river labels & lesson 50 in 100 EZ Lessons!

Yesterday was co-op all morning. We then ate packed lunches in the car while driving to homeschool PE. With a few errands on our way home after PE. It was quite the day, but the kids enjoyed it and C survived without a nap until the way to the chiropractor last night. :o)

We picked back up with Unit 17.Day 3 today for both kiddos.

It was nice to be home all day! To go along with his history reading, for science, D created a river out of playdoh and water today...
He labeled the source, bank, bed and mouth of the river...using paper, tape & toothpicks.

The river banks held the water in the river!

At the end of his project, after filling the river, he then decided to FLOOD it making the water flow over the banks! I love to see the "light bulb" come on when he fully understands something!

K's math today was counting from 11-20 and writing the missing numbers!

She finished this page in her Do It Carefully book - she began it on Friday but only colored 2 colors. She finished all the red & green today. She was very happy to finish it!

We celebrated doing Lesson 50 in 100 EZ Lessons today! I can't believe she's halfway done. It amazes me what she reads around the house - she read a book title today and when I asked her if she read it, she said, "No, I'm just pretending to read!"

This is the story she read today...She loves to flip to the end of the book to see the last story (D did this too!) and get excited about all the words she'll read at the end of the book.

painting & pretty crown

The kids did school Thursday (no pics) and Friday but I didn't have time to blog about it until now. :o)

K made a very pretty crown to go with the story of Hezekiah. She chose to use fake flowers and lots of "glitter stickers" (what else?!) including glitter fish that she placed inside the crown. She's been wearing it around the house the past few days.

D painted a water color sunset scene after his history reading on Friday - the book described an evening scene by a lake with the trees outlined (appearing to be black) around the lake at sunset.

D begged to get out the poster paints and I said, no. I then realized why he wanted them - he expected the watercolor paints to perform like the poster paints - bold, dark colors. I had to explain that watercolors are designed to be softer colors unlike the poster paints. You use the water to spread the color around, but it's not going to bold and that's okay. :o)

He accepted that explanation and went on to complete his picture...using foil to be the "glittering" lake and black construction paper trees. He was very proud of it and showed it off to Daddy Friday night!

K's work, C's a distraction & D's books

We had to do school in the morning while C was up & playing, so we could had our afternoon FREE for homeschool PE at a nearby college. C was quite a distraction - even though I tried to keep her busy with busy bag activities & computer games. It showed me we're not ready to school again full-time in the morning. :o) K did a great job cutting out small pictures and matching the beginning sounds "F" and "T" to the right animal on the page...

She also counted 10 foam shapes in the bowl and then the loose "ones" - it's nice to keep practicing this concept! The "ones" was partially erased thanks to the little fingers of C!D finished out Unit 16 today. And we finished our fantasy genre read aloud - The Cricket in Times Square. He was disappointed at the ending...the cricket left the city to return to his home in Connecticut. We checked out 2 sequels from the library to read and found a cartoon DVD of it, too!

Outside of our curriculum, he's been reading the normal Magic Tree House books at night and has read them all. It wasn't my first choice of reading material for him, but thankfully he picked up on the evolution material in the books and we were able to discuss why certain things aren't true - based on our belief in God's Word. I was proud of him second-guessing some of the dates in the books (millions of years ago, etc). However, I am not letting him read any of the Merlin Mission Magic Tree House books, though he's seen them at bookstores and asked about requesting them from our library. What I read of them involved a lot of wizards & spells. I explained to him that we are not going to read books about wizards/spells as their powers do not come from God. I don't feel God wants us dwelling on those things as He has called us things that are true, pure, noble, lovely, admirable...(Philippians 4:8). Thankfully, D understood.

He found a few Hank, The Cowdog books from the library to begin reading. We'll see how he likes them. They're silly mysteries, longer than the MTH books, so it'll take him at least 2 nights to finish them. :o)

brotherly love, ice cream scoops, caterpillars & ziplines

D drew this picture today of one way he can be "more loving" - it went with his story time today as all during the fantasy genre reading we've been emphasizing the trait of "Brotherly Love." It's him cleaning up K's room...without her knowing. I thought it was very thoughtful - he came up with this all on his own. ;o)


K busily working at coloring her "Do it Carefully" page today - in the big chair in the school area.


D proudly showing off his "Lego Zipline" that he constructed on his own after seeing one similar made on a PBS show last week. :o)

For D's math today, he was instructed to use circular objects to be "ice cream scoops" on top of cones. We had fun talking about opening our own ice cream shop, too! :o) He's getting the 3's facts and I love it's not strict memorization but instead lots of gentle practice daily!

K used a dot pen to make caterpillars today - adults have 10 dots and kids have less than 10! She then sorted them into tens/ones. She's getting it! :o)

weaving & counting to 10!

Guess who got into the markers again? Yep, C! She was playing with plastic toy lipstick but then realized the red/orange/purple markers were even more like REAL lipstick! Thank goodness for baby wipes! K completed this paper yesterday...she colored it all by herself and did all the cutting! It was the story of Baby Moses...

D began multiplying by 3 yesterday. He used a Lego man to "skip count" by 3's on a yardstick all the way from 0-36. He love it!

To go with his history story yesterday, he was to "weave" a red blanket. As he began to "weave" it, he said, "I feel like a real Indian!"

He chose the light green, blue and orange to be the weaving strip colors - good choices!

When he finished, he asked if he could use it as a place mat for the table. I agreed and with my help, he cut clear contact paper to "laminate" it, so it will last through crumbs & spills. ;o)
Today for K's math, she put 10 foam shapes on a paper with 10 spaces. This became a group of 10 in the ten's column!

She's getting the tens/ones concept!!!

Faithful...even with the garage cans!

We finished unit 15 today...

D's memory verse was Matthew 25:21 "His master replied, 'Well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; come & share your master's happiness."

He memorized it and we talked about it each day (usually answering questions about specifics of the verse, what it means, how it applies to him). One day early last week, we talked about being "faithful" with the small things (jobs, responsibilities) we have to do so that we can be trusted with larger things (jobs, responsibilities). Yesterday, I asked him to take the garbage cans from the curb to the side of the garage after the trash truck came by. He was silent for a second, then told me (in a good attitude) that he didn't really feel like it, but that he would do it because he wants to be faithful. (WOW!) I thanked him and he took care of his "job." Daddy heard about it last night was in awe, too!

I thank God that He allows us to see glimpses of HIS WORD working in our children's lives. A moment like this gives me encouragement to be faithful in what He's called me to do right now...home school!

back at it!

Daddy was D's substitute teacher yesterday as I was still sick and he had the day off. It was easy for him - just open the guide & go! Another great benefit to HOD, in my opinion! :o)

Today, even though I'm not 100% and C took a short nap, we were able to get school done ~ thank goodness!

You can tell C still doesn't feel 100% either. :o(

K enjoyed playing musical instruments in "praise" to God as Solomon did when the temple was complete.

She begged to do her "reading lesson" again and so last week we picked back up in 100 Easy Lessons. She's on Lesson 45 and loving it! Yeah! I was afraid we'd have to start at the beginning, but she remembers it all and is doing better than in the fall ~ amazing the difference a few months makes. :O)

D constructed this cow to go with his history reading today. He even made the cow chewing on "wheat" like you see farmers doing in pictures (not sure where this idea came from?!). He even drew a snail in the grass (lower left corner) - something he learned about on PBS show this morning.

He learned to cut "fringe" for the grass in the picture...using his scissors at first and then later switching to mine as they were easier to cut such long fringe!
I took this picture on Friday - C is playing the "bubble" game on a new website. It's great because there are lots of "early learning" games that you can choose to have the child use only the space bar to operate. She LOVES it and has asked to play it a lot since Friday!

marshmallow toothpick temple

We did school Wednesday and that was the last day of "official" school for the week. :o( Both D&K caught their daddy's virus and are sick with high fevers & coughs. Yesterday they spent the whole day laying on the couch/chair & a half or their beds, except for going to the doctor's office. This is so unusual for them.

We will be doing some reading today, but no moving or pencil/paper activities.

Kate built this "temple" after reading about Solomon on Wednesday - using marshmallows & toothpicks.

Hopefully, we'll be back at HOD on Monday with healthy kiddos!

broth, hens, robes & action numbers

We completed school Thursday, Friday, yesterday & today ~ I didn't get around to posting on this blog until today. :o) We also moved the school stuff back downstairs since the computer is now downstairs, too. It just works better, though I do miss the natural light from the dining room...

Thursday, D enjoyed making "broth" just like one of the pilgrims served to an Indian named, Massasoit, who was sick. He used a coffee filter to be the "stomach" and a cup to represent the small intestine. He used water for "broth" and we saw how quickly it went through the stomach and entered the small intestine.
He then crumbled crackers into the water to symbolize solid food...
...and saw that it didn't go as fast through the stomach! So when you're sick - it's best to have liquids (water, juice, broth, so nutrients can enter your body FAST!) :o)
He enjoyed eating broth out of homemade chicken noodle soup that we had twice this weekend (gotta love leftovers!). :o) He referred back to the story - and even told his daddy (who was sick this weekend) to drink lots of water & eat broth!

K's Do It Carefully page from Thursday...She cut out various objects and sorted them by gluing them in the correct box: "building a bird house" or "cleaning inside our house."
Yesterday was co-op and what a busy morning it was! D is enjoying his ASL class - learning to sign the alphabet, count to 10 and his name. His other classes are the Human Body and Native Americans ~ he came home with a paper skeleton he had glued together (said it was easy ;o) and a tiny tepee he constructed. K loves her preschool class - her highlight was playing "house" with her friends. And C, well, she's not doing well in the nursery...she'll learn.

Today while I worked with D, the girls spent a few minutes putting small straw pieces into a large, empty Parmesan canister...one of our "busy bag" activities.

D had to listen to an excerpt from his fantasy genre book (The Cricket in Times Square) and then draw what was described in the excerpt I read. Two characters wore Chinese robes..."it was purple and lavender, and had designs of the sun, moon and stars..." (the robe he drew on the left) and the other (pic on right) "was blue and green, covered with pictures of fish and reeds adn water lilies." Thankfully we had the computer on and searched for a picture reeds & water lilies so he could remember what they looked like...For math today, he chose 12 unifix cubes to be "hens" and had to roll the die (thankfully I have one that goes from 1-12) setting out that number of "hens." He then gave each "hen" 2 "eggs" (small marshmallows) and had to figure out how many eggs were "laid" altogether...he's doing great job with the 2 facts for multiplication!!! He breezed through 3 worksheets today! I'm loving Singapore - does a great job teaching the facts with lots of practice, examples & word pictures/problems rather than just memorizing them!
To go with his history today, he moved cows from an "island" while I moved them to the "mainland" in 3 minutes - he beat me - kept his cows on the island faster than I could move them off! We read about the Dutch settling in New York City (New Amsterdam as they called it) and brought some sheep, cows & pigs but kept them on the island for awhile as there weren't pasture areas on the mainland. :o) Of course, C and K had to join in on the fun after the "race" was over!
K is still working on reading number words (we're not writing them at all - we'll do that next year after she learns to write). :o) Today, she had to pull out the words from a bag and then do that number of a certain action...clapping 3x when she pulled out a "three"...

...twisting around "eight" times...she was dizzy after that one!

Her happy grin - just being silly!

Touching her toes "ten" times!