MFW Homeschool Week 6 Review

Well, we had a very shortened week this week because of Labor Day. Silly me forgot the library was closed most of the weekend and wasn't able to pick up my school books until Tuesday evening. I did do bible, character training and Preschool on Tuesday, just not history and science.

Right now my focus is to stay on track with My Father's World history, science and bible because those are the subjects I will be taking a 4-5 week break from in a few weeks. My children will not let me get away with doing no school, so we will continue Sonlight Science K, Horizons math, All About Spelling, First Language Lessons, character training and bible. All of these I can pick up on a whim and do with little to no planning. That is about all we will be able to accomplish in the first few weeks after baby, if that. Angelica Pickles will be disappointed we won't be doing her Preschool activities, but I plan to add some extras to science and maybe do mini unit studies on topics for those weeks, and have my library put together unit collections for me. We'll see.

So, this week we learned more about Colonial Days and Pilgrim children, we studied the seasons and Fall in Preschool/Science combined with the older two kids, we learned about responsibility and work in character training, and we finished our study on Jesus being the bread of life.

I have some Preschool kits I got through the mail a few years ago that I decided to pull out for Angelica Pickles this week. They are by Brighter Vision Learning Adventures and are little unit studies that include a living book, a 20+ page workbook with hands-on activities, a CD of music and usually some other toy or physical activity that goes along with it. I had one on the seasons and since I wanted to cover fall this week, I thought it would be perfect. It had some pretty simple stuff in it even though it was geared at 3-year-olds, but she really did learn the seasons well and I think has a better grasp on them.


Sid the Science Kid and Princess Pea almost always include themselves in Angelica Pickle's Preschool, so I decided to combine science and our Preschool topic for this week (and last week with Johnny Appleseed). I won't be able to do that as much when I'm following Sonlight Science K, but for now it works and it's less work for me. We did some beautiful leaf rubbings this week, made some fall pictures gluing real leaves to the picture, and also made some colorful leaves out of coffee filters and colored water (which didn't turn out as well as I would have liked). The kids really enjoyed the activities and are so proud of their work on the walls of our home. Here are some of the books I used:

I decided to frame their leaf rubbings for some fall decor in our living room. I'm not a decorator, so this really spruced up our walls!

Here the kids are coloring fall pictures and then gluing some torn leaves onto their picture. They turned out so cute! Princess Pea drew the whole family plus the cat...

Angelica Pickles actually drew two people and a tree...

Sid the Science Kid.... I love the deer and jumping rabbit!


I planned the children's character training these first weeks of school very purposefully. We did manners, obedience, patience and now responsibility and work; topics I thought should be covered before baby comes. I will need their cooperation greatly in obedience, patience and work in these next few weeks, so I think being able to refer back to stories we've read and examples we've talked about will be helpful when someone doesn't want to cooperate. Here are a few book selections I used this week, besides my volumes of Aesop's Fables and collections of stories about virtues:
The kids really enjoyed the stories and generally do a good job helping around the house. I started "Helping Habits" a number of month ago and the older two enjoy doing their part most of the time. I've included room clean ups twice a day in their Helping Habits, so that is the only part they grumble about some days if the house is pretty messy. Boo Boo is making more and more messes each day and they are learning that they have to help clean up his messes sometimes, too. Sid the Science Kid enjoyed reciting his "Work" poem all week for the girls that he had memorized for his First Language Lessons. I believe Princess Pea can recite it now, too! Hopefully they will have good attitudes when they have to instill these character traits full-time in a few weeks.

I was disappointed with My Father's World this week. Their reading selection in American Pioneers and Patriots was quite dull and there wasn't much to science or bible this week, either. We skipped the reading they suggested and I just read some books on Pioneer children and we did a few projects. We made some corn bread and used our homemade butter from last week, we made homemade applesause (a project we hadn't completed from last week), I made each of them a "hornbook" which was the school books used in Colonial days, we played games like Hide the Thimble like the Pilgrim children would have played, we died macaroni noodles and made some wampum that the Pilgrims and Indians traded for food and furs, and their absolute favorite project were the "poppets" that they made, or dolls made out of socks that represented the type of dolls the Pilgrim children might have had. We spend all this money on toys and these kids have not put these poppets down for two days!! They were made out of our unmatched kid socks! Oh, children are so funny sometimes.

Here the kids are pretending to sit on a bench and listen in Dame school with their hornbooks...

I made each hornbook appropriate to what each of the children are currently learning; the alphabet, new reading words and a recited poem.


Wampum "beads" still need to be strung into necklaces. Today we had to wait for them to dry...


Here the kids are stuffing their socks to make the "poppets." Yeah, they are funny colors, but that is what made them fun!


I hated that they had "Old Navy" across their tummies, but I didn't choose which socks we would loose!
I think this is the most I've seen Princess Pea play with a "baby doll" for a long time...

Today I got out baby wash clothes for them to "swaddle" their poppets in. Oh, another full day of fun with them! Boo Boo loves his "baby" too....


Princess Pea is really enjoying her Explode the Code books and I think Level 1 is perfect for right where she is at. She does a number of pages each time we pull it out, and often by herself! Her handwriting is improving daily, too.


Sid the Science Kid is really having a hard time doing any work without me being next to him full-time, which is why we haven't done math or grammar most of the week. By the time I'm done with my afternoon "block" of history, All About Spelling, Explode the Code, Bob books and math with Princess Pea, I am exhausted and don't want to do grammar and math with Sid. I'll get more done these next few weeks with these subjects since history and science won't be taking up most of our time.


So, school week 6 is done! I really only planned to do one more week of My Father's World, but if I'm late again, I might continue until I have the baby. We'll see if I get to the library next week to plan...