My Father's World and More Homeschool

Last year we started Adventures in My Father's World (2nd/3rd grade) for our history, part of science and some of our bible. I added in my own science with Sonlight Science K and my own bible stuff, too. Sid was an advanced 2nd grader last year and Princess Pea in K sat in all the read alouds and did much of the notebooking. I started school just 7 weeks before Myra was born in September, thus only getting through 7 weeks of MFW. Over the next year, with all of Myra's special needs, doctor appointments and lack of schedule and sleep, I only made it through weeks 8-10 in MFW, and I didn't do much extra with them besides the book basket. We focused on bible, character training, math and reading and did minimal spelling, science and language.

So, I am starting in full swing again this year and am tackling all the subject areas, starting this week. We did MFW history week 11 last week, mostly just the reading. I have jumbled up the science in MFW, bulking their weeks together to make open weeks to add in Sonlight Science K because I think MFW science is pretty minimal for my taste. So, the science we do rarely is on the correct corresponding week. So, please know that if you decide to follow my MFW posts.

So, I'll be back to posting each of my MFW weeks and sharing all my ideas with you. I won't be doing as many projects this year as I did those first 7 weeks last year, due to time restraints with a special needs baby, but I always try to spice things up as much as I can in school. I want them to enjoy and remember history, because I never did. But, in case you are just joining me, here are my old MFW posts for weeks 1-7.

MFW weeks 1&2, Ericsson & Columbus
MFW week 3, Columbus
MFW week 4, Native Americans
MFW week 5, Pilgrims
MFW week 6, New Netherlands
MFW week 7, Pioneers

Again, 8-10 wasn't really recorded and we did minimal work and just read through the suggested reading and some book basket books.

So, onto weeks 11 & 12!

Week 11: Last week we studied President Washington. I hadn't yet added in formal character training (but there is daily character training going on around here as kids learn to work together and get along), a Preshcool theme or science until week 12. So, there isn't much to share for this week. Our best book basket book was the Landmark book on George Washington. My kids love those Landmark books! I planned to do the bird studying on the correct weeks for MFW, but I currently can't find my Birds, Nests and Eggs book...

This week (MFW week 12) we are studying the first 4 ratified states (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia), African Elephants in Preschool (her choice), Selfishness for character training and a quick overview of seasons and weather in science (still haven't found my bird book for MFW science).

Here are our book basket books for MFW history week 12. Since we are only covering a state each day, I didn't want to overwhelm the kids with books and facts. Two were short, informative books and the state alphabet series books had some great pictures and fun facts.

Sid the Science Kid had one chapter book to complete this week,
Cornstalks and Cannonballs

Princess Pea working on her state page for Delaware...

I was impressed with how well she did copying the pictures!
Sid did just as well on his, too!

The Liberty bells we made on Pennsylvania day with real bells!

I completely forgot to photograph Grandma K's peach pudding we made on Georgia day....ooops! It wasn't as good as Grandma's, but the kids enjoyed it!

These are our Preschool books for the week on African Elephants. I usually read one nonfiction and one fiction book each day for Preschool and then we have activities most days. This week I'm just easing back into full-time school, so we nixed much of the extra activity stuff for the sake of just making it through the week and getting it all done. She will have more activities as we move along.

Here are our science books for the week. I have the worksheets and books for all of Sonlight Science K, but never purchased the weekly plans. I figured I could wing it without paying the extra $50-$60. So far the kids are learning a ton and enjoying science. Again, we usually have lots of activities with science, but it's a little dry this week for our first full week back.
And some random photos from the week...

Myra assumes her normal position while I work on school at the table with the kids. Princess Pea finds it amusing to hold a baby the same way...silly girl.
If she is not sleeping or doing therapy, Myra is often a happy little girl sitting in her high chair with us at the table. She loves the crinkles on this banana toy, can you tell? Play therapy!

Sid the Science Kid practicing piano. Notice the little mini-me?

Myra zonked in her swing....she never does this!
(Her bear in her arms thanks to Angelica Pickles...)
I can never read a book to just one kid anymore...
Notice the finger in the nose? Lovely....
After nap time, Sid shares a book with Boo Boo one day.
Can we all say Awwwwe!
When Daddy gets home he is always bombarded
with books now that school has started.

But, my favorite project of the week was this...

For Princess Pea's A Reason for Handwriting, she writes out a bible verse on special paper at the end of each week in her best handwriting. This was her first week to make one and I have posted a picture of her practice page and her final page below. I think she is doing well for the first formal handwriting book she's used and only being a few weeks into the program. I let her decide who she wants to gift her verse page to and this week she decided on our new neighbor! He moved in a few weeks ago, but we haven't formally met him yet. We decided to make an extra pan of peach pudding for him on Friday and bring him a welcoming dessert and this verse page. It was an awesome experience for the kids! I forgot to take pictures of them with their peach pudding, verse page and the picture Sid the Science Kid drew of our houses side by side. The two guys seems amused, and one had a daughter, so they didn't think we were completely insane bringing over our 5 kids and giving them a bunch of stuff. I think we will have a better relationship with this neighbor than any others so far. And, we also shared Christ together as a family for the first time. Awesome.

See ya next week!

MFW Homeschool Week 7 Review

I made this a light week for us. Mostly for my own sanity. I started getting pretty tired the end of last week and was needing daily naps in the afternoons. So, school can now be done in 1-1.5 hours and I'm going to start cutting out some of our school subjects for a few weeks.

This week we still did bible, character training (gentleness), and history but I didn't do any formal Preschool or science. Instead we are reading lots and lots of "new baby" books together and talking about the changes that are coming to our home. The children are so excited, but I have a feeling when our "countdown" for baby ends and I'm still pregnant, they are going to be quite disappointed.

With my last baby, I couldn't find very many good books on welcoming a new baby. All the books were about the jealously of the older siblings and about how much they hate the changes the new baby brings. Why anyone would want to read a story like that to their child is beyond me. But, I was luckier this time and found a handful of good picks for my family. Here are some great "new baby" books I've found:

Big Sister Now and Big Brother Now by Sheldon - I LOVE these books, great illustrations and a cute story about how special the "big" brother and sister really are
Welcome With Love by Overend - a beautiful picture book about a homebirth
The New Baby by Mercer Mayer - explains what you can/can't do with a new baby
How You Were Born by Cole - great explanation to how a baby forms without actually teaching the birds and bees
Waiting for Baby and Talk, Baby! by Ziefert - books about waiting for baby to appear and waiting for baby to talk
Hello Baby! by Rockwell - a sweet story about a little boy being excited to bring home his baby sister
Big Brother, Little Brother by Dale - cute story about an older brother understanding his little brother
Why is This Day Special:A New Baby by Powell - how babies are welcomed in different countries and religions - edit for your preferences
Love That Baby! by Lasky - great thorough book about baby habits and very positive
Someone's Come to Our House by Appelt - sweet illustrations and a nice poem
The Baby Dances by Henderson - beautiful illustrations and discusses what babies do as they grow
What to Expect When the New Baby Comes by Murkoff - very thorough book about new babies
Hoe Kids Grow by Marzollo - great multicultural photography about a growing infant/toddler
Baby Talk by Hiatt - a sweet book about a brother understanding baby talk

So, besides working through these books the next few weeks, we continued to read more stories about the Pilgrims and started a new book called The Courage of Sarah Noble by Dalgliesh. It's another great read-aloud like Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Bulla. I didn't plan any projects for this weeks, and probably won't for the next few. We did finally finish our wampum necklaces from last week.

I was going to stop history and science for a few weeks, but I went ahead and planned next week to learn about Benjamin Franklin anyway. What else will we do with our time? I'm going to pick up on some Sonlight Science K for these next few weeks too, since they are short and sweet read alouds and maybe a worksheet or two for Sid the Science Kid. If I shut everything down I'll just pay more attention to the days drifting by...

Oh, the waiting.....

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...

MFW Homeschool Week 5 Review

This week we learned about the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower, Jesus being the Bread of Life, and Johnny Appleseed. Here is a picture of my school bookshelf. The top row is our Pilgrim/Mayflower books, second row is our bread books, third row is our Johnny Appleseed and apple books, and the fourth row will be new baby books for the next number of weeks.

The children love the story of Johnny Appleseed and are looking forward to the Johnny Appleseed Festival this month. We'll celebrate his birthday on September 26th and Kyler is hoping the baby is born on his birthday....ha! Instead of doing some separate topic with Angelica Pickle's Preschool, since all the kids participate anyway, I decided to do Johnny Appleseed with all of them. I didn't have too many projects, but we read about apple trees, read The Giving Tree by Silverstein, colored a picture of Johnny Appleseed, ate apples for snack, and made homemade applesauce. I'd like to take them back to an apple orchard this fall like we did last year. We'll see if we get there...

Well, the kids seemed to be a little bored with the Pilgrims this week, but still had fun with the projects and remember many of the details. They just weren't as interested in the way they dressed and lived as they have the other people we've studied. We made little Pilgrim paper dolls (like our Indian paper dolls here), I showed them how oiled paper makes a great waterproof window, we made butter and we still need to plant our corn and make our Mayflower boat. We got a little behind with appointments this week, but have a long weekend to make it up! We also made our own "Kellogg Compact" like the Mayflower Compact. The kids came up with some agreeable behaviors and signed the document saying they would try their best to adhere to the compact.

Here is what the Kellogg Compact said:
We will obey our parents happily.
We will be nice to each other and play nicely.
We will share.
We will clean up our toys.
We will avoid fighting.
We will put away our dishes at meals.
We will do our Helping Habits happily.
We will keep our rooms clean.
We will not say bad words. (like poop, naked and crap)
We will speak kindly to each other.
We will ask nicely for things and say please and thank you.
We will ask Jesus for help.
We will try our best to be like Jesus.

We talked about Jesus being the Bread of Life this week and discussed stories like God sending manna to the Israelites in the desert and the feeding of the 5000. We read many bread books about how bread is made, did some yeast science experiments, and then made some bread of our own. I didn't have time to made bread from scratch with yeast and all, so we decided to make some monkey bread and I explained that the biscuit dough we used already had the yeast in it. I think they still got the idea of it. And the monkey bread was good! Everyone got involved, even Boo Boo!


I got Princess Pea's Explode the Code books in this week and we started right in on them. She loves these books and I can understand why so many homeschoolers rave about them! She did probably six pages by herself one day and then just showed me later! We are going to put our Bob Books aside for now (she flew through sets 1 and 2 but I think set 3 is significantly harder and requires more knowledge of "rules") and we are going to do All About Spelling and our Explode the Code books everyday. We'll pick up the Bob Books again when I think she's got down some of the new rules, so she isn't frustrated trying to read them. I'm really liking the All About Spelling program so far, too. We are taking our time learning the sounds of the vowels (since each one has 3-4 sounds) because I want her to know them well. So far she knows all the phonograms she's supposed to know for the first Level except e, i, o, and u. She should have them down in the next two weeks, though. She is really excited about all her school stuff.

We went to town on projects for the house this weekend. My friend Cherry came over and helped me clean out my mudroom, add a new dresser upstairs and move Boo Boo's stuff into the boys' room, organize and put away many totes of kids clothes in the attic, clean out my changing table drawer, and clean out my front foyer closet. Paul moved my "hobby table" downstairs into our already-crammed office, but we will get good use out of it there by me and Kyler. I have since reorganized my whole computer desk area, the drawers of my "hobby table," and all of my fabric and sewing collection and also collected all my homebirth supplies in one place. It was a busy day! It was nice because Pop Pop and Grandma had us over for dinner, and we didn't have to cook after all that work either! I'm exhausted! And my list is growing shorter everyday...

Here is a photo of Sid the Science Kid reading in the office because it is a quiet place. Boo Boo found the door cracked open and brought in his own book to join Sid. Boo Boo loves to sit on the floor in my office and read his board books and show me pictures he recognizes while I'm on the computer or planning school stuff. He has his own little bookshelf in there.




Here is a video of Boo Boo saying some of the famous things he's known for. My personal favorite is when he signs and says "giraffe." It's usually super clear, too. He says more than this, but it's what I could think of in the moment. I really should video tape him more, but my video camera has not been working properly for a while now and all I have is the video on my camera.

MFW Homeschool Week 4 Review

I've jumbled up MFW's plans a lot so far. We are on week 5 for science and bible and are on week 4 for history. I've combined much of MFW science into full 5-day weeks and am adding Sonlight science between MFW weeks. The kids crave science! So, this week we are learning about the sun and stars, how Jesus is the light of the world, Obedience and about North American Indians. In Preschool, Angelica Pickles is learning about Frogs. We are a few days behind due to 3 school days of sickness, but hope to catch up by the end of next week.

The kids are really enjoying the hands-on projects, so I packed them in this week. There were just too many fun ideas for Indians! I had to only pick a few or I would have gone nuts. We made the Tepees and Wigwams that MFW suggested, along with some paper Indian dolls, an Indian rainstick and a doll outfit for Princess Pea's 18" knock-off American Girl doll. We also did some fun games using Indian sign language and teaching Boo Boo more signs for different animals and made some Indian letters using picture words. Sid the Science Kid did a little book report on Small Wolf by Benchley that he read himself. I ended up writing it out, but he drew an awesome picture! Here are some photos of our Indian week:

The kids really have enjoyed all their Indian toys this week and almost every morning our table is covered with tepees, wigwams and Indian battles. Either that, or Pocahontas and John Rolfe's adventures together.


I can't take the credit for this idea, but this is the cheapest American Girl doll outfit EVER! It's all made from paper bags! I honestly can't find the site to give them the credit, but if anyone wants directions on how to make it, I can send them along. Princess Pea LOVED this....


I wish I wouldn't have taken back Small Wolf today to the library so you could have seen the resemblance of this picture to one in the book. Sid the Science Kid did an amazing job on this picture! He even has the "white man's land" on one side and the "Indian's land" on the other side with a tepee.In science we learned about the sun, stars and constellations. Although, I avoided getting too far into teaching about constellations. We made a sun out of our hand prints and put "Jesus is the Light of the World" on it with our bible memory verse. We were going to cook our lunch in the sun one day - hotdogs and sun tea - but the weather didn't allow us to. Then, at the end of the week we made our own constellations for fun. We've also had these glowing stars to put up in Sid the Science Kid's room for months, so we plan to put those up this next week sometime. The pictures books I found for these topics were wonderful this week. Finding books on Indians that were age-appropriate was a much harder task. Here are some photos of our science projects:


In Preschool Angelica Pickles learned about frogs. We did some F activities, colored some frog pictures, jumped around on paper lily pads like frogs, made some frog crafts, and learned about the life cycle of the frog. I think she learned a lot. She wasn't as patient with the informational books, but they were short and sweet and having her siblings sitting and listening to them helped. She carried around a beanie frog all week long that she found, too.


Our lily pad frog game...
Paper bag puppets....
Our character trait we are working on for the next two weeks is Obedience. I do think my kids are pretty obedient, and even do what they are told when they don't want to often. But, at times we have whining when it comes to picking up toys and stomping when we are sent to our rooms. On a rare occasion we even have lying and hitting. I think one of our biggest problems is not stopping something right away when we are told to; be it a project, wrestling or arguing. So, before the new baby comes and while I can't physically get up every time and "make" them obey, we are going to discuss the importance of Obedience and learn our C verse, Colossians 3:20. I have a few Help Me Be Good books on whining, fighting, throwing tantrums and disobeying and a number of Aesop's Fables and other stories pertaining to the topic.

Onto week 5 of homeschooling....It's really gone FAST! This next week we are learning about the Pilgrims and the Plymouth settlement.