lots of artwork!

It was our 2nd day back with HOD today (yesterday was a vacation day for Daddy...need I say more :) and things went well.  D surprised me and wanted to start his work right away this morning! 

D's science notebook page today all about the tide!

He copied Psalm 95:5 at the top and did a really nice job!

He's beginning DITHOR (Drawn into the Heart of Reading) and we kicked it off with an ADVENTURE scavenger hunt to find his book since he's reading Adventure genre. :)  He's opted to do his reading at bedtime for this...He was begging me to let him read the entire book.  I told him we have to slow down for our DITHOR books as we have certain activities to do after each reading.  I love that he loves to read!  :)

K busily spreading glue (with a paintbrush) for her collage about her history (Jesus is the center of history!  Everyone prior to that looked FOR Him and everyone since looks BACK at the cross and then forward to his coming again!).

 She was really proud of her work!

 As we were singing her rhyme/poem today she wanted to wear her reindeer antlers for the part where she "leaps" like deer in North America!  I've been having her point out the continents as we sing the song...she knows where we live and is learning the others. :)

Little C wants to do everything the others are doing...so today she sat at the table for a little while coloring with her crayon roll.  She was upset in this pic because she had just broken her gray crayon.  She colors so hard!

Ornament for Day #12 - the Census (jar with rice and 2 marbles with faces to represent Mary & Jospeh).  It was fun to do this activity today because the chapter we read in Jotham's Journey just talked about the census, too!

D opted to do his art after lunch this afternoon.  He did a great job learning about foreground, middle ground & background in his painting.  He mixed various shades of purple to make the waves.

 His finished artwork...

I'm thankful we made the switch back to HOD.

Ornaments & HOD

Day #9 - Joseph ornament (similar to their Mary ornaments they made a few days ago).  They wanted Mary & Jospeh together in their separate pictures.

Day #10 - Pillow ornament - reminds them of the angel appearing to Joseph in a dream telling him it is okay to have Mary as his wife and that she will have JESUS!

C is pretending to sleep in the pic...I think. :)

Our HOD box arrived Friday.  As soon as I opened it, K was grabbing her books and begging to do work. How could I say no?!  She did a great job.  She even woke up this morning asking me if she could do another page in her Thinking Skills book...ha!  I told her that it's Saturday, Daddy's home and we're enjoying a break from school for the weekend.

D began Bigger, too.  He really enjoyed R&S grammar - maybe because it was simple (he already knows what sentence is)?!  He also aced his dictation and was happy to make a pencil check mark by the 1 to show he's past that dictation. :)  He also enjoyed his history reading about Columbus and when we reviewed the continents he remembered all of them but one from memory.

Truth in the Tinsel - Day #8

Today we made the SUN after reading about Zechariah's song in Luke 1 where he refers to Jesus as the "rising sun" in that passage.  (The kids AND I learned something new today!)  :)

I let C have her own glue bottle - she was delighted! :)

Truth in the Tinsel - Days 4-7

Here are the past four days of ornaments...the kids are learning so much & having fun!!!

Day #4 - Gabriel - Angel Ornament (jingle bell, pipe cleaner, wrapping paper, ribbon)

Day #5 - Mary Ornament (flat clothespin, paper, ribbon)

Day #6 - Mary & Elizabeth - (watercolor paints, paper & pop dots to make circle belly stick out :)

Day #7  - Mary's Song - (old CD, flat marbles, ribbon) - their favorite so far, I think!

Truth in the Tinsel

While we're between main curriculum...we're focusing a lot of our studies this month on Advent/Christmas - celebrating the birth of our Savior!  I found an amazing ebook online, Truth in the Tinsel.  I LOVE IT!  D&K&C enjoy it - scripture reading each day with an ornament to make (all things can pretty much be found in our craft stash or around the house).

Here are Days 1-3...

Don't let D's face fool you...he LOVES it, just didn't want his pic taken. :)

We're also reading Jotham's Journey each day and the two oldest kiddos LOVE it!

Making the Circle...

I decided to keep this blog open to hopefully encourage others homeschooling mamas?!  :)

After 5 weeks of using Sonlight (which is a really good curriculum) we're making the full circle and going back to HOD.  These past four months have been like a Merry-go-Round, but I keep telling myself, I didn't know it would/wouldn't work for us unless we tried it.  Thankfully everything resells very well, so I don't lose any $.  :)  And, the kids have still LEARNED...math, LA, reading, writing have stayed the same...geog, science & history have been what's changed - but they don't really know - they just know we've been reading lots of books...and will keep reading lots of books.  :)

I learned while using FIAR - it was too simple for D - he needed to be challenged more.  I learned while using Sonlight, D was challenged somewhat, but K was in over her head!  Because there was quite a bit of reading, she would often get bored and want to go play which meant she wouldn't be listening to what I was reading (yes, we tried playing with quiet things while reading - it worked sometimes, but not often).

So my top 3 reasons for the change back to HOD...

1. HOD really trains my kid's hearts.  I have GREATLY missed the spiritual discussions these past four months that we had while using HOD the past two years.  Yes, I realize we can have great devos on our own, but there's just something about it being laid out in the guide book, written at their level with passages they understand, questions to make them really think about what we've read in the Bible.

2. HOD's open & go plans...they cover everything without a lot of work for me, so if I'm brain-dead, tired or really busy things still get done!

3. HOD allows great one-on-one time with my kiddos.  I also know D will be challenged in his guide (Bigger)  because he's right in the middle age range and K will good in her guide (LHFHG).  AND...something I just discovered that while working with one kiddo, it frees up the other to play/entertain busy, little C (instead of always popping in a DVD, yes major mommy-guilt here over all the DVDs she's watched the past few weeks so we could get our reading done!)

geography & dances

We finally put up the large markable wall map that came with our Sonlight materials!  Yesterday, the kids had fun adding countries we've already read/learned about the past few weeks.  They "argue" over who gets to star/mark the next country.  :)

This picture only shows the countries in Africa we've read about...

• Togo - country where the Abeku tribe resides and doesn't have a Bible in their own language (yet)
• Congo (K's writing)- country where last week's missionary story took place
• Egypt - country where this week's missionary story took place

Today we read about celebrations, festivals and dancing in other religions/countries and watched online videos about Flamenco (Spain), Cossack (Russia), Hindu (India), Kabuki (Japan) dances and other instruments played around the world (bagpipes, sitar, etc).

As the first video played (a Flamenco dancer), K told me the dancer's dress was inappropriate (most of her back was showing).  I smiled and assured her she was right.  When the bottom of the dress was shown a few seconds later (it was very long), K said, "The front is appropriate."  :)