Object Lessons: Creation

As I mentioned in my previous post, we recently did a simple but powerful object lesson to illustrate the requirement of a Creator for the world around us.

To begin with, I collected a small number of bottle caps (Scrabble tiles would have been even less work, but I didn't have any handy and just worked with what I had) and wrote a letter on each one to spell the word "CREATION."

Next, I placed all of the caps into a cup and shook them around vigorously, finally pouring them out on the floor. I asked Ms. Spontaneity if they had fallen out to form a word. When she answered that they had not, I offered her the cup and invited her to shake the caps again to see if we could make a word. After several failed attempts, she exclaimed, "They will never spell the word!"

I then introduced a quick summary of the "Big Bang" theory often used to explain how the universe came into existence. She declared that that seemed like a really silly idea since we couldn't even get a word to fall out of a cup! Out of the mouths of babes. :)

Next, I asked her what the Bible says about how the world was created and we took a look at Genesis 1:1 to find our answer.

Finally, I carefully lined up the letters to spell out the word we had been searching for, explaining as I did so that it required wisdom and intentionality to create order out of chaos.

This was so easy to pull together, but I think that it really cemented the understanding in my little one's heart that we are not here by any mere accident. Only the work of our wise, powerful, and loving God could create the wonders of the created world.

Catching Our Breath!

Wow! How have two - or is it three?! - weeks gone by without my noticing???

The past few weeks I have fallen back into old habits of poor prioritizing and allowing myself to be at the mercy of my calendar, instead of being in charge of it. (I'm hoping to do a post on my other blog Planned Spontaneity soon to talk more about that and what we're doing to work on it...again!) Unfortunately, homeschooling has been one of any number of other things that have shuffled to the back burner as I struggle to keep up with all our commitments.

Still, we did do some things in the last few weeks. Here's what we've been up to...

Bible

We finished our discussion of why it is important to study the Bible by taking a look at the armor of God as discussed in Ephesians 6. While Ms. Spontaneity worked on filling out a notebooking page depicting the different items in the armor, I took the opportunity to summarize notes from this webpage regarding why each piece was important, and chimed in a few thoughts I had gleaned from my own study prep on the passage. While we didn't get around to doing it, I thought this was a great object lesson to illustrate the point.

Next we launched into our "proper" Bible study, beginning with Genesis 1:1. Thus far we have read the account of creation and are finishing a notebooking page depicting what ocurred on each day.

We have continued to work on Psalm 119:10-12 for our memory work. I created a simple set of fill-in-the-blank pages, graduating from only a few missing words to nearly an empty page, as an aid for us to practice. We also tried alternating each word, such that I would say the first word, then she the second and so forth. We had fun trying to see how fast we could accurately say the verse that way. Finally, we started working on penmanship as well as we began copying the verse in cursive today. Ms. Spontaneity has not yet learned how to form all of her cursive letters, so we are learning and practicing each new letter she comes across. That may not be the official way to learn cursive, but it's working so far and she is enjoying it and picking it up quickly.

Reading

We have continued reading a chapter {almost} daily from Caddie Woodlawn, often with playdough work as I read aloud, and Ms. Spontaneity has officially declared that she likes the book!

Math

We began to work on memorizing our two's multiplication tables and go over them each day, varying the style or focus a bit to keep it from becoming monotonous. We've also started alternating flash cards and speed drills - addition to start - to help her with her speed.

Meanwhile, we have continued placement testing to find the extent of her current math knowledge in each area. This week we discussed telling time, multi-digit addition (into the millions and with four or more addends), place value, and greater than/less than/equal to.

Last but not least, I picked up a copy of The Life of Fred book, Apples, for her to try out. The math itself is rather simplistic in this specific volume, but I thought the style might appeal to her since she enjoys math and brain teasers so we're just trying out the idea. She seems to enjoy it thus far, and it makes a fun "addition" (haha!) to our math time.

History

This week we began our history study, using Year 1 from the Good and Beautiful curriculum. I love that it includes biblical accounts in its history timeline, however I am mostly summarizing the first few chapters since the info overlaps with our study in Genesis. Shortly we will begin a study of ancient Egypt and we are both so excited.

We did a simple but effective object lesson discussing the necessity for having a Creator of the universe and stated that history began at that point in time. We also started a Book of Centuries (at least, that's what we're calling it, though I'm not sure if it fits all the standard requirements and criteria), as well as a read-aloud based in ancient Egypt, titled The Golden Goblet.

Science

We also began our science study this week. Initially I couldn't find a curriculum I was wild about so I created my own. Naturally, the day I finished up the outline, I discovered the Elemental Science Classical series. I'm planning to check that out when we do our next unit, but for now, we are going to make use of all the hard work I put into planning!

It was no surprise that Ms. Spontaneity wanted to start with a study of astronomy: she's wanted to be an astronaut for as long as I can remember! We're starting with an overview of the solar system and astronomy in general. We spent a great deal of time drawing the title page for our astronomy notebooks - very important! We also read Boy, Were We Wrong about the Solar System by .... selected mainly because that's what our library had available. It offered an entertaining and informative overview of both true and false beliefs about the solar system from ancient history to present. We also began work on a poster "map" of the solar system.

Our First Week as Homeschoolers!

This past week marked our very first as an official homeschool family. Monday, despite the holiday and being the first Monday of summer vacation, was our first day of school.

It was certainly an interesting beginning, and showed me that no matter how many plans I carefully lay, there will always be things that cause them to go awry. Sometimes those things are outside my control. Other times it is a case of self-sabotage. Either way, it helps to laugh whenever possible and hold your plans in loose hands.

Monday

Although we will ultimately be studying the book of Genesis, we are spending our first few Bible lessons answering the question "Why should we study the Bible?" After reading the parable of the sower and the four kinds of soil, I introduced Ms. Spontaneity to the concepts of narration and notebooking. After briefly retelling the story to me and answering a few questions designed to make her think about what she read, she drew a picture and wrote a summary.

In prayer, I showed her my idea of a rotating prayer schedule. This is based of the premise of a prayer notebook, but I felt that having so many different prayer topics in one day might get overwhelming for her, so I broke them down and we cover one each day. On Monday, we spent time praising God for who He is.

We introduced our first memory verse, from Psalm 119:10-12, and read through it.

After a short break to complete one of our daily chores and get something to drink, we came back for math. This week is all about placement testing. She chose to complete four worksheets in all covering identification and addition of money and identification and sequencing of numbers up to 10,000.

We read the first chapter of our read a loud, Caddie Woodlawn. Ms. Spontaneity complained a bit about the story selection - it being one that she would certainly not have chosen for herself - so I allowed her to draw while I read. I was reassured that was indeed listening and taking in the reading when she presented me with a series of drawings depicting the events of the story at the close of the chapter.

Next, we worked on our outdoor habit. I say "habit" because at this point we have not officially started nature study, but I'm trying to build the time in for it right from the outset. We spent about 10 minutes walking around our backyard and observing: "Check out this bug! Did you see that bird? What kind of animal could have made that sound?" and the like filled our conversation as we strolled about the yard, chatting happily. Next, we spent 10 minutes playing at whatever outdoor game she wanted. This is to get out some of the wiggles for her and to appease the constant plea to "Play with me!" that so often comes from only children. I guess I can call it PE. :)  Finally, after an exhausting (to me, anyway!) game of tag, we spent another 10 minutes in catching our breath, lounging on the porch, and generally soaking in the fresh air and sunshine. Then I was ready to go in and soak up the air conditioning!

We rounded out the day with another scheduled chore and some free reading time.

We started at 8am and were completely done by 2:30pm, having taken liberal breaks and allowing Ms. Spontaneity to extend our required time in a given subject as long as she wished (to include our notebooking project in Bible and the 3 extra worksheets in math).

Tuesday

Because we are a blended family and Ms. Spontaneity is gone part of the week, Tuesday is already regularly scheduled as a half day of school. Though we ran into a few more hiccups than the day before, it was on a whole a successful day. Ms. Spontaneity requested to begin school early (which I granted) and to skip Bible and go straight to math (which I did not).

We added a song to our morning routine, and Ms. S. chose "The Name of Jesus" from my song binder (leftover from my brief stint helping out with the worship team at our last church).  Then we finished up our notebooking pages started the day before.

In prayer, we tackled the topic of confession, and spent 5 minutes contemplating some reflection questions and letting God speak to our hearts.

We read through our memory verse.

In math, she smoked a worksheet on fraction recognition...and came to a screeching halt when I gave her several worksheets on measurements. We worked through a brief meltdown when she took it very personally that no one had taught her anything to do with standard or metric systems of measurement.

We shuffled our day around a bit and went outside for our observation time, followed by time to play her own made-up game "Kingdom." In case you're curious, it is rather like a simplified version of "Capture the Flag" wherein the guard (player one) has to prevent the robber (player two) from getting to the castle/base (touching a tree) by patrolling a designated circle around it and tagging the robber anytime she is within the circle. We enjoyed ourselves and Mama was exhausted afterwards, per usual. If I don't lose some weight homeschooling, I don't think anything is going to help me!

We finished up our official school day with another chapter of Caddie Woodlawn and a bit of playdoh smooshing as I read. I was able to squeeze in one scheduled chore and had to be content to call it a day.

Thursday

Ms. Spontaneity came home earlier than usual so that we could check out a potential co-op group. We joined in for their end of year kickball game. Despite navigating the challenges of exhaustion for both of us and the inevitable tensions that arise from a competitive game spanning across multiple age groups and both genders, we managed to have fun and make a few new friends. We ate a quick picnic and then dashed off to the library for about an hour. Once we were home from the library, Mama hit a wall and could not do anything else, so I succumbed to a nap while Mr. Planned helped Ms. Spontaneity navigate an afternoon with some reading, resting, and not too much screen time. It was a girl scout night, so after I woke up, we inhaled a quick dinner and dashed off to our meeting.

It was a long and busy day, and this was probably a good example of the self-sabotage. I have a nasty habit of trying to cram too much into one day.

Friday/Saturday

Friday saw us recovering from the exhaustion of the previous day and we could not seem to get anything going, so we opted to swap our normal Friday routine of school for our Saturday routine of projects and relaxation. On Saturday, we picked up with school and managed to get mostly back on track.

Ms. Spontaneity taught me a song from her Bible class she had taken over the school year.

We introduced the parable of the wise man and the foolish man, and then hiked outside to try an experiment. Princess Belle served as our wise man/foolish man...

... and discovered that she could withstand the rains just fine on the firm foundation of the paver stone.

However, when she attempted to stand without a firm foundation, she was unable to withstand the "torrents" of life.

This experiment was a lot of fun and definitely served its intended purpose of giving a strong visual and experiential component to an otherwise abstract idea.

In prayer, we discussed praying for ourselves from the perspective of praying to become more like God. We also started writing out our memory verse.

We resumed our math assessments and worked through a multi-digit/multiple addend addition worksheet.

At that point, we decided to call it a day since our library was hosting a magic show to kick off the start of their summer reading program. Ms. Spontaneity has been fascinated by magic tricks since she was a wee thing, so this was quite a treat.

We all agreed this week was a great beginning and we are excited to see what next week will bring. Our history curriculum arrived and I have been working diligently on the space unit for our science studies, so the next week or two should see things stepping up a notch!