My Father's World--The Letter I (Insects)

January is almost over and I'm just getting around to posting last week's school lessons!  Needless to say, January has started off with plenty of stress and trouble and I've been in a bit of a "homeschooling slump" this month.  I have been struggling to find fresh motivation and inspiration and have been feeling really run-down.  But, I press on, knowing that God has called me to this, and finding joyful and precious moments learning with my kiddoes, even though it's not always easy or fun to do school.

We spent two weeks on insects, partly due to the craziness of life and partly because the boys LOVE bugs and I wanted them to soak up as much as they could.  Our cousin who is also using MFW chose to postpone the Insects lesson so that they could actually collect and study real insects during this week.  That was smart of her!  I should have thought of that!  Oh well, our kids have had lots of hands-on experience with their pet bugs in our backyard most of the year.

Worm crafts made from pipe cleaners.

I is for ....interesting.  I asked the kids to make insects from playdough one day and Justus ended up like this....

We did our usual word-search for I words.  It can be tough for kids to find 20 words that begin with I so I love having a Scholastic Kid's Dictionary on hand so they can look up the letter for some inspiration.

Ali had a lesson on measuring and it tied in nicely with our lesson on how far a grasshopper can jump.  If a grasshopper was the size of one block, he could jump the length of 20 blocks.

Making insects with playdough...

Ali's paintings

Ink prints on the floor...what happens when you dip the newly-walking baby in paint to do footprints for the Grandparents' valentine cards....

Last year Grammy gave us this cool felt-board book on insects that teaches kids to count, add, and subtract using little felt bugs

One of our favorite books is this pop-up book that we were given as a hand-me-down.

Every page is interesting and fun!

I is for Ice-Skating!

Here Ali skates with Grammy, whose school skates at the same time as the homeschoolers in town.

Jeremiah with two of his buddies from the Christian school. 

This is his first year skating and he's doing really well!

Ali and her friend Jessie skate together the whole time!

We also made binder pages with insect stencils on them and practiced writing the letter I.  Our key words were "I am a wise child, so I work hard."  There was one day where the house was a complete and total mess and we decided to copy my friend Heather's idea and do a "House Blessing."  I put a few of the chores on index cards and had them draw out of the hat and chose a chore.  So, we put the key words into action by working really hard on getting our house back in shape and reading verses about ants who work hard.

The curriculum suggested that we do an ant farm this week but my last two attempts with this have failed miserably.  So, we read books about ants and bugs and discussed them, but didn't actually observe them making tunnels.  Maybe next year!

I can't believe I didn't make ladybug cookies, ants on a log, or roast some grasshoppers for the kids to eat as part of their lesson!  January has just been busy!  I'm hoping that in February I'll find more energy and enthusiasm in my lesson planning!