The Plan for this week!

So onto what's really important...what we are learning this week! We are still reviewing Math concepts but getting into ones that need work.
Casten will begin reviewing more, less and the same. We'll be working on recognizing numbers 0-10 and matching those up with items of the same amount. Also on recognizing the WORDS for 0-10.
Last week we learned the -at family of words. This week we'll be going on to learn the -an, -ap and -ag families. He actually read his first book yesterday! We were supposed to read it on Friday, but Alyssa was reading a book and he wanted to too, so I gave him that one since it was the easiest book I had and he actually read all of it! It was so amazing!
For writing he'll be reviewing A-D. He can write and recognize all of his letters, we are just working on doing it properly. Good handwriting is a high priority for Jay and I.

Alyssa will begin working on reviewing addition and memorizing her addition tables! Reading we'll continue reading in our first grade reader, review long vowel sounds and learn about the Amazing Super Silent E :)
For writing, as I have stated before we have decided that we'll be teaching Alyssa cursive this year. We feel it will help her learn to make the letters correctly, not just have them look correct! She has already learned A (not that difficult, especially since she did d'nelian writing last year!) This week we'll review that and learn b and c.

This year we'll be doing Science, History, Geography and Bible work together. Casten doing Kindergarten and Lyssi doing 1st grade work makes it pretty easy. Of course we will go into more detail for Alyssa in areas we feel are necessary. Often times we just teach Casten and Alyssa the same thing and Alyssa just picks up on more and we are able to work with that!
Science we will begin our unit on animal habitats. They do know what a habitat is (thanks to Sesame Street and Fetch! Thank you PBS Kids!) We are going to learn about 4 different habitats: Desert, wetlands, forests, and grasslands. We will briefly explain each one, then go into our habitat of the week! This week we will be learning about wetlands. We'll be taking a trip over to the pond/marsh area right by the house and observing what is over there. We will also be taking a trip to the zoo to see the Swamp there. They have some great animals and wonderful information there!
Geography we'll learn about Basic needs and how people in different areas adapt to meet these. We'll show a map of the world and have the children learn the difference between the land and the water and learn where we live. They will also be shown how to read a map. We will emphasize this during our trip to the zoo, where each kid will get the very easy to read zoo map and have to navigate the group to their destination of choice! We do have quite a few trips to the zoo planned this month! Putting our membership to work!
History this week will only be on Friday. We'll be introduced to Native Americans. That is our unit study for this month. We will briefly introduce Columbus and early settlers and then go on to learn about Colonial America next month.

Lastly this week we'll be beginning our Bible Study. Our verse for this week is Genesis 1:1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This week we'll learn about Creations. Each day we will study a bit more about it. Today we will start our paintings of God's creation! Each kid will make the sky, earth and water. Tomorrow we'll add to it the Sun, birds fish and animals. Wednesday we'll finish up by adding people to our picture! They will also do a self portrait. We'll be making our own Adam and Eve story books and make a fingerprint apple tree w/ the verse Psalm 119:101 I obey Your Word instead of following a way that leads to trouble.

So there we are, the first full week of real lesson plans and work! We will not be doing school work too much on Wednesday. I will be taking my mother in law for her next round of chemo. Any prayers you can say for here will be greatly appreciated it!