Our Vocabulary Curriculum!!

I decided to add the Vocabulary to our homeschool workload, so after searching and reading a few options available I chose the Sadlier Vocabulary Workshop. I must say I'm happy with it. First, I thought I could get away buying only the student workbook, but after a few lessons I realized we could get more from it if I had  the teacher's edition as well, so if you are interested I highly recommend purchasing the teacher's edition, it gives you more ideas and helps you to be better prepared for teaching.

I like the fact that the book has lots of pictures and also you can access the lessons online.

So far we are happy with it and enjoying the lessons!

What do you use for Vocabulary?

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Highlight of the last weeks!

Good morning to my readers! I'm so sorry for being absent again... life happens and things can get pretty hectic. I will be sharing today some highlights of the past weeks so you still can have an idea of what we were doing.

For additional reading practice I purchased the Reading Comprehension Packet form Annie Moffat, I really like the activities.

Little V is loving to learn to write in cursive, even though we are just practicing the letters, she's enjoying it very much. I decided to add the sand tray to the cursive practice. 

I wanted to add some shape activities, so we went back to do our Melissa & Doug Magnet Shape Board.

Little V started to learn about nouns, so here you can see her coloring the nouns from sentences from the All About Reading practice sheets, and also extra activities about nouns from the Fall Math and Literacy No Prep Pack 1st grade from Annie Moffat.

Our Science Curriculum is great, we are very pleased with it. Here is one of the fun activities we did while learning about whales.

Lastly, we had a gorgeous weather last week so Little V and I packed the school material one day and went to the park to enjoy the warm day and just to do something different! She had a little surprise, a ladybug came by and got her attention. 

Next, post I'll share more pictures of the past few weeks and hopefully we will be all caught up!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Bible Story Comprehension Sheet!

Good morning all! Fall is really here... we love to see all the leaves changing colors. Jehovah God not only gave us what we needed but gave us beauty in all of what he provided.
Here are a few pictures from our past weekend, even though the leaves aren't fully changed yet it is still a beautiful sight!

Besides providing Little V with secular education, it's also my aim to help her draw closer to Jehovah, so this year as you know we are studying the book of Bible Stories. We read 2 stories each week, and I was asking her questions right after we read each story, but I decided to make some comprehension sheets for the stories. Yes, it does take time to create these and even more preparation, but what is all that compared to the greatness of helping your child draw ever closer to God?

The comprehension sheet consists of basic questions about the story, things she will readily remember or if they were overlooked she can easily find the answer by taking a quick look at the story again.

This is the very first one I created, and she did excellent on it! ;o)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Artist Study - Leonardo Da Vinci

Good morning all!! We had so much fun learning about this great Italian artist, architect, musician, scientist, sculptor, inventor and mathematician! Ha... and I thought being a homeschool mother, wife and a preacher of the good news was a lot! ;o)

It was interesting to learn that he wrote all his note backwards and that he used what he learned from nature and science to make his paintings look real.

Leonardo's most famous painting is the Mona Lisa, and what we thought curious about it is that no matter where you stand, the Mona Lisa is always looking right into your eyes.

He was great at using dark shadows and light colors to make what he was painting seem to com e toward you and away from the painting.

One of the fun activities Little V did was to make her own painting inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Also, a Mona Lisa puzzle:

We love studying about all the greatest artists, but we love even more when we have a chance to paint and color, do some art ourselves. Why do I say ourselves? Because I love to have a chance to color and have fun too! ;o)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Extra Math Activities!

Good morning!! Today, I decided to share what other things we do for Math. Math U See is a great curriculum, and one of the things I love about it is the fact that the curriculum is about mastering a subject before moving on to another, but because of this she misses on working on other things that I feel she needs. Math U See does provide shapes and clock activities but I like her to work on these more often, so we work on our Shapes from Melissa & Doug.

Also, at time I purchase from Annie Moffatt some of her no prep-packages and I must say she has some really cool activities. 

We also do the clock everyday and the date in coins, so she gets some extra practice. 

These are just some ideas and some of the stuff we do. What do you use for Math? Share with us, we would love to hear from you.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Our new School Area!!

Hello there!! Nice that you came back to check out our new school area. Towards the end of Kindergarten I realized we needed a bigger school area then I started working on it. When your household has only one income you have to be very careful with the spending, after all you still need to buy all the material needed for the school.

I found a big table that Little V and I can share while doing school, this way I can keep an eye on her at all times and on how she's doing her activities. I bought this table at IKEA and the chairs as well, not expensive at all. I found the rug at Sam's club, not easy to find an 8' x 10' area rug at a decent price but somehow we managed to find it.

The shelving unit we found at craigslist. and the cushion for the reading area as you know from the prior post, I made it.

We now are using one white board just for the letter tiles and another white board for writing in general.

We have our World Map and our U.S.A map.

We also have the chart with all the animals we study for each continent. Habitat and diet chart for Science.

Also, our calendar area.

It helps me a lot having everything more organized and helps Little V as well to know where all her school stuff is.

It's really not necessary to have a designated area for school in your house, it just happened that we had an area we could use it and we could get it done. I must say we are very happy with it!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Reading Area!

Good morning to all my readers! Chicago is already given us a taste of fall and fall is my favorite season. I love the smells of fall, think of burning leaves, pumpkin pie... the leaves changing colors.... it's all too pretty!

One thing I love to do in the fall is to grab a good book and read! So, as we are already tasting the fall I'm sharing today an area in the house that I dedicated as Little V's reading area, she can use it during the school hours and also after we are done we school.

During the summer vacation, I made a cushion to fit the area we had available, she helped me to choose the colors of the fabrics. It's not a super wide area but it fits her comfortably and she loves to be snuggled, so as for now it's a favorite spot of hers for reading.

 We still have to change the outlet face plate, I do not like these old ones that are there, but eventually we will get that done. A sweet friend also gave her a lovely rocking chair that belonged to her daughters and my next sewing project (after I'm done with all the ones I have going now), will be a cushion for the rocking chair! I'll definitely share the project with all of you!

Here is a short video of Little V using her reading area:

Do you have an area designated for reading? We love reading and had an available spot in the house therefore we did it, but a comfy couch or bed will do just the same!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by! Be sure to come back and check our new school area, I'll be posting about this week!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki