Life in Texas: Week 5 of Pre-K

Besides being completely exhausted, I'm really enjoying homeschooling. We've made it past a month and Caden is learning so much and everyday is excited about school. We've had another busy week. It's kind of strange calling this Pre-K, when we're technically using a kindergarten curriculum. However, the pace seems to be about right. Although I'm starting to see where his learning style and preferences are. He loves reading but not necessarily all of the books from Sonlight. Mainly because some of those books don't have as many pictures. However, he LOVES doing My Father's World-K and wants to do that first everyday. Certain books we read from Sonlight, include the Bible and talking about our Bible story which this week has actually gone along with what Caden's learning about in Sunday school. Collin and I are teaching his class at church so it's neat we're able to tie it all together. Certain books he loves the stories from. I guess it's mainly just one book he's not very fond of. Therefore, I'm letting him substitute with other books or stories if he wants, while still reading most of the books on the list. Like I said, it's really just one book he's lost interest in.

Memory Verse: Tell your neighbor the truth because we belong to each other. (NLT) Ephesians 4:25
Character Trait: Honesty - I speak truthful words and act truthfully.

Major themes: We finished our study of the moon and started our study of leaves.

Monday: We finished our study of the moon and made a moon cake. Caden loves cooking and this was a really fun activity. He wanted to read all morning, mainly wanted to read to me one of his favorite books, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. He drew 4 things that started with the letter M. One of his pictures was a monster. Then he drew a monster and a boy. He's been waking up scared of monsters lately and said they are in his room. It was interesting to see him draw something he's afraid of and talk about it. We also made a mobile with the moon, stars, and sun to remind us that God created these things on Day 4.

Adding the milk after seeing the volcano explode!

Such a good helper!

Our lovely moon cake

He drew 1 mat, a mouse, the moon, and a monster

Our sun, moon, and stars mobile

He's gotten very good and tying knots

Reading to me one of his favorite books

Drawing the monster and boy

The little boy is on the left and the big monster is on the right

Tuesday: We ate moon cake and had a pretty relaxing day. He did a few pages in Developing an Early Learner, we played a game involving shapes, and he built the letter M along with a few things that start with M with his cuisenaire rods.

Cresent Moon

Wednesday: Today we started our study of leaves and did letter L activities. We went outside and talked about how the leaves are connected to the branches and the roots and this is how they live and grow. Just like as Christians, we are connected to God. However, sometimes people want to do their own thing so they break away from the plant or God. We took a leaf off of one of our plants and we're watching what happens to it while it's no longer connected to the others. We also ended our raisin experiment. Caden ended up eating all the raisins and compared them to the raisins from the store. He said our sun dried raisins were so much better!

Coloring different pictures that begin with L

He sometimes looks up at me and smiles, so sweet!

His coloring is improving

Cutting the pictures for a game

He found a leaf

We're going to see what happens to this leaf

The top raisins are the ones we made, the bottom from the store
They are pretty close in size

Caden spent time outside making mud pies

He said he was making food for the birds

Thursday: This morning Caden woke up early, around 6:30am. We ate breakfast around 7 something and then went outside to find some leaves for today's activity. He found 8 leaves. We came inside and he looked at them and counted them. Then he shaded over them. He was supposed to trace them but that was kind of hard to do, so I had him shade over them with a crayon. Then I wrote the names of the trees and plants that the leaves came from and he helped me staple it into a book. When Collin got home tonight his leaf book was one of the first things he showed him. I think this was his first "real" book he's made. He did some handwriting practice and then we went to our science co-op group at church. This week Ms. Jennifer taught about nature. The kids did a nature walk and collected different items they found interesting. Caden mostly collected rocks and of course his bag got pretty heavy. They also all got the same leaf from one of the trees and he got to shade over that leaf as well, just like he did at home. It's so neat how so many things that happen in our daily lives are going along with our school work at home. Then we ate lunch with Collin, my dad, and grandmother. Then we road with my dad to take my grandmother and uncle to the airport and got to stop by Krispy Kreme donuts in honor of pirates day. Caden had his first Krispy Kreme donut. Man they were good! I think we each ate around 3! Way too much sugar and calories but none of us had any control! Hot donuts from Krispy Kreme are the best! Then we came home, finished a little more school work from this morning and made dinner with Collin when he got home.

Counting and looking at all of his leaves

Shading the leaves for his leaf book

Showing me his leaf book

He did a great job!

Handwriting practice

Nature walk and study with our co-op group

Finding some interesting things

Nature walk

Talking about this tree in our church's garden

Continuing the nature walk

Looking at this weed and collecting flowers from it

These are pretty flowers

Looking at what they got in their bags

Caden and his great-grandmother

First Krispy Kreme donut, yum!

Caden and his granddad

He LOVED this donut!

Watching how the donuts are made

Granddad is teaching Caden all about the donut making process

Finishing up our last bit of school work this afternoon

Friday: I love Fridays. They are usually more laid back and we try and always have a play date planned. This morning Caden was eager to get his school work done so he could watch "The Magic School Bus," a new favorite show. We needed to leave the house by 10:30am and typically I don't let him watch any television in the morning, unless it's educational and goes along with what we're studying. However, it was raining and he did such a great job with his work that I made an exception and this show is educational, so it turned out fine. We worked on math skills, cutting, pasting, coloring, and patterns as well as sound discrimination. Friday we don't have as much reading so sometimes we save it until bedtime. He also made a leaf magnet to go with our study of leaves. We ate lunch with a three of my friends from Mom's Club and the kids got to play. We ate at Chick-Fil-A because that's one of the easiest place to take your children and it's raining so an indoor playground was a must. We also went to the library and saw Curious George. Caden was so excited!! He also commented on how big George was!