When I was planning out our main lesson blocks, I thought it would be a good idea to place the Old Testament block during Advent. It's been an interesting journey, to say the least.
We've been using Donna Simmon's
Old Testament Stories Manual and Storybook from
Christopherus Homeschool. I love, love, love the manual. She strikes a great balance between giving you enough guidance that you don't feel like you're floundering and telling you exactly when and how you need to breath. There are some beautiful ideas for responding to the stories along with some lovely insights into the stories themselves.
The storybook I'm a little more meh about. There are some typos and some of the retellings are stilted and don't make sense. But I'm fully willing to admit this might be because we're exposed to the Scriptures a lot more than your average family. For someone who isn't as familiar with the stories, it might be perfect.
We started off with the seven days of Creation. Donna suggests a watercolor painting for each day, and that is what we have been working on. I'm not really happy with how the colors have bled into each other. This is totally my own fault though, and not Katie Grace's. We ran out of Stockmar paints and have been using cheapies. I'm hoping to get back on the good stuff in January.
And God said "Let there be light" and there was light.
God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness
Here is the painting before it bled and then dried.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.
God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(That's a whale leaping out of the sea)
Katie Grace has also done a bit of copywork as well.
After the beautiful story of Creation, we had the sad, sad story of the Fall. This led to many interesting conversations between myself, Katie Grace, and her ten-year-old brother Michael. Couldn't God have just forgiven them and let them have another chance? If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, would someone have sinned eventually? How could they ever get right with God again? For us, it plays in perfectly with Advent themes.
Then came Cain and Abel. There was a lot of sympathy for Cain. And again, a theme of banishment and a hope for reconciliation.
Noah came next. We didn't build an ark like Donna suggested, but did have fun playing with our little wooden ark. We did a bit of drawing and a bit of narration and dictation alongside these stories as well.
The Tower of Babel, and next we moved on to Abraham and Sarah.
Katie Grace loved the story of Sarah laughing, but was very concerned about Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac. "It would be really really hard to give up your only son." Exactly.
Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Esau are where we left off today. What a lesson for parents in this story about not favoring one child over another! And Katie Grace enjoyed making a little tableau of Rebecca at the Well.
Tomorrow we move on to Jacob and his strange dream, and then we're off to Joseph and hopefully a lovely puppet play. We'll wrap things up with the many adventures of Moses and learning the ten commandments.
I think I posted this before, but these are our phases of the moon beanbags.
Here is the moon phases chalkboard drawing
which Katie Grace then copied into her main lesson book.
O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east. Shine, be increased! ~Christina Rossetti
And finally, phases of the moon with cookies. Yummy! You can check out the activity here.
The two main books we're using are Tomie dePaola's Book of Bible Stories and, later in the month, The Parables of Jesus, also by Tomie dePaola. They're really lovely books, beautifully illustrated, and the retellings of the stories are very true to Scripture.
She also made a beautiful angel snowflake and a window transparency.
She also retold the story using our Nativity figures before we put them away. Daniel helped.
She also did a watercolor painting. Unfortunately, we're still having issues with the colors running together. Anyone have any advice for us?
We've been continuing with our multiplication facts while working on this unit, and are telling lots of farm stories to go along with it.
Katie Grace has also created a farm family that will serve as our frame story throughout the unit. I forgot to take a picture, but there's a mom and a dad and a baby, a toddler, a six-year-old brother and 8-year-old twins. They all help take care of our farm together!
Making a toppings bar to go along with yogurt at lunch. Eventually, we're hoping to make our own yogurt and cheese!
And sewing gnomes and making beeswax fruits and veggies to fill our nature table cornucopia, together with Nicholas.
Unfortunately didn't turn out so well!
Today, we started learning about Native Americans from the Great Plains. She began a pinch pot from air hardening clay-- forgot to take a picture, sorry!-- and will paint it tomorrow.
Michael's narration and illustration of the Susan Constant and how she carried Englishman to North America on King James's command to find gold.
Michael's definitions and illustrations of the three types of rock.
Katie Grace's multiplication wheel for factors of 3.
And factors of 4.
And factors of 2. She's really been enjoying these!
One was the only wheel with curves.
Michael's diagram of the layers of the earth.
