Weeks 3&4

Well we ended up only finishing 3 weeks of school before our really long break and family vacation. We love to take our vacations during off season after public schools start back up. This year we took almost the whole month of Sept off and we went on a two week trip to Disney World. It was an amazing time, but we're back to reality now and back to the books.
 I forgot to blog about our week 3 before we left because I was really busy packing, so I've included highlights of both weeks 3 and 4 in this post. As the school year gets busier I might actually double up on a lot of my posts instead of writing every week.

History:  Week 3 Boo learned about John Smith and Jamestown, we didn't really do anything special besides reading our lesson, looking at maps and adding it to our timeline. Week 4 was American Indian week for Boo. We read the book North American Indians. All the girls wanted to join Boo in making an Indian wigwam. We made the skeleton of our wigwams by taping strips of orange construction paper to form the body. Then we covered them with pieces of yellow paper (we were out of brown) dipped in a glue water mixture. After drying overnight we cut out a door and smoke hole in the top. The girls used their wigwams to play littlest pet shops.

 

















Sis is studying the Old Testament times in history right now. Week 3 she learned about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Week 4 she learned about Joseph. Here is her completed journal pages of all of her history work. Her project for week 3 was to make an optical Illusion picture of stars. The history focus was the promise that God gave to Abraham that his decedents would be like the stars in the sky. This was a project that she was able to glue right into her journal when it was finished. Sis and I also finished reading our chapter book The Golden Bull together for history.

Sis' week 4 history notebook:

Bible: Boo is learning the different names for Jesus this year. The first few weeks were spent learning about names and how they have meanings. We learned that Jesus means "The Lord Saves." Then we learned our first name "Light of the World." We discussed how the world is full of darkness (sin) and Jesus is the light in that darkness. If we have Jesus in us then we also have his light to shine so that those in darkness will see Jesus in us. We are decorating a wall with all of the names we learn this year instead of making a poster as suggested in our curriculum. Boo is memorizing verses to go with each name and she's practicing her handwriting by copying her verses. A project we did for Light of the World was to decorate a candle and we lit it and had a candle lit dinner one night to remind us that Jesus is the Light of the World.
 
   








Spelling: This week we finally started spelling with Sis. We spent the week doing placement testing. I've never had my kids tested before for grade level or compared to averages because it's just really not important to me. However, for spelling this year her curriculum requires placement testing. I was surprised Sis tested at 8th grade. Now that the testing is over, next week we will begin her regular spelling lessons.

Reading and Story time: I'm so excited (maybe a little too excited) that we started reading my favorite children's books together as a read aloud. The Epic Order of the Seven books. I can't explain how much I love this series of books! I have been waiting for about 6 years to start reading them with Sis. I wanted her to be old enough to fully understand them because they are written on a preteen level. The first book The Ark, The Reed, and The Fire Cloud fits nicely with Sis' history studies of the Old Test this year. These books are fictional adventure stories about a group of animals that travel through the bible days. They contain so much historical and biblical information though. I just love them. For anyone interested the author is Jenny L. Cote and she is currently still writing this series. Boo and Baby bear are a bit too young to fully understand but they are at least sitting and listening as I read. Sis is really enjoying this story so far.



Art/Poetry: Our Robert Frost poem for week 3 was called "A Peck of Gold." Our painting was of a sky filled with dusty clouds. I have to admit that I was a little hesitant about covering our pretty colorful backgrounds with ugly brown cloud blobs, but I guess the dust clouds were the main point of the poem!

Our week 4 poem was "A Passing Glimpse." We did paintings of a field. I joined in on this one and it was fun. I demonstrated the steps and the girls followed.