Week 32 Y ~ Yellow {4/30 - 5/4/2012}

Our LAST letter!!!  I can't believe it!  Where did this year go?????????

This week we studied Y for Yellow and we studied all about the colors of the rainbow and the primary colors and the secondary colors. 

We got the paint out and mixed the colors so the kids could see and do it them selves, and then another evening we put water in glasses and did it with food coloring. 

Both girls have been really coming along with their reading, and I thought it would be good to practice the color words for sight words.  It had said to write the word and then put the color next to it.  I didn't like that, so I just wrote all the words in black on different cards and figured we would work on recognizing the word itself.  Well... that took all of about one minute.  The first time I went through them, they both knew what each one was and not by sounding them out, but just knowing them.  Alyssa guessed wrong one saying Black was Blue, but other than that, they both knew all the words.  Amazed!

Here are our library books:

Week 31 Q ~ Quail {4/23 - 4/27/2012}

This week we studied Q ~ Quail.  Not gonna lie...  Pretty Boring!  With the exception of watching some Youtube video's of some Quails and watching a Quail hatch from the egg... not too much is all that fascinating about the good ole' Quail! 

We did do a fun thing where I got two puppets and put a Q on one and a U on the other, and we learned how Q is always followed by U!

Here are our library books:

Week 30 V ~ Vegetable {4/16 - 4/20/2012}

This week we studied V for Vegetables!  We had fun learning all about Vegetables and also some learning on the food pyramid and the different kinds of foods and how much of each you should eat everyday. 

I went away the latter part of the week, so they were able to have Daddy as a substitute again, which they loved.  As soon as I said I was going away they asked if Daddy was going to do school with them.  Fun!  Wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see it!  One thing they did was I saved some grocery store ads, and they were able to cut out all the vegetables they found.  They did good.  Even if the vegetable wasn't the main food in the photo, they still cut it out if they saw it on there.  Although there are some they are not fond of, I am very happy that I have veggie and fruit loving kids!! They are very excited that we will soon be planting our garden.

Here are our library books:

Week 29 X ~ Fox {4/9 - 4/13/2012}

This week we studied X ~ Fox. This was probably my least favorite week, just because of how it was backwards from the way we learned all the other sounds. It was a bit confusing going from F - Frog to X - Fox. Oh well... we survived.

Also, Fox, just wasn't that interesting of a lesson... I think the most interesting thing was that in our Fox books... we saw some foxes that seriously could have been Coorsy. Crazy how much he looks like a fox!!

Our Library Books:


We have also been getting the Dick and Jane books from the Library and both girls are doing a wonderful job at reading them. Alyssa we have noticed is very good with sight reading. You show her a word once and she remembers it.

The girls have also become very interested in sign language. I have been getting signing videos from the library and both girls (even Cole) enjoy watching them. Hayley already knows the whole alphabet and several words.

Week 28 F ~ Frog {4/2 - 4/6/2012}

This week we studied F - Frog. Not quite as exciting a Butterfly, but it was still a fun unit! We read all about how first Frogs start out as an egg, then they become tadpoles and then how they turn into a frog. It was interesting.

We did a few different things... first I got one of those "Watch Me Grow" things. It was a tiny frog that you put in water and just kept getting bigger. Then I also had a frog craft that I had the girls do. It just came with all the foam pieces and you glued it together.



What I love about this picture/craft, is that is a great illustration of their personalities. Hayley's frog is the left one. As she completes it and hands it to me she says, "Look, mine is JUST like the picture." Alyssa's frog is the right one. When she hands me hers she says, "Look, mine is having FUN!" Love it!!!

We talked about how frogs have long tongues and how they use them. We also talked about our tongues and what they are used for and also the harm that they can do with say mean things, etc.

Our Library books:

Week 27 ~ Review Week ~ {3/26 - 3/30/2012}

This was a Review Week for us. We reviewed the last 5 weeks of studies - Kangaroo, Zebra, Rock, Jewel and Butterfly.

We also started to do some Easter Crafts too.

Review Weeks are a nice relaxing break from the normal week of school.

Week 26 B ~ Butterfly {3/19 - 3/23-2012}

This was a very exciting week for school - one I had personally been looking forward to since the beginning of the school year - Butterfly!!

We were able to send away for caterpillars and we received our caterpillars and watched then crawl around their cup for a few days, then they crawled to the top and attached themselves and formed their Chrysalis, then we saw them become butterflies!! We have 5 in all, and although we didn't see any of them break out of their cocoons, it was still neat to walk by our kitchen table and realize we had another butterfly.




We also were able to go to a Butterfly exhibit at a nearby Mall. Hayley, Alyssa and Cole all got to have a butterfly sit on their hands. Very Cool!!


We also did two crafts. The girls made butterflies out of their hands, and they also colored life size "wings" out of paper bags.


Our Library books:


Our Bible Memory Verse was 2 Corinthians 5:17, " Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come."

It was a fun week!!

Week 25 J ~ Jewel {3/12 - 3/16/2012}

This week we studied J ~ Jewels. We learned about some common Jewels - Rubies, Emeralds, Sapphires and Diamonds.

I bought a bag of "jewels" and we used them to work on some adding and subtracting.

Our Bible Memory Verse was Proverbs 8:11, "For Wisdom is more precious than rubies and nothing you desire can compare with her." We studied that we gain wisdom from seeking and asking God for it and that just like that verse says wisdom is precious, God and Jesus are precious and nothing can compare with them.

We then learned the song, "Lord You Are More Precious".

Our Library books:

Our 100th Day!!!

We just celebrated our 100th Day of School!! Woo hoo!!! It is crazy to think that we had done 100 days of school... but we have! Everyday when we do our calendar and talk about what day it is we add a Popsicle stick to a jar. Everyday we count how many sticks we have. When we have 10, we bundle them and move them to another jar and count those by 10's. Then we have a 100 chart that we color everyday for that day's number and I told then when we hit 100 we would have a party!

We started the "party" by having cake after lunch...


Then I gave them each a bowl of sprinkles and they counted 100 sprinkles to put on their piece of cake.

Then we went down stairs and I had a present for each of them which was a 100 piece princess puzzle.

(ignore date it was Tuesday, but b/c there were presents on the table all order to our day was thrown out with the trash!)

I then had a few papers for them to do a fill in the blank 100 chart and a dot to dot and then 100 glasses



Of course it is not complete without books about our 100th day...

Week 24 R ~ Rock {2/27 - 3/9/2012}

Well this week's lesson took two weeks because I got the stomach bug at the end of the first week. We are done now, but instead of starting another topic mid week we are just having a relaxed week. We also celebrated our 100th day of school this week (own post will be coming) and Daddy had Friday off this week so we are planning to go swimming!

So... Rock... We read books on the different kinds of Rocks there are and how some Rocks are made from lava. We also studied that Jesus is our Rock and we are to build our lives on him.

Our memory verse was Matthew 7:24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house in the rock.

We also learned the song, "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock"

Some fun things we did is I got some "rocks" from the dollar store and we counted them and them grouped them by color, and after we grouped then we lined them up by size.



We also did an experiment of what lava looks like coming out of a volcano...

and yes, some days we do school in our pj's!! : )

Our library books

Week 23 Z ~ Zebra {2/20 - 2/24/2012}

This week we studied Zebra... Alyssa's favorite animal!!

We learned about the Zebra and how it's stripes help it to hide from other animals. We also learned that we can not hide anything from God. God sees everything!

The girls had a fun time making a Zebra patter by cutting black strips of paper and gluing them onto another paper.

Here are our library books:

Week 22 K ~ Kangaroo {2/13 - 2/17/2012}

Seriously the Kangaroo is fascinating!!!!

The fact that when born a Kangaroo is only about the size of a grape - A GRAPE people... and it knows to just crawl up an into the pouch of it's momma, is just fascinating to me. Not sure how the Kangaroo lucked out with being able to give birth to something so small...?

we learned that Kangaroo's can also jump 30 feet in one jump. We went out to the driveway and I marked a line and had each girl take a few jumps and we marked them with chalk and then measured them. We then measured 30 feet... the girls were amazed to see how much farther the Kangaroo could jump than them!

Here are our books and videos from the week:


We also celebrated Valentines Day this week too! We had made Valentines crafts two weeks ago and the girls sent "hugs" to their grandparents.

Week 21 ~ Review Week ~ {2/6 - 2/10/2012}

This week was a review week for us. We spent the week reviewing the different animals we learned about and what was so unique about them as well as where they were from. I love having the review weeks and seeing the girls think and recall what they have learned.

Week 20 P ~ Penguin {1/30 - 2/3/2012}

This week we studied Penguins! Such interesting little animals! So, in a nutshell... the mom lays the egg, then the dad carries the egg for two months on the top of his feet and under his belly to keep the egg warm. During those two months, the mom travels back to the water... and basically parties it up eating as much as she can. Then she comes back and brings up the food (pleasant huh!) for the babies to eat. How do they know to do this? Who told them what to do? Unbelievable!!

Our Library Books:


We also enjoyed March of the Penguins and Happy Feet


and a little Pittsburgh pride to go along with our theme...


Our Bible Memory Verse was Philippians 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves

Week 19 E ~ Elephant {1/23 - 1/27/2012}

This week we studied E ~ Elephant! We had a fun time learning about the Elephant! They are so large, yet rather peaceful gentle animals! Some interesting facts are that the Elephants trunk has no bones in it, and has over 40,000 muscles - just in the trunk!! They also eat about 300lbs of leaves, twigs, fruit a day! That is a lot!!!

Our Library Books:


We also found some cool websites that had live video feeds of elephants!

Our Bible Memory Verse was Philippians 1:3 "I thank my God every time I remember you". This verse was chosen b/c you know.. elephants are supposed to have a great memory!

They also got to watch Dumbo and they did this elephant craft:

Week 18 H ~ Horse {1/16 - 1/20/2012}

This week we studied H ~ Horse and the number 14. We studied Horses and how horses obey right away to commands they are given. We also learned that God wants to lead us on a good path and He wants us to obey.

Our Bible Memory Verse was Colossians 3:20 "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."

Our Library Books:


Totally not school related... but one of the cutest things right now is Cole saying, "neigh". Whenever he sees a horse, he says it!

Week 17 C ~ Cow {1/9 - 1/13/2012}

This week we learned about C ~ Cow and the number 13. We learned all about Cows and how the process of milk goes from cow to carton. We even watched a video from a dairy farm on the process. One thing we did to learn more about milk is we had a "dairy party" for lunch one day. The lunch menu was: Fruit Smoothie made with yogurt, ice cream, mozzarella cheese stick, toast with cream cheese, a cheese quesadilla and sour cream for dipping and a piece of milk chocolate. They enjoyed it, but I think mostly they loved that they could eat their ice cream first!


We talked about how milk helps our bodies to grow and we also discussed how God's word helps us to grow too. Our Bible Memory Verse was John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Our Library books:

Week 16 G ~ Goat {1/2 -1/6/2012}

This week we studied G ~ Goat and the number 12. We learned about Goats and the different things Goats are used for. We studied the biblical history of Goats and talked about sacrifices in the Bible and how we don't need to sacrifice animals because of sin anymore because Jesus died for our sins.

One thing we learned was that goat's make milk too... so we did a taste test! Everyone could tell which one was Goat's milk and which one was Cow's milk.


Our Bible Memory verse was John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."


Our Library Books:

Week 15 ~ Review Week ~ {12/26 - 12/30/2011}

This was a Review Week, which was perfect since it was a nice relaxing week after Christmas. We just spent our school time reviewing the letter and number, the subject we studied and our memory verses. We also spent time reading some Christmas books!!

Week 14 I - Insect {12/19 - 12/23/2011}

This week we learned about Insects and the Number 11! We learned some fun facts about insects, like all insects have 6 legs and three main body parts. We really focused on ants, and started our very own ant "farm".



We also learned that Ants are very hard workers and not lazy. Our Bible Memory verse went along with that. Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for men."

Our Library Books:

Week 13 W ~ Water {12/12 - 12/16/2011}

This week we studied W ~ Water and the number 10. We learned about how there are three forms of water - liquid, solid and gas. We also studied how our bodies need water to live and how our spirits need "living water" to live. We made a chart and listed different things we could think of that were liquids, solids and gases. It was a proud homeschooling mom moment when Alyssa said that pee was a liquid! We also read about where water comes from and how it gets to our house. The girls still scream "water tower" every time they see one!

Our Library Books:

Week 12 O ~ Octopus {12/5 - 12/9/2011}

This week we learned about O ~ Octopus and the number 9. There were quite a few interesting facts about Octopus that I was not even aware of... they can change color to disguise themselves and they shoot a dye out as a defenses to get away from attackers. Pretty neat creatures!

The girls made a craft of an Octopus by tracing their two hands (minus the thumbs) and then cutting them out and gluing them into an ocean they had painted. I also made a special dinner of Octopus and Seaweed(hot dogs and spinach noodles). The kids loved it!


Our library books:


Our memory verse this week was Psalm 146:2
I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Baby Break {11/21 - 12/2/2011}

We took a Baby Break from 11/21 - 12/2 as we welcomed Baby Blake into our family!!

To read more about what goes on outside of our homeschool life you can check out Growing Gerwings www.growinggerwings.blogspot.com

Week 11 D ~ Dinosaurs {11/14 - 11/18/2011}

This week we studied D ~ Dinosaurs and the number 8. This was an interesting lesson and I am sure once the boys are at K level and I am teaching it to them, they will be a bit more into it, but it was still good for the girls. Our curriculum came with a really good book called, "What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs" by John Morris and Ken Ham. It was creation based and was awesome. So many worldly books that only promote evolution, made this book very refreshing to read. We also got two other books from the library that were good.

We started doing a blend ladder chart a few lessons ago and Hayley is doing really well with it and starting to read quite a few words with the letters we have learned so far. I had started both girls on a reading program over the summer, but didn't want to do too different things once we started this curriculum. I think I will do it with Alyssa over the summer to work on her reading.