Saturday, September 4, 2010

Our First Weekly Report of the 2010-2011 Year!

It's hard to believe that summer just came and went so fast! But here we are, finished with our first week of our second year of homeschooling. This year, we are continuing with My Father's World and using their Exploring Countries and Cultures curriculum, which will give the kids a great foundation in world geography and hopefully a heart for missions as well, which is a strong emphasis in the MFW curriculum overall.

As we did last year, we started off the day with new school supplies--always a hit!--and the boys enjoyed personalizing their bins with stickers they each chose for the occasion. And this year, we added in "school photos" which I have seen many other homeschoolers do and which seemed an excellent idea. So here are our three students:


"Dobby", our 3 year old/preschooler



"Ron", our Kindergartener/5 year old



And "Harry," our 3rd grader/8 year old

(My attempt at making cute name tags with their grade levels didn't quite work!
Better luck next year!)


We started off the year by having the boys apply for "passports" to allow them to visit all the countries we'll be studying this year. Hanging up on the wall in the top row is a group of photos of children from around the world that I found on sale at Lakeshore Learning last year and that came in handy!

In the meantime, little brother Dobby was having fun discovering his new Grasshopper Kit. He seems to really love them so far!






Harry and Ron also created posters with images of people from around the world, to reflect the truth that God loves the entire world, and did an investigation of our backyard habitat as a way to enter into the subject of ecosystems, which we'll be studying in science this year.


We also dug up earthworms after a rainy morning for another science experiment, and Sean was brave enough to transfer them to the bowl we were using:






And below is the container where the worms will happily burrow and mix up the sand and the soil as they are designed to do!


















So, as you can see, Ron joins in on science and geography as much as he can; I also spend some time with him in MFW-Kindergarten activities while Harry is doing his independent work. More next time on specific curriculum choices, but for now, suffice it to say that we are still finalizing some of our choices!

Nevertheless, the boys seemed to have a good week. Harry and Ron even gave me lovely drawings to thank me for a fun week of school. These kinds of mementos make it all worth it!


12 comments:

  1. Could your boys be any more adorable???? LOL I love the idea of the passports. What a creative way to introduce countries! -Lorrie

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  2. Great week! Looks like you and your guys had lots of fun!

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  3. Lorrie, I can't take any credit for the passport idea. All from My Father's World! Most of the creative ideas we do come from that curriculum. I just implement. =) Thanks Tonia! Look forward to seeing your blogs as well!

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  4. I love the posters w/people from around the world. What a wonderful way to help kids develop a more global perspective on God's love! Where did you find pictures?

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  5. Hi, got here from WTM. It looks like a great week and those pictures make it all worth it.

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  6. Heather--I saw those cards on sale at LakeshoreLearning.com, but I can't see them on the site anymore! Now they just have big posters which are much more expensive. If I see them on the site again I'll put the link up! Thanks for visiting, everyone! =)

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  7. Hey, Helen!! Your boys are growing ... they are still such handsome little men!! ;)

    I can't wait to follow along with your studies again this year! I still have trouble getting your blog posts to show up on my dashboard even though I "follow" you. :(

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  8. Hi Carrie--thanks for stopping by! Our kids are growing so fast, aren't they? Isn't it hard to believe we have 3rd graders in our house? Just a few more years until middle school, isn't that crazy! I know what you mean about the dashboard, I don't even check it anymore. I just know to visit yours every week. =) Hope all is well!

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  9. I love that your littlest one is "Dobby!"

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  10. Angel--I'm not sure he'll appreciate it so much when he's older. For now he's just happy to be included. =)

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  11. Your boys are adorable. We do passports also. We 'stamp' them with everything we study in History.

    I love your boys' blog 'names'. HP fan? :)

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  12. Karen--thanks for stopping by! Oh yes, big HP fans here. Mostly our eldest but our second son has a pretty good understanding of the first few books as well. The youngest just tags along for fun. =)

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