Saturday, October 29, 2011

Nature in all it's Autumn Splendor

We enjoyed a perfect afternoon this week exploring Raccoon Grove just a few miles from home.  All of nature was brilliantly glorifying it's Creator by perfectly showing off it's beauty exactly as He created it to do.  There was not another soul in sight as we wandered, climbed, and awed.  













Tuesday, October 18, 2011

On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand




 “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. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."



"But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Matthew 7:24-26

Thursday, October 13, 2011

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

We have spent the past two weeks rowing How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, by Marjorie Priceman.  It is a delightful book about a girl who decides to make a pie, but since the market is closed she has to travel all around the world to gather the ingredients. 

The kiddos learned about several countries this week including:  Italy (for wheat), France (elegant chickens lay the finest eggs), Sri Lanka (the best cinnamon in the world is made there), England (ask a charming English cow to borrow a cup of milk), Jamaica (for sugarcane and on your way grab some salty seawater).  Oops!  Don't forget to stop in Vermont for apples! 

We also did a fun science experiment to learn how the water can be evaporated from salt water to leave salt!  EM thought it would take 2 minutes for the water to evaporate in the sun and JR thought it would take 5.  Boy were they surprised that it took two days! 


We still had quite a few apples left from our trip to the apple orchard a few weeks ago (once you get five people picking they sure do pile up!), so EM and JR each chose an apple to observe with their five senses.  They predicted how many seeds they thought were in their apple, and we cut them apart to examine.



Of course we couldn't finish our week without making an apple pie!  EM learned how to make an apple pie and did some apple pie math, I learned how to make a pie crust from scratch, and we all enjoyed eating it!




More Apple Fun!

Patterning

JR traced, stamped, and painted apples.

Apple Pie Playdough

How many seeds?


Build a Scarecrow Addition and Subtraction Game


Spin & Graph Apples

Sorting Fall words by Syllables

Apple Clip Cards

Our Little Prodigy in Tot School

LD reading

The resources for our apple unit came from 2 Teaching Mommies and Homeschool Share.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Happy Birthday JR!

We are celebrating JR and his fifth birthday this week!  I always get a little sentimental around the kids' birthdays, it's a great time to think about how much they have changed my life and how much they have changed in the past year. 

This has been a big year for JR, it seems like he went from a toddler to a boy.  It's such a fun, in-between age because even though he is becoming more independent and self-confident every day he still needs his Mommy's cuddles and reassurance when he's tired or gets hurt.  So many of my smiles begin with him.  He is always making me laugh without realizing he is saying something funny, but quickly learning to enjoy the attention his new found sense of unintentional humor brings.  I also love watching him when I know the wheels are turning as he is observing and taking in the world. 

We had a fun dinner at Chuck E Cheese on JR's birthday- Josh and I always did enjoy a healthy competition of air hockey.  It has been a beautifully rare treat of 75 degree days this week, so we had birthday ice cream for dessert!
Lovin' every moment of being the Birthday Boy!


Sunday, October 2, 2011

The Story About Ping

We rowed our very first book, The Story About Ping, with Five in a Row!  If you're not familiar with FIAR, it's a literature based curriculum that involves reading quality children's literature and using elements of the story to guide studies. 

The Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese, is a book about a duck named Ping who lives with his family on the Yangtze River in China.  While we rowed this week we learned about ducks, China, and buoyancy - among other things. 
EM and JR's Ping Lapbooks
Science
To learn more about ducks, we read:
Down on the Farm: Ducks
Fuzzy the Duckling
Ducks!

We added facts about ducks to our Story About Ping lapbooks.
The kids did a buoyancy experiment with some of their friends who are also rowing with Ping this week! 

Social Studies
Ping lives on the Yangtze River in China, so we read several books about China and the Chinese culture.

EM and JR painted and cut out maps of China and the flag of China.  EM also had fun cutting out Chinese paper dolls with traditional clothing.  They also did an awesome job learning to write numbers one through ten in Chinese! 




Math
Ping has a very big family!  The kids counted each of his cousins, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, and parents.

Language Arts
We read the story each day discussing terms such as author and illustrator.  The kids also painted, cut out, and sequenced story cards.


Art
EM and JR looked at the many ways the illustrator drew water and how drawing it differently caused movement or reflection.  They drew their own examples of water.
EM's water drawings

JR's water drawings

Field Trip
Grandma and Papa have ducks waddling through their own back yard, so we went for a visit!  While watching the ducks EM observed preening and dabbling - thanks for cooperating ducks!