Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Noah

The fourth week we learned the story of Noah.  There is so much you can do with Noah, so we have decided to spend more time on this story.  You will find that each part of the story - from the obedience of Noah to God's orders despite the rest of the world's evil to the flood and judgment of God to the covenant that was sealed with a bow in the clouds, it is quite extensive!
  1. Read story from KJV Bible - Genesis 6-9:19; ask questions
  2. Read story from Golden's Children's Bible - pg. 26-31; ask questions
  3. Crafts, worksheets, coloring pages and songs related to story
  4. Video on Noah
Out of all the old testament stories, this one has the most (from what I can tell) crafts, coloring pages and materials so there should be no shortage of things you can do to let the lesson really sink in.  I went slow and really drilled my daughter with questions and made her think and it proved successful.  It isn't just to learn the story - it is to understand the reason that God gave it to us in his word!  You will find that your child's mind will dwell on God's word if you put him first and teach your children daily.  God will bless school that includes him!

My daughter loves the minibooks and you can find this story's minibook in color or black and white.   There is a larger minibook here.

We did the rainbow and the ark craft and you can find that here.  For a complete index of Noah crafts, color pages, etc. go here.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Narration

One of the best things you can for your child is teach them to not only listen to what you read to them but also teach them to make it a practice to comprehend what they are reading.  This can be done through narration exercises.  Once your child has read something in history, science or whatever it may be - have them give you a few sentences (one for younger children) of what they remember about the material.  You can write their narration down on a piece of paper and file it under the subject that it correlates with. Older children can write their own narrations down.

We have made this a practice from the beginning of this year's homeschool and I must say that my daughter has not only been able to listen and comprehend, but it has taught her what a complete sentence is.  I don't let her answer with just anything - she must answer in a complete sentence, allowing grammar to be implemented into narration as well.

You will be amazed at what your little one is capable of, cause I sure have been!  We don't practice narration with everything we read, such as "fun" books, but with history, science and books that correlate with subjects we are studying, we do.  You can train your child's mind to comprehend/understand as they read!  You will notice they will start to listen more closely because they know they will have to give a summary at the end and answer questions.  You have to give them a reason to want to listen!

Here is an example of a narration my daughter did today after I read to her a passage from history about the Nomads.  I wrote it down as she said it to me - it is K's remembrance of the lesson and what stood out to her:

"They didn't have houses and no stores.  They had to move somewhere else if they ran out of food.  A little girl was watching the stars until she fell asleep."

Her favorite part was about the little nomad girl who slept under the stars at night because they didn't have houses back then!  Her least favorite was that the girl and her family ate lizards lol.

Your child will feel a sense of accomplishment as well, once they fill up a folder with their narrations.  Halfway through the year, you can review whatever subject you were studying, by reading back to your child, their narrations!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Cain and Abel

The third week we taught on the story of Cain and Abel.  You can see below the order we followed:
  1. Read story from KJV Bible - Genesis 4; ask questions
  2. Read story from Golden Children's Bible - pg.24-25; ask questions
  3. Do worksheets, crafts and song related to story
For the craft we made Abel, the keeper of the sheep, with a toilet paper roll.  My daughter has been saving the toilet paper rolls for crafts and projects.  Once I told her we could make things with them, she got excited about saving them and seeing just what you can do with a toilet paper roll that most people just throw away lol.



The Abel toilet paper roll craft is here.  For a complete index of Cain and Abel crafts go here.  Coloring pages are here.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Children's Books Online Index

I will add to this as I go and find new websites to list. Feel free to leave a comment with those you may know about it and I will add them, thanks!


Books
Read Print
Online Classic Children's Books
Children's Storybooks with pictures
Rosetta Project
International Children's Digital Library
Tumblebook
Library of Congress Kids
Clifford Books
byGosh.com Children's Classics
Dave Ramsey's Kids book
Salariya History Web Books
Veggie Tales Stories
Pooh Books (add your child's name to the book!)
National Geographic Young Explorers

Audiobooks
LibriVox
Free Classic Audiobooks
Storynory
Kiddie Records
Telltale Weekly
Reading Well
Talking History
HisKids
Kids Learn Out Loud
Lit to Go

Other
Math and Science Songs
Grammar Songs
Bible songs, Spelling songs, etc
Poetry Aloud

The Rabbit and the Turtle

In Grammar last week we read one of the Aesop's fables - "The Rabbit and the Turtle" or "The Tortoise and the Hare".  I like the version that is in our grammar book, "First Language Lessons" best.  My daughter absolutely loved it and we followed it up with questions and narration.

If you want to expand the story you can do so with a multitude of crafts and coloring pages online and even various pictures books of the story from the library.  Here is an index full of ideas and also here

Then I found the 1934 Disney version of the story on youtube and my daughter laughed a lot!


K's 1st Easel Painting

K has always painted on a table and we finally got her an easel and got the paper roll with it so she could learn to paint the way artists do.  It was challenging for her at first but she had a blast and I just let her do whatever she wanted and then she wanted me to take a picture of it for others to see. 

Adam & Eve and The Fall of Man

The second week we concentrated on teaching the fall of man with the story of Adam and Eve. I broke it up so it wasn't so much reading in one sitting but below is the summary for the week.
  1. Read story from KJV Bible - Genesis 2:3-3:24; ask questions
  2. Read story from Golden Children's Bible - pg.16-23; ask questions
  3. Find modern day Mesopotamia, Tigris and Euphrates rivers on map and globe
  4. Do crafts, worksheets and song related to story
  5. Watch video
For a craft we did Eve and the fruit tree with the serpent.  You can print it out for free here: pg1 and pg2.  My daughter loved it and she had already done it in children's church but she enjoyed doing it again for homeschool.



We also did the mini-book for Adam and Eve and you print that out for free in color here or black and white here.  For a larger mini-book go here.  For a complete index of coloring pages, crafts, games and more go here.  We watched more video covering Adam and Eve from the Beginner's Bible series.