Organization for My Father's World Papers

So this is a random post for me, but I am sharing how I organized my papers from MFW.  Somebody requested pictures of how people organize their papers so I posted this one on Facebook.  I had a request to post this so they could pin it on pinterest, so here it is!

I used a 3.5" binder and Avery Big Tab Slash Pocket Dividers 8 tab, kind of like these.  I founds shoplet to have the best price on them at the time.  I stuck the papers for each week from MFW in the front pocket and all my extras for each week in the back pocket. 

I have loaned out my kinder binder so I don't have it on hand to look at, but I think I purchased 4 packs for it and 5 packs for Adventures, which left some extra for whatever I wanted to file in the back. 

Box Day!

I am happy to say that we already received most of our curriculum for next year!  My Father's World had free shipping last month so we took the plunge with tax return money and I can't wait to get started!!  We will be studying US History in Adventures in My Father's World as a family, and Wyatt also got updated version of the same kindergarten that Noah used. 

They were very excited to look at all the books, but the only picture I got of it has Wyatt picking his nose.  Which isn't really hard to do since the boy almost always seems to have a finger up there looking for something.  ;) 

I am SO at peace with our decision to stick with My Father's World!  I got a Sonlight catalog in the mail this week and I wasn't even tempted, which is saying a lot!  We've also ordered tons of the book basket books and they are already starting to pour in.  I can't wait for second grade!!

Build a Boat!

I had no idea such a simple activity would thrill the kids so much!  The history for our first grade curriculum is all Bible history, and we are loving it!!  Noah is creating the most amazing Bible notebook - a page for each of the major stories.  He writes a title (we are working our way up to a summary sentence) and draws a picture.  He absolutely loves going back through it every day and discussing every single story.  He repeated tells me how much he LOVES "doing Bible."  He is basically talking about just My Father's World - he cheers when I pull the teachers guide out every day.  I can't say enough good things about it!

Anyways, during our lesson on Noah they suggest having the kids build boats out of foil and seeing how many coins they will hold.  This is such a great lesson cause the kids really learned about how hard it is to make a boat that actually floats.  It really made them think about all Noah went through building such a massive boat if it took them that much work to make a tiny one.  You can see even Annie got in on the action.

Noah made me laugh cause after a few minutes he ran off and got his box of small plastic animals.  They turned them into real arks with animals inside!  So much fun!

I also have to add that every time I think of this I think of the Noah Build A Boat song on The Singing Bible (Focus on the Family).  Do you own that CD?  The music can be a bit difficult for parents to listen to, but the kids LOVE it.  It has really helped them get the sequence of events down, and also cemented the main people into their brain.  Check it out!!

Water Filter!

When we first chose My Father's World First Grade I really was certain we would supplement their science program.  But now that we have been following it exactly as written for a few months I am really pleased with it.  It is definitely different than everything I ever taught in public school, or even learned about in college.  But we love it!  They generally read a couple of pages out of an Usborne science book the first day of the week.  The rest of the week we read literature selections from the list in the teacher's guide about the same topic.  And then at the end of the week we do the hands on experiment and make an entry into our science journals.  If we did an experiment they draw the experiment and then write a a sentence about the results.  Otherwise I let them choose a picture to draw (using our book selections as inspiration) and then a sentence about anything they learned.  Wyatt has surprised me the most- he is really picking up so much!  Anyways, this week we discussed rivers, water, and the process of how water gets clean.  They give instructions on how to make this water filter and I was certain it would not work.  I was so surprised!  So were the boys!

First you need some rocks....

Then some sand....

And you put them into a container you have poked some holes in the bottom of.  We did a couple of inches of rocks and then a couple of inches of sand on top.  Then we took some super muddy water....

And poured it in and waited!

Pretty amazing, isn't it?  I figured it would filter out some of the filth, but it really took out way more than I expected.  Fun!

The big scroll!

Like I said before, part of our curriculum discussed scrolls.  So we made those teeny tiny ones, but he also got to make a big one.  He was so proud of his work.

All the pages were just handwriting practice.  Now, this boy really hates handwriting.  To the point of tears if I give him a page to do. But this handwriting?  Loved it.  He actually begged for more when we were done.

I love it when we an activity is both fun AND beneficial.  So pleased with MFW First so far.  We are about 20 days in and are looking forward to the next 20!

Teeny tiny scrolls!

Part of our Bible curriculum for this year taught about scrolls and how the Bible (and other things) were originally written on scrolls.  So we went outside and measured out 30 feet to see how long some of the longest scrolls were.  I had NO idea this wold be so exciting to the kids, but they have now become obsessed with scrolls.  We made teeny tiny scrolls out of paper bags and then  made salt dough "jars" to put the scrolls in, to imitate the jars scrolls used to be stored in.  The jars were much more difficult to mold than I imagined they would be, but in the end the kids were pleased with our product.

Now if only I can keep this from getting broken so Wyatt doesn't get hysterical, then I will be doing good!  So far the kids are really enjoying school, and have really been handling the increased work load really well.  Perhaps I wasn't expecting as much of them as I should have been last year! :)