Week 6- Going Colonial

    This week we spent more time in Colonial America. We learned about New Amsterdam and the Dutch colonist that settle in modern day New York. Yesterday, the girls got a work out making butter. Today, we made maple wheaten read from a colonial recipe in a very good book I found at our library called  Hasty Pudding ,Johnnycakes, and Other Good Stuff: Cooking in Colonial America by Loretta Frances Ichord. Written in simple language with fun facts, my girls have enjoyed it, and I think we'll try some other recipes next week, too.

Butter in a jar :The girls were amazed that this really worked!

Yang kneading our maple wheat bread.

I had to attended a class for work on Wednesday, so Daddy handled school on Wednesday and tackled both science experiments in one day. The pack really got a kick out of it. Hands on stuff has been much easier this week thanks to Hulk and Taz starting school. Both boys love going and are tired when they come home leading to decent naps times. ;)

 I have decided to list our favorite book basket books each week to give some ideas of book my girls truly enjoyed perusing and reading. Our Colonial Selections so far:
Going to School in Colonial America by Shelly Sateren
The Dreadful,Smelly,Colonies: The Disgusting Details About Life in Colonial America by Elizabeth Raum ( This has been a huge hit. Who knew they used corn cobs as toilet..umm outhouse paper?)
A Day in the Life of a Colonial Doctor & A Day in the Life of a Colonial Sailmaker by Laurie Krebs

Again we've got other books in the basket, but these three have really caught their attention and held it enough that they've chosen to read on.

Independent reading this week:
Ying finished I Survived The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 by Lauren Tarnish, and started I Survived The Battle Gettysburg 1863 by the same author. This is a newer series,  featuring boys and some of the more catastrophic  events in US History... Shark attacks, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc.... They have really caught her attention. reading level is on par with Magic Tree House. We are just glad to get her reading again after our problems last year. 
Yang finished I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor 1941 again by Lauren Tarnish and has moved on the The Bad Beginning in the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. She seems to be doing well with it. I have found lots of good online reading guides for all the  books enabling me to have discussions with the girls even though I am not reading parallel right now.

    Primary Language Lessons and I are just not jiving. I have tried for 2 weeks now to get going with it, but its just not happening. The dictation and memorization pieces are just not for us. My girls are in the audition phase for our winter musical at church and have plenty to memorize and speak. Doing the musical in front of 1000 people is going to count for our public speaking. Dictation is going to wait another year. Just not what I want to work on. So, I have started to piece together some basic language arts stuff on my own. At the end of this week we started talking about nouns and identifying them. I plan to continue nouns next week, then move to verbs, and then show how you need both for a complete sentence. They have been informally taught this over the past 2 years but I figure for our writing to improve we need a better knowledge of structure.  We'll see if I am off my rocker or not... As always pray for me because Lord I know not what I do....

Thank you Lord for the boys enjoying school and the peaceful atmosphere its provided for the girls to focus. Be with us Lord and guide us along the path you have laid out for us. Do not let us turn left or right but boldly step forward on the narrow road. In Jesus' name. Amen.

P.S. Our Ship has made the long journey from St. John's and ironically is moored off shore waiting to enter the port of New York.

Week 5- Oh You Silly Pilgrims....

     We have moved on from James Town to Plymouth. I have to admit this is the time in US history that I just find boring. Sorry, I know how important it is to our nation  but true. Maybe  because all kids ever get taught about the pilgrims is their desire for a new order and Thanksgiving. The books of happy puritans prancing around with very happy natives dressed in ceremonial garb just kills me.  But I digress.... We have been studying the saints and strangers and life in Plymouth. The girls enjoyed making the oiled paper as we expanded it to making stained glass by coloring a design prior to oiling the paper. Cheap way to make those expensive "stained glass" coloring books.
     They've enjoyed talking about the stars though we haven't gotten to see many lately with the sky being overcast @ night. We also live well within suburbia with its generous light pollution making viewing limited in the early evening hours. But, they did love seeing how much bigger Betelgeuse was then the sun in our sidewalk art science class.  I know many people have have commented that MFW is light on Science. I agree but honestly its working for us. Science for us is taking on more of a unschooling approach this year. The kids are so naturally curious that we've just been making inquires as we go about things that we run across.
   We also have deviated again from the prescribed read alouds. We finished Blood on the River: James Town 1607. The girls give it an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up. We've moved on the Sign of the Beaver as a bridge between now and our copy of The Courage of Sarah Noble coming in at the library.
     I have gotten to know our local library very well in the past 6 weeks and have a true appreciation for what is available and at our finger tips. In our system, I am requesting books online about 2 weeks before they are needed. It takes approx 1 week to collect my entire need from the collection spread across our 13 county branches. I am also working  in 1-2 week block, depending on how busy I know a certain week is going to be. Our library allows for 3 week check out with up to 2 renewals available on line so long as no one else has requested they book you are renewing.  Because, I am not stuck on the specific titles listed in the teacher's manual, I am having no problem finding anything I need non-fiction wise. Fiction wise some of the older titles in the curriculum are not available and frankly not appealing to my kids. Flexibility is a virtue ;)
   We have also added a 4th member to the pack starting this week. My 3 year old  nephew, the Tazmanin Devil (Taz) is now with us from 0-dark-thirty to 4:30 M-F as his mom has started school for the year. It's all kinds a crazy and loud in this house right now, but the boys start half day preschool next week which should give us so semi-calm time..lol...
THANK YOU LORD FOR YOUR PROVISION AND PUT IN ME A HEART OF PATIENCE. GIVE ME A CHRIST LIKE ATTITUDE AS WE ADJUST TO OUR NEW CIRCUMSTANCES.


PS: We are still following one of the Container ships we saw leaving the port of Savannah last week. Its currently in port @ Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Week 4- Native Americans

We've had a lot of fun this week learning about the Native Americans. The kids were especially interested in the the homes they lived in. Paper wigwam worked but only a full size Ti-pi would do... So whats a good Dad to do? Build one. We tried to follow some internet plans, but I guess we just didn't get it right, so we had to improvise. It's now a fixture in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard for playtime since their yard is much flatter than ours. We are hoping when the bugs die down some this fall we can have a little fire in the firepit and "camp out".

Beach week!

    So, this week we are hanging out on Tybee Island with extended family. We've  sorta paused in our curriculum. We've been doing some schooling though not a formal sit down. Girls are reading and doing oral response. We've done lots of marine science exploration . Yesterday, we saw all kinds of wild life at the beach. We are staying on the marsh and have had real good view of how the tides effect them. Thursday we took a dolphin tour and had a very nice Mate, who gave us lots of information about the dolphins and other animals we saw.
    We have a great view of the shipping lanes from the port of Savannah. So, with some research, we've been able to find what country's flag each container ship sails under, and where they've been or where they are headed next. Kinda fun to know the ship we saw on Monday in Savannah  hit Jacksonville, & Miami on the way to Kingston , Jamaica. Math has been informal as well. The pool table has had all kinds of lessons about angles and even Hulk had to get into the act with number recognition when calling his "shots".
    All in all I would say a very memorable and relaxing week ;)

Ying getting in some Book Basket time in the wee hours of the morning

On the Dolphin Tour

Yang working on her Independent Reading

Saying Good Bye....

 Today, has been about packing in as much fun and quality time between my kids and their best friends. We leave tomorrow for a week at the beach. While we are gone, their best friends are moving to another state. I am very sad for my kids. These kids are the kids you dream about your kids finding as friends. Good influences. Not perfect but growing on the right path. The oldest is now 13 and has the patience of Job. She cares for her brother and my pack to no end. She's not bossy, but guides things to include everyone. My girls' world has been greatly expanded because of her kindness and level head. Walks around the neighborhood, playing in the woods without a grown up over the last 3 years have been allowed because of her level head. When the girls were 4 and all the kids were playing outside one day, I turned around to find her herding the group inside. When I asked what was up, she said she's seen a car 4 times, and just felt wrong about it. What can you say to that besides" Good job in trusting your gut". I went outside just after to find the car parked just down from the house. It sped off as soon as I approached it. May my daughter grow up with her instincts.
When it came time for their friends to go home there were hugs and goodbyes. An hour later, it hit my pack. It wasn't just goodbye for a week. It was goodbye forever in the lives of a young child. They were crushed and hysterical. It took 45 min to talk them down.  Eventually, they calmed down and we talked about pen pals and skype. While, those things are good, they aren't someone to build a fort with in the backyard. ;(

Week 3- Jamestown 1607

This week we have switched things up a bit.
   NO assigned reading but some fun reading comprehension worksheets, and games. Math more drill.
For History instead of  my reading the assigned pages, and the girls writing a paragraph of what they remember, we played "History Detectives." Each girl had to come up with 3 things she wanted to know about Jamestown. I admit I helped with a list of possible questions for this go around. After picking their questions, they had a week to find the answers. Some questions were answered in our assigned reading, some by books from the book basket, others came from our nightly read aloud. Each answer had to be written in a complete sentence that reflected the question. It worked pretty well. Definitely think we will do it again. They really liked finding out facts that even I didn't know. 
   We deviated from the curriculum this week also with our read aloud choice. MFW suggests Squato, Friend of Pilgrims, but I read this in school when I was a kid and remember it begin very stereotypical.  So after some research, I found other books that I think will interest the pack more, and give a more rounded view of colonization of North America. We've started with Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607 by Elisa Carbone . This book is a bit rougher than many favored by traditional home school curriculum, but I really like its balanced approach on the view of colonialism (Yes, I read the entire book before using it). It also shows the difference between the behavior of a true Christian and many who call themselves Christians. Especially, those who used "missions" work as an excuse to sin.  The main character isn't always likable or good, but during the book you see his growth in a very real way.  We are on Chapter 14 and its has 6 thumbs up from the pack. Here's a summary of the book from Scholastic.com:

Samuel Collier, a rough-and-tumble young orphan, becomes Captain John Smith's page on his journey to the New World. Brought up in poor conditions, Samuel is street-smart but also quick-tempered. He has to learn to control his anger and to use his head instead of his fists. During the journey on the ship the Susan Constant, Samuel begins to learn how to determine right from wrong. Through his interactions with other boys his age and with key figures such as Captain John Smith, Reverend Hunt, and Master Wingfield, Samuel discovers ways to avoid conflict. His first encounters with the native peoples in the Caribbean and in the New World further teach Samuel about different perspectives and about the value of culture. Survival in the new colony tests Samuel as he evaluates these life lessons and learns to make good choices using his heart and his head.

When I grow up I will be this cool.......

     So the pack just returned from what they have deemed as the "COOLEST PARTY EVER!!!!!!". (capitals and exclamations intended...lol). Another home school family in our neighborhood decided to through a multiage party for their 2 youngest kids, a 8 year old boy and 13 year old girl. These two are my girls closest everyday friends. To bring everyone together they decided on a "Mess Party." Let me tell you it was a hit. Food fight, eat without you hands meal, tye dye balloon war, all topped out with a mud and peanut oil slip'n slide.
      Let me say, that the creativity of this family has been part of my inspiration to home school. They are so creative, and down to earth. They were the first family I ever got to see do the home school thing on a day to day basis. From them I learned the "real" of home school. It's not utopia. Your house is a mess, and you have to be committed to your purpose when the world looks sideways at you. They are moving away soon, and I can tell you they will be sorely missed.