School's Out For Summer!!

We wrapped up our first year of homeschooling last week. I was really hoping to go out with a bang, but life got the best of us and it sort of just fizzled out instead. We finished up science and bible study the previous week, and completed our study of the countries with a final "test" and I'm proud to say that Annabelle scored 100%! Alivia had a little bit harder time with it, but the way I see it, even if she can't recall the capital of each country or the continent they are in, her view of the world around her was still expanded. I am proud of her too for her efforts! Honestly, I couldn't remember them all myself either without a little bit of help!

As far as math goes, I feel like the girls need some more guidance and study in this subject. Neither one of them really enjoy it, and find it difficult to learn. And to top it off, Annabelle gets really upset when she can't do something perfectly so she'd just rather not do it at all. I have decided that we will take off the month of June, but I would really like to start working on this subject again in July. I am afraid that if they don't truly get the hang of it now while it is just simple, basic concepts, they will have an even more difficult time in the future. And since I'm the teacher I can do that!

We also wrapped our first year of co-op with our wonderful homeschool friends! What a blessing it has been to have them and be part of their circle! It is amazing what encouragement just spending a few hours with others who understand exactly what you are going through can bring. I don't think I could have survived this first year if it had not been for their support! On a sad note, our friends, Jenn and Evan will not be here with us next year. They moved to Kentucky shortly after our last play date. They will be missed more than words can say, but they will also be a true blessing to everyone they meet in their new home state!

Our amazing homeschool friends! The Scotts, the Dana's, the Romans and us!

Over all it has been a great year though. There were times when I truly questioned my sanity, but I am so thankful that I made this choice for myself and my children. I believe that it has brought us and them even closer.  I am already looking forward to what blessings are in store for us next year! I can hardly wait to get started!!

Happy Summer Friends! Thanks for traveling this amazing journey with us!!

In The Home Stretch

We are down to two weeks left before we finish up for the summer! The kids and I are so excited!! April wasn't a great month for us as we weren't really on top of our game so to say.  May has been pretty good so far though. Here is where we are in each subject:

Geography:This past week we finished up our Italy studies. We have also been reviewing the Countries we've learned so far including their capitals and the continents they are in. I was surprised at how much they remembered as we were going over it for the first time. Next week we are "traveling" onto Australia! It sure has been fun watching our "passports" fill up this year!

Math: Annabelle has been working on multiplying double or triple digits by double digits. She was having a really hard time with them at first, but she's got the hang of it now! I'm so proud of her for sticking with it. Alivia is learning her multiplication facts right now. I think we will continue working on our math facts throughout the summer. The kids aren't really happy about that but I think in the end it will be for the best.

Science: We will be finishing up our science book next week. There are only two chapters left but they are both short so I am just going to combine them.

Bible: We have 7 lessons left so we will be finished with that next Monday.

Language Arts: This week we did something a little different. The girls were doing independent study in their workbooks I bought a few months ago, but I felt like they weren't really learning it. Just doing the work as fast as they could. So, I decided that we'd go over some basic stuff this last few weeks. I found some neat books at the library to use. This week we studied verbs then we will move onto adverbs and adjectives to finish up the year. I am also considering working on them with these skills throughout the summer as well.

I can't believe that we only have two weeks left, but more than that, I can't believe that we survived our first year homeschooling! I was going through all the work we had done this year because the kids wanted a "report card" and I am pleasantly surprised to see that they actually accomplished a lot! Sometimes I felt like they really weren't doing much and that I was probably ruining their education. That doesn't seem to be the case though! As far as the "report cards" go it's kind of hard to give accurate grades because the majority of the work we did together. I did grade all the papers they did on their own though and found the averages scores. So with the the combined score I gave them for our group work and the scores they earned on their own they will

Publish Post

still both end up with all A's! Not bad if I do say so myself.

The Past Month

Ugh...so it's been a month since I posted last. My bad. There are just only so many hours in the day. My 'to-do" list is always longer and this blog just happens to be towards then end of the list unfortunately.

As far as school goes, it's been an on again, off again type of relationship. I think we are just getting burnt out being stuck in the house day after day. The weather has not been nice enough to spend much time outside (until very recently anyway) And with gas as high as it is, we don't go anywhere unless absolutely necessary. Not that any of that is a good excuse but the truth is we haven't been as diligent about doing our school work as I feel like we should be.

We have still been studying our countries, but mostly we are just reading books about them, not really doing much paper work. In the past month we have studied Russia, Greece, and Italy. I will be making up a review "test" for the kids shortly after we finish up the next couple of countries which include Australia and Antarctica. It will cover the continents, the countries we've studied, their flags and capitals. It will be interesting to see how much the kids actually learned (retained) as we review for the test.

We are also still working on our bible studies and science. Those should be completed within the next week or so depending on how much time we put into them. Annabelle has been learning how to multiply double digits by double digits. We've been hung up on that for awhile though. She finally learned the technique, but now she needs to concentrate on just doing the actual math part correctly. Carrying numbers over has really confused her. So needless to say we are not moving on until she gets that mastered. Alivia is working on learning her multiplication facts.

Sammy is another story. We have not been doing much with him. At the beginning of the year he was doing pretty well, but then we hit a wall. Finally I just decided to put his school work away for awhile for both our sakes. I've tried it again a few different times, but it just seems like he's not getting it. The thing that frustrates me the most is he went to preschool for 2 years and never even learned his alphabet, he still does not know it! And as much as I try to work with him he's still not able to say it completely on his own. So I am thinking that we will be spending most of the summer working on learning his letters, being able to say the alphabet on his own and recognize letters out of order.


It's hard to believe that we've almost completed our first year of homeschooling. What a journey it has been! I pretty much have all our books for next year already and I can't wait to get started. I never imagined that I would be a homeschool mom, but now I can't imagine it any other way!

Spring Break

In my life this week:
We were supposed to be on Spring Break. I was planning to do some fun stuff with the kids but unfortunately it did not work out that way. First of all, the weather was not that great. It was cold/rainy/snowy. Then, when it did finally start to warm up Sydney ended up being sick. I finally took her to the Urgent Care on Wednesday only to find out that she had pneumonia! So, needless to say we didn't do any more than we absolutely had to. The weirdest thing is though we still had a busy week. I made some baby gifts for my friend and my SIL, I made the girls' Easter outfits, and made Sydney her birthday dress. We also had to take our car to the shop to be repaired, and I had to prepare for Sydney's 2nd birthday party.  So, the only "spring breakish" thing we did was skip out on school work. I decided to extend our "vacation" by one more day so I can catch up on some things that I wasn't able to accomplish last week. Tomorrow we will be back in business.
In our homeschool this week:
Before Spring Break we started on Russia. We will be continuing that country this week. I'm also planning on doing a little bit of review through each subject just to make sure the girls are understanding and retaining everything they've been learning.


I don't have much more to report than that. I have been slowly collecting our books for next year and I think I have just about everything we need! The best part is I was able to sell most of the books we used this year and buy next years curriculum with the profits! I am very excited about that!! I am also very excited that we only have about 6 more weeks of school left for this year! I am planning on finishing up around the second or third week of May...summer vacation, here we come!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal....better late than never, right?

In my life this last week....
After some frustrations we were finally able to  trade in our 13 year old mini van and become the proud new owners of a 2005 GMC Envoy XL! It wasn't exactly the vehicle we had hoped for, but it was difficult to find exactly what we wanted within our price range. We are falling in love with it though...and in any case, it is 100% better than our old mini-van.
In our homeschool this last week....
Ironically I had planned Japan for this week a long time ago. So when I heard about the devastating news on tv it almost seemed fitting that we were preparing to learn about this country. Of course I didn't have any library books on Japan because I had failed at the said 'preparing' part, so I just Googled information. I figured all I'd find was about the earthquake and tsunami, but we actually found some fun fact pages. I also let the kids watch the news a few times so they could see what was currently going on. Brought tears to my eyes every time, but I think they liked the reality of it...not just reading about some far off country in a book. Not that they like what they were seeing, but you know what I mean....The same thing happened right after we studied Egypt.
In science we studies oceans...again, how fitting, right? The girls made an ocean display using a shoe box. We also made an ocean dessert...blue jello and gummy fish!
My favorite thing about this last week...
Of course, I was really happy to get our new car, but my favorite thing this week was the three day weekend we had! We spent the day Friday together as a family shopping for some home project supplies. Then Saturday the kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. Andy and I had a much needed date night. Of course we could have stayed out as late as we wanted, but ended up going to bed just after the 11:00 news! Such party animals I tell ya!
Pictures from this week....yes, they are from this week, today actually...some things just don't go as planned. That's all I have to say about that!

The girls worked on this ocean display together and had lots of fun!

Our homemade oceans...yummy!

Sydney loved the Ocean treat too!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week...

This week has had it's ups and downs. We are in the process of purchasing a new (to us) vehicle and it hasn't been as easy of a process as we had hoped it would be. Hopefully tomorrow we will have it all settled and be the proud new owners of a 2005 Envoy XL.
In our homeschool this week....
The girls are still doing their language arts and math in their work books. It seems to be working out quite well for them....I would almost dare say they enjoy it.

 In geography we learned about China. We read books about ancient china and panda bears. China is the only place in the world where Pandas live in the wild. We also did a few fun Chinese crafts. We made tangrams which is a Chinese game, puzzle, arts, crafts, and math lesson all rolled into one. We started out with a 4x4 square, cut that into 5 triangles, 2 squares and a rhomboid. Then we tried making different objects using those 7 shapes. The book showed us how to make a bird and a dog, then the girls came up with these two on their own. Can you guess what they are?

 

 We also learned about the Chinese New Year and made paper lanterns.

My favorite thing this week...

We received our first shipment of next years school books! I love new books! And I love that the kids were so excited about the new books too!

Whats working/not working for us...

This week went pretty smoothly. My husband went back to work last week, so I think that has really helped us to focus on our school work. Like I said earlier, the girls are doing pretty well with their work books. I went through them and figured out how much they would need to do each day in order to complete them by the end of the school year (which will be May 13th for us). I will have to redo a few of the subjects though because it just ended up being to much for them each day.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal - 5

This week wasn't very exciting but I did stumble upon this home school blog that hosts a blog hop once a week. I thought it might be fun to give it a whirl so here goes...


In my life this week...
On Monday my sweet mother in law had us over to her house for a Valentine's Day Tea Party. My SIL, who also homeschools was there with her two girls as well. The kids had a great time serving treats and apple juice "tea" to each other. I think it was the best Valentine's "class" party I've ever attended! In other news, our hot water heater broke. My darling husband spent an entire day trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Finally, he decided he had it figured out which part needed to be replaced and made a few phone calls. Unfortunately he was informed that the specific piece was no longer available separately and would cost $500 for the entire unit. Thankfully we have this wonderful thing called EBay where we found it for only $30! Now, we just have to wait for the part to arrive....so yes, that means we have not had hot water all week. I've had to heat water on the stove for dishes and to wash my hair. It's funny the things we take for granted until we no longer have their conveniences.

In our homeschool this week...
First, as I mentioned last week the girls decided for sure they no longer wanted to use the Time4Learning program online. I did end up canceling it and found some work books from Barnes and Nobles to replace it. I know it's not the most conventional way to go about homeschooling, but really math is math no matter what book it comes from, right? The books include reading, writing, math, language arts, and spelling. I think they will work out fine for the rest of our school year. The kids did manage to work in their books every day, but we did not do any Bible or geography this week...totally my fault!
 
Places we're going and people we're seeing...
My husband went with a friend up north for the weekend so I made some big plans for the kids and I. Cabin fever has really been setting in for all of us so I thought it would be fun to stay the night at a local hotel. We'll go swimming, order pizza and watch movies. Just something to get out of the house! I've pretty much kept it a surprise...they know we are going away and that we need our bathing suits but they don't know where we are staying. I am super excited!
 
My favorite thing this week was...
Definitely the Valentine's Tea Party! I got some really great pictures and it was nice that even though the kids aren't in public school this year they didn't miss out on a class party!
 
What's working/not working for us...
My schedule...or rather, lack of a schedule. It's hard to start at the same time every day and stay on track when I have two little babies to care for. Plus, my husband is still laid off and is home most of the day which just really throws my whole schedule off...well, what schedule I had anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love having him here, it just really messes with me! I am working on writing a "schedule" down because I know I tend to do better when I see something on paper. Who knows how long it will be before I actually get it done...

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
Right now I am really thinking about and researching the curriculum that I want to use for next year. When I started this year I chose My Father's World and really thought it was going to be perfect for us. It is a really great program, but for whatever reason it just wasn't meeting our needs. So, as I'm considering next years program I am very nervous. 
 
A photo, video, link, or quote to share... 
Here's a picture (or three) from our Valentine's party

Mrs. Bovee's class: Sammy, Annabelle and Alivia (Sydney is in the picture below)

Mrs. Campbell's class: Ariana and Adalyn.

Hey...the teacher deserves a valentine treat too...right??

A Classic Science Experiment

Most of us at one point or another have done the old vinegar and baking soda volcano experiment. And when I say most of us, I mean most of you, because this was actually the first time that I've ever done it. Strange, I know...what can I say?
Anyway, I totally intended for the girls to do it last week, but for this reason or that, we never got around to it. I usually wait for Friday's to do fun projects like this but I figured that if we were actually going to ever get to it we'd better just do it first thing Monday morning...so that's just what we did! Here is how we did it...

First, gather all your ingredients (and then pose for mom while she takes the first of many pictures.)

Next, measure and mix the flour and baking soda.

Funnel the mixture into a plastic pop bottle...aka...your volcano.

Add red food coloring...you know, because lava is red.

For the following step, first warn the kids that the next ingredient is very stinky...then laugh hysterically as they cough and gag while you measure out said stinky ingredient. Make one of them pour it into the bottle so you can take a picture.

 Then, prepare for the show!

Even little sister joined in the fun...she loved the bubbles!

And that is how it's done. Before we did the experiment we did a few worksheets that explained the ins and outs of a volcano as well. I think the girls really enjoyed this experiment. Hopefully they learned something from it!

As for the rest of school we are continuing in our bible study learning about the 12 disciples and some of Jesus' first miracles he performed. We also visited Nigeria, Africa this week. We read a book all about Nigeria and did some fun worksheets.

In science, we finished up the chapter on vertebrates, and did this fun worksheet. We also started the chapter on invertebrates...which consists mostly of bugs...YUCK! We will have to finish this up next week.

We are changing up our curriculum a bit once again. The girls have been doing their math and language on-line since we started back up in January. When we started I told them we would try it out and if they decided they didn't like it or it wasn't working for them we would find something else. Well, it's working fine, but they aren't enjoying it as much as I had hoped. Maybe it's just the fact that they don't enjoy the subjects period,but since I am paying for the use of this program each month I am going to cancel it find something else.
Speaking of math, at one point, I was thinking that shooting myself in the foot might be less painful than trying to help Annabelle learn division...seriously!!

Africa

As I mentioned in my last post we have had a few changes with our curriculum and it seems to be working really well for us. I am still using the geography portion of MFW but I am changing that up a bit too to better suit our needs. They have it set up to study one country for three weeks, but there just isn't enough material to drag it out that long, so I decided to add a few countries to the list and study them each for one week. So far we have visited Kenya, Egypt and Madagascar. While in Kenya we studied about the African safari animals that roam the land and the girls even made their own safari!

While we were in Egypt we read about the pyramids.

 Of course, the girls had to make their very own pyramid too!

The next two weeks we will continue our study of Africa visiting Nigeria, and lastly, South Africa. 

 

Here is a list of what else we have been doing:

• In Bible class we are learning about Jesus and John the Baptist. I think the girls are really enjoying this study and it blesses my heart to see them taking it all in.

• In science we studied about plants last week. The girls planted their own little flower pots so they could track their growth.

 

• It would have been successful until I accidentally knocked one over into a boot when I was getting ready to leave. I guess putting them by the door was not the best idea, but it's the only place with a shelf  that gets any sunlight.
• This week we studied the five categories of vertebrates.
• Next week will be invertebrates.
• Even though we technacilly dont need to go out of the house to get to school I let the kids have a "snow day" so they could enjoy the big storm we had. 
• I took advantage of said "snow day" and organized a few kitchen cupboards...
• and took a nap!
• The girls are continuing their math and language skills on the computer. They seem to enjoy that a lot more than what we were previously using.
• I did NOT say that they enjoy math or language arts!
• I am very thankful that we are finally getting the hang of this homeschool thing. I was really worried there for a bit.
• Last, but not least...I have started looking into next years curriculum!

Well, we've made it through almost two weeks of school and I have to say I think it has been our best two weeks of the whole year! The kids are loving the new curriculum that we've started. I don't think they have complained about doing school work yet! YAY Mom!! And I am finally feeling like I am getting into a grove with my weekly preparations...in fact, I'm a week ahead of schedule!

As I mentioned last week we started a new bible study. I finally feel like the girls are actually learning something. The study has us reading out of the Bible and then it goes into more detail about what is going on in those particular verses. I am actually learning things too which makes it even better! The best part is that it holds the girls attention and they look forward to what the next lesson will be.

They are also really enjoying our new science books. Right now we are learning all about our bodies and how perfectly God designed them. Again, the girls are loving it and it holds their attention enough that they are actually able to answer the questions without needed to much prompting from me!

We are still continuing our geography lessons from ECC. Last week we studied France, and this week we are in Germany. The kids are really enjoying their lessons this week because last month we visited Frankenmuth which is a German based town. They were so excited when they saw pictures of the traditional German clothing just like they saw people wearing in Frankenmuth!

Sammy is still working on learning his letters. Last week was the letter O and this week is the letter W. He is beginning to learn to read and is finally starting to pick up on how the letters work together. We hit a brick wall there for awhile but now it's all starting to make sense to him! He really enjoys learning!

So, that's it for now. All in all I would say school has been great! THANKFULLY! I was really worried there for a bit that maybe I had made a mistake, but really all it took was a little change and figuring out what works best for us.

Second Semester

This week we started our second semester. Although I hadn't really planned on taking off as much time as we did in December, I am glad that we did. It was very much needed by all of us and I think now we all feel refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the school year.

As I posted before we made a few changes to our curriculum. Of course, I second guessed myself wondering if I did the right thing or not, but so far it has proven to be successful. I signed the girls up for an on-line program called Time4Learning which includes math and language arts. The girls are loving it! I think they enjoy being able to use the computer (and I don't mind since they are learning) and they like not having to do all their work together. The program also has science and social studies but the girls didn't care for either of those. I decided to just continue the countries and cultures portion from our ECC program. As for science we have started a few new books called Exploring God's World and Enjoying Good Health. We also started a new Bible program which in just these first two days has taught my girls more than the one we were using from ECC. I just hope that these new changes continue to hold my girls interest.

Yesterday was our first day back and I really expected it to bomb...I mean who of us were really ready to get back to reality after a long Christmas break. By some miracle though it was a great day! In fact Annabelle told her dad last night that she likes school now! She's been the one giving me the most grief about school. So...I'm not holding my breath, but I will take what I can get!

Sammy is still working away at his kindergarten program. This week were are learning about the letter 'O'. He is starting to put words together and sounding them out. I try to make him feel so good about himself when he reads a word by himself. As adults we taking reading for granted and I don't remember what it was like learning to read but it's not as easy as it seems. It's not easy for me to teach so we are both learning together.

So...here's to a fantastic and (hopefully) successful second semester! May it be more fruitful (and less stressful) than the last :)

Change

Okay...I'm going to be honest here...not that I'm ever not honest, but you know what I mean. I started this blog with great expectations about sharing our homeschooling journey. As you can see by the frequent posts our first few weeks everything was going quite well. We were all gung-ho (or at least I was) about keeping on schedule and we would finish all our work with time to spare.

Then....it happened. Little by little our perfect schedule started to spiral downward. One week we'd end up running here or there because of one thing or another but still getting at least the minimum amount of work finished. Then, the next week the kids would huff and puff about school so we'd end up skipping  a few days because I was too upset to deal with them. We'd still manage to get most of our work done, but not all of it. I vowed to myself that I wasn't going to let this happen, and then I got sick for a few weeks. My energy level (and brain function for that matter) were skim to none so needless to say once again school went by the wayside. Before I knew it, a week had gone by and we had only attempted school one day!

At this point I am feeling very frustrated. I can see that my kids (the girls at least) are not enjoying school. I understand that many kids do not enjoy school, and as a mother of a child in public school I wouldn't have much control over that. But, as a homeschooling mother, I certainly do! Isn't that the point of homeschooling anyway? So, after having an eye-opening discussion with a friend and fellow homeschooler I have decided that it is time for change. I am still going to homeschool my kids of course, but I have decided to change our curriculum. All kids learn differently, so I am actively seeking what will work best for my kids...you know, because I can!

I am not exactly sure on which direction I will go yet, I am of course praying for guidance. I know that we are where God wants us to be, at home, together. I know that God wants me to be more involved and in charge of my children's education. But, I also know that the discord that had been taking place in our household is not part of his plan and it definitely is not part of mine!!

Where Have We Been?

Well, we've been here but due to some health issues I've not really found the time (or energy) to update our blog. After we finished up in Mexico we took the following week off because the week was filled with appointments and errands. Also, the "principal" was out of state so we thought we deserved a mini vacation too!
The next week we "visited" Canada. We were supposed to be there for two weeks, but since we took one week off I decided to combine our studies into one week so we would not get behind. Even with combining two weeks into one it was an easy week...thankfully because I have not been feeling well at all. My energy level is pretty much non-existent and my brain is on the fritz! So...I did not get many pictures from Canada but here are a few fun projects we did.

Polar Bear Soap Carving

 

We learned about the Canadian natives called Inuits. They are basically the same thing as Eskimos and they live in areas within the Arctic, from the northeastern tip of Russia, across Alaska and northern Canada. Historically they carved images of the animals they hunted or in traditional myths and stories they told, or as toys for their children. Today they make carvings as works of art or to sell to support their families. They have always carved out of materials that they find in their own environments. We carved our polar bears out of ivory soap because it is so soft and easy to carve. It was a lot of fun...and smelled good too!

 They also made igloos...and thought it would be fun to pose their polar bears near the igloos. Wonder where the Inuits are???

This week we are headed south to Brazil. We are done studying North America so now it's onto warmer climates in South America. Maybe the warm air will clear up my yuckies...you think???

Week Six: Fiesta!

Well, this week was a little crazy to say the least! There has been a nasty bug going around and I have tried my best to avoid it, but unfortunately I finally fell victim to it. The good thing was that this week's schedule (as far as school work goes) was pretty light to begin with, so I was able to take a day and get the rest that my body needed to get better. We did our regular lessons, continuing our studies in Mexico, but mostly we focused on making our decorations and pinata for our Fiesta! It just so happened that my mom's birthday was Friday and we had planned to have a Mexican feast that day to wrap up our time in Mexico so we decided to take the party to Grandma's and have a big ol' Mexican Fiesta!!

Here are the kids working on the pinata. We blew up a balloon for the shape, then did many layers of paper mache. Eventually it was ready to be covered with layers of crape paper and filled with candy!

We chose to use green, yellow, and red because they reminded us of the pretty Mexican dresses girls wear. Following another Mexican tradition we made paper flowers with tissue paper in the same colors...see them in the front of the picture? They were fun and super simple!
For dinner we had a traditional mexican meal of burritos and tacos. We had planned on making our very own tortilla shells, but time and my health just did not permit for that. But, my sister was so kind to make a "sombrero" cake to go along with our theme. It turned out great...and was delicious too!

The Birthday Girl with all  her grandkids!

After dinner and cake we went outside to break open the pinata. All that work smashed in a matter of minutes...but it was fun and so worth the joy on those precious little faces!

Week Five: Brought To You By Mexico and the Letter 'L'

Hola Amigos! Guess where we traveled to this week? That's right...Mexico!! The girls received their passports Monday morning and headed off on their very first visit to Mexico. One of the first things they learned upon their arrival was a bit of the native language, Spanish. Of course, they didn't learn the entire language (that would just be ridiculously impossible in one day), but they did learn how to say a few colors and how to count to ten. They each made their very own Spanish book so they could practice. Here is Annabelle working on hers.

 

They also learned about some of Mexico's art culture. Their first project was to make a 'paper cut.' No, they did not practice slicing their fingers with paper! The Otomi Indians of San Pablito Mexico make paper cuts from the bark of the amate tree. The cuts are symmetrical designs of people, animals, birds, or other cultures they encounter on their daily lives. Now, we didn't use actual tree bark, we just used a brown paper bag and wax paper. It was a fun and simple project and I thought they did a great job. Sammy and I did one together too. Here are our final products...can you guess what they are?

We also made some tin plate art which was developed in Mexico around 1650 when Spain restricted the availability of silver. They each had a 5x7 piece of tin which they drew a simple design on. Then they used a hammer an end of a screw driver and a nail to poke holes in the tin following the outline of their design. It resulted in some very pretty pieces of art work. Alivia made a pumpkin since it's almost Halloween.

Annabelle made a cross (she was not happy with hers, a bit of a perfectionist like her mama) and Sammy and I made a leaf. I loved  how it turned out so I framed it and added it to my shelf. 

 See...cute huh?

Of course, it was not all fun and games...okay, well maybe one game...but an educational one for sure! The girls got to play their Geography game for the first time this week. There is a game board for each continent and games pieces for each country. Since we are still in North America that is where they played. The object of the game is to see who can name the most countries. They did a great job and had fun as well. They were even asking to play it during non-school hours! YAY! Here they are playing it the first time.

This week Sammy worked on the letter 'L' and the /l/ sound. He learned a lot about leaves and did a lot of leaf projects which couldn't have been in more perfect timing! We went outside and collected 5 or 6 different leaves. Then I traced them each onto a piece of paper and stapled them to make a book. He had to color each picture to look like the real leaf. He did a great job even getting the little brown spots! We were supposed to name each leaf but I didn't know the names of the tree which the leaves came from so we had to have daddy help us with that. We then took those leaves and pressed them so we could use them later in the week to make a stained glass leaf picture.

See how pretty?

He also learned that much like a leaf can't survive on it's own if it's not connected to the plant, we can not survive if we are not connected to God. God gives us what we need to live just like the plant gives the little leaf what he needs to live. I am loving how each weeks lesson ties in simple bible truths!!

Well, that's about it in a nut shell...which by the way we have a yard full of! We did take Friday off and headed back out to Dow Gardens. It was an absolutely perfect day for it! Of course, I took my camera along too and got some beautiful pictures. You can see a few of my favorites on my left side bar. Here is one of the whole gang...my kids plus the two I babysit for. Such a cute looking group!

Week Four (Re-cap)

In the first few weeks of school we studied the seven continents, their locations, and how they appear on the map compared to the globe. Now we will be traveling around the world learning about the different countries within these continents. Of course, we started in North America right here in the good ol' US of A! The girls studied the states every day and then on Friday took a quiz to see how many they could name. They each did surprisingly well...probably better than I would have done that's for sure! We also read books about the United States and learned many interesting facts. We read about our flag and the way it has changed over the centuries as our nation as grown and blossomed. Starting tomorrow we will be traveling to Mexico to learn all about their culture.

In science we have been learning about the different types of forests and the different layers within the forests. We've collected leaf samples, and made a Nature Notebook which includes the leaf samples and drawings of the different trees. Next week we will be studying about deserts since we will be in Mexico.

This week we also started studying in the book of Matthew. Each week the girls have a new verse that they have to memorize and recite. I am very impressed by their memorization skills I must say, especially since they are also memorizing verses for church and CLC! Makes a mama proud!

Sammy is doing great as well. This week the letter we studied was 'M' and we learned a lot about the moon (you know, since moon starts with M!) And remember how we learned about the sun and the Son last week? They both give light to the world. The sun also gives light to the moon, and Jesus gives light to us. He is the light of the world, and we are the light of the world when Jesus shines through us! Isn't that cool how God does that?

If my children learn nothing else this year, I pray that they at least learn just how great our God is and what his sacrifice means for us!

Speaking of the moon, we took a field trip this week to the Planetarium (I think I mentioned that in my last post). We had a great time and definitely want to go back again! Annabelle and I had a great conversation all the way home about the planets and stars. It is so neat to be a part of her education this way. It's not just a one way street any more...we can converse about what she is learning and I actually know what she's talking about. Blessing...check!

Our group: Annabelle, Ariana, Sammy, Kimmy, Adalyn, Amber, Alivia and Kirk

 So...that about sums up our week. Can't wait to see what's in store for us next week!!

This Week...

This week has been a little crazy...to say the least. I recieved a phone call early Monday morning from a friend asking if I was available to watch her children for the week because her husband, who has been off work, got called back in. Of course I couldn't turn her down. The next day my cousin called and asked if I could watch his daughter whom we just love. Once again, I could not turn him down! Wedneday we took a field trip to the Planetarium, and today we visited our local co-op at our church.

You are probably wondering if we managed to get any school work done this week with all the distractions and extra activities. Well, I am happy to report that in deed we did do our school work and all of it to boot! It took a little rearrange of our schedule, but that is the beauty of homeschooling for sure!

Monday morning, I worked with the girls while Sammy played with the little girl I was babysitting. I let him skip school that day. Tuesday, we didn't do any during the day, but that evening when the girls were off with their friends on a field trip, Sammy and I did two days worth. Wednesday I didn't have any school scheduled anyway since I knew we'd be going on a field trip, but I made the girls get up and around first thing in the morning so they could catch up on Tuesday's work. Today, we were able to finish all our work before the co-op even started!

Honestly I am surprised that we were able to pull this off! I just really did not want to get behind so I used every spare moment I could find to keep up.

So, that is how our week has been...I will post more details about we have learned this week hopefully tomorrow or at least by this weekend. I have pictures too, but my husband has borrowed my card reader and has yet to return it ;)

/s/ /s/ Sun....

In case you couldn't guess from the title, Sammy is learning about the letter 'S' this week and the sound that it makes. Why this program starts with the letter 'S' I have no idea, but it is quite fitting for Sammy since he knows this letter well! We also talked a lot about the sun (since you know, it starts with 'S') and about The Son. The sun gives us light so we can see, and The Son also gives us light so we can see...being that Jesus is the light of the world and all! See where I'm going with this?

We did a several projects and experiments this week. First, I took Sammy into the bathroom and turned the light off so it was completely dark. Then I told him to walk around. Of course he stumbled over a few things. Then I took him outside where there is plenty of light from the sun and we could see clearly. Then I explained that Jesus is the same way for us. He lights our way so we will not stumble. He is our light just like the sun!

Then we made a memory badge in the shape of the sun and I wrote 'Jesus is the light of the world' on it. Each week we will make a badge with the weeks bible lesson on it  that Sammy will have to memorize. By the end of the year we will have 26 of them!

We also started an experiment about turning grapes into raisins. Each day we will check them and Sammy has to draw a picture of what the grapes look like. We have to count how many days it takes for them to turn into raisins.

Lastly, Sam made the sun out of spaghetti noodles. At first he thought I made the noodles for him to eat for lunch (this kid always has food on the brain!) but I explained we were using them for a project and he thought it was cool that he got to actually play with food! Here he is working on his (sticky) noodle sun...

We finished up the week early hoping that today (Friday) we would be able to spend the day in the great outdoors, having a picnic, and exploring our beautiful local community gardens...you know, in the /s/ /s/ sun! Unfortunately that is not going to be in the cards as it is rainy and blustery outside. So, instead we will move our picnic inside and make our own sunshine!

An American Art Project

We are in our third week now and starting to get the hang of things a little more. The kids are still complaining about having to do school work, but I guess what kid doesn't do that at some point, right? Of course there wasn't much complaining today when I told them there was an art project in the plans.They finished their other work in no time!

This week we are learning about North America and specifically the United States. We had a list of art projects we could choose from but I thought it would be fun to do one related to good ol' America. So, we chose the Early American Quilt design project. 

The idea of the project was for the kids to design their own American quilts. We learned that quilting bees were one of the favorite social times for women of the early American colonies. They would meet and work together, working on one quilt at a time until each person had a completed quilt. It was also a good way for them to use up their scraps of fabric. Luckily for us, I just happened to have a pile of fabric scraps just waiting to be used!

First, I cut out a 12x12 piece of cardboard for the kids to use at their base (there was no actual sewing in this project, although we may do that sometime later down the line.) Then I cut out a 4x4 template so the kids could trace it onto their chosen material and cut it out.

They each decided they wanted every square to be different so they chose nine pieces of material for their squares and went to work. Once the squares were cut they glued them onto the cardboard in the pattern they wanted. Lastly they finished it off by gluing ribbon to the edges and making a hanger.

The finished "quilts"...beautiful!

Of course, they wanted them hung up on display for everyone to see. Sammy and I worked on the one in the middle together. Notice, there is NO pink per his request!!

 It was a really great project and we had a lot of fun working together on these. I'm guessing those women of the early American colonies did too!

Week Two and Our World Cake

Well, we have another successful week under our belts! Even with taking one day off (for our field trip) we still managed to get everything done this week which makes me very happy. We've been studying a lot about maps and globes this week and about people all over the world. At the beginning of the week we had a fun art activity making a paper people chain. 

 It was a little difficult for the kids to cut it out themselves so I helped them out with that, but they loved coloring each person to look like a person from other countries.

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We finished out our week of learning about maps and globes by making our very own World Cake!

 

It was a bit of a pain, but in the end we were all very pleased with the results. I had the girls mix the cake batter and bake the cake. I used my Pampered Chef glass mixing bowl to get this round(ish) shape. Then I trimmed some of the bottom to help make it look at least a little more round. Then I frosted it with the blue for the water. To make the (fondant) land I mixed two jars of marshmallow creme with a bag of powdered sugar and green food coloring until it was not sticky and pliable enough to work with. This was the biggest pain (and biggest mess) of all, but I love how it turned out. Of course, I had WAY more than I needed! 

Then I let the girls do all the tracing and cutting...

Once all the continents were cut out we placed them on the cake. The girls had to name each continent and tell me where it needed to be placed. Hey...it can be all fun without any learning, right? (It was pretty easy anyway since they had their globe to look at.)

The last step of course was devouring the Earth in all it's sugary goodness!

Two thumbs up from Alivia...well, one anyway!