Weekly Wrap Up - Maine

If any of you ever have a really sick child, with an extremely high fever and you want to see drastic, IMMEDIATE improvement, take them to the doctor and pay the co-pay.  You don’t even need to SEE the DOCTOR…just pay the co-pay.  Fevers will diminish, puking will halt and coughing will cease.   Guess how I know THAT???

So, aside from the 104-105 fever for 4 straight days, we still managed to get a lot accomplished.  In my defense, I’d planned on letting the sick one skip her lessons, but she didn’t want to, go figure.

Geography/History:  We visited Maine this week, via books and the movie “Keeping the Promise” starring Keith Carradine and Annette O’Toole.   We also had some lovely Maine travel guides to look through and cut up for a state collage for our notebooks.   Did you know that there is a 1700 pound, life size chocolate moose in Maine?  No extra charge for that tidbit of info.

Our famous person was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  So in addition to our usual items, we included poetry writing and illustrating.

The Coast of Maine Book; by Nancy English
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, America’s Beloved Poet; by Bonnie L. Lukes
Poetry for Young People, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; edited by Frances Schoonmaker
Hiawatha; by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; illustrated by Susan Jeffers
The Children’s Hour; by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Baby Lobster Grows Up; by Katie Marsico
The Lobster: It’s Life Cycle; by Herb Taylor
Lobsters; by Jody Sullivan Rake
Prairie Dogs Kiss and Lobsters Wave “How Animals Say Hello”;by Marilyn Singer

Latin:  This was a built in review week.  We reviewed the chapters on body parts and foods.   At the end of the week we worked on ALL of the songs we’ve learned…eesh.

Language Arts:  State of being verbs was the main topic this week.  We also reviewed all of our poems from year 1 and worked on final memorization of “The Goops”.

Science:   We had two separate lessons this week.  The first was food chains.   Did you know that it takes 214 animals (mostly LARGE animals) to feed a pride of 5 lions for 1 year.   What’s more amazing is that they only spend 1 hour a day eating, 1.5 hours walking and the remaining 21.5 hours resting.   Then we hit the topic that every mom cringes over…reproduction.   At least, for now, it was animal reproduction so for a little while longer I’ve dodged the “talk”.

Math:   Olivia moved on to the 4 times tables and making change.  The times tables are going well.  The first part of the week was rough with the change topic.   I had to reword and reword and reword the topic before she could get a handle on it.   Lindsey entered the world of county by 2’s and subtracting by 1’s.

Spelling:  Olivia finished up lesson 23 of Level 2 in All About Spelling.  We’re almost finished this one for the year!

Reading:  Lindsey’s reading is getting much more fluent.  This week she learned the special sounds of “thr”.   Her reading has drastically improved this last week.  She’s even been reading out loud from the Bible…not an easy task for anyone when you’re in the book of Numbers, so I moved her up to the New Testament.

Awana:  Olivia was still sick on Wednesday, so she missed the her first night of Awana in FIVE years.  Lindsey is working through her book a second time now.

Piano:  Ditto on missing her lesson this week.  She still practiced along each day, but enthusiasm was greatly lacking.

I guess that’s it in a nutshell.   Nothing overly fru-fru or creative this week.   Visit the Weekly Wrap Up for updates on everyone else’s week.

Homeschool Showcase #66 Is Up

 

We homeschool moms are always looking for great new ideas to use with our kids.    This week, you’ll find LOTS of inspiration for education and fun at the Homeschool Showcase #66.

If you are interested in submitting a post the next submission deadline is Friday, March 4, at 6:00 PM (EST).  If you're new to Homeschool Showcase please read the guidelines before submitting your post.  Past posts can be found on the blog carnival index page. 

Weekly Wrap Up–Alabama

What a fun and busy week!  Tuesday our support group had a Valentines party for the kids.  There were lots of games, crafts and SUGAR!   The girls had a great time working on their cards for the Valentine swap.  I’m the mom who laid the camera beside the purse, but not IN the purse before leaving for the party…so yeah, no photos.

Wednesday was piano lessons and Awana.  Olivia moved on to her 2nd level books in piano.  Lindsey completed her 1st book for Sparks in Awana.

Thursday we had Activity Day and 4H.  The Dr. Seuss class is always fun!  4H this month focused water conservation efforts.

Geography:  Alabama is a great state to study.  It’s a good doorway into the civil rights movement, although I’ll admit we skimmed the surface of the topic.  We’ll revisit it in years to come.   My girls just can’t understand that skin color caused so much unrest and hatred.  They did however grasp the idea that you must be brave to break a rule that is wrong…but you have to be aware of the consequences involved.  Rosa Parks made a lasting impression.

Books we used:

Alabama; by Lucile Davis
Alabama; by Kathy Feeney
Booker T. Washington; by Lola M. Schaefer
George Washington Carver; by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack
If a Bus Could Talk, the Story of Rosa Parks; by Faith Ringgold
The Boy Who Changed the World; by Andy Andrews

Science:  We spent our week learning about animal structure.  We built several paper skeletons (gorilla, bird, fish, frog and crocodile).   We leaned that antlers are the fastest growing bone in nature.  Only males grow antlers; and they shed the antlers every fall and by the spring the new growth has started again.  Horns on the other hand can be on male and females, and they continue to grow as long as the animal is alive.  Truthfully, I didn’t know the difference between antlers and horns until this week.

Latin:  We learned more food words.  We added new words to our Latin dictionary as well. 

Language Arts:  We started on Year 2 of First Language Lessons.  I’m hoping to cover most of year 2 between now and the end of summer.   Olivia worked on her vocabulary and dictionary skills as well.

Math:  Nothing exciting to report here.  Made progress with minimal wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I hope everyone else’s week was productive.   If not, don’t worry, there’s always next week so just breathe!  and check out the Weekly Wrap Up!

Activity Day–Horton Hears a Who

Dr. Seuss lends himself easily to fun class activities!  But even Dr. Seuss can’t compete with 70 degree temperatures in mid-February.  So we spent the first 30 minutes of class time on the playground.

I love this little guy as he climbs to the highest point possible and exclaims “I’m on top of the world!”

Since this was the week after Valentines Day, and since I turned  “Horton Hears a Who”  into a loving our neighbor lesson, I couldn’t help but tie it all together with Jesus first loving us.  So we sang “Jesus Loves the Little Children” and worked on these cute “Jesus Loves Me” mini-books.

We worked on our numbers with this lovely, free connect the dot picture of Horton.

We also made these cute little “clover” magnets to put on the fridge, as a reminder that our actions affect the world around us.  (Michaels has a large selection of Dr. Seuss paraphernalia.)

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Our library has a large array of puppet/book combinations.  Thankfully they had a Horton puppet and everyone got to take a turn being the puppeteer.

This next activity was by far the most popular!   I bought these cute little heart shaped mazes, and we raced our “dust speck” through the maze.   The kids LOVED this!

I love it when the kids can’t wait to show their stuff to their moms at the end of the day!

Freebie Crafts

First let me state that this is NOT a plug for any particular chain of stores.  However I thought this might be something that my readers are interested in.

Lowe’s offers a FREE craft day twice a month. (Check your local store for their schedule.)  The projects are relatively easy.  After completing the project, children are given a FREE patch to attach to their FREE apron.  They also get a lovely little certificate for each project (yup, free).

This past weekend the craft was a little wooden music box.  The girls LOVE going with Daddy to work on these little treasures.

Home Depot typically does a once a month free day too.  Again, check your local store for their schedule.  Same deal there – free craft, apron and buttons to go on the apron.

I will point out one sad thing…typically my husband is the only guy there.  It’s always moms and grandma’s trying to build with their kids/grandkids.  My hubby becomes the community building expert, and he loves it.  But come on dads…STEP UP, do stuff with your kids!!

Weekly Wrap Up–Illinois

Another productive week is behind us!   We’ve had a lot of fun this week.  We’ve spent the week “cupid-ing” those around us (similar to our elf-ing project from Christmas). On Saturday, Olivia attended a Victorian Valentines tea and made the news.  The best news is that I found a WONDERFUL chiropractor who has pretty much fixed all that ails me.  Well at least I can walk normal again anyway!

Language Arts:  We finished up First Language Lessons Level 1 (1st grade).  We’ll start on the 2nd grade level next week.  The goal is to go slow enough for Lindsey to keep up, but not too slow where Olivia gets behind.

Science: Our focus was on amphibians.  Did you know that in Japan there is a 5 foot long, 100 lb. salamander?  I don’t believe I want one of those for a pet!

Geography/history:  Obviously (by the title) we were on Illinois this week.  The girls were really impressed by the Sears Tower.   We covered our normal map, state facts, flag, and coin.  However, the majority of our time was spent learning about Ronald Reagan.   Studying him during his birthday week (February 6) wasn’t in my plans, but I’m glad it worked out that way!  The local papers have had several really good articles on Mr. Reagan this week, so we’ve added those to our state notebooks as well.  I love being able to study someone I remember so fondly!

Books we used:

Illinois; by Barbara Somerville
Illinois; by Andrew Santella
Illinois; by Kathy P. Anderson
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; by Amy Margaret
Ronald Reagan An American Hero; by
Across Five Aprils; by Irene Hunt

Math:  Still chugging along!

Latin:  We’ve moved on to food words, so we’re having fun incorporating those into our day.  My husband laughs at our songs, but hey it helps us remember.

Awana:  Lindsey finshed up her book this week.  We’ll start reviewing the scriptures for the rest of the year. Olivia has one more jewel to go and she’ll be finished as well.

Ballet/tap:   Olivia’s class is working on their pieces for the performance awards next month.  We did get a sneak peek at the costumes for the spring recital and oh.my.gosh!!  too cute doesn’t even come close!

Piano:  Olivia loves her music! She’s worked her way through the first 4 piano books and her new books arrived this week. 

Be sure to visit Kris at the Weekly Wrap Up and read about everyone else’s week.

Valentines Day–Sharing the Love, and the Calories

Elf-ing at Christmas is one of our favorite things.  We love making goodies and then randomly showing up at people’s homes/work for a drive by elf-ing.   I read on another blog recently (and I wrote the name down and now can’t find it) about the fun of “cupid-ing” and had an ah-ha moment!  Why not share the love at Valentines Day…duh!

So this week we’ve been making homemade Valentines cards and goodies!   Cherry chip cookies with cherry frosting and LOTS of sprinkles!   I’m not a big fan of fruit flavors, but I have to admit these were very good!

The little heart warmers targeted the neighbors, da coach, and the ballet studio.   Then just for grins and giggles they picked a few strangers who looked a bit stunned at first by cute children presenting them with love and cookies.

Victorian Valentines Tea

I love to find activities outside our home that allow the girls to explore new learning experiences.   It’s even better when those experiences are fun and extremely well done!   Such was the case this past weekend when Olivia was privileged to attend a Victorian Valentine’s Tea at the  Woodrow Wilson Library and Museum.

The Educational Staff did a wonderful job of teaching the girls about proper etiquette and Victorian period life.   While attending, the girls made calling cards, handmade Valentines, fans and a lovely little glove/poem.

The highlight of course had to be the tea itself.  The young ladies were served a three course tea (although, I’m sure a few of the items weren’t too popular with this young crowd.)   The menu included:

Spiced Hot Tea
Scones
Chicken Puffs
Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches
Pineapple and Cream Cheese Heart Sandwiches
Heart Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Miniature Cupcakes

All of the girls were being so prim and proper when we went to pick them up.  I for one was greatly impressed with this 2 hour step back into time.  Olivia was all but giddy and poor Lindsey is praying they have it again when she’s 7!

Both of the local news stations did coverage on the event.   Olivia is featured in this clip pretty often.  (Be patient for the mini-commercial to pass).

Weekly Wrap Up–Mississippi

This was another “normal” week.  No overbookings, woohoo!  The only extra thing we did was a visit to the funeral home on Thursday night to support Olivia’s baseball coach during the loss of a family member.  You may ask why that’s included in our weekly wrap up, but it was part of life skills.  I used it as an opportunity to teach them about putting the needs of others ahead of ourselves; proper behavior for solemn events and how to show God’s love to the hurting.  All that was much more valuable that our “book learning”.   

Then Olivia taught me a bit about childlike faith on the way home from the gathering.  She posed the question of whether the deceased had Jesus in his heart, and I said yes that based on what I’d been told of him he’d asked Jesus into his heart long ago, so he’s in Heaven .  After a minute or two, a big ole grin crossed her face and she said “then that means his dream finely came true”.    The 7 year old realizes that being in Heaven is something to look forward to.

Also along those same lines, Olivia was baptized on Sunday night and took part in her first communion service.  It was wonderful!  People we haven’t seen in years came to be a part of her baptism and there was a lot of restoration that took place.  God is awesome like that!

In less important matters, we studied about Mississippi.  We did our usual map, state facts, state flag, 2 page layout.  Jim Henson of Muppet fame was our famous person of the week; although Lindsey was really hoping it would be Elvis.  In addition to the books we watched a few Muppet movies.

Books we used:

Mississippi; by Pamela Dell
Mississippi; by David Shirley and Patricia K. Kummer
Must See Mississippi; by Mary Carol Miller
Jim Henson, Young Puppeteer; by Leslie Gourse
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; by Mark Twain
The Mighty Mississippi; by Charnan Simon

We covered all of our regular subjects without problem of fanfare.   I know it’s a brief wrap up this week, but no point in dragging out a short story!  Besides, a big old package of new books from The Critical Thinking Company arrived today…and I can’t wait to look through them.  I’m sure you can relate.

So be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up while I go drool on my new products!

Read and Share Stories about Jesus - Review

 

Read and Share Stories About Jesus by Gwen Ellis.  Illustrations by Steve Smallman is a wonderful collection to your child’s library.   My kids and I both love the beautiful color illustrations.  I also like the fact that this is a large size board book and will last through lots of reading and handling.

The thirteen Bible stories are broken down into kid size bites, but it does reference the complete book, chapter and verse for those who want to read more. The thing I like the best is that after each story there is a discussion question to help get kids talking about what they’ve learned, and to show them ways to implement that learning into their lives.

I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers for review purposes only.  I received no other compensation.  The opinions in this review are strictly my own.