First Form Drawing

Our quiet rural road was the canvas for our first form drawing lesson ever. Since it is new to all of us, our seventh grade son is starting along with the youngest. I stationed as lookout for cars while they had a blast using sidewalk chalk to try the first forms. Our local park has some areas of darker blacktop we will try using next.

Oak Meadow First Grade, Week 1

We started off our first week with the holiday on Monday, a nice day at the railroad family day picnic. The families are invited to visit the 'carshop' and sit in an engine. Plenty of food and games for the kids. It was fun visiting Daddy at work. They are pictured here with my nephew.

We began our first week of Oak Meadow reviewing the capital and lowercase A, and the long and short A sounds. The fairy tale for this letter was 'The Magic Spindle', so I illustrated A on the board, using that story. He practiced writing the letters, next we will make a page for the Main Lesson Book (MLB).

We started the calendar making activity. I helped him use a T-square to draw the lines. It was a large one, but the only one we had handy. (A few blessings to a construction mess going on in the house!) We ended up using two pages of card stock. We have a few exciting events going on this month, so it will be fun to add to them the calendar.

Our first nature hike took us through our forest and around to Grandpa's yard.

The boys by an older Beech tree. As the tree matures and less and less sunlight filters through the canopy, the lower limbs eventually die off from that lack of sunlight.

We discussed deciduous trees and evergreen trees.

Here I illustrated the difference between two evergreen trees- Spruce (left) and Pine (right). A few differences noted by the boys were- shape and size of cones, and length of needles. I also pointed out the 'habit', that is, the overall growth shape of the tree, is different.

Honeylocust
Most definitely the thorned variety. Did you know this tree is basically a large pea plant?

This guy was found warming himself in a sunny spot.

These Milkweed pods were covered in red insects. The boys were assigned the task to research what they are, and why they like the milkweed.

I believe this to be 'Horsetail' - considered a living fossil.

Our blustery, balmy day took a quick turn later on. We had decided to add a visit to the reservoir into our nature hike this week. Not long after arriving, the wind kicked up and we were drenched all the way down to shoes full of water! At least it made for a memorable hike. LOL

The boys observed many grasshoppers, which led to a discussion of the skeleton being on body's exterior, what they eat, and how they have the ability to jump so far.

Math Gnomes

Since we are starting Oak Meadow first grade, we found we were in need of some of those adorable math gnomes- Plus, Minus, Times, and Divide.


I looked at the prices and decided to try semi- making our own gnomes instead of buying them.

We started with little stuffed santa ornaments and pieces of felt purchased at the craft store. We were hoping that by the time we were finished they wouldn't turn out looking too santa-ish. We were in luck that we just finished the month of August, so that we have Christmas decorations to work with. ;-p

Santa guy waiting for his new outfit.

I cut out a paper pattern and sewed the two halves together to make the cloak.

Got his cloak on, and now ready for the hat.

Here is our guy- Gnome Minus. I used the leftover felt to make his little bag, using embroidery floss for the handle. Minus has a hole in his bag and so is always losing his jewels.

Next, we will work on making the other math gnomes- Plus has a green cloak, Times has a yellow cloak, and Divide has a red cloak. I amazed myself by remembering to get the right felt colors at the store!
I later sewed the 'minus' symbol on his hat and cloak.


I spent:
$1.40 for each santa
$ .15 for each felt piece

A total of about $7.00 for the four gnomes, not too bad.

Homeschooling

Our family began homeschooling three years ago. The first year we pulled our middle son out of public school then began with an online charter school. There were several things we liked about the charter school, and several things we did not. Mostly I just knew it wasn't the path we were looking for.
We met some great new friends who really gave me the encouragement, and confidence, to give it go on our own. The following year we took that canyon leap into homeschooling on our own (or at least it felt like that at the time!). What an adventure!
As our journey progressed, I read about books and programs with mysterious sounding names like Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, and Oak Meadow. What were they? Being the nosy mamma I am, I just had to know! The more I read, the more I knew, this was our way! This was something of how our family viewed the world, I couldn't sit still!
We are now starting our third year schooling at home, and are excited to try a few programs that are new to us, mainly Oak Meadow. Stay tuned!