are using Sonlight for science.  Some of the topics we have covered lately include rocks and fossils, earthquakes, volcanoes, rivers, mountains, the desert, grasslands, the rainforest, ocean and seas, and plants.  We have learned a lot!

Cruz reading about grasslands in our science class

one of our worksheet activities was learning about animals that live in the grasslands and animals that live in the rainforest

in our study of oceans we did a taste test salt water experiment

I'd say cup number 3 was a little more salty than he liked. ha

In another activity we boiled cornstarch, baking soda, and water to make a dough.  We used the dough to make fossils with things we had collected in nature.

We rolled the dough into small balls and pressed each ball into small discs.  We then took the things we collected and pressed them into the dough.  We let them dry and harden overnight and enjoyed seeing how our "fossils" turned out.

Ben making a leaf fossil

Another day we did leaf prints.

In Ben's language lessons we are covering two letters each week.  Here he is learning that E says e,e, egg.  I am using Sing, Spell, Read, and Write for his language arts.

In English Cruz finished up a chapter on sentences and began a writing unit.  His first lesson was on Hebrew poetry and this week we learned about couplets.  He is using BJU Press English 2 for writing and grammar.

a poem of praise that Cruz wrote

a rhyming poem he wrote and illustrated

another rhyming poem

Here he is doing a phonics review game.  He also does a few lessons each day on Explode The Code online for phonics review.

For spelling we use All About Spelling.  Here he is lining out the letter tiles in a review lesson.

Both boys use A Reason For Handwriting.  Ben is doing the K level and Cruz is doing the T level.  Each week Cruz has to practice writing a Bible verse and at the end of the week write it out and decorate it to give away.  It is fun deciding who gets his verse each week.

In one of our art lessons we had to pick a photo to study and draw.  Ben wanted a volcano so I found him an online photo to use. 

Ben's volcano erupting at night

Cruz used our science book and drew a scene from the rainforest

Cruz's rainforest drawing

Lastly, these are the two chapter books we have read the past few weeks.  I love our read aloud time. We usually do it at bedtime reading a chapter or two each night.

We will be pausing for a break when we head out later today on a fall road trip.  I am looking forward to a little time off but I know that I will be ready for another round of school when we return home.