Our First Nine Weeks of School (2019-2020)

Last Friday we completed our first nine weeks of school. Here is a glimpse of some of the things we have been doing.

Here is my sweet little Ben doing a reading lesson on a recent school day. 

One of the reading curriculums I use for him is Sonlight.  His first reader this school year is The Beginner's Bible.  He reads a story a day.  We also use Sing Spell Read and Write for reading.  In that program he begins a trip around the United States reading about a different State each week.  We are starting off going along the Southern border.  So far he has read about California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  There are some fun songs that go along with this reading curriculum too.

Cruz also does Sonlight reading.  Here are the chapter books he has read already.  He is currently about half way through Henry and  Ribsy.  His favorite so far has been Marco Polo. 

He also takes a literature class at co-op.  They will read three books this year and discuss them in class.  He has several worksheets each week that he also has to fill out after he reads.  The first book they are doing is Because of Winn-Dixie.

Sonlight assigns me read alouds to do too.  Here are the books we have read so far.  We are currently still reading through The Door in the Wall.  My favorite has been Sticks Across the Chimney.  It tied in perfectly with our history lessons on the Vikings.

Speaking of History, this is one of the books we are using.  We are on year 2 of World History.  We started out the school year learning all about the Vikings (which the boys loved!!)  We are currently studying knights and castles.  This is a really fun, interesting book.

One of my favorites from Sonlight this year is this book- Window on the World.    Each week we read about different countries and people groups around the world.  It uses stories, information, maps, flags, and photos to help paint the picture of what life is like in those places.  It gives us information about the gospel presence there and some ways to pray.  We then spend some time praying for that area and people that the good news will become more widely known there.  What a joy to get to regularly pray for lostness with my boys in school. 

The boys have always loved maps.  This year we are doing geography through Sonlight.  We have fun songs that are helping us learn the names of the countries in the different regions.  We started off learning the continents and oceans.  We have since learned the countries in the Middle East, the British Isles, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Southern Europe, and we are currently learning Eastern Europe.  We all love geography.

Something else they love is art.  This year we are using Take Time for Art.  It is an art history curriculum.  It uses on-line streaming videos to teach the history lessons and then step by step videos to show us how to do the art projects that go along with it.  They have different history periods.  I chose the Middle Ages because it was the one that best went along with our Sonlight history this year.  Here they are with their Anglo-Saxon Fibulas.  This was our first project.

They also made a Byzantine Mosaic.

One of their favorite projects (for obvious reasons) was making catapults. 

It has been a few weeks now and they are still playing with them.

Ben doing a language lesson.

They have been going to karate for a month now and are loving it.  They go two afternoons a week for an hour each.  It has been a lot of fun for them.  The best part is that they come home really tired.

Our first day of co-op.  We have been four weeks now total and love it.  We meet every Thursday.  The boys are having fun, making friends, and learning.  I am enjoying the science classes that I help teach.  We do our daily lessons at home and then review together at co-op.  We also do several experiments together each week in class.  So far the favorites have been lava lamps and frozen sorbet.  There are 19 kids between the two classes (eleven K- 2nd graders and eight 4th-6th graders).

A musical instrument Ben made one week at his co-op music class.

Ben's co-op art project

The boys doing a science experiment at home.  It was called Overflow Beans.  It was an activity on water displacement. 

We each had to guess how many beans we could add to the cup before it made the water overflow.  Once we made a guess we then tested it out. 

Look at that water bulging! 

So much fun!

We also do grammar, math, handwriting, Bible, keyboarding, spelling, and writing.  My days are FULL but they are spent doing something I truly love.