Week of 8/20- 8/26

What another great week here in the Rickard household!  On Saturday, Matt's work had a Family Day.  We took the kids so they could inside of where Daddy works.  They had food for us, Bingo, inflatables, rides around the building on golf carts, games, and did I mention FREE food?  The kids had so much fun eating hamburgers, hot dogs, sno cones, and popcorn.  I enjoyed meeting all the people I hear about on a regular basis.  It was nice to put faces to the names.  

We've learned a lot this past week in school.  Jacob has been learning about prime factoring, division by prime numbers, and exponents in math.  In language arts, he's been learning the comma rules.  He is learning about the countries of the Middle East (their location, capitals, leaders, etc.).  Here is a picture of how you homeschool in a small space.

In science, he's been learning about mammals and their different characteristics.  We're still continuing our study on Pablo Picasso in art, and  chugging along in Dr. Dolittle for literature.  

Evelyn has been learning more division facts and reviewing the multiplication and division facts that she already knows.  She's also been learning comma rules, as well, in language arts.  She has been studying Captain Miles Standish in history, and also is studying different types of animals in science.  She does the same art and literature as Jacob.

Aiden has been working on reading his sight words.  His words for the week were of & on.  He also builds words on his word ladders.  I love seeing the look of excitement on face when he sounds out the word and reads it.  He's working on writing his numbers and letters as well.

He was so excited about making this clown puppet!!

This was his first watercolor painting.  He loved using the paints.

Claire studied the letter B this past week.  She and Aiden also memorize a Bible verse each week and I LOVE hearing them recite their scriptures.

Claire is working on her pre-writing practice.

She loves searching for the letter B (or whatever letter we're working on) in these silly stories. 

Butterfly coloring page

Letter B scavenger hunt-  bear, book, boot, box.  (please excuse the messy background.  I'm working on reorganizing the school shelf.  That usually leads to more of a mess before it's actually organized.)

Butterfly puzzle

Matching the correct number clothespin to the corresponding butterfly

Black bean collage

Butterfly magnet page

As usual, we ended the week by celebrating with a letter B party.  We ate burritos while watching Bedtime Stories.   And who doesn't love dancing to them music at the end of a movie? 

I also made Blueberry Buckle for dessert and the kids told me I was the best mom in the whole world!  Score!!  Matt was also happy because that is his favorite dessert.  Win, win!!

There you have it, our week at a glance.  I wouldn't trade being able to be home with my kids for anything in the world.  Time goes by so quickly, and I love being able to spend with the people I love most in this world!

Our Curriculum Picks 2014- 2015

I get asked quite frequently what curriculum we use for our homeschool, why did we pull our kids out of public school, what you do all day, etc.  Today I am going to be answering the curriculum question.
This is the first year I've bought curriculum for all four kids!  Yes, it can be expensive.  It can also be cheap, but I prefer to pay the extra to have it all (or most of it) planned out for me.  It saves me A LOT of time, and time is a precious commodity to me!  Here are our picks for this school year.

Jacob (6th grade)
Math- A Beka Arithmetic 6
Language Arts- A Beka Language 6
Spelling- Sequential Spelling 4 and 5  (we had a few tests to finish up from book 4 before we started level 5.  I purchased the DVD for level 5 and absolutely LOVE it!  He does it on the computer himself and it works on his typing as well.)
Reading/Literature- A Beka Read and Think Skill Sheets 6 and Classical Literature Unit Studies from Confessions of a Homeschooler (We are currently reading Dr. Dolittle and have Charlotte's Web scheduled next.) 
History/Geography- A Beka 5 Old Word History and Geography (We did unit studies last year for history and science so we didn't use A Beka.  I didn't want to use the 6th grade curriculum and have him jump to New World History without having studied Old World history.  The work level is pretty much the same, just different topics.  We liked unit studies, but Jacob really liked A Beka history and science in 4th grade so we decided to go back to them this year.)
Science- A Beka Science 5 Investigating God's World
Art- World's Greatest Artists (also from Confession of a Homeschooler)  We only do Art on Thursdays so we'll most likely only get through half of it this year.
Music- We're studying the composer Johannes Brahms (Confessions of a Homeschooler)
Bible- We're reading Sticky Situations in the mornings together and they are active in AWANA at church, as well as church on Sunday mornings.  Sticky Situations gives the kids different scenarios and asks them what they would do and then gives scriptures from the Bible showing how God wants us to respond to those situations.

Evelyn (3rd Grade)

Math- A Beka Arithmetic 3
Language Arts- Abeka Language 3
Spelling- Sequential Spelling 2 DVD
Reading/ Literature- A Beka Read and Think Skill Sheets 3 and the same Classical Literature Unit Studies as Jacob
History/ Geography- A Beka 3 Our America
Science- A Beka 3 Exploring God's World
Art- World's Greastest Artists (taught with Jacob too)
Music- studying Johannes Brahms (with Jacob too) and involved with Liberty Kidz choir at church
Bible- Sticky Situations, AWANA (she spends time memorizing her AWANA verses each day)

Aiden (Kindergarten)

He is using the K4 curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  This has all of his lessons planned out for the year.  It is a complete curriculum.  I just add fun little activities as I see fit.  It even includes scripture memorization as well!!

Claire- (Pre-K)

Claire is using Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the Week Curriculum.  She loves it!!  It is so bright and colorful.  The littles will sit in the older kids lessons occasionally as well.

I always hear of all these neat different curricula that sound fun, but these work for our family and I know the grass isn't always greener on the other side.  We've been happy with A Beka so far. It has a reputation for being a rigorous/lots of book work curriculum, but the kids don't seem to mind...except for the occasional complaint about some assignments.  I also love that there are lots of references to God in there, and that the History/Science are biblically based.  There you have it!  That's our list (it's always possible it could get tweaked a little here and there as we see fit).

U is for Umbrella

This has been a really great "boring" week.  No major events occurred- thank you, Jesus!  If you had experienced all the things that happened so far this year, you know why I am so thankful for a "boring" week.

Wednesday night was the kick-off for AWANA at church.  Matt is assisting in the games department, and I am the AWANA secretary.  However, I also played the dual role of 3rd grade teacher, and it looks I will continue to do so until they find a permanent one.  I was surprised that I actually really enjoyed teaching those kids.  I am praying for a permanent teacher to be found though, so i can fully delve into my secretary duties.  Evelyn, however, is loving having me as her AWANA teacher for the time being.

In school, we've been learning a lot.  The letter of the week was U.

Math:  Jacob has mostly been reviewing thus far.  The past couple days though, we have started a new topic: prime factoring.  I don't really remember learning this (although it's possible I may have), but I am enjoying learning it alongside him.  Evelyn has also been mostly reviewing so far.  We are focusing on multiplication tables 0-4 and division tables 0-1.  Aiden counted to 100 this past week and he was so excited!!

He also is learning to put numbers in order.

And learning how to write the numbers- we focused on number 2 this week.

Claire is working on counting as well.  She played a little game where she had to count the raindrops and match the correct number to each picture.

Language Arts/: Jacob is reviewing the capitalization rules and just finished the book Message of the Mountain.  He completed a book report form that goes along with the book as well.  Evelyn is also learning the capitalization rules.  Aiden is learning vowel sounds and learning to sound out words using his phonics ladders.  He also learned two new sight words: he & it.  Claire used letter tiles to spell umbrella.

Using the phonics ladders to make new words.

Aiden likes to put his letter tiles in order after he's done using them.

Bet you didn't know Lincoln Logs could be educational.  You can use them to spell out sight words.  Funny thing is, I didn't even know what he was doing until Aiden proudly called me into the living room to show me his masterpiece.

Figuring out the middle vowel sounds.

Spelling: Jacob and Evelyn have been doing their Sequential Spelling DVD's on the computer.  I love that curriculum.

Literature: Jacob and Evelyn are still reading Dr. Dolittle.  This week they learned about the protagonist and antagonists.  

History: Jacob just finished a chapter in his History book on the Ancient Middle East.  He learned about the Hittites, the Israelites leaving slavery in Egypt, how the Lydians were the first to mint coins, the Phoenicians creating the first alphabet, the evil Canaanites and the Babylonians.  It was a fun chapter.  Evelyn is just starting to study Pocahontas.  Today we read about how she was kidnapped because a greedy Indian chief wanted a shiny copper pot for his wife.  He told the ship captain he would help him kidnap her if he could have the pot for his wife.  

Science:  Jacob has been learning about different mammals.  We've studied rodents, marsupials, dogs, cats, horses, and primates.  I love seeing how God designed each one with a special purpose in mind.  Evelyn is finishing up a chapter on plant life.  We have learned about the different parts of a plant, the process of photosynthesis, and about mold and spores.  

Art: Jacob and Evelyn are still studying the works of Picasso.  This week we took a deeper look at his painting The Three Musicians.  Aiden did a tree where he fingerpainted the leaves on (totally forgot to get a pic).  Claire made and umbrella and colored a picture of one as well.

(We are still working on getting the letters in her name in the correct order.)

Do-a-dots are a favorite around here!

And of course, Aiden wanted a pic with Claire!  

Miscellaneous:  

I ordered the game Rush Hour for Aiden and he loves it!  It is a logic puzzle game.

Evelyn and Claire went on a letter U scavenger hunt and they found a Unicorn pillow pet.

Claire also worked on her lacing skills.

In Home Ec., (No, I don't formally teach that, but it is everyday life and it sounded fancier.) Jacob made his first omelet.  He did great.  That boy loves to cook!

We ended our letter U week by eating Spicy Black Pepper Shrimp w/ Udon Noodles while watching the movie Up.  It never fails, the beginning of that movie makes me cry every time.  

Here's to praying for another uneventful week as we get ready to study the letter B!

O is for Octopus

Today we finished our study of the letter O.  This means we have done four whole weeks of school so far.  The kids are doing great.  Claire is always sad when her work for the day is completed and usually asks for more.  Aiden is getting excited as he learns new things.  Today he counted and traced from 1- 100.  He was so proud when he got to 100.  He is even learning to sound out short words, and has learned to read the following sight words already: I, a, to, do.

Evelyn and Jacob are doing great also.  Ev loves history.  So far we've studied Christopher Columbus and Captain John Smith.  In science she is studying plant life.  In math, we just introduced the concept of multiplication with carrying.  We are learning the capitalization rules in Language Arts.

Jacob has been mostly reviewing skills he learned last year in math.  He, like Evelyn, also loves history.  We have been studying the Fertile Crescent.  That was also one of my favorite things to study in history.  In science we just finished up insects and are studying mammals right now.  Language Arts is his least favorite subject, but it is mandatory.  We have been reviewing identifying and diagramming subjects and verbs.

Some subjects are studied as a group.  Jacob and Evelyn are both reading Dr. Dolittle right now in their Literature study.  They seem to really be enjoying it.  This year for music, we are taking an in depth look at the composer Johannes Brahms.  Finally in art, we are studying Pablo Picasso.  The kids did their own version of his famous painting The Three Musicians.  I will do a post with our detailed curriculum choices later.

(The middle is what the original looks like.)

Tonight we ended our study of the letter O by eating Orange glazed pork chops (and cabbage) while watching Over the Hedge.  We also had Orange push up smoothies for a snack.  

This is completely unrelated to school, but was too adorable not to include.  Matt had a little helper while he was mowing the lawn tonight.  Aiden was so serious about it.  He imitated everything Matt did.

My babies are growing up so quickly.  It so bittersweet.  I love seeing them learn and experience new things, but I also wish they could stay little forever!  I am really learning to slow down and enjoy the little things.  I am so thankful God chose me to be their mommy.