Memory work!

As part of our Advent preparation ds's and I are learning the familiar words from  the Gospel of Luke Chapter Two that talk about the birth of Christ. Each day we read the entire passage ,then we take a verse and focus on its meaning before committing it to memory. An effective way we have found is to cut the words of the verse apart,removing sections while still reciting the entire verse. Then when we have it all in pieces the boys put it together on a bulletin board set aside for this project.

Our focus board for August

I know this is a bit late as we're 1/3 almost of the way through the month but I thought I'd post anyway. We have a large bulletin board above our dining table. As its a place we use every day(!)I thought it would be a good place to emphasize some of our learning that takes place. It usually contains something from all he areas of study that we are currently focusing on. So for English we'll put up our current greek or latin roots for that week. For literature and the seasons there may be some poems.There will usually be an aspect of our geography study plus something on history too.If the boys are interested in something in particular fro nature or science that will go up too.Lastly we add something about the saints we are reading about this month. because each month has a faith focus above the main illustrations will be the dedication for the month.
This month is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. However I wanted to emphasize to the boys that Mary only ever points us to her son and the mercy and redemption that is found in His most sacred heart.

In the beginning...geography , and all that!

I am very pleased with this Bible Story book. Although not written by the same author it puts me in mind of this book in its style.

Its illustrations are bright and colourful. Yes they are cartoony but to be honest I have not been all that impressed with “realism” in children’s Bible illustrations and neither have my children!

Here are some of the pages in the Bible.I saw this idea on someone’s blog about drawing the days of creation in number form and illustrating each day on each number. I thought it would be a fun nemonic and a good way to combine our faith studies with our geography focus for the year which happens to be the continents.





And here are some quotes from the first story in this  Bible:

On the fourth day God gave us the gifts of the great lights.
“Hello stars!’ God said. “Hello moon! Hello sun!”And whizzing into the darkness came fiery globes.
Spinning around and around;
whirling orange and purple and golden planets.
“You’re good,” God said.
And they were.

But God saved the best for last. From the beginning, God had a shining dream in his heart. He would make people to share his Forever Happiness. They would be his children, and the world would be their perfect home.
…all the stars and the mountains and oceans and galaxies and everything were nothing compared to how much God loved his children. He would move heaven and earth to be near them. Always. Whatever it cost him, he would always love them. And so it was that the wonderful love story began…

More on Noticeboards

Ds,5 in May is learning to read. He is using the Peter and Jane series and loving them(note of importance: Peter and Jane are real people mum aren't they!)I like them too, the stories are relevant to him(they like water, playing with balls, climb trees and have a dog and a rabbit!!)

but how to reinforce sight vocab in a fun way. Enter noticeboard no.2!

 I am focusing on a theme per month. This month it is the beach. As I'm not much of an artist I copied/enlarged or minimized pictures from colouring pages. I painted a sea background and attached yellow paper as sand.

Once I had some pictures coloured and glued in place I made some sentences and attached these. Some examples for this board are:
"Thank you for the sweets,mum" said Jane.
The children are in the water.
The girl has the big red ball.
See me jump into the water.

We will read a sentence or two each day. Next I will give him a copy of one of the sentences and have him find it on the board.I will have him spot specific words in different places on the board. I will have him dictate additional sentences for the board and draw and colour additional pictures to add to it.Because he will be reading Ponder and William on Holiday, and because it is summer here I thought the beach theme a good starting point.I see this board as one that can develop with him and reinforce the skills he needs practicing with at different stages

I like noticeboards. we have a few in our house! Above the dining table is our "liturgy board". At the top of this one is our liturgical wheel; a large contacted affair made by dd14 as part of her studies in faith last year. Beneath the wheel the posts are changed monthly. In keeping with the season each post is backed with that seasons colour. So for the next few weeks they will be backed with green. the post in the middle beneath the wheel lists the devotional focus for that particular month eg February is the month of the Holy Family with a suitable art print attached. Then I choose 4-5 saints for us to focus/learn about that month. I like to find a few more obscure ones as well as the more well known. For February we will read about St Brigid, St Gilbert of Sempingham, St Paul Miki, St Modomnoc, and St Bernadette. Also we will not necessarily be reading on each saints specific feast day.I used to try and do this and get thoroughly stressed out and feel we had forever missed an opportunity if as often happened other things came up. around the post of the month are pictures of each saint with a thought or prayer from some of them but otherwise just their name century they lived in and feast day.Below the saints is a card with a prayer we are learning that month and beside this a little information on the liturgical season and its focus.