Norway and all things Scandinavian...

 We really enjoyed our return to ECC  these past two weeks. We took it easy and just stuck to the plan with no extra lapbooks, etc.  We did do some extra fun cooking projects. Above were our Norwegian Open Faced Sandwhiches. The learned they really really like smoke salmon..lol. Despite Hulk's face in the picture ( He was mad I wanted a pic before he could eat ;)) they were a hit. Another hit were our mini Smorgastarta. I never thought I would make a frosting with only sour cream and cream cheese , and decorate a cake with veggies but it worked.  I got the idea from: Mini Smorgastarta

They were very simple make with canned biscuits and chicken salad for the "cake and filling".

 We didn't really get to do our art projects like Rosemailing because Grandpa was in the hospital for about 10 days. We made several trips to visit him and talk with the Doctors. He's now home and much better. We hope he stays this way, but we are prepared for all possibilities. But I think he really got scared this time and listen more about how him not managing his blood sugars just compunds all his other issues realted to the transplant. The transplant team is very good about the kids visiting him partially because they no we never come sick and the kids are at lower risk for being sick with our homeschooling ;).. Doesn't hurt that theyare doing school work and aren't running around like little wild animals. One of his nursing assiants even took time to talk with the kids about growing up in Nigeria, and what it was like to move to the US. I think she was shocked to have the kids pay attention to her that way.

The girls got very good with Europe in the Geography game, so next week we will add back in North and South America. We took a Scandinavian twist to the game this day and played with  Swedish Fish..lol...

We also managed to  get in a good day of climbing in for some PE. They love it and are getting very good. Hulk really like bouldering without his harness attached..lol

Check out some of the recipies and ideas we collected for Norway on Pintrest....

http://www.pinterest.com/lettinghimlead/mfw-norway/

Some curriculum changes for the new year.......

 So the year has evolved and we are making some changes, swaps, and addition to our curriculum.... here's an update:
 We are back to our primary spine of Exploring Countries and Cultures (ECC) by My Father's World for Bible, Geography, and partial Science, music, and art.
*denotes co-op classes starting in Aug/*starting in Jan. 
Our biggest swap is getting rid of Cello..lol.. we over extended here and have had to pull back. It was just too much for me and the kids. We've also given up our Earth Sciences class via co-op due to the choice of textbook that doesn't fit our worldview. I would say we are among the more "liberal" in our co-op so sometimes we just have to adjust ;)... I find it funny calling us "liberal"... but it is a relative term... Also Hulk is progressing faster than anticipated especially in Math so he has moved on to 1st grade Saxon Math 1 and I will be exploring additional phonics programs over the next few months.

For Hulk  (k/1):
Bible: ECC and The Adventure Bible Devotions for Early Readers.
Math: Flash Kids Math K  Saxon Math 1 and Reflex math daily for drill
Reading/Phonics/handwriting: First Start Reading by Memoria Press (got this at an amazing price @ our local used curriculum sale) ( We re continuing with this though we are almost done and will be adding additional reading exercises from Reading a-z.com for now)
Dolch sight words pre-primer and primer list.
*Storybook cooking 1 & 2
Science: *Adventures in Space/ Wacky Weather, tag along with ECC science
Music: *Music for Young Mozarts 1&2
PE: Soccer 2 nights per week, Continue 1 mile training
Fine Motor/math/sci: *Lego Free Building/ Lego Early Simple Machines

For Ying "My Logic child" (3rd):
Bible:  ECC and The Adventure Bible Devotions for Early Readers
Math: Teaching textbooks. 2nd half of  Math 3, and moving on to Math 4 when ready. Reflex math daily for drill
Handwriting: Cursive Writing: around the World in 26 Letters
LA: A combo of Flash Kids  Reading Skills/Language Arts/Writing Skills 3, *Lego Story Starter 1 & 2
Reading: Assigned and self chosen novels/bookbasket
Science: ECC & *Earth Science 1 & 2;  STEM: Parachutes and airplanes.
Music: ECC & * Beginning Cello
Art: Global art from ECC
PE: *Choi Kwang Do, Soccer 3 nights a week, continue 5K training Youth climb club 2 nights per week plus additional climbs.
electives: *Lego stop animation movie making,* Claymation movie making, *The Middle Ages (a fun history class that focuses on the food, and social life of the middle ages)

For Yang " My artsy social butterfly" (3rd):
Bible:  ECC and The Adventure Bible Devotions for Early Readers
Math: Teaching textbooks. 2nd half of  Math 3, and moving on to Math 4 when ready. Reflex math daily for drill
Handwriting: Cursive Writing: around the World in 26 Letters
LA: A combo of Flash Kids  Reading Skills/Language Arts/Writing Skills 3,
Reading: Assigned and self chosen novels/bookbasket-
Science: ECC & *Earth Science 1 & 2 *STEM: Parachutes and airplanes.
Music: ECC & * Beginning Cello
Art: Global Art and *Art exploration through mixed media,   *Papercrafting,
PE: *Choi Kwang Do, Soccer 3 nights a week, continue 5K training ; Swimming lessons 2 days per week.
electives: * Loom knitting for beginners , *Girls in Grace ( basic home ec and social graces for young ladies), *Claymation movie making