January 2024!
What a beginning to the new year. We got a happy surprise on our wedding anniversary this year when the pregnancy test turned positive! What joy to get to carry one more baby in my ever expanding womb. For the first week of January, we attended a wonderful conference at our church and were so encouraged with the teaching of His Word and fellowship with His saints. We met people from different states and countries and there was a lot of talk about different cultures even in VBS for the children. So we chose our unit study(which amazingly matched my yearly plan topic too! which I plan at the beginning of the academic year), people of the world.
Geography/ Read aloud
We read about the cultures and languages of the different tribes and countries. We learnt about the tribes that don’t have the Bible in their language. We also spotted different countries in the world map and the globe and played an interactive game using the globe by feeding animals in the different regions of the world. It was beautiful to blend our family read-aloud with this unit and do folktales from around the world.
Science/Math/Nature
Since I am growing new life in me, what better concept to revisit than the human body and a growing baby? So we pulled out a few science books and dove right in. This time around, Ahna seems to have a much better understanding of the baby growing in the womb than she did when Hope was in utero. These lessons have led to opening conversations about the difference in male and female anatomy and I’ve been glad to point her to the different ways in which God has designed men and women.
We also read about the life cycles of chicks and planned a visit to the farm to watch some in action. A few days ago at the park, we spotted multiple bats so we pulled this book out to read about bats too. A visit to the local thunder park also helped Ahna explore electricity and get introduced to the concept. She had since been intrigued about electricity travelling through little wires all around us.
Reading/Writing/Poetry
We have begun with reading lessons since Ahna enjoys reading. We mix it up to help her give full attention. Sometimes we play games with letters we can hold, other times we use magnetic letters and some days we stick to the book. It has all been wonderful. We have been enjoying poems sporadically as well. Some days, we read a few and other days we read through a couple books.
Free play/Outdoor time
Ahna has been enjoying playing with Hope a lot since a few months now since her last growth spurt. It helps that Hope has picked up a few words and is communcating now. Due to this, I encourage at least 2 hours of free play between the 2 where I do guide their interactions to help them learn how to play together. It is heartwarming to see them bonding. I thought Ahna might be the ‘rough’ one since she is older but Hope seems to be the one requiring more training in this area. Ahna is amazingly patient even when her hair is being pulled and she continues to use her words.
The girls had been visiting the beach once a week but I would stay home because of my morning sickness(which lasted through the day in that first trimester!) . They also have been going down to play for about an hour or 2 on most days.
2 things changed in our home education this Jan. Ahna started taking music lessons(with me once a week) and she is attending a gymnastics class outside twice a week.
We attended a wedding in Mumbai and spent almost a week in travel after which I skipped one week of school because of the pregnancy sickness. On days we don’t do school, we still do read a lot so we are fine not doing planned lessons. The learning continues through simple read-alouds on most days.
The month of Feb will be recorded in the next blog.
Toodles.
