homeschool lately {Parker 1st Grade)

This is a loooooong post!  I literally started this post the second week of school thinking that I'd do a few posts a year to document our homeschool days with Parker.  But of course that never happened.  I will try to keep my words few and let the pictures do the talking, but you know that that's hard for me. 

The next 2 pictures are from the 2nd week

Parker drew this picture of Adam and Eve in the garden…and how they hid when they were ashamed. I want to keep this picture forever.

For science one day…she brought home crickets!

3rd week- we tried these little timers to use while doing her math facts pages.  and while she's pretty good with them…at this point i'm just not that worried about time right now.  Which is good bcaue Parker HATES the timer!

Science experiment.  If hearing was better with these big ears (and I honestly cannot remember what animal we were studying.

Practicing spelling words.

At the beginning of the year, we studied mummies.  And we mummified one of her Barbies.  :)

Practicing cuneiform with clay.

Parker is such a good big sister.  I know I'm hard on her…and maybe too hard?!  I don't know! Parenting is hard.  Hard, hard, hard!  It's a fine line between giving them grace and to love them means to give them consequences to make them better.  

They made a bird feeder in school to put up at our house so we could observe birds for the week.

The week after she got her new doll, Polly, she joined us everywhere we went.

After I took this picture, we both laughed out loud!  I told her to smile and right before I clicked the shutter she gave her rabbit ears.  So funny!!!

and when school is done.  what do they do?  play school.

School has gradually moved from in the school room only…. to partially in the school room and partially at the kitchen table…to now….we pretty much only do school in the dining room.  And this is because it is just too hard to keep Nolan contained in the schoolroom.  In the dining room, he has more room to roam.  So I'm not quite sure what exactly we are going to do next year.

Recess!

Forest diorama.  Each day they learned facts about a new animal and added it to their 'forest.'

Then they learned about dessert animals and made a desert biome.  We used this clay to make her animals.

The finished product!

Journaling.

For Bible…they are using The Gospel Project and I really liked it.  Along with this…they get scripture passages to memorize each month.

SiLLy!

Recess.

Picnic lunches.  (although not too often anymore because I got stung by a bee on this particular trip!)

Reading on her own.

Field trip to the Dallas World Aquarium.

1, 2, 3 babies sleeping.

Reading in the car from time to time,

Christmas party at school.

The last day of homeschool before Christmas break.  CrAzY!

The break was short…but it was back to the grind with the new year.

Some of her favorite books right now are the My Little House Books that are based off the Laura Ingalls Wilder novels.  Thankfully, they have a few at the library.

They finished up their unit on animals with the octopus.  They observed and touched and manipulated it while in class and then they each got to bring one home.  She couldn't wait to get home and show her sister…but my oh my…she did not want to touch it!

And they also used ivory soap to carve out something that I cannot remember.  But the carving related to something from Story of the World.

Math.  Learning multiplication.

First multiplication facts.

 Field trip to the zoo.

 Bible time.  Admittedly, I have not done the best with this…but I really do enjoy it.  And so does Parker.  Every time I tell her it's Bible time (I set the timer for 10-12 minutes and we all read/look at pictures, etc)…(I also have to mention that I was not doing this until my good friend shared with me that she was…and I'm so glad she shared because it's made such a difference in so many ways.)  I find that after everyone has eaten breakfast and I've cleaned the kitchen…I'm ready just to get started with school and 'get it over with' (I should NOT have that attitude!!!)…and we just 'don't have time' to read the Bible.  I mean…that's just extra, right?  It's not on the trusty ole assignment sheet.  

But the thing is…the Bible and all that it says is the MOST important thing in this life.  And over and over again….. I feel like the Lord is showing me all that is not necessary in my life…and to cling to what is the most important.  Him.  This life is so short compared to eternity.

And I have a long way to go.  

I'm trying…. and I fail.   A lot.  

So thankful for His grace and mercy.

Counting out hundreds of macaronis (literally!)…to learn…expanded form, I believe.  I think we then put them into groups of 100.  This was a crazy morning with Nolan and Grace underfoot during math lesson.  ;)

Math facts & Play-doh.  A  normal day at home for this 1st grader.  ;)

Geoff has been so good to help with some of the teaching of school while I'm working or sometimes even when I'm home.  Sometimes Parker just works better with her daddy.  :)

If you've stuck around to the end I am very impressed.  Ha!

Looking through these pictures just make my heart overflow.  Don't get me wrong…our days are not always happy-go-lucky and picture perfect.  But these pictures are a reminder of the beauty of what we are doing and work so hard for.