We started back on the books Wednesday, the 16th of September on the Roman calendar. I have a very simple schedule for the remainder of Jaden's first grade year, and it's been working well. On Sundays and Fridays he does a lesson in Explode the Code (for a total of two lessons a week), Mondays and Wednesdays he does a lesson in Spelling (usually 4 pages), a few pages in Lang. Arts (4-8 pages), a few pages in Math (4-7), and a lesson in animal science out of the God's Design for Life series. On Tuesdays, he does a lesson out of Spelling and a lesson out of Lang. Arts, and we go grocery shopping on this day. On Thursdays we do Spelling, Lang. Arts, and Prepare and Pray. Then, of course, every day I read to him a chapter out of Proverbs and then usually a chapter or two from where ever we are in reading through the bible (still in Jeremiah, and we're going through it s-l-o-w-l-y).
Oh, whatever day he wants to do some art, he does that in his free time. We'll go back to history and music next year. I have his math and language arts lessons pre-set with paper clips throughout the Complete Curriculum book. It's making it very easy and organized for me. When he's nearly finished (I have it set to last around 6 -7 weeks), I will pre-organize his writing lessons. He'll be using the skills he's learned from reading, spelling, and language arts in order to be successful with that section (this was my choice, as I just didn't think he would be ready for that section until the others were completed). Then, during the last week or week and a half of this year he'll be doing testing from the book. He will be finished with the math section within six weeks, probably, so I bought him another workbook for math. It's a first grade math book by Miquon.
He's doing very well in spelling. He breezes through his lessons. Most of the language arts has been easy for him. With some of the things, he struggles a little at first and then quickly figures it out. Some of the stuff in math he struggles with, but he says every time before we begin math that he likes math. He's been doing addition and subtraction, including doing fact families, and he's done place values. He caught on to the place value stuff very quickly. We're still working through some of those lessons, and then we'll be starting on money.
We observed the first fall feast--the Feast of Trumpets--last sabbath. This is the second year we got the boys gifts, but I have a better plan now. I made them each a Feast of Trumpets reward folder. Both Nathan and I wrote short notes to each of the boys, hole-punched them, and put them in their folders. At the bottom of the notes, we also listed the reward(s) they received this year. We will be keeping these folders for them and updating them every year by adding an additional page with our notes each year. The notes are to detail what they did well the previous year, what we've appreciated, and what we've noticed that they've overcome, what behavior traits are good and what extra help we've appreciated. The reward(s) can be taken away if they fall away from having good behavior and slack off helping the way they should or being disrespectful or irresponsible, not taking care of their responsibilities. Of course, for now, this applies more to Jaden, since he has more responsibilities than Trusten.
I made trumpet-shaped cookies again for the feast. This was my second year in doing so. The cookie cutter is too big, though, so the shape gets messed up when transferring the cookies to the cookie sheet to bake. This year I made roll-out peanut butter cookies. At least they tasted good. We had a beef brisket as the center of our main feast meal. We had that Friday evening and then leftovers the next day for lunch.
I went over the feast lesson with the boys by first detailing a brief summary of all the feasts, as I do each high holy day, and the steps of salvation which they symbolize: Passover being that we need a perfect sacrifice for our past sins, Unleavened Bread that we must repent and remove sin from our lives, Pentecost that we must receive the begettal of the Spirit of God in order to help us live righteous lives according to God's Law, Feast of Trumpets that there will be seven trumpet plagues before the return of Christ and that at the seventh trumpet the saints will be raised and changed as Spirit sons of God, Day of Atonement that Satan will be locked away during the 1,000 year reign of the Firstborn Son of God and all the other sons of God (the saints in the first resurrection) so that human beings who have lived through the tribulation and their posterity will live under the Kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of Satan and that people will become "at one" with God, the Feast of Tabernacles that life here on this physical planet in these physical bodies is temporary and that the Sons of God "tabernacle" temporarily with human kind until the plan of salvation is finished, and the 8th Day that all who have ever lived and were not called to the Truth (whether because of death during childhood or spending one's life in a heathen culture, never hearing about the true Creator God and His Law and plan of salvation) will be raised to physical life once again and be shown the truths of the scriptures and be given their judgment period to choose life or death, and then all who have rejected God's way will be thrown into the lake of fire, and God will come down with the new spiritual earth and dwell with his Sons.
I then focused more specifically on the Feast of Trumpets, reading several scripture selections dealing with the feast and with what it means in the future fulfillment at Christ's return. Jaden understands it all more and more every time we go over this. I always ask plenty of questions as we go along. I explained that at Christ's return he will be bringing rewards (gifts) from our Father to the saints who earned them.
Jaden blew the shofar Friday evening. He's been blowing it on the weekly sabbaths and new moons for the last few weeks. He does extremely well for a six year old! He likes to do it. Then the next day, he asked whether I would get him and Trusten some balloons (I rarely let them play with balloons), so I blew up a balloon for each of them and wrote "Feast of Trumpets" on each of them. They played with their balloons after breakfast, and then after lunch they blew the little party noise blowers that I'd saved back from last year's feast. Then, we did the lesson, and we read their notes and let them open their rewards.
Jaden got a jump rope and two computer games (a racing game, as he has wanted a race car game for some time now, and an educational spelling game), and Trusten got a wooden helicopter with a wooden peg man inside (the latter of which I took away until he gets older, as it's a choking hazard). Trusten loves vehicles of all sorts and really likes flying machines (they both do, and they get that from me). He has frequently played with Jaden's little wooden helicopter (something Jaden has never played much with), and so I decided to get a bigger one for his very own. He loves it! And Jaden loves his race car game, which he gets to play after his school, other responsibilities (feeding cats, making his and Trusten's beds, and vacuuming the living room), and after outside time (I sure don't want him addicted to a computer game with no outside play!).
One day this week Jaden wanted pancakes (he loves pancakes), and he's been wanting to help me in the kitchen, so I let him make the pancakes. He even read off the ingredients the best he could, and with very little assistance from me, he put everything together, mixed them up, and cooked them. He did a great job! And it was a nice change to be able to sit down and eat pancakes while he cooked, instead of them sitting eating their pancakes while I still cooked! Yay!!! ;-) What a treat (and he thought he was the one getting the treat by my letting him cook).
The boys and I all got stung by yellow jacket wasps yesterday. I got stung on the front porch, and then a few minutes later the boys came screaming (and Trusten crying) from across the yard. I think they must have been by the nest. I have not yet gone out there to investigate. I had to take their shirts off, b/c they had yellow jackets crawling on them. Jaden got stung twice. Trusten got stung four times. So then last night we all read some things on the computer about stinging insects and learned about the Schmidt Pain Index. Very interesting stuff. And the creature that was second from the top looked like an insect I saw after I'd gone back outside a while after being stung. It was on the deck railing, and I was staring at it, wondering what it was and whether it could sting (it was obviously a wasp-type creature). Anyway, the creature I'm talking about is a Tarantula hawk. I investigated further to see whether they exist in Missouri, and they sure do. Well, if that's indeed what it was, I sure do not want to be stung by one of those. They are supposed to be worse than red wasps (which I've been stung by once, and my whole hand swelled enormously and stayed that way for days).
Well, I guess that sums up our learning adventures for the past week. I couldn't possibly ever fit in everything.
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