RTR Week 6

This week we learned about Roman architect. We looked at arches and aqueducts. We learned that many of the Roman bridges build 2000 years ago are still in use to day! Those are some pretty well made bridges! We did a little project to see how much stronger an arched bridge is compared to a straight bridge. We used pennies as our soldiers to walk across abridge made out of index cards. First we made a straight ridge across two piles of books. Our bridge held 6 pennies before it collapsed. Then we added an index card arch to our bridge. We lost count on the number of penny soldiers that we put on top. It was even strong enough to hold some horses and chariots ( nickles and quarters.) One arch under our bridge made a tremendous difference in the amount of weight it could support.

The next day we attempted to actually build a Roman arch and failed miserably! We tried to make it out of ice-cubes because we didn't have the 15 pudding boxes it called for. Maybe we will try it again later if we can come up with the right materials.

We did find a great series on Pureflix that goes perfectly with our history lessons called Friends and Hero's. It's about a bunch of Jewish kids living in the Roman Empire and they befriend a Roman girl (niece of Tiberius) even though the Jews hated the Romans. There are 3 seasons of episodes on there, so my kids have been binge watching this show after school each day and they love it. We have seen so many things in this cartoon that we have learned about so far...just last episode they were attending a Roman play with the masks and everything we learned about last week! There was a man from Gaul, and the kids recognized it! I'm loving having a visual like an exciting cartoon to re-enforce what we're learning! I really would love to buy the whole series on DVD.

In Bible we looked at Old Testament prophesies about Jesus. Each day we had a worksheet that listed some  prophesies and our job was to look up and read the fulfillment in the New Testament. We took a long time to do these assignments, but I think the kids got a lot out of it. It was amazing to see how much of Christ's life was prophesied hundreds of years before it happened. Not only where he'd be born and what he'd do, but even details such as him riding on a donkey's colt and detailed descriptions of his death.
The girls copied their memory verses for handwriting practice.



For science we had a very simple experiment this week. We froze salt water and regular sink water and compared them. The salt water did not fully freeze. It just got slushy. We learned about the importance of having salt water in the oceans of cold regions of the earth.









Baby Bear learned the letter M this week and the number 2. We learned all about the moon. She made a moon badge to wear, did all of her worksheets, salt tray, we sang songs, and she was able to memorize all the months of the year! One book that we are using this year is Amazing Animal Alphabet. Each letter of the alphabet has an animal to learn about. The back of the book has information to learn about the animals on each page. This week was M is for Mandrill. I love that she's learning names of unusual animals rather than just M is for monkey! We discovered that Rifiki from the Lion King (one of Baby bears favorite movies) is a mandrill! Baby Bear was excited that she now knows what he is. I love this book though. It's simple, yet she's actually learning a  lot from the lessons.

Probably the most fun thing we did this week was build a spaceship with Baby Bear while learning about the moon. We already had a huge cardboard box that I have been saving, so we cut it out and all the girls helped paint it. Then they had fun playing with it.

RTR Week 5

This week was a little different with Dad going back to work. We had gotten use to him waking us up and being here for our morning routine (he's an early bird, unlike the rest of us). Now he's gone when we wake up, so it's been a little bit strange. We managed to complete our school week in four days though and we celebrated Boo's 8th birthday!

In Bible we started memorizing verses in the book of Romans. We have three verses that we are studying. We copied them for handwriting and have been practicing reciting them. We're also still working on our memorization of the new Testament books. The girls played a NT books card game that came with our MFW curriculum. Bible is the first thing we do in the morning so we're usually still in pj's at this point.

This week in math both girls started something a little new in their curriculum. Sis started using her new Algebra/Decimal inserts with her MathUsee. MUS has blocks and different manipulatives that come with each book. The main concept of the program is to "build" the problems and be able to see the "why," rather than just the "how."  Sis has used MUS from the beginning and it's worked great for her.



Boo is using Math Lessons For a Living Education. This math is so hands on and fun (math isn't suppose to be fun right?) This week she started making her subtraction flashcards. Not just regular old flashcards though. This curriculum uses "Right Brained Flashcards." You know the side of your brain that's artistic and creative (the total opposite of math?) All of my kids are very right brained, so this was great. These large flashcards have the entire equation on the front including answer. Then they have a story that the child makes up and illustrates. This way they can actually see the math problem in a real and creative way and hopefully remember them better (not just with their left brain by memorizing facts but with their right brain too!) Boo had so much fun making these. We did a lot of them this week but we still have more to go. When they are done we will put them together on a ring to form a flip book that she can read through to practice.

For our studies on Rome we looked at Roman social classes, clothing, theater, and some of the Roman gods. We learned where all the names of our calendar's months originated. (July-Julius Caesar, August-Augustus Caesar, and most of the other months are named after roman numbers or gods.) In our history book we've finally reached the period where Augustus becomes the first emperor of Rome and the republic finally becomes an empire. All three girls did a craft when we learned about Roman clothing. We made a "golden Roman brooch" that we will save until later in the year when we actually make an entire Roman costume.

We started reading a new book for our history read-aloud time called "The Bronze Bow." So far Sis and I are enjoying reading this together. It doesn't keep Boo or Baby Bears' attention as well, but Boo's been listening to some parts. This story goes well with our history studies though, because it takes place in Jerusalem at the time of Christ. The main character is a runaway boy named Daniel  who lives in the mountains with a band of rebels plotting to take back their city from the Romans and awaiting a Messiah who will deliver them from oppression. This book is historical fiction, exciting, and a Newberry metal winner.

Just for fun and quiet reading time Sis read "The Indian in the Cupboard." This was my favorite book when I was a kid, so I thought she would like it. Baby Bear and I have been reading a daily picture book. This week we read Peter Rabbit and Curious George stories.


In science we are still on the third day of creation but we've moved from learning about the soil to talking about the seas that were formed when the dry ground appeared. All three of the girls do science together, although Baby Bear doesn't yet grasp the concepts being taught she still likes to help with the experiments. Our experiment was about salt water and fresh water we used food coloring  to color our different types of water. That way when we mixed them we could clearly see what was happening. When we mixed fresh water into the salt water it floated on top. When we mixed salt water into fresh most of it sank while some mixed with the fresh water. We learned that it is easier to float in the oceans and seas because the volume of the water weighs more. We looked at scuba divers wearing weights so that they will be heavier than the volume of the water and be able to dive farther into the depths of the ocean. After a science lesson Sis writes and illustrated a paper about what we learned to file in her notebook, while Boo just answers questions about the lesson orally. Baby Bear watches the experiment and then runs off to play. You'd be amazed at what the little ones learn though when they are just "being a helper" to their older siblings. Before bed one night this week Baby Bear was asking me something and I could quite understand what she was saying. Then I figured out she was saying "Momma is igneous rocks melted?" (we're still working on grammar.lol) I couldn't believe she had not only listened to last week's science lesson but remembered a word as big as igneous a week later!

RTR Week 4

This week in history we learned more about life in Ancient Rome such as family life, entertainment, games, and bathhouses. We're reading about Herod in our Augustus Caesar's World book. One project we did was make a "Knucklebones" game. This game was played around the public baths. The game is played by tossing the knuckle bones in the air and trying to catch as many as you can on the back side of your hand.  We made our knucklebones out of clay and then played the game for a while.

Another game that we played is a Roman board game that we made called "Rota" or "Three Man's Morris" (basically Roman Tic-Tac-Toe.) In this one each player has 3 dots which they place on the board where ever they want (just like tic tac toe.) After all pieces are places players take turn moving pieces (you can only move one space or you can jump one space if you opponent is blocking the way.) play until someone gets 3 in a row. The girl's liked this game better and we spent a while playing it.

For Bible we finished memorizing the books of the New Testament. Boo still need a little practice on a few of them, but she has them down pretty good. We'll continue to practice saying them and finding verses for the next couple weeks.

Every Friday Sis does writing for English instead of her English composition book. She's been using Writing Strands so far this year. Last week she had to list characteristics of someone she knows (details of what they look like, personality traits, facial expressions, things they like, etc.) then she wrote the rough draft of a two paragraph paper about that person. This week she wrote her final draft. The purpose of the assignment was to learn to use detailed descriptions in writing. She loves to wirte so these are her favorite kind of assignments.

6th grade math continues to get harder with each chapter, mom's about to throw in the towel! Not really, but I'm trying my best to explain this stuff and act like I know what I'm talking about. Boo is still doing great with her new math book. I like that every now and then they have her do a random fun thing. It makes math time more enjoyable to her, because each day she doesn't know what to expect. Whereas Sis knows exactly what she's going to be doing (watching her DVD and doing a worksheet.) This week Boo is working on subtraction. She made her own flashcards and did her workbook pages, but in this weeks math story the twins notice that trees subtract leaves in the fall. So, there was a leaf rubbing project at the end of the week.



Right now we're doing science once a week. I plan on increasing to two days a week soon. This week we did an experiment with crayon shavings that demonstrated the rock cycle. We learned that just like the water on earth recycles it's self with the water cycle, so does the soil and rocks. Last week we learned that rocks break up and the tiny bits form soil. This week we saw that soil and small bits of rock actually join back together to become more rocks! In our two part experiment we first put our crayon shavings in foil and smashed them together with a hammer. We ended up with a crumbly thin sheet of crayon representing a sedimentary rock.

In the second part we heated the sedimentary "crayon rock" in the foil with a candle. Our rock melted and then cooled and formed a new rock representing an igneous rock.

Baby Bear learned all about the sun and the letter S this week. She made a picture box with pictures of "S' words, used a salt tray to practice writing her letter, learned about shadows and raisins, and painted a sun badge.

This was our last week with Daddy home on sick leave after having him here for 6 weeks. So next week we will have to adjust to things getting back to normal. We've gotten use to having him here for school time though, so we're all a little sad.

RTR Week 3

This week started out a difficult one. For whatever reason we fell behind on our lessons and just couldn't seem to complete everything scheduled each day. I was feeling very discouraged on Tue when it was 4:00 p.m. and we still hadn't gotten to history and a couple other things that I had planned. It just seemed like one distraction after another. Boo had a meltdown over spelling, Sis had a stomachache, and everyone was whining. I felt like crying. Then I remembered one of the reasons we were running behind was because our 15 min Bible time took over an hour that morning. It wasn't because we were slow, but because the kids had a lot of good questions and they had a blast racing to find bible verses. Boo did have that meltdown over spelling words wrong. That took way longer than it should have, but after a time-out we had a good talk about it being ok to not have all the answers right as long as we try our best. I think she went away feeling a little more confident and after that for the first time in a long time seemed to really grasp the concept I was trying to teach her. She even remembered it the next day, which was a huge breakthrough in spelling for her! I'm trying to learn that it's alright to not check every box and when things don't go as planned just go with the flow. Our day first seemed to be a complete fail, because I was only focused on what didn't get done rather than seeing all the good things that did.

For Bible this week we set aside our book we've been using for now and started learning about the books of the New Testament. Sis and Boo are learning all the books in the NT. Sis has memorized them before but is a bit rusty and this is the first time for Boo. We're going through each book, discussing the main topic and author and then having Bible drills looking up verses. Boo has only had a children's story book bible up till now, so finding verses on her own in a big bible is new to her. She's doing great with it though.

In history we learned about Pompeii, the Roman city that was buried under ash from a volcano and discovered in tact hundreds of years later. The kids loved this story. It would be pretty amazing to discover a whole ancient city! We read that the dishes of the people were found still on the tables from their meal that day. For a project we made pop up Pompeii villas that I found on Pinterest. The volcano is in the background and on the inside of the houses glued pictures of actual artwork that was found in Pompeii. Baby Bear wanted to make one too so we all had fun together on this project.One of our art projects this week was to make a mosaic picture, but since the floors of houses in Pompeii were mosaics we decided to design our own for the inside of our little houses and combine the two projects into one. To the right is Boo working on her mosaic floor of a heart. Unfortunately our printer ran out of colored ink so the girls had to color the frescoes and wall art with markers. Then we glued everything together. These have now become homes for our littlest Pet shops. Even Baby Bear calls it their "Pompeii house." I think it accomplished the goal, they will all remember the name Pompeii and what happened there because of this craft.

We're also still reading about Augustus Caesar. In our story he is still a young man named Octavian and has not yet become the Emperor. We made a map of the lands that Octavian ruled and Antony ruled.

We played a game that originated in Ancient Rome called "Odd or Even." The first child places a number of stones in his right hand. The second child must guess if there is an odd or even number. If he's correct he gets to take a stone, if incorrect he must give a stone. Play until one child has all the stones. Sounds simple and you would think this would be boring for a kid in this century, but actually the kids had a fun with this game.


Baby Bear worked on her creation book each day. On day 5 she made thumbprint fish for her picture with orange, red and green ink. She thought that was fun.

We have had some really unusually hot days again this week. With it nice out none of us have wanted to sit inside for school lately. So Friday we packed up and took school to our favorite park! We had a whole pavilion to ourselves so we did our school work there and took play breaks between lessons. It was a nice change of scenery.

We did our science lesson at the park. We have been learning about the 3rd day of creation: soil and dirt. Last lesson we learned that soil is a mixture of different things. This weeks lesson required us to find several diff types of rocks. So first we went on a rock hunt.

After we found our rocks we had to try to break them by banging them together. We noticed that some of the rocks were softer than others. Then we smashed them apart with a hammer! We observed the insides of the rocks and we discovered that the crumbly pieces that fell off looked a lot like dirt.

 In our lesson we learned that most of the soil on earth is made up of tiny rock pieces that have broken down. We learned how rocks absorb water, which expands in winter causing the rocks to crack and over time break up becoming part of the soil.


 We did bible time and a little history before we left home that morning, but all of the girls did their math and English at the park after our science lesson. Boo made a clock for math. Baby Bear  finished her Creation book that she's been adding to for the past 7 school days.

Here's a few more pictures of our day and our play breaks

This week we also started reading book 3 of The Epic Order of the Seven books "The Prophet, the Shepherd, & the Star." We started book 1 last year and we finished book 2 over summer. These are by far my kids favorite books (mine too!) We've been reading them at bedtime lately since we have so much other stuff to read and do during the day. The main characters of theses books are 7 animal friends who travel through time on missions from the Maker. The characters are so funny, Al the big orange cat is afraid of everything and only thinks about food ( the kids crack up at everything he says) There's always something exciting happening. Our last chapter ended with Max the dog being chased by a couple of fierce lions who were trying to steal his scroll. They bring the stories of the Bible to life and the girls always beg for another chapter. (Just a little side note right here) Of all the things I do with my girls, all of their schooling, all the places we go, etc. I truly believe that when they are grown our reading time will be my kid's favorite childhood memories. I have read aloud to them as a family since each of them were born. Reading to them is not something I do because we homeschool either. A lot of days I read to them while they eat their lunch. Other days we read at bedtime, but I always read to them. It's something we all look forward to. I believe it is why all of my kids love books and Sis wants to be a writer. No joke, at this moment as I'm typing this, they are in the other room it's almost bedtime and one of them just called "Mom can we read more of our book tonight?" It makes me sad when I hear other parents say they rarely read to their kids, because they are missing out on so much. If you don't read to your kids regularly I encourage you to start. Find some exciting books that hold your kids attention and read together daily. Baby Bear is only four, but since we have been reading chapter books as a family since she's been born she will sit and listen too (sometimes as she plays with her toys.) A lot of it is over her head, but she usually knows all the characters, can usually tell back a lot of what's happening in the stories and gets just as excited for story time as the older girls.  Anyway speech over.This third book started out with a Roman soldier in Bethlehem and the time of the birth of Christ! Then it went back 700 years where they discover a scroll and meet the prophets who foretold of Messiah. "Roman soldiers, ancient scrolls, scribes, prophets" all things we have talked about in school already this year, so this seems to be a good fit!

RTR: Week 2

This week focused on Julius Caesar and Roman Cities and homes.

We read about the life of Caesar and the Ides of March (the day he was killed.) I tried to make it interesting by drawing pictures of Pompey, Julius, and Brutus on the chalk board as I told the story. Boo had fun drawing and erasing expressions on the characters according to what was happening in the story. The girls made drawings of Julius Caesar and wrote about him for their notebooks.

For Bible we learned about how writing began. It was interesting! We saw how our letter "A" began as the drawing of an ox head and changed over many years. We learned about the Rosetta stone and a little about translating writings. We learned about the languages of the bible and the different materials ancient books were made with. The girls made their own little mini scrolls with messages in them.

I wanted to share a little bit about Boo's new math curriculum. To say that we have had a hard time finding something that is right for her is an understatement. I don't know if this is going to be the perfect fit either, but so far we are liking it. We started using Masterbooks Lessons for a living education this week. Boo seems to do better with hands on lessons and colorful workbooks than Sis who is fine with the black and white worksheets of MathUsee. I found this curriculum last year and have been dying to try it. Each lesson starts with a story that teaches math concepts! The Christian based stories revolve around two twin children and their family. The stories keep Boo's attention much better than a dry math lesson. Then the rest of the chapter has colorful worksheets that reinforce the topics discussed in the story. There is no teachers manual. The stories instructions and worksheets are all together in one big book. The first lesson was on place value. Boo used cut out manipulatives that are in the back of the book to build a "Place Value Village." She has a container of dry beans that are used for counting and sorting into the village cups. For the first time ever she told me she likes math. We'll see if it lasts and if we've finally found the right curriculum for her.

Another thing we're doing new for math this year is "math drill." In addition to our regular lessons Sis and Boo have a daily math drill. I time them and they practice simple math facts. Boo practices her addition and subtraction facts. Sis practices everything from addition to division facts. This is  just to practice and reinforce fact they have memorized.

 This year Sis is using MathUsee Zeta which focuses on decimals, percentages, and some early geometry. This is the last level before she enters the higher level math books like pre-algebra. I might need to hire a tutor after this year! haha!

We began Science this week. Last year we used "Science in the Beginning," which covers one day of creation each unit. Last year we spent the entire year covering the first 2 days of Creation learning about light, water and air. This year we will continue to use this book for the first half of the year. This week we started out on unit 3 (the 3rd day of creation) learning about Land and plants. Our first lesson was "What is dirt?" We did an experiment where we had to collect samples of two different types of dirt, mix with water and observe what happens over time. We discovered that the dirt broke up into different layers. Some things floated others sank. We learned that dirt is actually a mixture of many different materials. We learned about items such as leaves and dead bugs decomposing and becoming part of the dirt.We learned what makes soil "rich," and that the materials dirt is made of are necessary to growing plants and for all of life that depend on those plants. God knew what he was doing creating the dry ground and dirt before creating living things. Who knew that even the dirt points to existence of our awesome creator!

Baby Bear has been having fun with her Kindergarten work. I decided that I'm not going to write about everything that she is doing. I just wrote about MFW K a couple years ago with Boo and those posts are still on this blog. This week she started her 2 week unit on Creation. She's been learning letters, numbers, and making her own creation book.

With Daddy home for a few weeks it's been much easier for us to fit in field trips. Normally we do field trips and extra things on Mons since that's his day off. Now we're free to take a field trip any day. One thing I love about MFW is that it is a 4 day a week program. That leaves the weekends off plus one extra day in the week for extracurricular activities, catching up on missed work, fun projects, nature walks, and field trips. Later in the year we're gonna start some special things on our day 5 like a cooking class. This week though we took Fri off for another field trip and took the girls to a giant pumpkin farm (this pic cracks me up because it says 'giant pumpkins' on the sign and then the girls got the tiniest pumpkins ever.) They really did have some enormous pumpkins. The weather has been so beautiful here lately though, so we're trying to enjoy it as much as we can.