Homeschooling Unit 1

Though we split the first unit over a week and a half, it has gone by so quickly.

I am beyond pleased (no pun intended) with our choice to use Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.

Here are some of the goods and the bads of the week.

Let's start with the bads....

1- This breaks my heart but reading was tough this week.  Through BLHFHG, two kids Bibles coordinate with the curriculum (you can use any Bible you want, but they have page numbers and questions mapped out for these two Bibles- The Beginners Bible and The Early Readers Bible. I already had The Beginners Bible, which is a step harder than The Early Readers Bible, so we didnt need to buy it.  Well, it is too hard for Hunter... at least for now. It led to both of us getting frustrated which is the last thing in the world I want him to get--- frustrated over reading. So, I ordered The Early Readers Bible and will add some phonics work to it.  Once we complete the phonics book, we will hopefully pick back in the Beginners Bible.
2- I am going to have been disciplined with the poetry section.  I am just not big into poetry thankfully the copywork each day is linked to the poetry so I know I will not be tempted to skip it.

A close up of the poem that we pieced together.  The poem was The Storm.

Look at how much better his writing was in just a week.  This copywork was over 4 days time- 10 minutes a day.  You can almost see when he starts again each day.

3- Though he loves it, Math was pretty basic in the first unit.  I know it picks up steam (even the last lesson in this unit was a bit harder) and it is good to review, but Ashton could easily have done most of the activities.

The math page.

The goods.

1- Hunter loved the Science and Geography sections. 

Science lesson was on "blubber".  We coated one finger in vegetable shortening and the left the other without.  Put both fingers in the water and felt which finger got colder after 2 minutes.

A fun geography lesson of labeling the continents and the oceans.  Hunter then wanted to take it a step further and draw all the planets.  *** No judgement on the scale- just going for the general idea.

2- BLHFHG offers two spelling lists each unit, Hunter was easily able to go to the second list.  He made a 100 on his first spelling test.  Also, like the introduction to Language Arts.  This unit was a fragment vs a sentence.

First spelling test--- some of his "a" look like "e"

Hunter's shield, the lesson on fragments and sentences, and the unit poem pieced together with pictures.

 3- Love the Storytime and so does Hunter.  The first genre of books is biography.  I am reading Squanto to him and it fits perfectly with our History lessons about the first pioneers.  Though, the curriculum just calls for one genre in each unit, I think we will have enough time to do two. 

The Bible that is a bit too hard for Hunt is on the left and the biography I am reading to him/ them.

Questions Hunter would ask Squanto

4- And the best part, hearing all three of the boys recite the Bible verse for Unit 1- Psalms 4:8.  "I go to bed and sleep in peace, because Lord, only You keep me safe."  Even Shepherd will say it when he doesnt know anyone is paying attention.  Makes me happy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And lastly, here are Ashton and Shepherd's activities from their first unit of Little Hands to Heaven.  The letter was "A" and the number "1."  The shields are actually from Hunter's unit as we talked about God being our shield. 

Shep's on the left, Ash on the right... if it wasnt obvious ;)

So, there it is... Unit 1 complete and we are loving it!