Weekly Wrap Up- Time to Make New Friends

  Our main focus over the past month has been to get the family back into a normal routine and   settling into the house.  I felt like it was time to find a home school group in the area. So last week I was searching and emailing and was contacted by a couple of kind ladies.  They were welcoming and asked us to join the group for park day on Wednesday.  We woke up in the morning eager to go meet some new friends.  We arrived at the park and were welcomed with smiling faces.  Soon after we arrived it began to sleet.  The kids didn’t mind and were having fun so we hung around for a little while. It was so great to be around other homeschooling mommies again.  The group sounds just the right pace for us.  We are looking forward to meeting up with them again. 

Some other highlights...

We woke up to snow capped mountains this week

Little Man came to me this week and wanted to make a necklace for Grandma.  We pulled out some penne pasta, pony beads, and yarn.  He found this bead in the container(the only one like it)and thought it was “so cool”. 

 While he was stringing on the pasta and beads he was talking about how much “Grandma is going to love this necklace.”   “I think this necklace will make her happy!” Such a sweetie pie! Then he wanted to model his creation-he, he.

 He has become mama's little helper in the kitchen too.  Everytime I am baking he's there "I want to help!".  Then he drags the step ladder over to the counter top ready to be of assistance.  His favorite part is licking the bowl of course:)

We also worked on numbers and counting a bit this week. Most of the time he was enjoying tag along lessons, baking, and hanging out with mom.  We had a lot of cuddle time on the couch reading books and playing with his toys(doctor and his Thomas trains were his favorite this week). 


Sweet Girl has finished A Gathering of Days:  A New England Girl's Journal.  She wrote a book report about it for her writing assignment.  She has now started reading Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  We'll have to check the weather reports and plan a trip to go back to Virginia City.  There is a Mark Twain museum and it's where he started his career.
She started Module 4:  Science, Applied Science, and Technology in Apologia General Science.  She has had a couple of experiments this week learning about simple machines( making a lever and pulley).  I can't say enough about how wonderful this curriculum is. The book gives wonderful information and explanations of what was supposed to happen and why it happened.  I am no scientist and Dr. Jay L. Wile has made teaching Science painless.
For her independent History reading she has started reading Streams to River, River to Sea which is about the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

Which brings me to History...this week we started A History of US:  The New Nation(1789-1850)Book 4.  Some of the topics included in our studies-President George Washington, President John Adams, President Thomas Jefferson, Judicial Review, and Lewis and Clark.  Some links I found this week-  Washington is Elected ,  Thomas Jefferson, Judicial Review and Construction-the nature of the Supreme Court, Biography of John Adams, and Lewis and Clark Expedition.  We only viewed a couple but I figured I'd share what I found;) 
Silly Guy wrote a newspaper this week in.  It was to take place in 1803.  He had a lot of fun with this assignment. Many of the topics he wrote about we've covered in his History and Literature lessons.  However, he did some additional research for the assignment.   Usually for writing I have him write out his assignment.  But being a newspaper, I gave him the option of choosing a template and to type the assignment.  Writing a newspaper was a hit with my Silly Guy.  

Literature-he finished reading The Lewis and Clark Expedition which he really liked. I also had him read some short stories (historical stories)in an Abeka book I picked up at an used curriculum fair.  

In Science this week he learned about trees.  Mostly reading the text and some books I grabbed from the library. We did do some tree and leaf rubbings.  Today he finished up the "Plants Unit" with a quiz.   

  I enjoy decorating the house for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So for art this week we started a two week project "Ceramic Turkey Bowls"using air drying clay.   Little Man had a different idea about the clay project. At first my 3 year old refused to allow anyone to help him.  Then he made a HUGE mess with the sponge and water.  I had a small pond on my kitchen table. So, I helped him to form the bowl.  I think he'll enjoy painting his bowl more.  Not to say he didn't have a blast splishing and splashing clay water everywhere:).       

 









Oh, I think they're gonna be cute filled with nuts or candies. 
I am so glad to have worked Art and Music into our weekly schedule this year.  In the past it has been on the schedule too but it was one of those things-If we have time.  With our schedule not jammed packed with so many activities we now have the time.  It's  really been a gift.  A gift of  time together to create:). 
 One thing that arrived in the mail this week is our new wall map. Our old one was ruined in the move. The kids(especially Silly Guy)loves to look at the map. They'll quiz each other for fun. Just by having a map on the wall since Silly Guy was 4(when we started homeschooling) he can pretty much locate anything on a map quick too. This year we've used Sonlight's maps(which aren't labeled) for our History/Geography lessons.  We've had fun with these maps and have turned Geography lessons into a daily Geography bee.
Let's just say Geography has become quite competitive around our home. Fun!
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Weekly Wrap Up-A Week of Perfect Timing

When I started writing this post I didn't know what to title it.  As I went through our week I realized we had some perfect timing. 
Some highlights for the week...
Our week started off with a much needed nature walk.  It always is relaxing and therapeutic to spend time in nature and appreciate His creation. 
I might be behind the times on this one but wanted to share a link I found.  It is an online field guide for identifying wildlife- enature.com .  Which is going to be useful to us being new to these parts.  We found this lizard sunbathing on some rocks in our front yard.  This website was great and user friendly.

the desert spiny lizard

Art this week, we stepped away from the picture study.  My kids love picture studies and are learning a lot about art and the artists. However, I chose to do a "lesson" from Incredible Art Lessons.  The objective of the lesson was to create a design by reversing positive and negative space. They used leaves that we collected from our nature walk to develop the designs.

This week in History we finished A History of US Book 3 From Colonies to Country.  Some

topics studied this week: the Constitutional Convention, Constitution, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Bill of Rights.  Perfect timing #1- learning about the forming of our government during election week.  We ended it with the question"Will you preserve America's democracy?".  Which lead us into thought and discussion about voting and some current events.     

Anywho, what an amazing time period!  We are loving this series.  Mrs. Hakim writes like she is sitting in the room having a conversation with you.  Anything that grabs their interest(and mine-he,he) and provoke's thought get's a thumbs up in my book.  The kids also worked on memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution, finished up their timelines(for this period 1735-1791), maps, etc.  I wanted to share a couple of links  The Constitution Preamble Song- Schoolhouse Rock video

Ratification of the Constitution- video accompanied by text

The Bill of Rights- a slide show naration



Sweet Girl's History notebook

Perfect timing #2-Sweet Girl  read some poems about autumn this week by Robert Frost.  She finished Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold this week for her independent history reading.  In Literature she began reading A Gathering of Days: A New Enland Girl's Journal, 1830-32 by: Joan W. Blos.  She also read the tale of Rip Van Winkle. 

Which leads me to her writing assignment.  It was to write two epitaph's for Rip Van Winkle.  One that might have been on his gravestone before he fell asleep for 20 yrs, and one that may have been written after his actual death.  Perfect timing #3-We set out for Silly Guy's dry seed hunt project at Fort Churchill.  At the fort they had a cemetary where she was able to read some epitaph's that were on the tombstone's there. 

She had a quiet week in Apologia General Science.  Basically reading and finishing up Module 3 with studying and taking the test. 

On to Silly Guy, this week in Science(Christian Kids Explore Biology) he continued learning about plants.  His lessons were focused on plant reproduction and fruits/vegetables.  Along with reading he had an experiment and a project.  His experiment was to dissect fruits and vegetables and then classify them first into either a fruit or vegetable.  Then into different groups:  dry, juicy, pomes or drupes/stone fruits.  The best part of this experiment was all of the taste testing going on by both Silly Guy and Little Man.  It was funny.  It was as if they had never tasted a fruit or a vegetable before.  Little Man ,who loves Science, was chiming in,"Ohh, it has seeds...Yup, it's a fruit!" 

Big knife but under my supervision!! Kids don't try this at home!!

Silly Guy's Science notebook

Then they(the boys) had a project- a dry seed hunt.  We pulled into the parking lot at Fort Churchill.  Which brings me to perfect timing #4- I almost didn't park in this lot and we wouldn't have seen these trees otherwise.  Little Man got out of the van, pointed up to the tree and shouted..."Seeds!!"  

We really didn't know what kinds of seeds we would be finding in the desert. Much to our surprise we did find some.  It was a beautiful place to go on a seed hunt too!!  Silly Guy added his findings to his Science notebook.   

Silly Guy's Science notebook

 Although he didn't want to leave, Little Man couldn't wait to make a collage with his findings. 

Silly Guy finished Sign of the Beaver at the start of the week for his Literature study.  Now he is reading Lewis and Clark Expedition by Richard L Newberger. For his independent History reading he read and finished If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution. 

I added Easy Grammar to his Language Arts curriculum last week.  I felt he needed more grammar practice.  The lessons are short, sweet and to the point.  It's great for him and he's picking it up(getting 100%'s ).  Now if I can get him to use what he learns in his writing!! In writing he had a few journaling assignments.  He loved this assignment!! He is my journalist.  He carries his journal with him everywhere; the house, outside, the car, to bed, to the store, etc. Always writing about something:)

Math went a little better this week.  Previously, I was having him complete his Math assignments in the school room/office.  Well, I decided I would move him into the kitchen. He said he likes having me in the same room with him for Math.  So that's what we did;)

  Always growing and learning what works best for them. 

 This week a milestone was reached in our house. I was in the shower and a little boy comes into the bathroom with a shirt on his head..."Mom, I am going to get dressed." I replied,"Okay honey.I'll be out in a few minutes to help you." "No mom. I am going to do it all by myself." I giggled as I peeked out of the shower door watching him walk away. A few minutes later that same not so little boy walked back in completley dressed from head to foot. He had picked out his clothes and got dressed all by himself. He knew how proud we all were and asked me to get the camera. This is his pose-he, he. We were so proud of him(holding back the tears)!!

such a proud big boy

Along with learning by his big brother and sister side, Little Man worked on writing some of his letters and numbers.  He is very interested in learning how to read.  He is pointing to words on the page and asking me,"What does that say?"  Also if a book has sight words listed he will ask me too. At bedtime after we read some books he will then  tell me a story of his own.  I can not express in words how much this excites me!!!

Ruins at Fort Churchill-more about the fort later:)

It was a great week where lesson plans worked with perfect timing!
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Le Nozze di Figaro

Last week, I took my two oldest children to the Honolulu Opera Theater. We saw Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart. We had never been to the opera before and it was a wonderful experience for us. I wanted to take them to this particular opera because we will be studying Mozart in Music History this year.
The kids enjoyed getting dressed up from head to foot. It was the first time my daughter wore heels(small ones but they were still heels). Her father was a little frightened but I am happy to report she did survive.
Once we arrived at the opera it was packed full of people. We were running a little late, so we rushed to our seats and sat down. A few minutes later, the lights dimmed and the music began to play.
The orchestra began playing and their beautiful music filled the room. Some of the music was so moving it touched your soul. It was a great time and I am looking forward to taking them again.

Composer Study-Antonio Vivaldi

I purchased Harmony Fine Arts-Art and Music Appreciation a few months back. We are just getting started with the curriculum. Barb the Harmony Art Mom has designed a curriculum that is easy to follow and very user friendly for busy moms. The cds that are recommended for the study could even be listened to in the car. It has given us the opportunity to study composers and some of the most beautiful music.

This week we finished up our study on Antonio Vivaldi(1678-1741). While you listen to the music she suggest you write down images or words that come to your mind. Today we listened to The Four Seasons, Op 8 Autumn and Winter. I thought it was interesting what the kids wrote down.

More on Antonio Vivaldi click here

The Four Seasons, Op 8 Autumn

Sweet Girl-Leaves falling to the ground, birds flying, telling a story, the weather turning cold

Silly guy- Falling down a waterfall, London, jumping lizards

Mama- A coronation ceremony, someone sad in their room, then happy because they could go outside to play

The Four Seasons, Op 8 Winter

Sweet girl-Snow falling, sharks chasing someone, falling, sitting in a rocking chair sipping hot coco, haunted houses, sadness

Silly guy- A cat chasing a mouse, someone sad about his grandparents

Mama- running through the woods, mad scientist, a spooky hallway