The girls were more than ready to start back to school. Breaks are fun, but can sometimes become too much of a good thing. You can only lay around and eat junk food for so long before it's not fun anymore. After two long weeks we were ready to get back to a schedule.
History: Sis is still learning Chronologically through history. We made it to 356 B.C. and started out the new year learning about Alexander the Great. At the beginning of the week we learned about Socrates and how the Golden Age of Greece ended. Sis wrote a one page narration about the Punic war and we ended our week with the Rise of Rome.
Her history project was to make a picture of a Greek vase called an "amphora." These Greek vases told stories and showed pictures of Greek life. They were black shiny pieces of pottery with brown pictures on them. Many of these ancient Greek vases have been found and are preserved in museums. Sis used brown crayon and watercolors to create an amphora that pictured Alexander the Great taming the black horse Bucephalus.
We started reading a new book this week called "Fountain of Life." This is a long book and is scheduled to be read over the next six weeks. So, even though we haven't made it to the life of Jesus yet in our history studies, we will be there before we finish this book. This is the story of a Jewish boy named Eli who lived during the time of Jesus. The more he heard of what Jesus was doing, the more he was in awe even though his family did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Eli longed to meet Jesus, but it never happened. It wasn't until after the cross and the tomb that Eli discovered that Jesus could be found by anyone open to receive him.
Science: We started off the new year with a new unit in science, learning about the respiratory system. We did a lot of breathing exercises and activities as we learn about how our lungs, nasal cavity, and trachea all work together. We did a project where we stretched rubber bands over a plastic container and listened to the different sounds. This represented our vocal cords. thicker cords make a deeper voice than thinner ones.We learned how our bodies use nose hairs and mucus to filter the air we breath. Our experiment for this one was pretty much a fail. We were suppose to put honey on a piece of cardboard and water on another and set it outside for a couple days. The honey represented mucus and was suppose to have dust, dirt, and particles from the air stuck to it representing how mucus helps catch the dust in our nasal passage. Well it's winter. We set our cardboard on the porch and it blew away and stuck to the snow. Oh well we got the point. 
Reading: Sis finished up reading Wind in the Willows for her Fantasy book study.We will be moving on to studying biographies next week. Aside from that we have spent tons of time reading together this week. After we finish our assigned school work each day, I've started reading a couple chapters from one of our "Childhood of famous Americans," books to prepare them all for an upcoming field trip that we're excited about later this month. Also Dad started reading a book to them each night before bed. This is their most anticipated time of the day, even Baby Bear sits quiet and listens. I know a lot of people dislike Rush Limbaugh, but his children's history books "Rush Revere" are excellent. They're about a school teacher named Rush Revere and his talking horse Liberty, who (magic school bus like) take adventures through history using a time portal to teach his class. The horse is hilarious! I think there are 3 books in this series and they teach history from a conservative view point. They are funny, educational, and the kids are loving it. I even find them acting out the stories during their playtime or talking about it the next day. "Rush, Rush, Rushing to History!" is a new saying around here. 
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