Exploring Countries and Cultures (Week 1)

THE WORLD IS FULL OF PEOPLE (and Jesus gave his life for them all)

Jesus loves the little children

All the children of the world

We started our week by receiving passports.  Our sons each have a little passport which they now know is the document that gives you permission to leave the country.  Of course ours are not official and airport security would never honor them, but since we are going to be world travelers from home this year their passports give them access to the many countries we will be studying.  We also discussed what a visa is.  A visa is what the country you are visiting gives  you to say it is okay for you to be there in that country.  We also are going through a book called Windows to the World.  In it we will examine other countries and it gives us a guide on how to pray for that country.  As we went through the introduction of this book we talked about how God created ALL people of the world, how the Lord LOVES all people of the world, and that Jesus died to give each and every person in the world a chance of salvation.  We have started this week praying for people all over the world to come to know Christ.

We have been introducing ourselves to maps and learning how to navigate them.  There are seven continents and have a little song to the tune of Yankee Doodle.

North America, South America

Europe, Africa, Asia

Kangaroos hop in Australia

Penguins waddle in Antarctica

 We have done some art appreciation, made some posters, math, reading, science, language arts, and physical education.  Then there has also been phonics, spelling, penmanship, music, sign language,and read alouds.  For art appreciation we are using Usborne cards of Impressionist Paintings and Famous Artists.  This week we explored Snow Scene at Argenteuil by Claude Monet and At the Theaterby Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

   

Since Simeon has been telling me all week that he has a smart brain for science I need to feature science a little.  We are using two different books as our text books.  This week we started to use The Usborne Living World Encyclopedia.  This week we looked at different environments, how seasons change, and made a map highlighting ecozones.  When we did our nature study we went out to my family's farm and explored a small area of habitat. 

Caleb during one of his sessions of reading aloud to me started laughing because he thought the book he was reading was funny.  This I just had to add because reading for him has been a struggle and so instead of frustration he was laughing.  That was such a welcome sight.  I hope the beginning of many more times of laughter over something he reads himself. 

We also went on a field trip to a little museum in a neighboring town called The Oilfield Museum.  Overall it was a good week especially for a short week.  Here are a few pictures.

                       

 This is our dining room table this year for easy access to 

look up wherever we are exploring or the setting of the

books we are reading, etc.

I purchased a white board for Caleb because it had 

a sports team he liked at the top.  Simeon started to

use it and would not stop drawing and enjoying it.

So when I saw Dollar General had one for $1 I got

him one for himself to use.  He loves it and uses it

 more than pencil and paper. 

  Math drills have become a part of Caleb's life this year