Week 2 was a rather short week. It began on Tuesday due to some nasty colds that have been slowly going around the house here, and ended on Thursday. So we are a little behind, but that’s ok, I’m sure we’ll make it up somewhere along the way.
In History, we finished learning about the first people and moved onto Egypt. We went on a tour of the Great Pyramid in Egypt online. We learned all about the mummification process, and Peyton even “made” her own mummy online. We also examined hieroglyphs and Peyton was able to type her name, Lily’s, and Hailey’s using hieroglyphs.
Peyton, Lily, Hailey in hieroglyphs
In science, we focused on the water cycle this week. As we were learning about this, I found myself questioning whether or not Peyton was really understanding the material. Yesterday, we got some warm weather and instead of snow, it actually rained! We all were on our way to Walmart in the rain, when out of the blue, Peyton asked if the rain that was falling outside was part of the water cycle that we learned about this week. It was a pretty cool moment, as I listened to my 4 year old explain the water cycle and why it rains. Guess I don’t have to worry about whether or not she is learning 
In math, Peyton worked on making and reading bar graphs with no problem. She actually has had a lot of practice already with bar graphs from using Jumpstart. We also started to focus on writing her numbers. This week, she just did the number one, which was pretty easy for her. I’m thinking next week, it will be a little more challenging for her to write the other numbers.
In Language Arts, Peyton practiced writing her last name. It was a bit of a challenge for her to keep the letters small enough to fit between the lines on the paper, but that will get better as the “year” progresses.
I should also warn everybody now. About once a week (sometimes more) Peyton has a creative expression assignment. The assignments vary each week, but basically Peyton has to “write” something (an invitation, a letter, etc) and give it to someone. The purpose of this is to give her a chance to brainstorm and organize her thoughts. So, don’t be surprised if you happen to receive something in the mail from Peyton
In her handwriting class, we focused on the lowercase B this week. We didn’t get a chance to practice the uppercase B because we got a little off track this week, but we’ll get to that next week.
We are still reading The Boxcar Children. Peyton is still doing very well focusing as we read a chapter each day. We should finish The Boxcar Children next week.
Now that we’ve been homeschooling for 2 weeks, I think I’ve become a little more comfortable with a schedule of some kind. I still have to make a poster of it to hang up, but this is pretty much how it’s been working out.
9:00-9:40 Circle Time (we read picture books, go over the weather and the calendar, etc)
9:40-10:00 Bible
10:00-10:30 P.E. (Mon, Wed, Fri)/Music (Tues)/Art (Thur)
10:30-11:00 Snack/Free Play
11:00-11:40 History/Geography
11:40-12:00 Jumpstart/Kumon worksheet (connect the dots and color by number)
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-1:40 Language Arts and Hooked on Phonics
1:40-2:15 Read Aloud Books
2:15-2:30 Math
2:30-3:00 Snack/Free Play
3:00-3:15 Handwriting
3:15-3:45 Science
I haven’t been strict with the schedule, but I’ve found that we’ve been pretty much going until almost 4pm everyday.
We’ve been trying to figure out how to go about setting up a “classroom” of some kind. Right now, I find us spending the mornings downstairs in the playroom and the afternoons upstairs, rotating between the couch, computer, and dining room table. We’ve thought about using the guest room that is downstairs and making the bed down there into a daybed and moving a desk in there. That way I can do the more academic stuff with Peyton in there while Lily and Hailey can play in the playroom next door. But, then I keep thinking of what will happen when Lily begins kindergarten in a couple of years? Both girls won’t be able to fit at a desk in the guest room then. Any ideas on this would be appreciated Until we get it figured out, we moved a small bookcase upstairs to the dining room. At least everything is organized near the table and it seems to working out much better having the bookcase.
I don’t really have any new pictures of the girls from this week. I should have more after next week to put on here. But, I do have a couple of Hailey Hailey started to eat rice cereal this past Friday, and has been very receptive of food. She also finally got an exersaucer and has been having a lot of fun playing with the toys on it.
Hailey's first spoon of rice cereal
Peyton having a turn feeding Hailey
Hailey in her new exersaucer
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