Finish Line

So apparently I have been busy these past 6 months. Adding a fourth child to our family sure did ratchet things up around here. On the downside, this blog got neglected, however on the upside my kids and husband did not. Priorities!!

We are pushing towards the finish line for this school year and I am oh so ready for a break!!! We have thoroughly enjoyed studying World Geography. I know I have learned a lot and I hope the kids did too. This week and a wee little bit after Isaac gets back from camp and we are D.O.N.E.!!!

I am looking forward to some time to just play with the kids without demanding schedules, but a homeschool Mom's work is never really done. I do plan on spending the next 6-8 weeks prepping for next year in which we will study history from Creation to the Greeks through My Father's World. Already very excited with what lies ahead for us.

Isaac and Julia have done exceptionally well this year. They overcame a lot of hurdles and matured quite a bit. Caleb had also changed and grown a lot this year. He will be ready for a more formal preschool year. And little Benjamin is growing so fast. He is sitting up and so close to crawling. That will be "fun" next year!!

I want to share a lot of my plans for next year as far as structure and organization but that will have to wait until another day. Dinner is waiting to be made and the baby is awake and ready to eat.  Until  then...

Week Twelve

We are finally back!!! After a 6 week semi-break, we began full day school this week. The first two weeks after Benjamin was born we obviously didn't do any school at all, then for two weeks after that the big kids did independent work. Then came the Christmas break for two weeks, which brings us to now. Phew! It's been a crazy month and a half getting used to having a newborn in the house again. I needed that time to figure out how I was going to fit everything into our day. I will admit I was a bit nervous to begin school again this week. One of my children struggles with change, but to my delight (and surprise) everyone did great transitioning back to our normal school schedule. Thank the Lord! And somehow I have been able to fit in full school days with Isaac and Julia and preschool with Caleb all while nursing, changing, and taking care of Benjamin. It is a full time job to say the least, but with the Lord's help it is totally manageable! So this is where we picked up our lessons this week...

Bible

We are still reading through Matthew. Our memory verse this week is Matthew 5:44 which has started a lot of conversations about loving and praying for our enemies. We read about the persecution of Christians in Romania and how we take for granted the availability of God's Word to us. I love the age of my children and sweet moments we have together as we study and discuss God's Truth which is evidently tucked away in their hearts. My desire for them is to live out these Truths for the glory of God.

Though I cherish simply reading, studying, and discussing scripture, I have decided to add a little more to our Bible time. I found some hands-on object lessons that incorporate science and Bible lessons together. We will add these in next week.

Geography

We last studied South America and now moved to Europe. This week included a lot of introductory information about Europe focusing on Norway. We learned about the metric system and my oldest son was miffed that we don't use that system. He said that is WAY easier! He is learning to convert measurements in math this year. We also started the Europe geography game (as well as reviewed N and S America) I always enjoy playing these games. I learn a lot about locating all these countries. Before the games I probably could have located just a hand full of the countries. Sad, but true!

Science

We read about Northern evergreen forests (coniferous forests). This week our science was pretty light. There were some other tree activities planned but we ran out of time to complete them.

Read-Aloud

We got back to reading Kingdom Tales this week. The kids were so excited to get back to this story and I have to admit, so was I. Such an exiting and imaginative story.

Other

I changed up the structure of our days as well. Before, we tried to get every subject done every day. I knew I wouldn't be able to swing that anymore once Benjamin was born. I changed it to where Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the kids do work stations or independent work which includes math, handwriting,writing, and reading activities after we complete group work. On Tuesday and Thursday, I work with the kids in writing, Language Arts, poetry, and spelling after group work. This has helped free up some valuable time each day. I also had to bail on Spelling Power. It was stressing Isaac out too much. So I order All About Spelling to try. We will start this next week.

Caleb

My little Caleb seems so grown up now compared to his baby brother. Each one of my children seemed to suddenly grow up when the new baby is born and the same was certainly true for Caleb. He is not my baby anymore. This seemed the perfect time to start introducing early reading and math concepts to him. We began with Letter A this week and will spend another week on it as well. I found a great website full of preschool ideas. I will be using a lot from this site for Caleb's school. Here are some things he did this week....

*learned to recognize the Letter A
*learned the sounds A makes
*apple taste testing
*apple size sequencing
*made A alligators
*learned to recognize and make number 1 and 0
*counted objects to 5
*one to one correspondence
*memory verse Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you" (we talked about prayer)
*began making his ABC book
*began tracing skills

I also signed Caleb up for ABC.mouse He really enjoys completing his lessons on the computer. This is his "reward" time after we finish our other activities.

Benjamin

Thought I would leave you with a picture of Little B. He is absolutely precious and I feel abundantly blessed to be his Mama!

Week Eleven

This week we wrapped up our study of South America and are ready to head into next week as we do a book study on The Trumpet of the Swan. Here is a little of what we learned and did this week.

Bible

We finished reading through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and continued to memorize Matthew 5:14-16.

Geography

As I mentioned above, we finished our study of South America this week and I am proud to tell you that Isaac and Julia can name and locate all of the countries in North and South America. We all had fun finishing the Carnival costumes they started last week. They also got to make and decorate Carnival masks. Each one turned out very unique and true to that child's personality. We celebrated our study of South America by making brigaderiros, a chocolate treat. We didn't get around to watching Rio. One of the kids' didn't earn enough points to get TV time and the other kids didn't mention watching the movie so I left well enough alone.

Making Brigaderiros

This little cooking project was SUPER messy! (and the kids loved every minute of it)

Science

We learned about birds of the rain forest this week and did two fun activities. With the first we learned about how strong egg shells are. I took four empty egg shells and cut off the bottom half of each to make dome shapes. Then we predicted how many books we thought the egg shells would hold up before cracking. The kids both guessed 2 or 3. We had a stack of 17 books on the egg shells before they cracked. This totally amazed the kids! Then we talked about how water birds have a gland near their tail that produces oil and the birds spread that over their feathers. I cut out two construction paper feathers and coated one with cooking oil. Then I dropped water on both feathers. Obviously, the water beaded up on the one with oil.

Music/Art

We learned a song from Peru called Los Pollitos. And for art this week the kids made their masks and finished their costumes.

Read Aloud

We finished reading Nate Saint: On a Wing and a Prayer. I knew the end of this story before we even started reading this book,but it was still hard to get through the last couple of chapters. So sad yet such a testimony of fully giving your life for the Lord's work. And to read about how the door was opened to this tribe after the death of these men was awesome. We read that now 1 out of every 10 tribe members are Christians. Amazing! The kids made these airplanes just like the one Nate flew.

Poetry

We learned about limericks this week. We read three limericks by Edward Lear the same author that wrote The Quangle Wangle's Hat, which we studied last week.  Isaac and Julia both wrote their own limericks and they turned out pretty cute. We also learned about hyperbole, extreme exaggeration. They had fun the rest of the week giving examples of hyperbole.

Isaac

*multiplying by 3
*learning to organize his writing
*exclamation points
*story writing

Julia

*doubles addition
*learning to write an interview (dialogue)
*story writing
*dictation

Caleb

*I didn't have any formal lessons with Caleb this week. Just a lot of playing, reading, and plain 'ol fun! Of course he had his own idea of what would be fun. One day he was playing in the backyard. I looked up to check on him and saw him walking around the backyard half naked. Silly, silly boy!

Next week we will do a book study of Trumpet of the Swan. The following week we will spend a week doing fall/Thanksgiving activities. Then we will take some time off from school. Our baby boy is due to arrive sometime around the 24th!!

Week Ten

This week began with a day at the Witte Museum for the Homeschool day. Witte offers different classes or educational presentations for the home school kids. This year I signed the kids up for a class called "Why Matter Matters". So much fun! The kids and I loved this. The instructor did a great job teaching to this age group and kept it interesting with lots of experiments and visual aids. I quizzed them later in the day about what they learned during that class and they remembered a lot of what was taught. Good job Witte!

The burning gummy bear experiment to show chemical change - the kids favorite!

We spent the rest of our time there exploring the museum. We enjoyed the mummy exhibit, the South America textiles exhibit (we are studying South America right now!!), the Native American exhibit, the circus exhibit, the dinosaur exhibit, and so much more. At the HEB tree house, both Isaac and Julia tried out the rock climbing wall and both made it up about half way. Inside the tree house, we explored all the fun hands on science activities. What a fun way to begin our week.

Perfect picture of my kids. Isaac "Mom, this is so lame" Julia "I'm going to give you my sweet smile" Caleb "WooHoo. Can I get one of these at home?"

Caleb was doubled over in laughter at the ball and air exhibit

Caleb's puppet show

The sky bike

Making some music. This boy needs a drum set!

The Weekend Forecast

We found an exhibit about South American textiles. Perfect since we are studying South America right now.

Thought this was funny. Way to use your chin, Isaac!

Dinos! Caleb wanted to go see the dino so much, but when we got there he said he was scared. Silly boy! Of course he doesn't look too scared in the picture. He knows how to cheese it for the camera

Love, love, love my kids

 

This was at the end of the day. Julia had an upset stomach from seeing the mummy exhibit. She was in no mood for a picture, but the boys were!

Caleb fell asleep in the van after the Witte. We had to go to HEB before we went home, so I put him in the cart like this. He got a few more snoozes!

Bible 
We have been focusing on Matthew 5:14-15 the last few weeks. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can not be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it give light to everyone in the house" We have also read other verses in Matthew including Matt. 6:19-24 about storing up your treasures in heaven. As we discussed these verses, Julia got all teary eyed. When I asked her what was wrong she said it made her sad to think of Baby (her beloved bunny) being eaten by moths and getting destroyed. Aw, she has such a tender heart. Sweet girl! We also read about a tribe in South America called the Yanomamo who believe in Animism. They live their lives in fear of evil spirits. We prayed that they would hear God's Truth and live in the Freedom of Christ.

Geography
We worked on some Geography worksheets about South America. We learned about and located the deserts, vegetation, and islands of South America.  We also tried out some of the language from Brazil and played the Geography game a few more times. They both have it down! They know all the countries of South America. Impressive!!

 

Using longitude and latitude to find islands around South America

Science
We learned more about the animals and plants of the Amazon River and rain forest. There are some strange creatures lurking in the Amazon. I don't think I would want to be caught in there alone!
We learned that because of the abundant food supplies, most of the plants and animals grow to enormous size. Like the 12 inch millipede or the 5 foot long lily pad. And let's not forget the 26 foot long anaconda. YIKES!
 
Music/Art
We learned a song this week from Argentina called Mi Chacra (My Farm). For art one day we made Carnival costumes from old pillowcases and fabric markers. Their perfectionist tendencies kicked in, so neither one are finished with them just yet. I will post pics of the finished costumes next week.

Julia starting her Carnival costume

Isaac starting his Carnival costume

Poetry
This week we learned about nonsensical poems. Edward Lear is know for his nonsensical poetry. We read his poem, "The Quangle Wangle's Hat" Fun poem! We also discussed rhythm and couplets.

Isaac
Isaac had a good week. We are really working with him to develop good work habits during school time. He can tend to get distracted easily and lose track of time. I have a feeling this is just something we will always be working on with him. Because this is a work station week, there isn't much to report as far as what they are learning individually except for Math. Isaac is working on skip counting by 3 this week. And for Reading, both he and Julia are learning about character elements.

Isaac is itching to go back to Enchanted Rock for real rock climbing

Julia
Julia also had a good week. She learned about shapes and skip counting by 2 in Math this week. Not much else to report. They are both working through their handwriting books (cursive) and are nearing the end of the book. They are also working through their Explode the Code books. And both Isaac and Julia are plugging away at Spanish. Julia got 100% on the section she did today!

Julia earned 20 points last week and got to go on a Smoothie date

My rock climbing girl!

Julia's drawing. I am going to have to show this at her wedding one day. Julia and her Prince Charming.

Caleb
I did spend a few days working on some school with Caleb. He was so excited. I do believe he has missed it! This week Caleb did activities focused around "Itsy Bitsy Spider". He got to make a marble spider web painting. Caleb also made a spider, rain, and sun puppet to act out the rhyme. I think Caleb's favorite from the week was making a spider leg snack which was chow mein noodles with melted chocolate chips. Mmm!! Mmm! 

Caleb marble painting a spider web

The finished product

So Proud

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

 

 

It was so good, Caleb was licking the bowl!

Caleb pretending to be a bear at REACH, our homeschool co-op

Caleb's REACH class during show and tell

That's all for Week Ten!