A Story About Ping

This year we're using Five in a Row (FIAR) as our main curriculum. I first came across this program when we started researching homeschooling (when Buzz was a baby), but back then I felt it seemed too "light" and wasn't going to be my cup of tea. I just wrote it off and honestly didn't think about it again until this past spring when I was looking into what curriculum to use for this school year. I wasn't thrilled with the curriculum we had used for kindergarten and I wanted something fun and low-key for this year, both because of my kids' learning styles and because we would be having a new baby in the house. So I came across FIAR again and decided to take the plunge. I'm so glad I did! Every week we get to snuggle up with a good book (which my kids love more than just about anything) and then take off with learning about anything that interests us. So fun! We rowed our first book this week, A Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack.

For science we learned about buoyancy. Buzz and Boo each made predictions on their chart about which items would sink and which would float.

And then they tested their predictions

"It floats !?!"

Buzz and Boo drew pictures of Ping with some help from their beloved Draw Write Now books and some inspiration from the book's illustrations.

 

They also did a worksheet where they counted Ping's family members

Acting out the story with critter counters

The wise-eyed boat

La-la-la-la lei!

We wrapped up our week with a fun Ping board game

All of our printables for this week came from Homeschool Share. It's a great resource for those using FIAR, and it has tons of other unit studies too.

The kids also spent a lot of time this week on our back patio watching some work being done on our neighbor's chimney.

We also had a great time getting together with friends for lunch and play time on Friday.

And for those in need of a Bean fix:

Then and Now

On the left is Boo, four years ago (at two months old). On the right is Bean, today. Two sisters, one outfit, so cute!

First Week!

Last week was our first of the new school year.We normally don't take more than a week off of school at a time but between Bean's arrival and Ruben's knee surgery, we ended up taking most of July and all of August off. So when Ruben went back to work the day after Labor day, we celebrated our first day. We started off with our traditional "first day" picture:

I also have the kids fill out a favorites page each year. They write their age, favorite food, books, etc. I think it will be fun to look back on these in future years to see changes in their preferences (and handwriting!) Last year Boo couldn't even write her name on her favorites page without help. This year she wrote everything by herself and only needed help with spelling.

We also had a first day of school treat

Boo is in Pre-K this year and we'll be reviewing one letter each week (she already knows her letters and sounds) along with fun activities. Our first week was "A" of course.

Making floam Aa's

Making "Poke Aa's" with oversized push pins

Other highlights of the week:



Calendar time



Spelling

Phonics

And Boo's favorite part, returning to dance class after summer break!

We're using bits and pieces of a lot of different things for curriculum this year. Our first week was a four day week and I wanted to get an idea of how our schedule was going to work with Bean, so we only did the basics. Starting in week two we will be adding Five in a Row and our first row will be The Story About Ping. Stay tuned!