M is for Moses

We started the Bible ABC's awhile back. We usually did these activities on Sundays when my child wanted something to do. Yes, she begs to learn! We have been attending children's church for several months, so she is satisfied with that. Recently, we had the opportunity to finish the lesson.

We broke this into several lessons because there was just too much to do.

Day 1:

Baby Moses

As always, DLTK had wonderful ideas for learning lessons. We love the color pages, crafts, and songs at this site.

We watched The Prince of Egypt video. Shayla really learned alot from this movie. Almost daily she talks about something new in the video.

She acted out the story by putting her babydoll in a basket boat.

Reading: We read and did motions to the story in the 100 Bible Stories/100 Bible Songs. Then we watched the story on the Read and See DVD Bible. We did these steps daily.

Music: We sang and did motions to He's Got the Whole World in His Hands from the stories mentioned above and Baby Moses from The Singing Bible.

Day 2:

M is for Mother

We read a lovely little book called I'm Glad I'm Your Mother by Bill and Kathy Horlacher. We discussed times when I was especially glad that I was Shayla's mother.

M is for Manners

We read A Child's Book of Manners by Ruth Shannon Odor. We discussed different scenarios and manners to be used in those situations. (social skills)

M is for Money

We read The Magic Money Box. We talked about the different coins, then we set up our own grocery store. Sorry no coupons! Shayla bought items with her coins. We only practiced which coins to use and counting - no change making today! (No coupons, either - another day, another lesson!)


My super shopper only spent $3.61 oop for two bags and a grocery cart full of savings! I'll bet I'd have a hard time beating that deal!

M is for Moon

We read Papa Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle. We discussed how this story is just fantasy, but it's based on the actual phases of the moon. We started keeping a moon phase journal. Shayla will draw what the moon looks like each night.

Day 3:

Moses and the Burning Bush

As always, we did the color pages and songs from the above mentioned resources. Also, some time ago, I found sheets of stickers and scenes of Bible characters from the dollar store. Shayla loved putting stickers on the Moses one.

She used squeeze and paint brushes to paint a burning bush (art). We discussed color mixing and mixed red and yellow together to make a fire color (science).

Character: Shyness. We discussed how Moses told God he was not good at speech. Did God take that as an excuse? NO! I explained to Shayla that God gave Moses the words to speak, and that if we pray and practice, He will give her the words, too.

I explained that we can not tell others about Jesus if we do not use our words. We have been working on this issue since the beginning of the year.

Day 4: The Plagues

We did these sequencing cards about the whole story of Moses. Here and here. (language, sequencing)

We sang the song, Pharoah, Pharoah. This is an old, beloved song in our family. The youth minister at the church we used to attend used to put a shepherd hat (whatever they may be called)and dark sunglasses on. I can still see him dancing and grunting to that song. LOL! (music)

This is the second time we have done these studies on Moses. The first time was as a preschooler. I came up with activities for all of the plagues, but my memory is getting bad because I can't remember what we did! We couldn't do all the activities again either, because have other lessons planned to do.

You could google each of the plagues and plan a science plan around it. We were lucky enough to have hail today, so we discussed what hail is. Shayla was worried that it was a plague sent to us. LOL!

For frogs, we played flipping frogs. I bought these silly things at the dollar store years ago. We have used them so many times in so many ways. Recently she learned how to actually make them flip. But we have also used them many times for math. We counted them, categorized them by color, talked about distance and made estimates, I hid them around the house and she found them.

Several weeks ago we learned about tadpoles and frogs. We even went on a tadpole hunt Saturday, but did not find any yet.

Our study of the sight sense and the blindfold game we played worked well for the plague of darkness.

Day 5: The Ten Commandments

We found lots of little songs to help memorize the 10 Commandments. Her favorite was this one sung to Jingle Bells.

We also made the Moses papercraft.

M is for Mountain. God sent Moses up to Mount Sinai, so we learned about mountains. We looked on a map of the US and the world, pointed out and named all the mountain ranges we could find. We read a funny version of She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain. And sang the bear went over the mountain.

We would have really delved into learning about mountains for science, but this is summer fun schooling.

M is for Music. We are working on two Brownie scout badges for this part. I will post about them later.

Suggestions: Be fun, dance to silly music. Play instruments, make instruments, listen to different types of music.

Homeschool Highlights - Week of March 30, 2009

Days 136 - 140




Sorry, not many pictures this week. I have been busy with my spring cleaning.




I've been trying to put some fun back into our homeschool. It's getting boring for both of us.




I'm trying to sit down weekly and make up lesson plans to finish up what needs to get done for the year.




Math: The worksheet had fruits on it, so Shayla sorted her plastic fruits from her kitchen set. We counted them, then she used them as counters for her addition and subtraction problems on her worksheet. Then, instead of the usual, daily struggle to write or trace numbers. Shayla used number rubber stampers to put the answers. We got this worksheet done in record time! She spends so much time trying to form the numbers.




Review counting. We reviewed counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's. I read aloud The Skip Count Book, The Crayola Counting Book, and The Ants Go Marching. We did several dot-to-dots and math games here.




Unfortunately, she forgot alot of counting! UGH!




Review Patterns. Read I See Patterns and The Pattern Book. Used blocks to make patterns.






Review Shapes. Read I See Shapes. Shayla played with her shape sorter toy. This is the first time ever that she was able to put the shapes in without difficulty. Then we talked about the different textures on the plastic shape pieces and sides of the shape sorter. We did crayon rubbings of the textures and also on several coins. I had Shayla practice drawing a circle, square and triangle. She is still unable to do this independently, so I think I'll give her daily practice until she can do it better.




Language: Singular and Plural Nouns. I explained it, she didn't get it. So, I made boxes out of her paper and wrote a singular word. She used sponge shapes to paint one object in each box. Then she added an "s" to the word and was allowed to stamp multiple objects in each box.




I know it seems silly, but that's all it took for her to "get it."





Spelling: Fingerspelled her spelling words in ASL.




Writing: Working on Badge 2.




Science: Spring. Looked for signs of spring. We went outside and took a photo of her in the same spot I do every season so we can make a season book. We checked out the buds on different trees, the lilac bushes, the bulbs starting to poke out of the ground.






Leaves. We read books about leaves.




Trees. Read books about trees. And Dad and Shayla transplanted this tree from our woods. We're hoping that we can transplant many more!







Phys Ed: Lots and lots of fresh air and sunshine!





Reading/Phonics: We finished up the first Abeka book, Fun With Pets. We are taking a break from these and going to read the Bob books and another set that is easier.




Art: We made paper daffodills. I didn't get a picture of this. Basically I drew a star shape and made some stems and leaves. Shayla cut out the stars and glued cupcake papers onto the middle.

We also learned about neutral colors and did page 5 of our art book. Again, I found black and white cartoon images on Google image to use. She watercolor painted these. I used these because I didn't want her to become discouraged from not being able to draw her own.

Social Skills: We attended the last Kings Kids for this year. They won't meet again until next fall.





Supplemented with lots of educational games, movies, and play this week!

Homeschool Highlights - Weeks of March 23, 2009

Days 131-135

Where have I been? Oh, we're still schooling, it's just that I have gotten away from logging it on as we do it. It doesn't seem to get done! Last week hubby and I had a nasty cold. Him first, then me.

Reading: We started lesson 23 of the Abeka curriculum. Shayla is reluctant to do this anymore. Awhile back, all she wanted to do was learn to read. Now that she is actually doing it (and well, I might add), now she wants to avoid it at all costs. I think when she finishes the first Abeka reader (4 stories away), we will go back to the Bob books and the other "easy" readers for a review time.

Math: We practiced basic addition and subtraction using a number line on the floor. We did our worksheet for the day using this method. As you can see, she had fun, and she did get some exercise. (PE)

We discussed different animals that hop and pretended to be those animals while doing our number line. (science)
But, I don't think she understood the whole mathmatical concept!


Math: The next day we tried using our dominos as manipulatives. We added one side to the other. She understood and enjoyed this concept. Afterwards, we were standing them up in lines to watch them fall. It was fun until . . .

We got company - of the furry kind.

This sweet and innocent looking pair ruined our domino game.

Language: Pronouns. Worksheet pages and board work.

To reinforce all the parts of speech that we have worked on so far, we played several of Shayla's card games.

She really started understanding how the different parts of speech work in sentences with these fun games.

Language: Verbs. We read Where the Wild Things Are. (An old favorite of ours). We acted out the verbs in the story and completed lessons 1-5.

Spelling: Short u sound words. I try to do spelling with different activities. This time she did the pretest, worksheets, traced and filled in the blanks on sentences, read the short u sound story on Starfall

Another day, she spelled her spelling words out loud while bouncing on her trampoline.

Social Studies: Shayla completed her map studies and packet. At the end, we went out to the sandbox and dug lakes, a river, and an ocean.

It was fun to fill it up with water. It was fun to play in the sand after the long winter!

Art: We learned about warm and cool colors and made page four of our art book.

Writing: Practicing letter m's and started badge 2 work from Hide the Word in Your Heart Club.

Scouts at Home: Shayla completed badge requirements for the Creative Composing badge.

Specials: We entered a contest between PBS kids Arthur show and CVS Caremark Kids. It was for the chance to meet Marc Brown, creator of the Arthur series and to make a new character for the show. Shayla loves all the Arthur characters.

The character we submitted was much like my own little girl, Shayla. I hope we win, but if not, we had lots of fun coming up with ideas!

Music & Movement: We did all the songs on the Hap Palmer cd this week.

In addition, we also started using Kids Make Music book. We are learning ways that your body can be used as musical instruments.

Science: (This is when the cold got the better of me - Dad took over here) Read books about seeds and planted seeds for 36 tomatoes.

Phys Ed: Lots and lots of outside playtime!

Social Skills: We attended another Kings Kids. She felt even more comfortable. She ate her snack, mouthed the word "blocks," and did her craft independently. She did not even become upset as I helped out more with the other kids. Yay!