Israel and Judaism:
42 Bible stories for little ones : from creation to Pentecost by Box, Su.
A historical atlas of Israel by Romano, Amy
All about Jewish holidays and customs by Epstein, Morris
Annushka's voyage by Tarbescu, Edith.
Asher and the capmakers : a Hanukkah story by Kimmel, Eric A
Behold the trees by Alexander, Sue
Brothers : a Hebrew legend by Freedman, Florence B.
Dance, sing, remember : a celebration of Jewish holidays by Kimmelman, Leslie
Hanukkah by Schaefer, Lola M.
Israel by Boraas, Tracey
Israel stories from the Holy Lands by Mortimer, Sandy
The Israelites by Odijk, Pamela
The Jesus storybook Bible : every story whispers his name by Lloyd-Jones, Sally
Jewish stories by Ganeri, Anita
The matzo ball boy by Shulman, Lisa
Matzah ball soup by Rothenberg, Joan
Matzo ball moon by Newman, Lesléa
The matzah man : a Passover story by Howland, Naomi
The matzah that Papa brought home by Manushkin, Fran
Mrs. Katz and Tush by Polacco, Patricia
The never-ending greenness : we made Israel bloom by Waldman, Neil
Old Noah's elephants : an Israeli folktale by Ludwig, Warren
On Sukkot and Simchat Torah by Fishman, Cathy Goldberg
One city, two brothers by Smith, Chris
Rosh Hashanah by Heinrichs, Ann
Take a trip to Israel by Rutland, Jonathan
Tomie dePaola's book of Bible stories : New International version by Bible
DVD: What is Judaism? by Schlessinger, Andrew
DVD: Families of Israel by Arden Films
The Holy Land (YouTube video showing cities and ruins in Israel with traditional music.)
Palestine:
Voices from the past by Mazar, Amihay
Palestine : a photographic journey by Azar, George Baramki
Donkeys:
Donkeys by Potter, Tessa.
Ernest and the big itch by Barnes, Laura T.
Teeny tiny Ernest by Barnes, Laura T
Twist and Ernest by Barnes, Laura T
Little Donkey learns to help by Jensen, Patricia
Coconut comes to school by Doherty, Berlie
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Weekly Update: Israel and Donkeys
Geography/Literature: We colored the map and flag of Israel and read several Jewish stories and Torah/Old Testament stories. We will be celebrating Passover with our own homemade matzoh bread starting Sunday night. We just got a wheat grinder to make it fresh from wheat berries, so it will be an extra fun cooking experience. We talked with our neighbor who was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Nazareth before Israel was a state. He said that he was born in Palestine, not Israel. If American was invaded, we would not say we were born in another country, so that is why he said it that way. So, this reminded me to spend an extra week on Palestine next.
Language Arts: We started McRuffy 1st grade this week. Although it was the same format and style, it was definitely harder, requiring more thinking and handwriting. To make it a gentle transition, we split one long lesson into two days, so we did lessons 1-4 this week. The weekly spelling tests now have ten words instead of five, so that is a lot more writing. The reader was The Ham Dash, and we simply replaced the word 'ham' with 'coconut', since that's the only kind of meat we eat! He did well with it. Each story comes with a picture to color and write a short sentence at the bottom, and I was surprised how much he enjoyed this. We plan to keep them all to make a book. Looking ahead, I am very excited about this curriculum and by the end he will be reading so much. I will have to edit one character 'Super Pork' into 'Super Pig', but I don't mind.
Math: We finished McRuffy K Math this week. It's always a great feeling reaching the last page of a big workbook. It was mostly just reviewing and practicing adding and subtracting, plus a little review of coin values and greater than/less than. I was surprised that he chose to do all 15 math problems when I only required him to do 10. He really likes math and was kind of sad that we were done! We've been using legos for the math manipulative, which has made it even more fun.
Language Arts: We started McRuffy 1st grade this week. Although it was the same format and style, it was definitely harder, requiring more thinking and handwriting. To make it a gentle transition, we split one long lesson into two days, so we did lessons 1-4 this week. The weekly spelling tests now have ten words instead of five, so that is a lot more writing. The reader was The Ham Dash, and we simply replaced the word 'ham' with 'coconut', since that's the only kind of meat we eat! He did well with it. Each story comes with a picture to color and write a short sentence at the bottom, and I was surprised how much he enjoyed this. We plan to keep them all to make a book. Looking ahead, I am very excited about this curriculum and by the end he will be reading so much. I will have to edit one character 'Super Pork' into 'Super Pig', but I don't mind.
Math: We finished McRuffy K Math this week. It's always a great feeling reaching the last page of a big workbook. It was mostly just reviewing and practicing adding and subtracting, plus a little review of coin values and greater than/less than. I was surprised that he chose to do all 15 math problems when I only required him to do 10. He really likes math and was kind of sad that we were done! We've been using legos for the math manipulative, which has made it even more fun.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Weekly Update: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Islam, and Deserts
This week we continued the magic carpet ride from Iran to Iraq, with a quick stop at Mecca in Saudi Arabia. I want to spend more time on each country, but our world tour will take many years if I don't keep on moving!
Geography/Science/Literature: We colored the map and flag of Iraq. We read the chapter book, Seasons of the Sandstorms was really great, a fun and entertaining way to learn about the golden age of Baghdad. Some of the Gilgamesh stories were a little intense, but not too scary. We sent some prayers for the suffering people of Iraq and pray for peace to come to their country. I wasn't planning on going to Saudi Arabia, but it was briefly included as we learned about Islam, Mohammed, and Mecca. We read many books about deserts, camels, and also natural resources and how we get oil from the Middle East.
Reading: Govinda picked out a favorite McRuffy Kindergarten reader to read for review each day this week. The top picks were The Mule Ride, Greg's Grape Ride, Mop, Mop, Mop, Quack and Quill, and Goat and Toad.
Handwriting: We finished Handwriting Help For Kids this week. We will reference back to it when needed. Our favorite was the 'ice cream scoops family', the letter 'u' was 'take a big scoop of ice cream, then put down your spoon', the letter 'v' and 'w' were making ice cream cones. It will be very memorable and fun. I think this short program really helped differentiate between letters that start on the left, middle, and right side, which was our goal (because an 's' will end up sideways if you start it on the left).
Math: We did lessons 148-155. We practiced more adding and subtracting, skip counting, greater than/less than, pattern blocks, tangrams, number words, story problems, and measuring centimeters with a ruler. The week ended with a new game, The Half Of It Game. It was another fun one that we will play again. We have one more week left of McRuffy K math! It has been a fun introduction to math with lots of hands on play.
We are ready to start McRuffy 1st Grade Phonics/Reading/Language Arts next week! I was going to wait another week or two to review more, but he is eager to learn more, since easy reader library books have shown him that there is still much to learn in phonics. I'm so thankful that he is so eager to learn more and advance in his reading. This is such a reward for a homeschooling family!
Geography/Science/Literature: We colored the map and flag of Iraq. We read the chapter book, Seasons of the Sandstorms was really great, a fun and entertaining way to learn about the golden age of Baghdad. Some of the Gilgamesh stories were a little intense, but not too scary. We sent some prayers for the suffering people of Iraq and pray for peace to come to their country. I wasn't planning on going to Saudi Arabia, but it was briefly included as we learned about Islam, Mohammed, and Mecca. We read many books about deserts, camels, and also natural resources and how we get oil from the Middle East.
Reading: Govinda picked out a favorite McRuffy Kindergarten reader to read for review each day this week. The top picks were The Mule Ride, Greg's Grape Ride, Mop, Mop, Mop, Quack and Quill, and Goat and Toad.
Handwriting: We finished Handwriting Help For Kids this week. We will reference back to it when needed. Our favorite was the 'ice cream scoops family', the letter 'u' was 'take a big scoop of ice cream, then put down your spoon', the letter 'v' and 'w' were making ice cream cones. It will be very memorable and fun. I think this short program really helped differentiate between letters that start on the left, middle, and right side, which was our goal (because an 's' will end up sideways if you start it on the left).
Math: We did lessons 148-155. We practiced more adding and subtracting, skip counting, greater than/less than, pattern blocks, tangrams, number words, story problems, and measuring centimeters with a ruler. The week ended with a new game, The Half Of It Game. It was another fun one that we will play again. We have one more week left of McRuffy K math! It has been a fun introduction to math with lots of hands on play.
We are ready to start McRuffy 1st Grade Phonics/Reading/Language Arts next week! I was going to wait another week or two to review more, but he is eager to learn more, since easy reader library books have shown him that there is still much to learn in phonics. I'm so thankful that he is so eager to learn more and advance in his reading. This is such a reward for a homeschooling family!
Iraq Book List
Iraq Book List:
Season of the sandstorms by Osborne, Mary Pope
Gilgamesh the king by Zeman, Ludmila
Lugalbanda : the boy who got caught up in a war by Henderson, Kathy
The revenge of Ishtar by Zeman, Ludmila
DVD: Ancient Mesopotamia by JWM Productions
DVD: All about natural resources by Schlessinger Media
Islam/Saudi Arabia Book List:
Muhammad by Demi
DVD: What Is Islam?
Season of the sandstorms by Osborne, Mary Pope
Gilgamesh the king by Zeman, Ludmila
Lugalbanda : the boy who got caught up in a war by Henderson, Kathy
The revenge of Ishtar by Zeman, Ludmila
DVD: Ancient Mesopotamia by JWM Productions
DVD: All about natural resources by Schlessinger Media
Islam/Saudi Arabia Book List:
Muhammad by Demi
DVD: What Is Islam?
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Reading An Easy Reader From The Library
Pointing to words while reading is showing results here since many words in this book have not yet been taught.
Weekly Update: Iran and Camels
Art: Here's the Bactrian camel Govinda drew. Cappy The Camel was a well loved story about an orphaned, 2 humped Bactrian camel who helps out the 1 humped Dromedary/Arabian camels. So, he wanted to draw Cappy.
Reading: We're reviewing McRuffy K readers. He picked out Fuzz The Yak to read this week, one of his favorites. It was good to review the old days when all vowels were short and easy.
Handwriting: We're putting some extra time into practicing writing letters in more detail with a fun workbook called Handwriting Help For Kids. Although he knows how to write all the letters, he still makes some mistakes mixing up straight and angled lines. This book has a fun story for each letter how to write it. The letters are grouped by similarities, so we call them by their families. This week we practiced capital letters. We started with the 'Down and Bump' Family, which is D, B, P, and R. The R story was the favorite; 'draw down, hop to the top, small bump, kick out your leg!'. This book is helping make it easy and fun to remember how to write letters properly. I plan on starting with this book next time! We also tried out wide rule lined paper instead of kindergarten paper, and that seems to be much easier for him to write letters smaller.
Math: We did lessons 141-148. Since reading was just review this week, we did more than one math lesson per day. We practiced vertical addition and subtraction, representing numbers with shapes, skip counting, similarities and differences in attributes, and reviewed reading and writing time to the hour and the commutative property of addition with shapes ( 1+2=*+1, *=2). We learned about dividing in half in two equal parts.
We'll be starting 1st grade reading and math in April. I'm previewing everything right now and it looks like a very fun and action packed year of learning. Most kids his age would be starting 1st grade this fall or next fall depending on readiness, since he has a late birthday. So we are going ahead of the game! Thank you to everyone who is supporting us!
Reading: We're reviewing McRuffy K readers. He picked out Fuzz The Yak to read this week, one of his favorites. It was good to review the old days when all vowels were short and easy.
Handwriting: We're putting some extra time into practicing writing letters in more detail with a fun workbook called Handwriting Help For Kids. Although he knows how to write all the letters, he still makes some mistakes mixing up straight and angled lines. This book has a fun story for each letter how to write it. The letters are grouped by similarities, so we call them by their families. This week we practiced capital letters. We started with the 'Down and Bump' Family, which is D, B, P, and R. The R story was the favorite; 'draw down, hop to the top, small bump, kick out your leg!'. This book is helping make it easy and fun to remember how to write letters properly. I plan on starting with this book next time! We also tried out wide rule lined paper instead of kindergarten paper, and that seems to be much easier for him to write letters smaller.
Math: We did lessons 141-148. Since reading was just review this week, we did more than one math lesson per day. We practiced vertical addition and subtraction, representing numbers with shapes, skip counting, similarities and differences in attributes, and reviewed reading and writing time to the hour and the commutative property of addition with shapes ( 1+2=*+1, *=2). We learned about dividing in half in two equal parts.
We'll be starting 1st grade reading and math in April. I'm previewing everything right now and it looks like a very fun and action packed year of learning. Most kids his age would be starting 1st grade this fall or next fall depending on readiness, since he has a late birthday. So we are going ahead of the game! Thank you to everyone who is supporting us!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Iran Book List
Here's the list of books for Iran. I plan on doing this for each country we study so that I can easily request these books again when we re-gallop the globe in a few years.
Camels by Winner, Cherie.
Count your way through Iran /by Haskins, James, 1941-
Deserts /by Gray, Susan Heinrichs.
Forty fortunes : a tale of Iran /by Shepard, Aaron.
A gift for the king : a Persian tale /by Manson, Christopher.
Goha the wise fool /by Johnson-Davies, Denys.
The golden sandal : a Middle Eastern Cinderella story /by Hickox, Rebecca.
How the camel got his hump /by Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936
Iran by Rajendra, Vijeya, 1
Iran by Milivojevic, JoAnn.
Iran by Walsh, Kieran.
Iran : a question and answer book /by Bauer, Brandy.
The king and the three thieves : a Persian tale /by Balouch, Kristen.
The last straw /by Thury, Fredrick.
The legend of the Persian carpet /by DePaola, Tomie, 1934-
The magic apple : a Middle Eastern folktale /by Cleveland, Rob, 1955-
The magic grove : a Persian folktale /by Palecek, Libuse.
The magic school bus gets all dried up : a book about deserts /by Weyn, Suzanne.
The Persian Cinderella /by Climo, Shirley.
The rich man and the parrot /by Nadimi, Suzan.
Cappy The Lonely Camel by Rubinetti, Donald
The stone : a Persian legend of the Magi by Hofmeyr, Dianne.
Camels by Winner, Cherie.
Count your way through Iran /by Haskins, James, 1941-
Deserts /by Gray, Susan Heinrichs.
Forty fortunes : a tale of Iran /by Shepard, Aaron.
A gift for the king : a Persian tale /by Manson, Christopher.
Goha the wise fool /by Johnson-Davies, Denys.
The golden sandal : a Middle Eastern Cinderella story /by Hickox, Rebecca.
How the camel got his hump /by Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936
Iran by Rajendra, Vijeya, 1
Iran by Milivojevic, JoAnn.
Iran by Walsh, Kieran.
Iran : a question and answer book /by Bauer, Brandy.
The king and the three thieves : a Persian tale /by Balouch, Kristen.
The last straw /by Thury, Fredrick.
The legend of the Persian carpet /by DePaola, Tomie, 1934-
The magic apple : a Middle Eastern folktale /by Cleveland, Rob, 1955-
The magic grove : a Persian folktale /by Palecek, Libuse.
The magic school bus gets all dried up : a book about deserts /by Weyn, Suzanne.
The Persian Cinderella /by Climo, Shirley.
The rich man and the parrot /by Nadimi, Suzan.
Cappy The Lonely Camel by Rubinetti, Donald
The stone : a Persian legend of the Magi by Hofmeyr, Dianne.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Weekly Update: Iran and Kindergarten Phonics completed!
The disappearing tsunami miracle last Saturday postponed our library trip, so we will be spending another extra week on Iran when we have more books. Iran and Iraq are not included in the Galloping The Globe guide, but I could not pass by these countries that are so rich in ancient history and involved in current events. I'm also planning it so that we will finish two weeks on Israel with Passover and Easter.
Geography/Literature: We left India and took a magic carpet ride through Pakistan and Afghanistan and landed in Iran. We stamped the passport, colored the map and flag of Iran and read some Persian folktales. The flag for Iran has the Arabic symbol for God, and then an intricate design that says God is Great. Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the flag had a symbol of a lion with a sword and rising sun. I was surprised when Govinda said "Sri Lanka has a lion with a sword, too!" He remembered that from How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World which we read back in November! The flag coloring is certainly leaving impressions! The story books we read were Forty Fortunes, The King and The Three Thieves, The Legend Of The Persian Carpet, The Rich Man and The Parrot, Goha The Wise Fool, Cappy The Lonely Camel, and The Persian Cinderella. We noticed that many Persian legends are about righteous kings and thieves stealing their treasure.
Phonics: We finished McRuffy Kindergarten Phonics and Reading! The focus this week was on the blend 'gr', and the reader was Greg's Grape Ride. It was another funny story. The spelling words reviewed previous concepts with 'gr', the trickiest being 'grace'. The week ended with a Unit Test on everything learned in the last quarter. Govinda got them all right! We're very excited about completing such a great phonics journey, and we are looking forward to using the 1st grade curriculum coming soon.
Math: We did lessons 136-140. We practiced adding and subtracting in the vertical format, reviewed odd and even, reviewed counting coins, learned about numbers written in fonts that are different than how we write them, played with symmetry with pattern blocks, and ended with The Elephant Truck Game, which is a fun way to practice counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. We still have 4 weeks left of McRuffy K Math.
Homeschool Group: We met with the local Aloha Homeschoolers group for an hour long tour of the fire station, led by the fire captain. It was a great treat and coincidental reward for finishing kindergarten phonics. This was the first time meeting with the group, and we recognized some of the other 5 year olds from soccer. We look forward to doing more fun group homeschool activities with this great group of families.
Geography/Literature: We left India and took a magic carpet ride through Pakistan and Afghanistan and landed in Iran. We stamped the passport, colored the map and flag of Iran and read some Persian folktales. The flag for Iran has the Arabic symbol for God, and then an intricate design that says God is Great. Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the flag had a symbol of a lion with a sword and rising sun. I was surprised when Govinda said "Sri Lanka has a lion with a sword, too!" He remembered that from How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World which we read back in November! The flag coloring is certainly leaving impressions! The story books we read were Forty Fortunes, The King and The Three Thieves, The Legend Of The Persian Carpet, The Rich Man and The Parrot, Goha The Wise Fool, Cappy The Lonely Camel, and The Persian Cinderella. We noticed that many Persian legends are about righteous kings and thieves stealing their treasure.
Phonics: We finished McRuffy Kindergarten Phonics and Reading! The focus this week was on the blend 'gr', and the reader was Greg's Grape Ride. It was another funny story. The spelling words reviewed previous concepts with 'gr', the trickiest being 'grace'. The week ended with a Unit Test on everything learned in the last quarter. Govinda got them all right! We're very excited about completing such a great phonics journey, and we are looking forward to using the 1st grade curriculum coming soon.
Math: We did lessons 136-140. We practiced adding and subtracting in the vertical format, reviewed odd and even, reviewed counting coins, learned about numbers written in fonts that are different than how we write them, played with symmetry with pattern blocks, and ended with The Elephant Truck Game, which is a fun way to practice counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. We still have 4 weeks left of McRuffy K Math.
Homeschool Group: We met with the local Aloha Homeschoolers group for an hour long tour of the fire station, led by the fire captain. It was a great treat and coincidental reward for finishing kindergarten phonics. This was the first time meeting with the group, and we recognized some of the other 5 year olds from soccer. We look forward to doing more fun group homeschool activities with this great group of families.
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