Homeschooling by the Fire

I really can't say it enough.....Homeschooling is such a blessing.  And it's always fun to break out of the mold and change it up.  December 11th brought one of the first really cold days to us.  Caleb was so excited and asked if we would be able to have a fire.  So, the night before, Daddy gave us a quick run-down on how to go about it.

That morning Caleb could not wait!  He asked and asked until finally I gave in and we went outside to gather some wood.  

We spread a blanket out on the floor in front of the fire and gathered all our school books for the day.  We sat there and enjoyed each other, enjoyed the fire and did school!  What more could any momma ask for that the blessings of a day like this?!?

Educating in Christ,

Momma/Pam

MFW 2nd Grade - Week #11

BIBLE:  We had a lot of conversation this week about God and His Living Water and we talked about the water that comes in the form of rain and replenishes the earth, plants, flowers, grass, etc.  We read in Exodus 17:1-6, John 7:37-39, and Proverbs 25:21.

Memory Verse:  We continued this week with our memorization of John 7:37.  

SPELLING:  A typical week in spelling still using Spelling By Sound and Structure.

ENGLISH:  We completed several english lessons this week.  One in particular was a picture of a Lion in a cave and there was a short story to go with it.  The main point was that the lion was pretending to be ill and hurt so that small creatures would come to him in the cave and he could eat them.  Caleb looked up at me and said, "mom, that story would really scare small children."  The story ended with the sly fox out-smarting the lion and not ending up as dinner.  

HISTORY:  
*We had some review in history this week and talked about some of the history lessons we'd done so far.  
*We read a story about George Washington becoming president and how a young boy named Nathan rode his horse to go watch this great man be sworn in.  Caleb really enjoyed this story.
*We talked about how people used open fires in colonial times

Read-A-Loud:  Since we finished Sarah Whitcher's story early, we haven't picked up another read-a-loud yet.  We have several on the shelf to pick from, just need to make a choice.  With our Christmas break coming up, I decided we wouldn't dive into one yet.

Book Basket Reading:

Pass It on the Cow is Stuck in the Fence, Marilyn Sadler
Sky Tree, Thomas Locker
The New Americans, Betsy Maestro
George Washington, Ingri & Edgar Parin D'Aulare 

MATH:   We covered 9 lessons in Singapore Math this week and I'm pleased with the progress Caleb is making in math.

SCIENCE:  Our topic this week was things that are Wet and Dry.

Pop the Lid:  

Using a container Caleb filled it 2/3rd full with dried peas.  He added water and let it sit for a while.  

Before long the peas soaked up water and popped the lid off the container!

Knock Down the Tower:  Caleb stacked some sugar cubes on a plate, poured a bit of colored water at their base and was able to see that the bottom cube would deteriorate from the water and the stack would collapse.

Drying Things Out:  Cucumber covered with sugar shows that the sugar draws the water out of the cucumber.

MUSIC:    It was a complete treat this week that the Corpus Christi Ballet group was holding a performance of The Nutcracker for all the public and homeschool kids.  The cost for the tickets was only $2 per person.  At the last minute there were available tickets and Sissy and Chevy were able to go with us!  It was so cool!  It is a goal of mine to be able to go back in the future and watch the full performance.  This is something I might have to do with Sissy as I think Caleb had enough of ballet for a lifetime.  ;)

Sissy tried to take some photo's of the performers in their beautiful costumes and managed to get a couple worth keeping.

HEALTH/MANNERS:  This weeks topic was The Care of Rooms.  Daddy was home for this lesson and it was fun for daddy to add some input.  In this lesson Caleb was asked a series of questions and he had to determine if whether or not they were the "right thing to do."  Such as, "hang up my clothes in their place" or "put the garbage in a pile in the corner."  So much is common sense and it's nice to see that these things make sense to Caleb, too.

What a blessed week this was.  So many fun learning activities to filled the mind!  I think Caleb had a great time and is excited because this is our last week of school until after the Christmas break.  Daddy is taking time off of work and Caleb doesn't like to do school was dad is home.  Add to that Randy will be here for a week or so and it really is too hard to do school with Randy here also.  So, we will enjoy a much needed break and be back at it after the first of the year!  Until then, we pray God's blessing on everyone during this busy time of year and into 2013!

Educating in Christ,

Momma/Pam

MFW 2nd Grade - Week #10

BIBLE:  This week we talked about what Jesus says about a special kind of water called, Living Water.  

Memory Verse:  "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."  John 7:37

Bible Activities:  We added the Living Water picture to our Names of Jesus poster.  I'll have to take a picture of this soon to give an update on it.

SPELLING:  Standard week in spelling.  :)

ENGLISH:  This week in we had a conversation lesson on The Care of Pets.   Answering questions about dogs, canaries and horses.  Quite interesting actually.  It was a lengthy lesson so we carried it out over a couple of days.  Then we touched on the topic of how to use "to," "too," and "two" when we are writing sentences.

HISTORY:

We read in a book called The Fourth of July Story and covered a few different parts:
The Birthday of Our Country
Writing the Declaration
To Carry the News

We talked more about George Washington and Caleb doesn't mind this at all.  We also read about Thomas Jefferson from our The Story of the U.S. History book.

We went over the thirteen colonies and colored a map of them to put in Caleb's history notebook.  We also looked at a facsimile page of the Declaration of Independence.

Timeline:  We added to our timeline the Declaration of Independence and the United States Becomes a Country in 1776.
Read-A-Loud:  Okay.  We just couldn't stand it.  Sarah Whitcher's Story was a clincher.  We finished it a week early.  Oh, if you ever have a couple of hours to spare, pick up a copy from your library and give this story a read.  I don't want to ruin the story for anyone, but it was so good.  So heartwarming...and encouraging at the same time!  Have a couple of tissues handy, too.

Hands-On Activity:

Hasty Pudding:  In Colonial times the people served pudding at any meal and sometimes it was the whole meal.  This pudding wasn't a sweet pudding.  Since we've been listening to Yankee Doodle and some words in that song are, the men and boys were "as thick as hasty pudding" we're making some hasty pudding to try.

Needless to say my picky eater did at least taste it, but that was it.  I tried to eat some, but I guess it wasn't my cup of tea either.  Now, granted, if that was all the food choice I had, I would eat it and I'm sure Caleb would, too.  But, we are very blessed to have plenty of other options rather than Hasty Pudding.

MATH:  We continued with our Singapore Math lessons, wrapping up about 8 lessons this week.  

SCIENCE:  We had a full week with science.  Lots of activities to do and as usual it was still not enough for Caleb.  He's all about that science!

Soaked Through:  How well do different things soak up water?  We used a variety of things from around the house to see which one's soaked up the most water.  As it turns out, the more porous items soak up more because they are full of tiny holes and those holes let the water in.

The Marble Test:   What happens to marbles when you get the soft surface they are sitting on wet?

Soaking Colors:  Using pieces of coffee filter and markers we watched the water make spread the marker up through the coffee filter.

Disappearing Water:  Wet two towels and put one in a plastic bag.  Which one dries out first?

The next day the one in the bag is - - - ah, yes, still wet and the one on the plate was dry.

Salty Water Test:   Add salt to water.

Give it a stir.

And a taste!  UGH!

Rainbow Sugar:  Add sugar to water and a bit of food coloring.  Let dry for three days.  

And you get dried sugar crystals....

HEALTH/MANNERS:   How to set the kitchen table.  Caleb had to look over a picture of a place setting and we talked about the different utensils being to the left, above, between, below, to the right of each other.  Then he had to draw a place setting himself.  He did great!

MUSIC:   We read the story of The Nutcracker this week.  I can't believe in all these years I had never read that story.  Or if I did it was so long ago I had no recollection of what it was about.

Another week in MFW is wrapped up.  I'm getting closer and closer to getting this blog caught up!   Between illness, holidays, school breaks, death's of acquaintances, and such....there has been a lot to contend with in recent weeks.  But, God is good and we will get through it all in His time.

Educating in Christ,

Momma/Pam

MFW 2nd Grade - Thanksgiving Week

So, this is when things get a little off-kilter.  Well, maybe that is too strong a word.  We are now going to skip to our studies for Thanksgiving Week.  Our curriculum has three days of studies lined out to do during the week of Thanksgiving.  So, we stop the regular scheduled programming, which would have been moving on to week #10, and do week #13, which is Thanksgiving week.

So, here is what we did for the few days before Thanksgiving!

BIBLE:  We read and discussed Psalm 100, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Ephesians 5:19-20, Colossians 3:17, and Luke 17:11-19.  The focus was in remembering to thank God for all the things He does for us.

SPELLING:   We continued with our spelling lesson.  No sense in skipping this just because of Thanksgiving!!

HISTORY:  We read The Thanksgiving Story which talked about the pilgrims coming to America and it was broken down into a few short stories:

Two Ships and a Big Adventure

A Ship Sales Alone

The New Land

New Homes in a New Land

A time of Thanksgiving

Read-A-Loud:  We continued with Sarah Whitcher's Story.  Oh my goodness....Tears for this momma.  Caleb was patting me on the shoulder and saying, "it's okay, mom, it's just a story."  Ha!!

Book Basket Reading:

The Littlest Pilgrim, Brandi Dougherty

Daisy and the Beastie, Jane Simmons

The Thanksgiving Story, Alice Dalgliesh (different than the one as assigned reading.)

Hands-On Activities:

How Big Was the Mayflower?

We went outside to measure it off.  

It was 90 feet long.  Caleb is a speck over there by the garage door.

And 26 feet wide.

Woven Placemats:

A Hand Turkey:

A Hand and Shoe Turkey: 

The body of the turkey is traced from Caleb's tennis shoe and the feathers/wings are tracings of his hands.  

  

MATH:  We did six lessons in our Singapore Math book....can't skip out on math either!

ENGLISH:  We did a couple of lessons this week, but kept them simple since it was a short week.

SCIENCE:  Caleb really enjoyed science this week.  He did lots of fun stuff with a pumpkin!!

Will our pumpkin float??     ------------------->   Yes it does!

How much does our pumpkin weigh??   ------------------------>   3.072 lbs!

And, how many seeds does our pumpkin have??     --------------------------->   222!!

And our Thanksgiving week came to a close.  Lots of fun learning and surely a week of fun things Caleb will remember for a long time.  God is so amazingly good!

Educating in Christ,

Momma/Pam

MFW 2nd Grade - Week #9

BIBLE:  This week we talked about David being a shepherd boy who became king and learned that he loved music and God.  We read the words to Psalm 62.  We were supposed to put our own melody to the verses in 2 Samuel 22:1-4, but because Caleb is not really into singing we just read them.  I wish I had a better voice and could make it good.  But, I don't, and can't.  Ha!   

Memory Verse:  "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."  Matthew 7:24  So, the theme for this week is Jesus is our Rock.

Bible Activities:    Well, the activity was to paint on a rock the name Jesus.  This is a visual on the fact that Jesus is OUR ROCK!!   We could not find a flat rock on our property/street anywhere.  We looked at looked.  Caleb tried to paint the letters, but it was very difficult on a bumpy rock.  He gave up and so we turned the rock around and I painted the letters for him.

SPELLING:  Not a whole lot to say about spelling.  It's spelling.  He had another week with a list of 12 words and did great as usual!!

ENGLISH:   This week we studied a painting by Adam called Wide Awake.  It was three kittens hanging out near a fence, probably on a farm.  Caleb had a list of questions to go over and find answers for.   The second lesson we focused on this week was also about cats.  It was an observation lesson and he had to answer in incomplete and complete sentences.  I was surprised at how quickly he understood that concept.  I figured it would be more difficult than it was.  

HISTORY:  Our history topic this week was more on George Washington.  Caleb has really enjoyed learning about this brave, honorable man.

Read-A-Loud:   Sarah Whitcher's Story is our read-a-loud for the next two and a half weeks.  Caleb seems a little bit disinterested because this story is focused on a little girl who gets lost.  I'm hoping he'll get more interested in it as we go.  It's a very good story so far.  I'm definitely interested.

Book Basket Reading:

Buttons for General Washington, Peter and Connie Roop
Oliver, Syd Hoff
The Mud Flat Olympics, James Stevenson

Hands-On Activity:   A Tricorn Hat.   At the time of George Washington, the Tricorn Hat's were very popular.   I was surprised that Caleb put his had on and wore it proudly!

MATH:  Typical math week.  Lots of lessons in our Singapore Math workbook.  

SCIENCE:  We talked about Seasons in science this week.  This is not new to Caleb as we've talked about this before in school.  We used the globe and a flashlight to show how the earth rotates and that this is what changes our seasons throughout the year.  

His science activity was to go outside and choose a tree in the yard.  He is to draw this tree once each season and show the changes that take place.  My son who is on again, off again when it comes to drawing took this assignment very seriously.  I was SO proud of him!!   I took the liberty of darkening the photo in some edit software.  He drew it so lightly that it wasn't showing up well.  Look at the branches and all the individual leaves he drew on the branches.  He drew a dog on the left saying, "woof."  There is a squirrel in the tree, but I know it's really hard to see.  Along the ground he drew grass and rocks.  The bottom says, "Fall Oak Tree."  Maybe if you click on the picture it will open into a larger, easier to see version.

And he did a leaf tracing.  We stuck a few leaves in a book on the shelf and I figure we'll give those some time to dry out before we look in on them again.  Here he is gathering his leaf.

MUSIC:  We listened to some of Tchaikovsky's story.  I have to admit, it's just a tad bit boring, (well, maybe more than a tad,) but we sit there and listen and talk a bit about it when we're done.  

And  I introduced Caleb to Yankee Doodle.  I'd forgotten what a fun song that was to sing as a child. In this case, I have a CD with lots of children's voices singing this song, so I can easily blend in and look silly.  Caleb rolls his eyes, but that's okay.  He will remember the song just because I was acting silly one day at school.  On the serious side, I never realized what the words to the song meant.  The song was written to ridicule the Americans in the early 1750's.   I definitely learned a bit that day.  
ART:   Caleb seemed interested in art this week so we did a couple of lessons instead of just one.  I've learned to go with the flow with him when it comes to art.  And that's okay.  I think I've said it before - we won't all be a Van Gough.

HEALTH/MANNERS:  This weeks lesson was a discussion on "Talebearers."  Or, as Caleb would call it, "tattle-telling."  The lessons come across as really old-fashion sounding, but in all honesty, these are topics that I think have gotten pushed to the side with recent generations.  It's all good stuff!

Week #9 is officially closed now that I've got the blogging part done!  :)  Still a few more weeks behind, but there have been things taking priority over blogging.  It will all get done in good time.  

I'm blessed to be a homeschool mom and wouldn't have it ANY other way!!

Educating in Christ,

Momma/Pam