Adventures in MFW ~ Week 9

I am so far behind in posting My Father's World highlights! Please forgive me for being brief.

Bible ~ Matthew 7:24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock."

We discussed the definition of Psalms and read Psalm 62. I wanted to play the song on my keyboard, but I didn't have enough D batteries to get the thing running. Oh well. Another time. We did not make the pet rock or necklace as suggested for Thurday's activity but we have gone over the notion of Jesus as our Rock so many times in the last couple of years that we didn't need another visual.

Social Studies/History ~ This week we learned quite a bit about George Washington. Sydney read his biography earlier in the year so we didn't repeat it this week. We did read all about him in "Exploring American History" though. He really was a fascinating and blessed man. The girls had a lot of fun making their tri corn hats and learning about Yankee Doodle and the true meaning of "macaroni"

Science ~ Both girls were learning about the seasons this week so we had a good discussion. They seem to enjoy acting out the Earth and sun more than just about anything these days. It's funny to watch them take turns rotating and orbiting around each other.

Our read aloud this week was "Sarah Whitcher's Story." Typically Sydney does not like to be read to because she doesn't want me to stop until the book is over. She's starting to get used to it though and has been patiently waiting as the story develops. It was a little too scary for Sadey though, so we've started reading it during her nap time.

Math ~ Sydney is progressing quite nicely in math. She is almost finished with the Beta level of Math U See and is ready to move on to Gamma. She is technically a year behind in math, but we firmly believe that she is exactly where she needs to be. If she were in public school she would be struggling with math. Here at home she is acing all of her tests and has a firm understanding of what we are doing each day. I have no doubt that she will "catch up" as soon as she gets her basic math facts memorized. This is something her dad has always struggled with as well, so I think it just takes longer for those math facts to sink into her brain. Whatever. She has most of them memorized now and has a good understanding of multiplication and division so I don't anticipate many/any problems when she starts the next book in a few weeks. She is ready to move on and full of confidence. That's much better than "techincally" working at grade level and crying through every math lesson. I'll happily slow down for her.

All in all. A very good week.

Outdoor Hour ~ Challenge #5 (more like a repeat of #4)

After all our drama, and after I came to my nature study senses, I sat the girls down yesterday with the Handbook of Nature Study and told them that we needed to pick ONE are to focus on for the first few challenges. They had a hard time choosing, but in the end, and after quite a bit of dizzying back and forth-ness (like my new word?), we finally decided to study trees.

At church on Sunday, our homeowner asked if we had found any pecans in the yard or if the squirrels were eating them. Pecans? We are pretty clueless about these things and never bothered to look for the pecan tree the last time Mr. M mentioned it. So the girls and I decided that that the first order of business for our tree study would be to find the pecan tree.

We went online and Googled pecan leaves so we knew what we would be looking for. You just have to love Google, don't you? Up popped hundreds of pictures of pecan trees/leaves and my oldest daughter says, "I know where those are!" So out we stumbled into the yard. Imagine my surprise when I found that the mysterious pecan tree is only about 20 feet from the back door. Doh!


We checked out the tree, gathered some sample leaves and nuts and then headed back into the house as the crazy mosquitoes swarmed.


The girls were pretty eager to check out the inside of the nut. We got out some screwdrivers and pliers and went to work.

We didn't find much on the inside...I guess that's why the squirrels left these behind.


In our study we learned the scientific name for the pecan tree (Carya illinoinensis) and that it is a deciduous tree related to the hickory. Next week we are planning to see if we have any hickory trees in our yard. We did some leaf rubbings and in the next few days I'd like to do some bark rubbings since e have some smooth and rough-barked trees in our yard.

We did not make a list as the challenge suggested, but our goal for this study is to identify as many of the trees on our property as we possibly can. We live in the woods so I don't think we'll run out of material.

The girls did a great job with their journals.

Sydney (9yrs)

Delaney (6yrs)

Sadey (3yrs)

Mom (not 9, 6 or 3)

God sees

Sometimes it's hard not to feel invisible. It's nice to be reminded that God sees and that I am (or should be) working for Him in all ways and at all times. There is no place for self-centeredness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YU0aNAHXP0

Outdoor Hour Challenge #4

For this Outdoor Hour Challenge, we were supposed to pick an area of nature to focus on for the next 6-8 weeks, take a nature walk, discuss/research what we saw that related to our area of focus and make a journal entry. But here's the problem...my children can't agree on a focus area!

This doesn't surprise me as they seem to take great delight in being opposite of each other, but it can be frustrating when we're trying to do group projects. Sydney wants to study birds because she is trying to write a movie script about birds. Delaney wants to do trees. I'm not really sure WHY she is so insistant on trees (aside form the aforementioned desire to be opposite of her big sister) but she is not willing to budge.

Needless to say, we took this week's nature walk without a focus area, but a good time was had by all.

We went back to the park that we visited on our last walk - only this time we went down to the beach area and walked along the shore.

This isn't a great picture, but we saw a crane standing in the bay.

The girls found lots of rocks...

snails....

and butterfly wings.

I think what I'll do to settle the big "area of focus" debate is just let Sydney work on birds, Delaney can learn about trees and Sadey and I will do our best to keep up with them both. It would be easier if they were doing the same thing, but I think we can handle both topics - at least in a basic way.

It'll work.

Wii are fit

The girls have been saving for American Girl dolls for well over a year now - probably closer to two years. They all finally had enough money so we planned a weekend getaway to Atlanta (complete with an overnight stay in an American Girl room at a hotel) so they could pick out their new dolls. About a month before our planned trip, we had a playdate with some new friends - and that's when my girls discovered the very thing B and I have been trying to tell them for the last couple of years:

American Girl dolls are just like any other doll and not worth $100!

*gasp* Who knew? Once they came to this realization, they decided that they no longer wanted to spend their hard earned/saved money on another doll. So they began to fantasize about all the ways they could spend their money. After much discussion, we decided as a family that we would pool our funds and buy a Wii gaming system.

Up to this point, we have avoided these systems like the plague. B and I are so easily addicted to these kinds of things and we didn't feel like we needed another time waster around the house. However, we had been doing some reading and have talked to friends and families who had the system and everyone seemed to love it. They liked that it was an active game - you don't just sit on the couch and play - you have to move your body to play the games.

We've had the Wii about a month now and we are loving it. For my birthday, B and the kids pitched in and got me the Wii Fit game. We are having a blast with it - and it's been a great workout for us all. We can't wait until Grandma comes to visit next month. We think she'll be addicted too!

Painting

Every once in a while I get brave and pull out the paints.

Meet Buddy

Buddy is the spider that has taken residence in the little space between the screen and window pane of our dining room window. It has been there for a couple of weeks now and the kids have adopted him/her as their new pet *yuck* We have to keep the blinds up every day so they can periodically check on Buddy and talk and "play" with him/her each day.

I'm not sure what kind of spider this is - I'm just glad it's OUTSIDE!

Feel free to be grossed out. I am! But I'm also trying to be a good homeschool mom about it all because....

It's been a good science lesson for the kids. Delaney tried to convince me to "catch" some flies so she could feed Buddy. I told her that Buddy would be better at catching food than I would :) I'm not sure how long Buddy is planning to stay in the window, but the kids have had a great time watching him/her every day. I can't complain really. This pet is much better than the Strawberry Root Weevils that Delaney used to have when we lived in Indiana!

Eh-eh Esther

(pictures to follow)

This week at co op, Sadey and the kids learned all about Queen Esther and the letter E. Most of the kids already recognized the letter and some even knew the sound. Sadey is really starting to connect that each letter has its own name and sound and has finally decided that they don't all "say" meow. Yay!

Anyway, this week we read about Queen Esther and made really cute elephant masks. The kids were so adorable running all over the place acting like a herd of elephants.

We spent some time playing at the park and then ran some races to burn off some of their excess energy. Three year olds are so much fun - but they'll definitely wear you out!

Next week we're moving on to the letter F.

Duh-duh Daniel

D week was so much fun! We started our class with the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den. The kids all seemed to be somewhat familiar with it and loved acting like lions. Not a D book, but we also read "Jamberry" - because it's one of Sadey's favorites.

After story time, the kids decorated a letter D with torn bits of contruction paper and then made their print for the handprint calendar we've been working on. After that we spent about 20 minutes at the park and took a short nature walk before coming back inside to work on this week's D craft. I'm not sure why, but arming 14 three year olds with drums seemed like it would be a good idea LOL. They had a blast decorating their drums and then pounding and shaking them for a good 20 minutes. But then putting the drums away seemed like an even better idea :)
A good time was had by all.

Make your own puzzles

My oldest daughter does not like to study spelling lists, but loves to do word puzzles. With the help of some friends, I found a couple of great sites that have made spelling and vocabulary study much more fun.

Make your own crossword
http://www.eclipsecrossword.com/ You download the FREE software, enter your own word lists and clues and it spits out a really nice puzzle in less than 30 seconds. Love it!

Wordsearch
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp You don't need to download anything to use this puzzle maker. Just type in your words and print out the puzzle. Fabulous!

Cuh-cuh Commandment

This post is a couple of weeks overdo, but sick kids will do that to you!

We had a great C week though! We learned that Commandment is a really big word for rules and that God gave 10 rules to Moses and His people. We also read one of our very favorite books by Eric Carle, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." We had great fun making our own caterpillars out of circles, took a nature walk and had fun playing at the park.

I Will Survive

I have no clue how to add this video to my blog, but I love it and wanted to share anyway. Just click on the link and it'll take you where you need to go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOogqa-5GA

Buh-buh Boat!

Buh-buh Boat went off without a hitch! My goal for this year is letter and sound awareness - not mastery. And it's a good thing because Sadey insisted that B said "aaaaah" for most of the week and is now convinced that the letter is actually called "buh buh beeeeeee". It's a good thing she's cute.

I've kind of abandoned Heart of Dakota and am doing my own thing. I wasn't overly thrilled with the way the program is put together for this age group. I've heard good things about the other programs, but this one just wasn't a good fit for us. I do love the Singing Through the Bible cd that came with it. I believe that's available through Focus on the Family - but haven't checked into it. I think we'll just keep reading through the preschool Bible and listening to the cds and I'll pull my own craft and activity projects together to round things out for her.

I was also planning to use HOD with my co op class, but it's just too hard to condense 5 day's worth of activities into 1 two-hour class. Live and learn.

This week in co op, however, we were working on the letter B and the color red. We began the day with a Bible story about Noah and his ark (a very big boat). The kids did an awesome job of coming up with lots of B words like bananas, bugs, baby and buggy. We also read a Veggie Tales book about colors. The kids all seemed to know that Bob (the tomato) was "very red." After story time we got out the paints. This is by far the messiest part of our day, but who doesn't like to fingerpaint with 14 three year olds?!? After fingerpainting we made our butterfly craft. I'll have to post a picture later because they turned out sooooo cute. Then we had our snack time and took a nature walk. It was pretty hot outside, but the kids had fun. They were so excited to have spotted a lizard as we were first exiting the building. We went on to listen to the wind, feel the rough rocks, find a stream behind the building, a butterfly perched on a flower and a spider making a web. Talk about a great walk! We'll definitely be doing those more often - only maybe we'll focus on finding "letter of the week" things as much as possible.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to teach this group of preschoolers. It's a lot of work, but a good reinforcment for Sadey since we are going over the same letter we are learning here at home. The kids are so much fun (most of the time LOL) and it's nice to see Sadey playing with some kids her own age. It's a win-win kinda' thing.

MFW 1st grade ~ Weeks 1 & 2

Delaney has been hard at work now that she's an official 1st grader. I had originally intended to lump her into Adventures with Sydney, but after lengthy discussion and prayers, we've decided to use My Father's World's 1st grade program with her. We have only done the first 8 days, but so far she seems to enjoy it. I must also confess that the one on one time we are getting by doing school this way has also been good for our mother/daughter relationship...which just can't be a bad thing.

So for the first 8 days, we have been following a very similar routine. We start our day with a Bible lesson. Right now she is learning some verses from the book of Proverbs. We started with Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." We spent quite a bit of time talking about what fear of the Lord means and how God wants us to revere Him - not to actually be afraid. That was a toughie to explain! Our newest verse is Proverbs 10:5 "He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son." You know, it can be hard to explain Proverbs to a city kid!

After Bible study, we move on to math. I am trying to combine MFW math with Math U See so it ought to be an interesting year. Right now D is studying patterns and learning about place value. I haven't been overly thrilled with the directions given in the math section of MFW, but I'm trying to be open-minded about it. D fills out a "Number of the Day" sheet each school day on which she practices writing the number and does a few math equations (0+___ = ____, ___-1=____, etc).

The best part of their math, in my opinon, is the hands on approach to learning place value and money. She gets a new bean to put in a cup each day and when she amasses 10 of them, she'll glue them to a popsicle stick to make a base 10 stick. We did something similar with the MUS blocks last year, but I think this will be even more concrete for her. For money, she gets a penny every day and when she has 5 she can exchange them for a nickel and 2 nickels can be exchanged for a dime. We won't be using quarters this year, but I'm sure we'll trade up for a dollar when the time comes. D loves doing the worksheets from The Complete Book of Math. I think that's been her favorite part of school.

So far her language arts studies have all been review. We are starting with practicing all the letter sounds and working on handwriting. I'm not sure how we missed it, but last year we didn't spend much time learning how to write lower case letters, so this exercise has been very good for her. Each day she practices writing 3 letters and then practices blending the new consonants with the vowels. When she's done with the alphabet, we'll turn all her papers into a scroll. We talked about how the Bible was first written on a scroll and only available to very rich people, so she's decided that she's making her scroll for the king (Dad).

She really seems to like all the hands-on activities that come with this program, but I'm not surprised since she's a hands-on kinda' girl :) One of her first projects was a pottery jar. I read that the recipe printed in the 1st grade manual was a bit of a flop, so we decided to make the jar with Crayola air drying clay instead.

She did a great job!

She also made a Jewish calendar and we talked a bit about the differences between our calendar and the one she made. She was very interested to learn about the Jewish names for the months.

In science we learned about bugs and creepy crawlies and then got to go outside and pick up all sorts of boards and leaves and sticks to see if there was anything living under there. She still does this every time she goes outside *eek* We also had a lesson on the seasons. I think her favorite part of that was when we acted out the earth and sun and I orbited around her to demonstrate the change of seasons. She was a bit disappointed that I didn't rotate on my axis as I orbited her - but there's only so much spinning a mom can take!

Outdoor Hour ~ Challenge #3

I'm very late blogging about this, but we did our third Outdoor Hour Challenge two weeks ago. We grew tired of all the mosquitoes in the yard, so we decided to load up the kids and head to a local park overlooking the bay.

We are originally from NW Indiana and it took us a long time to understand that there was more than one type of Oak tree. This park (and really, the whole city) is filled with Live Oaks - which are absolutely grogeous trees with acorns, but leaves that look nothing like the Oaks we are used to. The Live Oaks are filled with Spanish Moss!

Color me silly, but I had no idea that Spanish Moss is actually a flowering plant (Tillandsia usneoides) and a member of the pineapple family! Apparently it's an air plant and grows on the Live Oaks because they leach minerals through their leaves that the Spanish Moss thrive on. We all thought that was pretty darn cool.

Delaney has been learning about bugs in her science lessons and rarely hesitates to lift things up to see what may be lurking underneath. This was a tree that fell during the winds of Gustav.

She didn't see any critters around the roots - but she was looking!


These are some mushrooms (I think) that were growing along the driveway. I haven't looked them up yet, but we didn't touch them just to be safe.

This "little" guy is our favorite nature find. Dad found him hanging on the edge of our extremely overworked mosquito/bug zapper. We believe it's a luna moth. It's HUGE, but absolutely gorgeous.

I have noticed that we have all changed our attitude about science and nature since we began taking our weekly nature walks. The girls run up to me with seeds and leaves every time we leave the house now and I find myself trying to listen a little closer to see if I can discern the various bird calls from the noise of the crickets and frogs. I even took my preschoolers from co op on a nature walk last week! We are still not thrilled with the mosquitoes, but otherwise, this has been a great addition to our studies and something we will continue doing through the years.

Gustav

We took the kids to the beach as Gustav passed through the Gulf. We didn't get much rain, but the skies were definitely overcast and we did see some waves (which are pretty rare here). I don't have a good photo, but there were several surfers out there - thankfully none of them were killed.

Delaney thought she was going to be blown off the pier so she was holding on for dear life :)

The tide was pretty high that day. I don't know if you can make out the posts in the distance (right side of photo) but that's not generally under water!

Adventures in MFW ~ Week 7

This week we were still working on John 6:35 "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." We talked a bit about Elijah and how obedient he was to God. We read 1 Kings 17:8-16 - the story of the woman who fed Elijah even though she and her son were nearly out of food. My girls really have a hard time comprehending "being out of food" since we live such an abundant life, but we talked quite a bit about famine and the difference between being hungry and starving. They were taken aback at the realization that this woman was willing to literally give the last bit of food she had to Elijah. I think that they loved hearing how God took care of them for their obedience though and thought it was amazing that He provided for them for the rest of the famine. God is good!

Continuing with last week's yeast experiment, this week we learned about communion and why we take the bread and drink the wine. We learned about the Feast of Unleavened Bread where Jesus celebrated His last supper with the disciples and how yeast is a symbol of sin. It was interesting to show the girls a piece of regular bread and see that "aha" look in their head as they realized that yeast is like sin because it punches holes in the bread just like sin punches holes in our lives. Very cool.

Our science activity for this week was to make clay. That was a toughie for the girls :)

In social studies we learned the names of the Great Lakes and how Michigan was settled. We ready all about how birch bark canoes were made and how natives and settlers "portaged" the canoes by carrying them from river to river. We even made some canoes out of construction paper.

They were a great addition to our growing Native American village.