Letters I and J

Week nine of homeschool began in Guatemala City.   One of the things I love about homeschool is that we can do school on the go.  It's only the second time so far that we have done school away from home but with a lot of pre-planning it goes well. 

me and Cruz doing school at our mission house in Guatemala City

Our language lessons had us learning letters I and J.  Since we started doing two letters a week I am doing one letter on Monday and Tuesday, the next letter on Wednesday and Thursday, and then reviewing both on Friday.  That system is working well for us so far.

I is for inchworm.  This was our first craft of the week.

Other things that begin with "I" that we talked about.

On Tuesday we learned about iguanas.  Thankfully we live in a place where these are common so my boys loved studying them.

We also talked about Indians.  We did this one night before bedtime.  Another thing I love about homeschool is that we can do school whenever we want.  I love the flexibility of it!

Our inchworm pancake breakfast we enjoyed one morning.

Cruz loved watching you tube videos about how igloos are made.   Each week I print off these type of worksheets from a site called Twisty Noodle.  You can pick your picture and then what you want your child to write about it.  It is one of my go to resources for extra worksheets.  I print Cruz one with writing and Ben one with just the letter and picture.

My boys LOVE play-doh!

Letter J pancakes with jelly dots.  I make a lot of decorative pancakes for my boys.  The trick is to initially make your letters backwards so that when you flip them they turn out right.  As you can see I forgot to do that with the capital J this time.  Oh well, they still taste the same. ha

We enjoyed learning about jellyfish. We learned a cute song about them on you tube that my boys are still singing.  You tube is probably my favorite homeschool resource right now.  We refer to it daily (when the internet is working). 

our jellyfish crafts

J is for jaguar

our jaguar crafts and Cruz's Twisty Noodle worksheet

Other things that start with letter J that we talked about.

We learned the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Jack and Jill.

Our handprint spiders we made to go with the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  We have them hanging over our school door.

In Science we began a month long study on Air.  I have been pleased with all of my curriculum choices so far.  I really love our science!  We save those lessons for last because they are always fun and hands-on.  It's like the icing on our day and Cruz looks forward to it.  We are doing Exploring Science from a company called Elemental Science.  I would definitely recommend it for a fun, simple kindergarten science program.  I am already planning to do their Intro to Science program next year for 1st grade.

This week we learned that air is everywhere.  We did a lot of simple experiments using air. 

Here Cruz is using a straw to blow air into a ziplock bag.  There were small pieces of tissue paper inside that would blow around.  This was called "Puffy Pillows".

We did air painting.  I put drops of paint onto paper and they had to blow it around with a straw.

Cruz's paper (with a lot of spit mixed in, ha)

Here he had to hold a piece of paper up to his stomach and let it go.  It would fall onto the floor.  Then he had to run with the paper on his stomach and it stuck to him.  He loved this and did it over and over numerous times.

He then made this journal entry about it.  We used one of his math worksheets for the paper.  When he drew in his journal you will see that he included numbers and shapes just like his worksheet.  I was amazed when I saw the detail he included.  He is a mess!

Two of his science workbook sheets from the week.  

In math we began place value.  Here he is building numbers with his Math U See blocks. 

Writing numbers 1-100

His favorite thing about the math blocks is getting to use them like Lego's to build other things.

In Bible we had two stories about Jacob and Esau and then the story of Jacob's Ladder.  Here is a coloring sheet Cruz did from that lesson.  We also learned the song "Behold, Behold" and the verse Psalm 34:14.

Cruz reciting his weekly memory verse.

One of my overall favorite things about homeschool is getting to teach my boys and seeing them learn and grow.  There are days that I want to pull my hair out but there are also many days that I smile and thank God for this opportunity.