Creation days 2-4

Days 2 and 3 went off without a hitch. The intro unit is incredibly basic and simple. It has really been a nice way to ease both of us into this. Hannah is very enthusiastic each day to begin and I have no fear of not being prepared. Win win!

Since she knows all the ABCs as well as their sounds, I have been getting her to sound out words at the beginning of the lesson instead of teaching “what is A, what is B, etc.” She has been getting a kick out of the fact that she is reading. And frankly, so have I!

Day 2 we learned that God made the sky and the water and we had blue and white marshmallows for a snack.

Day 3 we learned that God made the earth and the plants and we had pudding with crushed up cookies on top to signify the ‘land’.

The following pics are from Day 4, where God made the sun, moon, and stars:

Coloring her number 4. So sweetly serious.

 

Then she sang the alphabet song and pointed to each letter as she sang. Sometimes she forgets and does LMNOP too fast and has to start over. Fortunately, it just amuses her and she happily starts again.

 

Then I decided we were going to read a simple sentence. And then, the child blew me away. She figured this one out with very little effort. So, naturally, I wrote out another and another and another. All together she read four 6-word sentences and did a GREAT job. I know this is mostly her personality and intellect as opposed to the curriculum (at least at this point), but she sure is a good little one to begin this homeschooling venture with :)

 

Working on the sun, moon, and stars page.

Contemplating where to put the star stickers. Feel free to laugh at my banana moon. An artist, I am not.

 

Cutting out her Day 4 words.

 

Finally, a fun lunch to go with our lesson:

And, my smart cookie ate part of the sun and then declared she had made a moon. It was indeed a crescent. Love it.

First day!

Today, my little Cinderella told her grandma, “Mommy is going to HOMEschool me! I’m so EXCITED!”

My Father’s World starts with a 10-day Introductory Unit on Creation. It is lighter and simpler than the rest of the units (from what I’ve observed via skimming) and a very nice way for this mama to ease her way into this whole thing. My post does not include every thing we did, but it is at least half. She already knows how to do a lot of the things they want you to teach in the intro unit, which also helped me ease in :) We reviewed those things, just to be certain, but it was a breeze.

Creation Day 1

Pumped about getting started!

 

On the first day, God created the earth and the light. He separated the light from the dark and call the light ‘day’ and the darkness ‘night.  

Supposed to teach her the alphabet, but since she already knows all her letters, we played a game. Place the bean on the letter Mommy calls out as FAST as you can! She thought it was awesome and did great, of course.

Getting into the ‘fast’ part of the game, which is what I was hoping would happen.

Waiting for Mommy to call out a number now.

Cutting out her story line for the first day of Creation in the book we’re making. She did great with the scissors today because she was very serious about it. Amazing what focus can do :)

 

Finished up with a snack I saw suggested online. Oreos and milk – dark and light! She was impressed ;)

Naturally, even when we were done, Hannah wanted to know what was next. I assured her there was more to come tomorrow. And then I distracted her by reading her (approximately) a bazillion books. Love this kid.

I found myself scrambling for a few items here and there, but I’m confident that will get better with time. Fortunately, my student is super sweet and said, “It’s ok Mommy, this is your first time homeschooling me. I will help you.” I could just EAT HER UP.

Got it!

The curriculum arrived today! I am so excited. God has truly turned my heart towards this. If you had asked me 2 years ago if I was going to be a homeschool mom, I would have laughed and declared that that would never be me!

I opted to order the basic package (Teacher's Manual, Student Sheets, Tactile Letters, ABC Flashcards), Cuisenaire rods (manipulatives for both reading and math) and the activity book that goes with them, and an inflatable globe. There are other items on their website as well as suggested books. I decided that for the money we'd make it work with these items (for now) and I'll be using the library extensively for the books! We have a very good library system here in Wake County and I plan to take full advantage of the book request/delivery service!

I had so much fun looking through all the students sheets a bit ago. I am planning to drop the girls off at my MIL's house tomorrow so we can go house hunting in the afternoon. I think I shall drop them off a bit early so I can do some digging and planning and then we can get started soon!

Look at this face. Who wouldn't want to teach this precious child??

She's been learning her whole life. It's just going to get more official now :)