Abe Lincoln's Log Cabin

We finished Unit 30 earlier this week. One of D's history projects was to construct a "log" cabin like Abe Lincoln lived in when he was young. He did a pretty good job with the waffle pretzels (I didn't have pretzel sticks) and sunbutter. ;o) He devoured the cabin after I took pictures...

an egg in a "wagon" going west...

Today we finished up Unit 29 for both kids. D's history story was about Pioneers loading their wagons and heading west. His Science activity was to take an egg and pack it in cornmeal.



Then he was to pretend to be the "wagon" heading west. He was to go up a "mountain" and come down (steps), "roll" over the plains and bounce around like traveling on rocky ground. Of course K wanted in on the science experiment, too. So they both took turns...






Then we inspected the egg after each turn and found it survived D's trip and K's wagon trip! D was amazed! :o)


Yesterday K painted on foil and did a great job creating the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed the night He was betrayed (her Bible story yesterday). I sat with her while she painted - suggesting to paint a green line in the middle for the grass like the picture in her Bible story book. I didn't paint any of it for her - she did all the painting herself insisting the sky was to be purple like nighttime. :o)


Her completed painting...


I love to see her progress! I'm so glad I decided to do LHTH with her this year - the daily learning of letter sounds/review, Bible stories and little projects to help her cut, draw, color, count...has been so good for her!

The Star-Spangled Banner

Today for history we read the story of Francis Scott Key and the events surrounding his writing our national anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner. I also had a great book from the library with the lyrics of the song illustrated very well that we "sang through" after the story in his history book.

The activity to go along with history, was supposed to be a paper with both fireworks/flag on the same paper but since K had used the dot pens for one of her letter projects earlier in the morning and he begged to use them, I adjusted his project accordingly.

He used a sticker flag, drew a fort on a hill below it and then used the dot pens & markers to make "fireworks" in the sky like the rockets that Francis Scott Key had seen during the War of 1812.

Unit 28 Complete!

Today we finished Unit 28 for both kids.

D is learning about the adventures of Lewis & Clark and Sacajawea for history.

K is learning about Jesus' commands - today she learned about loving God and loving others as you love yourself. She learned letter "W" for unit 28 and can tell you it says "w-w-w-for wipe like Jesus wipes our sins away."

I bought a set of Crayola's oil pastels over the weekend and the kids enjoyed playing with them this morning prior to doing their regular work. I read to D a brief description from our Usborne art book about how to use them and different things you can do with them. He begged to color with them again later in the day!

D's creations:




K's creations:




K's "wagon" she cut (with a little help from me) and glued together (non-HOD activity)...


K's counting of pennies from 1-5 yesterday...


K's "perfume bottles" yesterday - when we read about Mary pouring expensive perfume on Jesus' feet after reading about the widow who gave her last two coins...giving the best of what you have or all that you have to God.


What C does during our school time...climb on everything!

pics from the past weeks...

Here are a few pics of the past 2 weeks of school...

K's learning about Jesus' parables and the day we read about the Prodigal Son she laced the path he took - away from home, spending his money, eating pig food he was so poor and then making his way back home where his father welcomed him home with open arms.  I drew the pics for her and helped her punch the holes in the thick file folder we used, but she did all the lacing by herself.

D's history the past few weeks was about the founding of our country so last week we read about the Boston Tea Party  and D was to draw a boat with crayons then paint over it with blue water colors and sprinkle actual TEA on the wet paint.  Just the people did with the real tea party - dumping the tea in the water.  K even joined in on the project...

K's math activity one day was to trace her feet, cut them out and then use them to "measure" various objects.  D joined in on this activity, too.  We talked about the REAL foot measurement being 12 inches.

K&D received some Easter goodies from Nana last weekend - Drew has really enjoyed the Wikki Stix (so has K) and enjoys making maps of marble runs or widgits puzzles...

K tried out her book with foam blocks to build her letters...