MFW Weeks 2 & 3

We are really enjoying MFW first grade so far. Lily is not complaining when it is time to do school work. The phonics program is a review so far, but she is doing great with that. I am noticing a huge improvement in her handwriting and reading fluency lately, and I think that starting first grade over again was a good decision.

We made a Jewish calendar, and talked about how the year starts at a different time than our traditional calendar year.

Lily has been working on Singapore math for the past 2 years. She is actually in book 1B, but I am letting her do the math that came in the MFW curriculum. It will be a good review, and it is fun. I am focusing on making her younger years as fun as possible. I want her to love learning. She is enjoying the activities in this math workbook. We will stick the Singapore back for a bit.

In week 2, we talked a little about ladybugs and geckos. We did some art projects to go along with that. We are not doing the art that comes with the MFW first grade. We are doing our own thing. 

We also watched a Wild Kratts episode about geckos.

In week 2, we learned about soil and soil layers. Lily went on a hunt for leaf litter, and explored it to see what living things she could find in there.

She also filled a jar with soil and water, and shook the jar. After it settled, she observed how the soil has layers.

After she observed the layers, we had a soil layer snack. :)

 Each week, Lily draws a picture in her nature journal. She drew a picture of soil for week 2.

She ended week 2 by making some animals with her pattern blocks.

We finished our scroll in week 3. We talked about how books were not around in Bible times, and that everything was written on scrolls. 

We celebrated "dozen day", and talked about how a dozen of something is 12. We made a dozen muffins and watched "Madeline." 

We use HomeArtStudio DVDs for some of our art lessons. We learned about flowers this week in Science, so we made a sunflower craft from the video. The videos are great, and it takes everything step by step.

We got some flowers for Lily to observe. We talked about each part of the flower and what it does. We talked about how butterflies and bees can pollinate the flowers.  We watched a Rock N Learn video about the parts of flowers.

This was a fun activity. Lily was pretending to be a butterfly. She used her "feet" to collect the "pollen" (the powder from the cheetos), while drinking the nectar. Then, she ran around and pollinated other flowers.

That's it-it was a fun couple of weeks. Next week, we get to talk about seeds and plant a bean seed. ;)

MFW First Grade-Week 1

We have been working on My Father's World first grade for a couple of weeks. Lily really enjoyed it. She actually says "Yay!" when I tell her it is time to do school work. I think this will end up being a good year. It looks like the phonics program will be thorough, but the overall program is gentle enough to not overwhelm.


This week, we used the student sheets from MFW, a calendar page from Confessions of a Homeschooler-grab it here: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2012/09/elementary-daily-learning-notebook.html, and the Usborne book Things Outdoors for Science.

We discussed where we live, and pointed it out on the globe.

This week was a review week, so Lily worked on writing her letters, and how they sound. These pages will be made into a scroll in week 3.

For math, we worked on our calendar page every day. We talked about our number of the day, and explored our pattern blocks.

 This is a kitty with a really long tail. :)

 

We also explored making patterns with Unifix cubes. The pattern activity gave way to making bridges, somehow.

 

 For science, we talked about worms and other creatures close to the ground. We watched some Wild Kratts and read books about worms.

 We went on a worm hunt and made a worm home. We will be watching it for a couple of weeks.

We finished up week 1 by making a worm/dirt cake treat. :)