Rome to the Reformation--Weeks 1-5

This school year we are using My Father's World Rome to the Reformation package.

This is our 4th year with MFW and we LOVE it!

We also use Horizons math,

Writing With Ease and First Language Lessons from Peace Hill Press,

and Rod and Staff grammar.

Here's some of what we have done in the first 5 wks.

 We have added The Roman Republic, Julius Casear, and Casear Augustus to our timeline.

The girls have added some Roman coloring pages to their notebook.

Emma's page on the founding of Rome.

We are studying the human body in science, and in the first week the girls drew a cell and labeled it.

The sense of taste. I love that Emma has added braces to her teeth.

One of Moriah's first math tests!

The girls have been learning about showing perspective in drawing.

And they made cute little clay piggies for a craft!

First Day of School 2012!

This year I don't think I have any pictures from the first day of school.

 Catching the first day of school is difficult because over the years we have stopped having that "official" first day of school, and we sort of ease into our school routine.

This year we began with math and spelling the first week of August.

Week 2 we added writing and week 3 we added  grammar.

Week 4 we added all the rest.

Starting our year out gradually makes it less stressful for all of us. By the time all of our fall activities start up again, we have several weeks of school under our belt. We used to start school and activities all at once, after Labor Day. That was just too overwhelming for our family!

So here's some of our first days of school for the 2012-2013 school year.

Our class has a 6th grader, a 4th grader and a pre-schooler.

Obviously we had riding lessons on this day! :)

Doing some work.

Reading to her brother.

Working on grammar.

I love their facial expressions in this one!

Perhaps reading with goggles helps with comprehension?

Lunch break.

Recess!

As you can see from Aiden's double barrel shotgun,

we haven't adopted a zero tolerance policy for guns in our school :)

Weeks 29-30

Our history studies have included:
King Hezekiah

King Josiah

The prophet Jeremiah

Babylon conquers Assyria

The Babylonian Empire

Judah falls to Babylon

Daniel

King Nebuchadnezzar

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace

We have also read about Sparta and Athens.

The girls made Athenian coins.

For science we have started a new book, Archimedes and the Door of Science.

We are also adding to our scheduled science to take advantage of a science lesson God has provided in our own backyard!

Emma found a nest with 4-5 eggs in it.

She has kept an eye on it, and here are the baby birds about 8 days after they hatched.

10 days old.

12 days old

She has had so much fun checking on them daily and keeping track of them on a chart.

This Wednesday she was super excited when she found this!

And she was even more excited on Thursday!

She found another one on Friday......

And one more on Saturday.

She has not laid an egg today, so Emma's wondering if she is finished or if she'll find a few more yet.

Since we have been given this opportunity and the girls, especially Emma, have such an interest in birds, we have started reading in Exploring Creation With Zoology 1--Flying Creatures of the 5th Day by Jeannie Fulbright. We have been reading about different types of nests and how the birds make them. One of the projects was to make a nest.

This is Moriah's nest.

  When Emma would come in from checking on her chicks and eggs, her face would be beaming with excitement! It was yet another reminder of how blessed we are to be a homeschooling family!

Pies as Good as Grandma's....Almost!

One of the classes we do together with our homeschool co-op is designed to teach the children various life skills. They have made journals and had journaling assignments, and they have planted seeds and kept track of the growing seedlings. For our most recent class we learned about pie baking. Isn't baking pies a much needed life skill?? I believe all of their daddie think so!

And when it comes to baking pies, is there anyone who does it better than Grandma? Grandma graciously shared her time with us to come teach the kids the secrets to baking a delicous pie. By the end of they day, the kids made pies that looked as good as Grandma's!

Blessed to be a Homeschooling Family

I love teaching our kids at home, but honestly, there are days when I want to put all the kids on the big, yellow bus and  cozy up with a cup of creamy coffee and a good book! Or go grocery shopping without all the kids and meet friends for lunch!

But last week was filled with reminders of how blessed we are to be a homeschooling family. I know I wouldn't want to do things any other way. Even if it means not one quiet cup of coffee or a lunch date with friends for the next 15 years!

 The girls were able to have "birthday breakfast" with Grandma. At 9am. On a school day.

Then the unseasonably warm weather arrived and the kids were able to be outside.

They played basketball, softball and mud kickball.

They played at the park.

They collected caterpillars and went "worming."

Playing isn't the only thing they did out in the sunshine.

They took their math sheets out on the back porch.

They found their favorite quiet spot in the backyard for reading.

At the end of the week we did some baking with friends to help out a local women's maternity home with their bake sale.

To quote my friend, it was worth it just to hear the girls giggle!

I have to agree!

Thank you Lord for reminding me how blessed we are to be a homeschooling family!

It isn't always an easy thing to do, but days like these make it all worth it. Being with our children everyday, teaching them, watching them grow, and making memories with them-- is a precious treasure and it brings joy to my heart!



Butterflies in Bloom

We had a fieldtrip this week to see the Butterflies in Bloom at Dow Gardens.
What a beautiful, sunny day to be out with our friends!

Here's Moriah with one of her friends...aren't they cute?

LOVE!

I love this one!

It would make a great homeschool yearbook photo!



Weeks 12-13

Weeks 12 and 13 covers the 10 Plagues of Egypt.

We covered 2 plagues each day.

First day was blood and frogs.

The girls decided to act out a few plagues, and so we found frogs all over the house!

On the sofa, in our beds, in the cabinets, and in our food. 

Of course Dad was Pharoah, so at dinner he had frogs on his plate and red food coloring in his milk.

Here are some frogs on the mirror.

And a frog on the spelling board!

I asked the girls to think about what it would be like to have the land overtaken by frogs.

Think of the sound!

It was probably difficult to walk around without stepping on one!

The smell of the heaps of dead frogs once the plague was removed.

All because one man was stubborn, and refused to acknowledge God as God.

Then came flies and they taped little black dots to Dad's shirt.

During the livestock plague I found many "dead" stuffed animals throughout the house. 

Then came boils and hail.

The girls taped red circles to me and Ryan for boils.

 They hung little brown circles from the ceiling for hail.

There was hail in every room except the girls' room, because they were the Israelites.

Some of my favorite "plague" quotes:

"Watch out, hail machine coming through!" -Emma, pushing dad's wheelchair to use as a stool so she could reach the ceiling to hang the hail!

"Oh, and mom, you're the Queen, so sores, sores, sores, boils, boils, boils-- and all that stuff on you!"-Emma

Here's some "hail" in the sky.

Other happenings this week:

• We finished up our read aloud by Patricia St. John, Star of Light. Very good book!
• We began our new read aloud for the Christmas season, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. This is such a good book too! We'll be watching the movie over Christmas break.
• In grammar, Emma was introduced to outlining. She also had an assignment to write notes for a "How To" demonstration. She chose to explain "How to Make Johnny Cakes." That's one of her favorite recipes!
• Emma has been thankful that math has eased up on long division in her recent lessons! The focus has moved to reviewing previous material, which makes for a less painful math lesson for her!
• Moriah is still working on memorizing multiplication facts. She has also been introduced to division!
• After today we are officially on Christmas break! We'll be doing some review next week, and maybe a math lesson or two. Other than that, we are on break!! Merry Christmas!

World Teacher Day

Did you know that there is a World Teacher Day?

Well, there is!

The girls discovered this from their calendar.

It was last week (or maybe the week before-they all run together!)

And this was my gift from my two favorite students: a shiny red apple, and this note:

I know there are grammar and spelling mistakes that would give an English teacher heart failure, but this just made my heart melt!