Unit 5: Preparing

History: One thing I'm learning about myself is that history is my favorite subject. It makes me sad that I didn't care or pay attention to history growing up in public schools. It is so fascinating and I LOVE learning what has happened in our world in the past. It helps to understand the Bible and to see more clearly the "big picture" and how all of history has a place in this big plan of God for his creation. I think the one thing that I love most about Heart Of Dakota and My Father's World is that the core of both these programs centers around history. They make history come alive and exciting, so that my kids are just as fascinated as I now am. They are learning, not just to get the right answer on a test and then forget it, but they are also having fun. Hopefully they will not grow up with a love for history and more knowledge than I did. 


This week we started learning about ancient Egyptians! This is one of the earliest civilizations in which we have a written history. We learned about Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone, which was discovered and unlocked the code allowing people to translate the ancient Egyptian writings. We used this website to look at a hieroglyphic alphabet and Sis tried writing her name.  NG kids Hieroglyphics-uncovered.  
We also learned about the Nile, Sphinx, pyramids, and mummies!

Her history project this week was to make an Egyptian clay cartouche (an oval shaped frame with a line at the bottom which indicated that the writing on it is a royal name.) We made a cartouche with hieroglyphic writing for the lady Pharaoh Hatshepsut's name. She was the first recorded female Pharaoh in history. We made our own clay out of salt, flour and water. Then we carved our hieroglyphics and let it air-dry overnight. Finally on day 3 we painted our cartouche brown. Boo joined us and made her own cartouche. She chose to make a rainbow and sun instead of Egyptian writing though.

In our Draw and Write Through History book, Sis learned to draw a pyramid and a sarcophagus (the stone coffin that held the mummy.)







Language: Sis vocabulary words this week to add to her journal were: sphinx, derricks, and classes (as in social classes.) 
In LA Sis is learning how to proofread using the correct proof marks. We're still diagramming sentences and reviewing parts of speech. Sis also wrote a letter to her Penpal Jordan this week. I think all kids once they can write should have a Penpal or two. It's great handwriting practice plus it's so much fun to have friends from around the country. Even though they've never met Sis feels like she knows her Penpals and they are always sending each other special little surprises, pictures and drawings, and saying things like "I love you, wish we lived closer." It's very sweet and has been a good experience for her.


Reading: Sis finished Reading "Sara Plain and Tall." That means we are finished reading all of the books in our Historical fiction genera. Next week will be book project week!

We also began reading "Grandpa's Box" again for history and adding figures to our own box. We're so excited to get to start reading this book again we have missed it the last few weeks.

I also started reading the book "Tirzah," by Lucille Travis, to her for our story time. It's about the life of a Hebrew slave girl in Egypt. If only Moses could persuade Pharaoh to let her family leave. Surely Yahweh will hear her prayers for a better life somewhere else. This story gives you a look at what it could have been like from the perspective of a Hebrew child in the days of the Exodus. 

Science: Bones! Bones! Bones! We are studying the skeletal system this week. We learned the names of a lot of bones this week and labeled them on the skeleton in our journal.There is so much more to bones though than just learning their names and locations. We're learning the parts of a bone (the different layers inside of a bone), What happens when a bone breaks, how bones grow, bone marrow, joints and ligaments. The most interesting fact we learned is that bones bleed when they break and the blood clots to help heal the bone much like a scab on a skin injury! We did an experiment with a chicken bone (which are very similar to human bones.) Sis had to cut it in half. We opened it up and looked at the red marrow inside where the blood cells are stored. Then we started a project where we are soaking one bone in vinegar over the weekend and another in water to see what happens. The vinegar is suppose to remove the calcium from the bone. We will see next week what happens.

 

MFW 1st grade: Week 5

The most exciting thing this week was that we celebrated Boo's 6th birthday! They grow up way too fast!

Her workload has definitely increased now that 1st grade is in full swing. The phonics has picked up this week and it has been taking Boo about an hour to finish her reading assignments each day! She's getting it though, so even though it's time consuming I'm glad she's learning to read. Each day her reading right now consists of a dictation exercise (where she will either read word aloud or write words that a read to her, tell me the sounds in a word, etc.) a workbook page, and a student sheet/ activity. This week we started learning some blends. We learned the sounds for /sh/ /ch/ /ng/ and /th/. I hung them on our bulletin board and we practiced them all week. We also started using our "reading chart" and will be highlighting sounds as we learn them throughout the year. Here are the little phonics mini books Boo made for her student sheet activities. She had to write words with that sound inside of each booklet.

Boo also learned her 2nd memory verse for the school year. This time however we started using these cute sheets to practice her handwriting by copying her verse.

In science we continued to learn about plants. This week we looked at trees.  Instead of planting a bean (since I forgot to buy one!) we put some corn kernels into a wet paper towel. We will water them everyday to see if we can get them to grow some roots.

We also made our history timeline this week. It will be a few weeks yet before we start using it. We decided to use a tri-fold board that can be folded up and stored instead of using a wall for our time line. I also decided not to add all of the dates yet as the curriculum suggests. I remember having a problem placing the dates too close when Sis was in 1st then we didn't have room for all of our pictures, so I will add the dates as we go through history. This week we added "creation." Our picture was Gen 1:1 written in Hebrew that we learned about last week. We're looking forward to starting our history stories and notebook journal soon.

Unit 4: Preparing

We're back to school after a great week long vacation. I always wonder if they will forget everything when we take a week off, but they both did pretty good remembering this time! We're still enjoying our HOD Preparing Hearts curriculum. Sis's only complaint is the amount of writing with written narrations, journaling, copywork, etc. she says it makes her hand sore...I say it's good for her especially since she says she wants to be a writer someday.

History: Sis picked back up where she left off studying the Ice Age. We're still reading through "Life in the Great Ice Age." One of her assignments this week was to do further research on the Ice Age using the internet. We found a great resource at Answers in Genesis's kids page found here Ice Age Answers.
We compared what creationists believe about the Ice Age to what evolutionists believe. We also looked more at the tower of Babel, which we believe took place between the flood and the Ice Age. 

Her history project was to make a clay map of the areas where the Ark and tower of Babel are believed to have been. We used "Crayola Model Magic." She formed the seas and rivers using a map in our book. On day 2 she labeled them with toothpick flags. Then on day 3 we filled the seas with water and added pieces of ice to represent the wall of ice during the ice age.

We also started using the book "Child's History of the World." I have mixed feelings about this book. Some parts are really good, others I totally disagree with. HOD carefully went through this text and only assigned chapters to be read that agree with creationism, so I'm glad they did that. I do like the fact that the history lessons are told in a non-textbook story format.

Sis learned to draw the tower of babel and did her copy work in her Draw and Write Through History book.
 

Reading: Sis finished reading Little Women and began reading Sara Plain and Tall for our second book in the historical fiction category. She studied character traits this week. We looked at faith, perseverance, and courage. She had to look at some of the traits of the characters in her book, and then think of examples of these traits in her own life. We also talked about writing using descriptive words that paint a picture in the mind of the reader, setting, and the time period.

Science: Science was so much fun this week! We're loving our Apologia Anatomy! We both agreed it is our favorite science curriculum we've ever tried. We finished up our unit on cells by making an edible cell out of JELLO and candy!

Then we started a new unit on the skeletal system. We learned so much about bones, not only that they hold our bodies together and protect our organs but how they produce blood cells and store nutrients that our bodies need. We learned about calcium and how to keep our bones strong. We also talked about causes of bone diseases like osteoporosis. This was particularly interesting to her because Grandma has this bone disease so it helped us to better understand it. One project we did was make a Play-Doh person and squished it to see what we would be like without bones. Then we made a second one and added toothpicks inside to help hold it together and allow it to stand on it's own like our bones do. 

MFW 1st grade: Week 4

Here are some highlights of Boo's 4th week of 1st grade.

Boo finished learning all the vowels. We looked at one vowels each day and practiced reading words with that short vowel sound. A song that we sang to help us was to the tune of B-I-N-G-O ("There were some letters in our alphabet and vowel's was their name-o...A-E-I-O-U..and vowels was their name-o") By the end of the week we moved to reading 4 letter words ending with blends (st, nd, mp, etc.) It still takes her time to read the words but I think she's doing really well sounding them out on her own.

For history we talked about how people speak different languages and those languages have writing that looks different from ours. We learned that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. We talked a little about Bible translation and thanked God that there are people who can understand more than one language so that we can have a copy of the Bible in our language. We looked at what Genesis 1:1 looked like in the original Hebrew writing. Boo thought the letters looked really crazy and hard to learn. For fun she practiced writing some of the Hebrew letters/symbols in the verse.

Math has been getting easier for Boo. We finished Ch2 of her MathUSee Alpha curriculum. I decided to give her her first ever math test, which was over place value and reading 3 digit numbers. There were only 4 problems front and back but she got them all right without any help! That is a huge improvement from 4 weeks ago when she couldn't remember what a "7" was!
I thought she might complain about a test, but she was actually really proud to be "a big girl," and take a test like Sis. I think it boosted her confidence some.


In science we are learning about plants and flowers. We talked about seeds, roots, pollination, flowers, etc. Then we went outside to find a plant with roots to examine and plucked it out of the ground. We took it indoors to look at it more closely and examine the different parts. Baby Bear was pretty interested in the plant too!

Next week we will be growing our own "bean plant." Boo is looking forward to that.

Unit 3: Preparing

We did our best to finish school this week with nasty colds...we survived though. A lot of Unit 3 was just a continuation of all the books and things we were learning last week. Here's a peek into some of the things we learned.

History: We continued to learn about the Ice Age in history. Sis' first activity was to research "cave art." We looked at different pictures online and read facts about ancient cave paintings. Again these amazingly detailed works of art point to the fact that "cavemen" were not primitive ape-like beings, but intelligent advanced people just like us and every person since God made Adam.

She learned how to draw a Woolly Mammoth and did her copywork from her Draw and Write through history book... 

Her weekly art project was to make a cave art painting, Boo joined us. On day one we made our cave wall by cutting a piece of paper from a brown paper bag. We crumpled it and dipped it in water and tea  bags to make it soft and give it an old "stony" appearance. Day 2 we looked at cave art samples of a bull and mammoth and sketched our own figures. we learned that many caves had hand prints painted next to the images. Archaeologists wonder if this could be a way for them to put their signature on their artwork. So, we decided to add hand prints to our cave art too. On day 3 we painted our cave art drawings.  

We also added "Tower of Babel," to our timeline. This is our accordion style timeline that we will be adding to  throughout the school year. We are "young earth creationists." Which means we follows the belief that the earth we live on is still fairly young (6000-10,000 years) and that according to Bible History the "beginning or Creation" can be traced back close to around 4-5000 years before Christ. In other words there is no such thing as "billions of years ago" on the earth. Both girl's (Heart of Dakota and My Father's World) curriculum hold young earth views. So our timeline starts with Creation at appox. 4000 BC and we will be adding event throughout history to present time.

Bible:  
We're still enjoying our Apologia Bible curriculum. This week we looked at some really fun opical illusions. We talked about how 2 different people can look at the same thing and see it differently. The way a person see's the world depends on what they believe to be true. However, while both views of an optical illusion are right, there is only one right way or truth in life. We compared it to 2 people wearing glasses...one with clear lenses and the other with pink lenses. While both people look at the same world they will see it differently, only the one with the clear glasses on will see things as they truly are. There are absolute truths and only those who look to God's word for truth will see things as they truly are.
   
Science:  This week was all about cells! We're starting with the basics of anatomy. What is a cell? While it was fun learning about cells ( I feel like I'm in school too learning this stuff!) we definitely had information overload! We tried our best to understand DNA and RNA, the parts of a cell and their functions, etc, but this stuff is not easy to understand! Sis did pretty well with it though. At one point we learned that each person begins as just a single cell and that one cell contains all the DNA about that person and who they will be! That right there seems to me to be proof enough that even at the very start (a single cell) that it is a life! That actually turned into an unplanned but important conversation with Sis about abortion. I'm glad we had that talk though, because it is a serious issue that my girls may face one day. I want to be open with them about it. I want them all to understand life begins at conception and even before that the Bible says "God knew you." 

Sis drew and labeled a cell in her journal. 

 

We will be taking a week off of school for vacation, so no new posts next week. One of my most favorite perks of homeschooling is taking vacations right after everyone else has gone back to school! We usually try to plan our trips around this time every year. We like to get 3 or 4 weeks into our school year and then take a week break for some fun and relaxation! The cost of hotels and tickets are always lower after Labor day. We pretty much have water parks to ourselves...no long lines or crowds at tourist attractions. Most places offer great deals around this time of year (bc they're desperate for business!) and it's still nice enough weather to enjoy a great vacation! See you all in a couple weeks!

MFW 1st grade: Week 3

Here is a quick recap of what Boo learned in 1st grade this past week...
She finally finished her review of the alphabet.  We also completed out alphabet scroll that we have been working on the past couple weeks.

I feel like it's starting to get real now! Review is over...on to the new! We started learning some new phonics, one of which was long vowel sounds. I've been really nervous that this will confuse her. She seemed to do ok with it. We also started reading complete simple sentences in our workbook (something we began last year.)

In science we're still learning about plants. This week we learned about flowers. We learned about the parts of a flower and how pollination works.

We also reviewed the months of the year and talked about seasons. Boo made a Four Season's Book.

Finally we took our first field trip of the school year this week. We went to a local bakery to learn how pretzels are made. We got to go into the kitchen where the goodies are prepared. Then they told a short story about the first pretzel. I was surprised that it was all about God! They each got a clump of dough and learned the steps to making the perfect pretzel...The only down side was it took 40 mins for all our pretzels to bake! They were yummy though and the girls learned something new. I liked this field trip because they actually got to learn how to do something and make it with their own hands.We've taken a lot of field trips to museums and zoos, often the kids have fun but at the end of the day you wonder if they actually learned anything new from it. This year I'm hoping to find more hands on experiences for them like this one for our field trips. Boo's best friend happens to be doing MFW 1st grade also! I don't know if that qualifies as enough students to start a "Synergy Group", however it works out great for curriculum related field trips (if I can find any) because they are learning about the same things.

 

MFW 1st grade: Week 2

Well school is now in full swing over here! Boo is starting to get the hang of how all this new 1st grade stuff is going to work. Her first subject every morning is reading/phonics while Sis does her math and spelling. So far reading has all been review. She is still reading CVC words and practicing sounds. We've only learned short vowel sounds up to this point so our words are limited. We're one lesson away from finishing our handwriting review of all our upper and lowercase letters. She's been working really hard at it though.

Boo is still really struggling in math, but I keep saying that she's only 5 and she will get there. We spent this week reviewing our numbers and practicing writing them. We also did a lot of practice with place value and reading larger numbers. I've decided we're just gonna take it slow and move at her pace. When she's ready we'll move to addition. I think that pushing her ahead will only cause frustration and cause her to hate math. Another reason I love homeschooling...In a classroom she would probably be left behind as the class moves on to the next level. Here I can help her at her own pace until she's got it, with no pressure or grades. There were a few tears shed and a few "I'm no good at this!" I just tell her school is not a competition. As long as she's trying her best that's good enough. The Lord will help her to remember and understand her math as long as she keeps trying and doesn't give up.

We started using "Science with Plants," for science. We will go back and forth between 3 different science books over the course of the school year. This weeks lesson was about soil and leaf litter.

Boo's science project was to collect a pile of leaf litter and examine with a magnifying glass to see what she could find in her pile...sorry no pictures.

She also had to gather a scoop of soil from the backyard into a glass jar. Add water to the jar and watch it over the next few days to see if the different particles in the soil separate. the heavier parts of the soil like sand and rocks sink to the bottom and the lighter ones like pieces of rotted plants float to the top.

One of our projects this week was for history was to make a Jewish calendar. Ok so I went back and forth as to whether we should do this. One because Boo is still learning our regular calendar and I didn't want to confuse her with extra info. Two because Sis did this same project in 1st grade and I don't remember her actually learning anything from it. I was all set to toss it and then another MFW mother pointed out that the little chart was still cute for teaching the months and seasons...I ageed sooooo...we ended up keeping it but totally skipping all things Jewish.lol...We colored the seasons and then we colored in the month we are in. We talked about which months fall in which seasons and we hung it up to color in each month.