In Fourteen Hundred Ninety Two...

...Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

We made boats out of walnut shells, as I used to do as a kid.

We added sails, positioned our "ocean"so that the ships could launch from Spain and head west to the Americas.

Then, the wind blew and Columbus discovered a new land!

The Way Things Used to Be

When we first began schooling, we focused our time heavily on calendar basics like days of the week, read-alouds, Bible memory work, and phonics to prepare our pre-readers.  We related our work to a letter of the week and/or the books we read aloud.  Here are some of the fun things we studied:

Days of Creation
the Sun
the Moon
nests
turtles
water - sink or float experiment, sprinkler fun

 

Valentines Day
The Miracle of Easter - making resurrection buns.

   

Horton Hears A Who and Horton Hatches and Egg - compare and contrast, Whoville pencils, and seeing the movie at the $1 theatre.

  

Fourth of July - Mary directs the to discover the letter of the week - F.

 

[Remembering these lessons makes me realize that I want to take more pictures of our work and projects.]
 This focus really helped our girls learn to read and both were strong enough readers in just a few months to take part in the public library program called Read to Rover.  Each child can choose a book to read to a service animal.

Now things are different and the strides our students have made in the last year are incredible.  I'll start posting our recent projects and lessons soon.