The Last Lap

Here are our finished final lap books for this Adventure....

Ying chose The Civil War....

Yang chose The Great Inventors. Not all were American in this project or from this time period but it was a great study...

Yangs suffered a bit from the humidity but all in all a great 3 week project!

Aloha and the Last Frontier

We did it! We finished Adventures and our trip through the 50 states. We celebrated our success with a "luau" of sorts...lol.. No roasted pigs in the back yard but we did the best we could living in a clay state..lol
It was fun to do two such contrasting states in the last week. We bundled up for Alaska and looked at how even today many areas a still only accessible but boat, or small aircraft, and that there are  villages of a 100 people isolated by the extreme weather for more than 1/2 a year . Yang wasn't sure she could survive with so few people to have conversations. When we hit Hawaii the kiddos were quick to dress up and ask for the beach. They loved the colors and flavors. We cooked a great dinner with the flavors of  Hawaii : fish, fruit, sweet bread and a coconut poke cake. we left out pineapple because the girls have started to shows signs of allergies to it.  Their favorite thing was recreating "Stitch Juice" from the O'hana restaurant at Disney World.

1. Our Stitch Juice Recipie:
2. 
   
3. 21 ounces Passion Fruit Juice
4. 21 ounces Guava Juice
5. 14 ounces Orange Juice (pulp free)

Mix well and serve cold. We found it was best if it was let sit together for at least a hour for the flavors to meld.

So, now its time for a bit of a break. We will continue with math and reading for another 20 or so days. The girls will have their end of year testing, and we will enjoy some fun end of year shenanigans and field trips. We will break completely for the month of June for VBSs and summer camps then pick back up with MFW's next program : Exploring Countries and Cultures. The kids are very excited for it. I am excited for a bit of a break! Aloha!

Weeks 32-33

 We are approaching the finish line of the school year and only have alittle bit left in the Adventures curriculum, and then we are kinda doing our own thing. We are finishing up the last few states, and each girl has chosen a lap book from A Journey Through Learning to complete on the historical subject of her choice. Ying chose to do more on the Civil War, while Yang chose The Great Inventors. Each lapbook is a large undertaking, and will take us approx 3 weeks to finish. We've chosen ones this time that require more independent writing, and will allow us to show our year's progress in Language Arts. We are working on crafting strong sentences and paragraphs, and making sure we are clearly on topic (answering the question asked). The lapbooks are designed for grades 2-7 and come with study guides. Since, the girls are just finishing 2nd, I am not requiring more research than the 1-2 page study guide that comes with each section. I think these are appropriate length and detail. I find them very similar to the writing in The Story of the US by MFW. We are also continuing our way through the last few states in the west and southwest. We really enjoyed making Navajo Fry Bread while talking about New Mexico.

 Poor Ying had to sick back and watch because she had strep throat....

Any project she can Yang can get her hands into is her kinda thing.

But Mommy does the frying...lol

 We finished our bread off with some worm honey.

We've switched spelling curricula starting this week. Spelling by Sound and structure just didn't seem to click. We did the whole 2nd grade book but just never seemed to really connect with the girls. So we have switched to Spelling Skills: Grade 3 by Harcourt Family Learning. This book combines spelling, vocabulary, light grammar work, and dictionary skills. Each week they have a short passage to edit, mainly for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.  After just a few weeks I can already see major improvements in their writing and spelling. There is a corresponding writing book to this curriculum and I am definitely getting interested in it.

Science- the girls are winding up there human body study through co-op working there way through the sense and nutrition.

Reading- Ying is bucking at anything challenging right now so really we are just reading alot of little books. The last two weeks she's done the Dragon Slayers Academy, Flat Stanley, and The Civil War: An Interactive History. Yang has worked her way through all the Sarah, Plain and Tall series.

Read aloud- The kids loved Bunnicula so much, we have moved on the another book featuring some of the same characters called Howliday Inn.

Spring Break parts 1 & 2....

 This week we are taking a much needed Spring Break. No school for anyone but a great week of Field trips to celebrate the great weather. We started our week with a Monday trip to the Zoo....

The Crew with the giraffes, ostriches, and there is a zebra back there I promise......

Had a great talk with the keeper of the Bush Dogs.

 Po the 3 year old panda was very playful today. She kept diving into her hammock and eventually broke it.  The kids were amazed to see that she tried to fix her toy after it was broken but just couldn't manage it.

Mei Lun and Mei Haun the 6 month old Giant Panda twin cubs.

 We also got to see the 4 new Lion cubs, the Male lion actually move ( he's always sleeping when we go), and the Black Rhino. It ws such a temperate day for "Hotlanta" it was great to get to see everyone enjoying the weather!

 Day 2 was another beautiful day so we headed to the Chatahoochee Nature Center. We did some hiking and learned a little to about the watershed that provides our drinking water. They were most intrested in just hiking and using their bodies today, but I know we will be back for some of there educational programs.

Kingfisher pond- Sunning turtles, tadpoles, Canadian Geese, and lots of fish!

they want one for the back yard....

Neat illunstration of how rain becomes our drinking water.....

After we finished up at the Nature Center we stopped and had lunch along the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Then the kids played on the banks and found tons of small muscle shells.

Spring Break parts 3,4 &5

Wednesday was spent playing at a local park and creek. Daddy got to come and play some soccer in the morning with us. The water was still pretty cold but they kids had fun anyway.

Thursday we took off for Chattanooga.  Had a great time at the Tennessee Aquarium and then followed it up with some free play at the Creative Discovery Museum. This is were I make my mommy confession. After a frustrating bit keeping Taz in control and off the railings, in the dark I spanked someone else's kid! Talk about being mortified and convicted by God all in one moment. All I can say is God in his infinite mercy put a heart of understanding in the other mother. It was dark, I had my four lined up in front and in a split second this poor little kid slipped in the middle of my line and started crawling on the railing. In a not my best moment i picked him up and swatted his behind. When that poor kid turned around with utter surprise on his face I literally about died on the spot. But on the upside my kids got to see Mommy make a mistake and immediately apologize for it. The other mother was so forgiving and understanding I just started crying.talk about Mommy overload.

Peep Peep Peep was a very inquisitive Gentu Penguin

Largest breed of owl in the world. a Eurasian Eagle Owl.

We got some Free play time and much needed relaxing break for Mommy @ the Creative Discovery Museum.

We finished the week off with a walk to our local Doughnut shop before Mommy had to go to work. Fun week "off"of school!

Lessons in life and death....

Ying holding "Mr. Robin" prior to burial

This morning a robin hit our car. I got out and found him stunned in the road. We picked him up and brought him home. The kids made a soft next of dryer lint and grass in a box and laid "Mr. Robin" to rest. The bird was stunned, not fighting, but obviously alive. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to make it due to blunt force trauma but we gave it the best we had. We continued on our field trip and left Mr. Robin in care of Daddy, but unfortunately he died shortly after we left. When we got home this afternoon the kids buried him and had a memorial service. It was very sweet.  Before the "service" we did take some time to carefully look at his features. This robin was obviously in prime health and honestly didn't have a scratch on him.. Ying commented that if she hadn't seen him alive before, she would have thought he was a stuffed animal. The kids picked out a beautiful spot in "Periwinkle Grove" and made a small headstone. Yang was very concerned that when we mowed the grass we would hit the robin but I assured her we buried  him deeper than the lawn mower would ever be able to dig into the ground. They each said a prayer for the robin and then preceded to ask him to meet them in heaven so they could see he was happy. It melted my heart.