Hi friends! Today I was just going to touch on extracurricular stuff for the homeschool kids. Now there are tons of co-op and meet up groups for just about anything you can think of for homeschooling families: from hiking, to park play dates, to lessons to engineering. Even so-- as a full time working mom I don't have the availability for all that since most of them meet during the work day. So what do we do to keep the kids engaged and busy? For Z our level 4/4th grade student she is enrolled in American Heritage Girls with our local chapter: click here -> American Heritage Girls | Character Development Organization "American Heritage Girls (AHG) is a Messiah-centered character and leadership development program for girls 5 to 18 years of age. AHG is dedicated to the mission of building women of integrity through service to God, family, community, and country." This is a troop organization where the girls earn badges for various: skills, tasks, and experiences. There are tons of badge options: sewing, baking, American Sign Language, Science/Engineering, Family Helper, Leadership, Camping, 1st aid---on and on.... They also do a lot of outdoor troop activities from geo-cash, camping, hiking learning how to use a map/compass etc as well as volunteer opportunities in the community. So this really is a 1 stop location for a lot of Biblical interactive engagement and learning: both in and outdoors, building friendships, leadership skills and team work along the way! Z also rotates on a cycle of gymnastics and whatever has her attention at the season... We have partnered with a local Christian school so both of the kids can participate in the school's sports teams. So last fall Z did track team with the school..... this fall she plans on gymnastics and in the spring potentially softball. But she has choices and opportunities :) Likewise for O he participates in the boys version Trail Life: Trail Life USA | Adventure, Character, Leadership "Our vision is to be the premier national character development organization for young men which produces godly and responsible husbands, fathers, and citizens. Our Mission is to guide generations of courageous young men to honor God, lead with integrity, serve others, and experience outdoor adventure." He also rotates through other interests and sports as well like tee-ball, and soccer at the moment. Along with participating with his troop: camping, hiking, and learning life skills to be a godly, responsible, leader as he grows into a young man of God. When they aren't bouncing around in extra activities they play in the neighborhood with all the other kids...riding bikes, racing, playing hide & seek, freeze tag etc until the street light comes on and all the kids start to head home. Homeschooling is beautifully flexible in that way. You can shape it to meet the needs of your children and family with how they learn but also when things get done within the parameters of your schedule. The kids stay busy and we have several planned/scheduled breaks around the Feasts of Yah (God) and for us during the summer as well. This is what works for us and has allowed us to flourish. If you would like to chime in with what works for your family or if you have questions please feel free to leave a comment! Blessings friends!
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Hey everyone! So I thought as we roll into wk 4 of the school year (1 whole month of teaching a 1st and 4th grader!) I could share how we stay organized and prep for the week. 1st up is Z, our daughter and 4th grader. You see there above pictures of her books so that is where the worksheets come from. I would like to give a shout of praise to Masterbooks bc honestly all I need to do is rip out the worksheets and put them in the corresponding folder for her because it is very OPEN & GO!! I typically pull out a month of worksheets at a time and then put them in the designated folder in her binder you see in picture 2 each folder has a front and back for each subject. The front will hold all of the graded work for the wk and the back side will hold the rest of the pages that have not been worked. So I make sure on Sunday we are ready to go.....through the week all I need to do is go to each folder pick out the worksheet/project for that day and set it out on her desk and she is ready to roll! I like to do this the night before. Today is Sunday so for both kids I picked out everything for Monday and put it on their desks and repeat through the week. For Monday I took out the worksheets already as above you can click through those pictures if you want. Now the first 8-9 weeks of school is review in Math and Language before we begin to move into new material. Z's school day is 3-4 hours long :) Monday and Wed we fit in a 15-20 minute American Sign Language lesson the kids do together with me! Z's courses are:
Onward to O, our 1st grader! His books are pictured 1st, then his binder, the 3rd picture shows his folders, which like hers, correspond to his classes and you can see the front of the folder has his graded work. The 4th picture shows his work for Monday. Z has American History whereas O has Social Studies until 3rd grade where he will then switch to the same American History courses she is doing now. On sunday prep the folders and then throughout the wk just pull the new work for each day and we are ready to roll.... Now his schedule is different though. Whereas Z's core subjects are Mon-Thurs ...O has Language, Math and Science on Mon, Wed, Friday and his devotional, "Where Faith Grows" and Social Studies "My Story 1" are Mon-Friday. With both children we fit in IXL math and Language practice and SpellingCity as needed throughout the week usually 2-3 lessons there. O also reads little books I pick out a few times a wk. Monday and Wednesday we fit in a 15-20 minute American Sign Language lesson the kids do together with me! O's school day is about 1 -1 1/2 hours long O's course work:
ART FUN! We do have arts and crafts O made the car with daddy and painted it and Z did the picture of the Jelly Fish in line with her Art class schedule. Some art projects we come up with independently but this yr Z is taking an art class so there are lots of fun projects in the curriculum! Friday's are light days so on Friday we do a group lesson on US Geography and a few pages out of "One Blood for kids- what the Bible says about race" to confront the notion of "races" as there is 1 race -the human race made in the image and glory of Yah (God) ->Gen 1:26
And that's how I/we do it! Have a blessed week everyone!! So we use Masterbooks as our primary base for education. These are a few samples from our youngest son (5) "O's" level 1 (1st grade) language book. Were he in school he would be in Kindergarten but he completed level K and Foundation Phonics last yr and he is reading, counting by 2's and doing addition up to 5 at this point. We are continuing practicing refining printed letters and recognizing letter blends that have unique rules like: "lf" example: calf or "kn" example know etc. All in all though he is doing great. We use BOB books as a supplement in reading and IXL | Math, Language Arts. Starting at week 5 Masterbooks will incorporate spelling lists and at that time we will also incorporate SpellingCity.com to practice spelling lists and words with games. He also does a Masterbooks workflow of:
Moving on up to level 4! Some samples of our daughter's work. Z is in level 4 and above we have a sample from her Devotional Masterbooks "More than Words 2" in the 1st picture. There is a continuing focus on positive character traits each week to aid in developing godly character and The Fruit of the Spirit in your child... This week's word was dependable. I have utilized this as a way to teach her how to use a dictionary for the definition as well as synonyms and antonyms for the word focus. There are several choices for Science with Masterbooks and both children really love being able to pick the science that peaks their interest. This yr she chose, Masterbooks, Heaven and Earth which is sectioned into 3 parts 1.) Our weather and water 2) Our Universe and 3) Our Planet Earth. All of the curriculum is Biblically based and we love that! Example: Check out the FUN FACT from Science!! (Bible Ref: To establish a weight for the wind, And apportion the waters by measure. Job 28:25 NKJV) For Z we also use: IXL | Math, Language Arts. and SpellingCity.com as supplements to practice language rules, math, and spelling lists and words with games. Z's courses are:
A few Extras: Friday's are lighter for us so we do 15-20 minutes of American Sign Language with (1) Bill Vicars - YouTube Rachel Cohen with Signing time is good for smaller kids too: (1) Signing Time - Let's Make Friends! - YouTube I have a conversational basis in ASL so it was an easier language for me to add and practice with them. My husband speaks Spanish as his 1st language so at a later time we will add Spanish. And on Friday I throw in some US Geography by studying 1 state a week out of this book also by Masterbooks :) We have learned about Arizona and Alaska so far. I hope you have enjoyed our homeschool highlights as we wrap up the 1st month of school! The world is in chaos right now and the news is heartbreaking...times like these I pause and appreciate Yahweh's blessings.... there are hundreds of reasons we LOVE Masterbooks but here is 1 of them...
In Z's devotional for tomorrow from, "More Than Words: level 2" we pause to study how music and words can effect: our mood &, thoughts, and behavior. (this applies equally to any media really) As scripture says: Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Prov. 18: 21 Our words and those that we absorb from media, movies, and entertainment have the ability to build up or tear down...to instill anxiety or faith..... to instill a desire to live holy or feed the desires of the flesh... to walk in righteousness or sin ...on and on.... This is a conversation starter about how we need to guard our eyes, ears, and remember to be in the world but not of the world. We are separated as a people unto Yahweh. * educating the whole child* Trained Up In Torah - www.youtube.com/channel/UCQaMyChHUz4MhjkrFnHOgtg/featured
We have a dedicated "Shabbat lesson" every Saturday morning with the kids and I used a couple of different devotionals to walk through scripture. This book "The Bible made easy for kids" by Dave Stehler is one of our faves. However, when this new channel Trained up in Torah launched on YouTube about 3 weeks ago we used it for Shabbat this past week and the kids really enjoyed it! So I am sharing in case it may be a blessing for your family too :) Lookie who got their 'shofars' for The Feast of Trumpets?! The kids are so excited Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) is a day for the sounding of the shofar. It is a day of making joyful noise unto the Lord (Psalm 81:1-4). After the spring festivals of Passover, First Fruits, and Shavuot, The Feast of Trumpets marks the beginning of the three fall festivals, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. The spring festivals have already been fulfilled by Yeshua. The fall festivals, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot will be fulfilled when Yeshua returns to rule as King, Mashiach ben David. HalleluYah!
1 race- the human race.
God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. Gen 1:27TLV I highly recommend the book: Master Books Homeschool Curriculum - One Blood for Kids
https://www.masterbooks.com/one-blood-for-kids
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