In the manual, the units are divided into three weeks each- focusing on an animal, a color, a shape, a certain character trait, and a Bible verse. Each week has a grid showing five days of activities. Typical activities for a week may include going on a color hunt, making a sandwich out of a certain cookie cutter shape to go with the animal of the week, coloring or painting a picture based on the color of the week, playing certain games with blocks and manipulatives.
We recently finished the Bear unit, which was on the trait of Obedience. We practiced the verse, and put it on a little bear figure, and taped it up on Jaren's wall. He also enjoyed coloring the unit poster, putting a black bear on it, going on a color hunt in his room for black items, and decorating a bear sheet with black markers and crayons.
This set also comes with Student Sheets, which is a large stack of cardstock quality pages that have full color images to cut out and play games with, or pages with figures on them to paint and color, etc. I really like the student sheets. I appreciate a program that takes care of all these details and doesn't leave me to the job of printing something out on my color printer, after I've already paid for a full set. This set is indeed a complete program!
In the manual, you are encouraged to get a notebook and label it as your child's story time book, and then put all of the weekly poems in it. Each week there is an action poem about the animal of the week. Jaren has loved these poems so far, and Joelle usually joins in too.
We also did reading that goes along with theme of the week. We read several stories about bears. I appreciate the books that came with this program. I know Jaren feels it is special that he has his own school books, as his sister has always had her own too. The books are age appropriate, and Jaren is proud of them. So, its easy to transition into story time for this program.
There is also a music cd included in the set which we listened to. There are baking opportunities every week, but we have not used any yet. This is something that I think both kids would enjoy though, if I have a week that I plan ahead far enough to get the stuff I need from the grocery store.
With this program, you are also encouraged to use busy boxes as a part of the day. I already have ten of those set up for Jaren, so it is another easy thing to incorporate. Joelle has also been helping to teach Jaren in this program. Every week there are five cut outs of the animal of the week. The object of the game is for the child to hide them, and then for someone else to find them. Joelle and Jaren do pretty well taking turns at this game. Another game is a weekly shape and color game, where someone calls out a shape or color (using the cutouts from the student sheets) and the child is supposed to pick up the correct one. They have been doing pretty well at playing this game too, and Jaren has been allowing Joelle to "teach" him.
Overall, it has been fun to have something to go through with Jaren. I'm not as good at just piecing it together anymore, now that more of my focus is on my first grader most of the time. We don't do this program every day, and we often buzz through a week's worth in a couple of days. Its a very laid back, Charlotte Mason style, but it has been perfect for us!
