MFW 1st Grade: Week 27 (a twofer)

I smooshed two weeks into one. I hate it when I do this, but magically, it worked this week. We got behind a few weeks back and I reeeeeeeeeally wanted to get to Day 126 by the Monday after our Easter break and start the remainder of the school year on a slightly different schedule. Essentially, instead of having our exploration day on Wednesday we'd have it on Fridays. So, we smooshed. (And, this week we're adding two days as well ... really I don't just tack on a day ... I group like kinds of work and extend our lessons by ten minutes ... so it's not as tiresome as it might sound.)

I will forewarn you that this will be a long post packed with pictures.

Bible

We began with David & Goliath ... such a fun and powerful story. Before we were expecting our little boy from Ethiopia, our blog was called Five Smooth Stones. I love David's heart and tried to impress his grace upon my girls.

We also learned about King Solomon ... the wisest and most lovable king to ever rule. In honor of King Solomon we made jewels out of dollops of white glue. We globbed it onto tin foil and it (mostly) dried into little jewel-shaped blobs. The girls (and Bugs) then colored the jewels with bright markers and, naturally, we made crowns. Why I didn't get a picture of the finished crowns, I can't say ... exhaustion maybe? Sugar also made more jewels to illustrate her Bible notebook.

Then, sadly, Israel split. We noted this on our timeline, which I'll highlight next week since we've added so many new people and events over the last week and a half.

Elijah taught us about sacrifice and faith. Something so beautiful happened for Sugar with this story ... she made the connection, on her own, about evangelizing God's goodness. How awesome is that!?! She began to see a pattern in the momentous figures of the Old Testament and discovered that there was a greater purpose for their lives. I can tell the stories and share the awesomeness of God's prophets, but it just had to come together for her, and it did, with Elijah.

The miracles in the Jordan River with Naaman and Elisha made more concrete the connections Sugar was making with the need for the great prophets of God. She even gave examples of how she could minister to her friends at church. Wonderfulness.

Our bloggy friend at 2ladybugsandalizard (her daughter is wildly artistic ... lovely) inspired Sugar to cut out pictures from her National Geographic Kids magazine to make her Bible notebook illustrations feel more authentic. :) She's sweet.

In anticipation of next week ... Jonah and Daniel ... I found a great little used book on Amazon and prepared a cool craft. Can't wait.

Copywork

[caption id="attachment_563" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. Proverbs 29:25"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_539" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. Proverbs 21:30"][/caption]

Reading



We learned a bit about comparison today ... -er, -est ... comparing two things and more than two things.



Sugar met more rules to compartmentalized into her phonics box in her brain. Namely, that wr sounds like /r/ and /m/ is sometimes spelled mb. English is hard to teach and rationalize.

The week ended with alphabetizing, which at first glance seems pretty obvious, but when the words have same first two or three letters, it can get tricky.









I know I've sung their praises over and over, but I appreciate so much how gently MFW introduces grammar. I do not believe in teaching formal grammar at this age or stage of learning, but MFW sprinkles in the right amount, and it is useful.

Math







We are nearing the end of Singapore 1A. One happy girl. Sugar loves math and can hardly wait to crack open 1B. She especially begs for Calculadder, daily. I have to convince her to stop the lessons. Pretty fantastic. I hope her enthusiasm sticks.

ArtPac

We enjoyed a few more lessons in coloring. It's such a sweet, quiet time together. Next year I think we'll likely move on to another approach to art, but for now, this is perfect.



[caption id="attachment_541" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sparkler ... light and medium"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_542" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Sugar ... light and medium"][/caption]

Nature

We continued reading aloud from Pagoo. Sugar narrated the two chapters and both girls illustrated them in their notebook. Lots of glitter, sequence, glue, and oil pastels.













The Wee Ones

Sparkler learns the same Bible history with Sugar, but with her Rod & Staff Bible storybook and coloring book. She also listens in on the MFW adaptation of the story, and she listens intently to the same stories (and those in between) from our family Bible. She plays with cuisinare  rods and makes endless math problems. She's a math whiz. She's a natural reader so we give her a basket full of good books to read and look at as she feels stirred. Art is family time so the girls and Bugs do lots of daily art in some fashion. She practices a bit of penmanship daily ... this is her greatest hurdle and another reason I am blessed to be her teacher.

I'll leave you with some precious pictures that need no description. Thanks for reading so long.













Because of Him.