Trojans Horses and Trampolines- wk 20

 And we are back at it after about a week off for Christmas picking up with the Trojan war and trying out some of the blessing we received this Christmas. On our last day of break we took the kids to Top Golf here in Atlanta. Its an interactive driving range. The only person in our family with any golf expirence in my husband so it made for a fun afternoon as Mommy could be just as bad at something as the kids. Even Daddy was pretty rusty.

The girls spent part of break working on stop motion Minecraft movies from a kit Ying received as a gift. They loved taking stop animation Lego movies last year at coop and this allows them to continue the fun. The one down side is the app does not allow sharing of the movies they made. We hadn't realized this prior to purchasing it and were kinda of disappointed. We had thought they could make hisotry movies to share but oh well.

 Hulk got a Zoob Movers set. Its basically a robotic body that you can design legs, arms, and other features for. He loved controling it around that house..... Now on to school....

 Our Fava bean just keep growing. We transplanted it to a pot and staked it up. We are going to see how far we can go with it.It was so warm that we gave our bean plant some outdoor time also. It loved the unrestricted sunshine.

 As we read The Trojan War the girls decided to use the Nativity scene to reenact the scenes as we went...lol. It was quite hilarious and made the story stick for the kids. Forgive us Baby Jesus for your untimely demise as the hands of the Greeks.

We got some cool science lessons in this week. We discussed how sundials work based on the suns position in the sky. God also blessed us with a side lesson on cloud iridescence ( or cloud rainbows). It pretty rare here in the south to get the condition just right, especially on a 60 degree day. 

My Favorite Christmas gifts this Christmas were 2 rolling crates. One is storing our Spine books and workbooks down at Grandma and Grandpa's. Instead of having to chase books all over the house on different shelves we've sort of confiscated everything is in one concise place. It has shaved tons of time off our day and I am not harping on everyone constantly to clean up behind themselves. We roll it out to the table when we start and before everyone get to leave the table they put there stuff back in. We also got a smaller crate to function as our book basket/library transport. its fabulous when you taking out 50+ books a time now with 3 kids.

We continued on with writing strands this week and I was impressed by the stories I got. Its so funny how different the girls are when it comes to writing. They both finished the assignment meeting all qualifications but one had to get in a lot more details.

The weather finally cooperated for the kids to get their biggest Christmas present. Grandma and Grandpa got them a trampoline for their backyard. It lets them get some exercises on afternoons with Grandpa and during short breaks between subjects during school time. They were so excited to help put it together and finally get to jump.

We had to take a 30 min break during construction while Daddy was on the phone with his program director discussing his capstone project. Pretty sure she had no idea he wasn't "working"..lol

Minoans and Mycenaens-week 19

YEAH!!!!! We've made it Early Greece! The kids are thrilled. They are huge mythology buffs so getting to some of these stories is the highlight of their year. We've pulled out Percy Jackson's Greek Gods and Greek Heroes on audiobook and they have been listening non stop. Hulk didn't do much of our Mythology study last year (we took a month off ECC to do some when the girls became obessed with Percy Jackson... We've listened to ALL 10 books multiple times..lol) So this is the first time he's putting some of the stories together. Its been fun to see the light bulbs going off. He's also a boy and likes stories about war, and blood, and death.

Math has been challenging... there are days I can't decided if this is really too hard, or if I am giving too much, or what. I am kinda at my whit's end...lol.

 IN MFW 1st  we started summaries in the Bible Notebook. I was actually really impressed by Hulk's first summary. He used the reader and his notebook to help him with spelling but otherwise he did it solo. I had him write it on paper first and then he copied it over into his notebook.

 Hulk and Ying started Basketball this week. Neither has ever played before. It will be interesting ;) But in other great accomplishment Ying conquered a very difficult rock climbing path she's been trying for a while! Go Chick! In other PE related we hit the ice skating rink for home school day. They spent most of the time doing hockey slide and Supermans. Ying taught Hulk and it was over from there.

Week 18----- We have "itiesitis"

We have "itis" this week. We are all about the Canaanites, Jebusites, Hittites,Amorites, and on and on. Hulk says NO more "ites" However our study did line up nicely with some living history. One of our local churches puts on a great look back what life was like in the day when Jesus was born. While technically during the Roman era, many of the crafts and trades featured have histories tracing back to our current time period.

Ying and Yang pressing olives with a stone press to make olive oil.  The girls were very shocked when the shop keeper tried to barter with me for one of them as a wife for her son. It was unreal to them that in this time period they would be close to marriageable age.

A Prophet in the street warning of the coming Messiah

Capentry shop. We talked about how in  the time of the Canaanites the tools would have been broze or stone as steel and iron had not been discovered or spread to the area yet.

Wine shop.... We discussed that in acient times ( well ok actually until roughly 150 years ago) it was acutally safer to drink ferment drinks like wine and ale then water because in the process of making these parasites were killed. Today modern filitration and sanitation does this for us.

The Potter using a kick wheel.

The Roman Tax collector.... we had to get the mark of Caesar to show we had paid our taxes.

Yang getting hauled off by the Roman soldiers because she licked out the mark of Caesar...lol

We took a day off to get in the Christmas spirit. The kids helped Grandma and Grandpa with outdoor decorations, and made thank you cards and other crafts to decorate our home.

 We Also attended another local event : The Holiday Lights of Hope. This is a large walk though display benefited a local child advocacy charity. This was our first year and the kids had a blast. Their favorite part was the light maze. It sounds easy but was surprisingly difficult due to the effect of so many points of light in one place.... We got to the middle fine ( the Chick-fil-a Cow) but getting to the other side took much longer..lol because you were looking for a dark end.

 Anyway.. Happy Merry Christmas season....

Week 17.... Back in Egypt with King Tut

 Back to Egypt just one more time to talk about  King Tut. While we have enjoyed Egypt its time to get a move on. We are wrapping up the Kane Chronicles and once again the kids give Rick Riordan a high five for making the ancients come alive. Ying and Yang were making fudge this weekend with Daddy when I got an excited cry to come look at the obelisk they had made from the butter and sugar. Yep it was one of those " you know you a homeschooler if.." kinda moments.

Math needed some switching up this week. Here is our brainbuster of the week. *hint there is not formula, etc.. you have to plug and play..lol* We Also broke out Math Dice Jr. for some math fact review. It started out great but in the end Yang got really upset that Hulk ( the human calculator) was beating her.

 In Bible this week we discussed Joshua and the battle at Jericho. I was impressed with the girls summaries. Their writing is coming along nicely.  Ying had made a Senet game a few weeks ago in her Ancient History class at coop, so we broke it out and She and Hulk played a few round and then Daddy got in on the action.

 In Science this week we are studying plants and starting to grow a bean. This is our fava bean after we removed its seed coat..lol

OK.. I got offer up a praise for the Lord and his protection. I was trying to cook lunch at my parents house this week and accidentally turned on the wrong burner. That burner happened to have a 9x13 glass cake pan on hit. No less then a minuet after i sent the kids out of the room, and then went to see what they were fighting over the pan exploded sending glass shards everywhere. We normally do school at the table 2 ft away. Height of my kids this would have been so serious facial laceration and guy shots with glass for me, but nope he put us all in places of safety.  Saving us all from my airheadedness. HE IS SOO GOOD!!!!

Week 16.....Wait there's a Western Hemisphere?

Oh my... Wait... There is a Western Hemisphere? People actually inhabited somewhere outside Egypt and Mesopotamia? While I love MFW, a valid criticism is its laser like focus on "Biblical" history to the exclusion of other cultures. So it was nice to hop across the Atlantic and for the blink of an eye look at the Ancient Americas. I will admit it's hard to find bookbasket books on this area that are time appropriate. Most of the books available tell about these cultures as the Spanish explores encountered them 1500 years later, but that being said it was a lovely break. We talked about the Olmecs,Aztecs, and Incas. We did some circular weaving for an art project which the girls really loved. 

In other subjects the number of vocabulary words/roots has gotten to the point that we needed a new way to review so we made a matching game.

In Bible we continued on with the Exodus and worked on a map.

In science we learned about freezing points and how dilutants effect those. The kids loved the experiment explaining why salt works to "melt" ice ( FYI it doesn't melt it.). 

Week 15.... The Tabernacle

So this week was the project i had been dreading all year.... Building the tabernacle. I tried to wrap my head around this last year as I was previewing.  I have read through the instruction a few times up till now and I have been just seriusly confused and overwhelmed at the idea... Well folks let me tell ya something... I was WAY overthinking this project. Its incredibly simple. So her is a sort of step by step pictorial:

Step 1. Cut apart your "milk" cartons and combine into a 30 cm structure like this. A picture was so worth a thousand words when it came to these instructions.

Step 2... 10 cm from back wall separate the "Most Holy" with a curtain made from whatever cloth you have. There are ideas in the manual for authenticity but for use we were using up scrap... so our "scarlet"= hot pink..lol. Build the corresponding paper structures from the student sheets. Add Lego Isrealites as desired. We have Minecraft Steve, Hagrid, and Coast Guard Israelites..lol

Step 3.... Make the 4 covering layers... Again we used what we had on hand... So our colors are off but our textures are close. I decided the textures were more important then color to help the kids understand how people living and nomadic existence were keeping the interior warm and dry. How you would layer cotton, wool, and leathers to keep out wind, sand, and water. Build outside structure.

4. Assemble to courtyard curtain and enjoy!

SO much simpler then i was making it in my mind!

 In 1st grade world, We started our Bible notebook. Hulk has been excited about this part, but he has his limits. I appreciate the progress he's made in  drawing/coloring.  These are neat and detailed for him. I recognize this as a lesson for me in appreciate each kids gifts. My girls were very verbal and artsy at this ago and Hulk isn't. He's a math and tinkering kid. His aren't publisher samples, but i cherish them.  Remember to judge your kids against themselves; not facebook, or blogs, or siblings, but as unique creations.

Out

Our last project of the week was items for our Co-op bake sale. We didn't have time or energy to bake this week, but we made it work!.... Chocolate dipped giant Marshmallows and pretzel sticks. Quick 1 hour  project that made 50 items.

Week 14----the Exodus FINALLY!

This has been a week of Adjustments. The ortho decided Ying has broken the Scaphoid bone in her wrist so she is now in a full blown arm cast on her writing hand.  Hence we are typing our assignments. We are thrilled to be on the move. We've enjoyed Ancient Egypt but its time to move along dogggies..lol.....

 Yang's typing too and we've moved some assignments to Group work. Above is Yang's assingment from Language Lessons for today. Since dictation isn't really feasible write now the girls wokred together to reviews the 10 commandments and the plagues.

Math Brainteaser of the Week:

 So this picture went viral on the web this week and we struggled about showing it to our girls. Its of their friend Lake's family. Lake's parents were unable to have a wedding during his lifetime due to medical bills and complications from Lake's diagnosis. Lake passed away 6 months prior to this picture. I know it was a very bitter sweet day. I wasn't sure how the girls would respond to the ghosting in this photo. In the end this picture became an after thought in a even tougher conversations. Another family friend lost a child this week to an unthinkable accident involving a handgun. We had to break the news the same day DH and I were discussing the picture. The kids did not take the news well and have a lot of questions. Most revolve around "How could adults let this happen?" Its so hard to explain how adults make mistakes too and mistakes sometimes have huge consequences. So I ask that you pray for both families. Pray for this family, and the family who lost a toddler just like "poof". Pray for a father who made the ultimate mistake and paid an unthinkable price.