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

Courageous Kids do Greek Mythology... With a little help from Olaf...

November began our two month break from ECC, and we jumped headlong into Greek Mythology. First thing I realized was thankful for was MFW lesson plans after making a months worth of my own! But it's truly been a blast and I am amazed at how much they have learned. I haven't spent a large focused amount of time on this sort of literature study before with my girls. We read many different myths and practiced our summarizing and writing skills. I found and excellent pre-made unit on Teachers Pay Teachers that we used as the base for our study :

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greek-Mythology-Interactive-Notebook-Unit-Myths-Foldables-and-Projects-1204771

I don't think this month would have gone near as smoothly without all the preparation done by this amazing teacher! ill post some pictures of our finished projects shortly!


In other November happenings our new Wednesday night program for elementary kids at the church has taken off with flying colors for God's glory! We have created The Courageous Kids from scratch, and set out with pretty much a prayer at the beginning of the school year. We start most nights off with 30 min of basic martial arts training by one fabulous father who has his black belt in multiple disciplines.  I think one of the best parts is he's a guy you would never "expect" to be a  multiple black belt holder. I am pretty sure he took his share of bullying and teasing in school and the kids recognize it and respond even more because of it. The picture below Was from a night he was teaching the an African style and the kids were focusing on footwork. After our martial arts time we move into a bible lesson and the kids have an opportunity to earn stripes for their belts through scripture memory. The last 30 min is usually spent on praise songs. The goal is for the group to sing with the praise band in Worship.

Percy Jackson and Greek myths  took over some of Hulk's math lessons. He built a sea serpent while Yang went with Clarice over Polyphemus' cook pot....

The kids finished up their co-op Science with posters advertising different minerals....

We also to a field trip to INK in Gainesville. They played Nate Saint in the plane and in general had a good time playing in all the different areas....

We also took a day off to help decorate the church for Christmas. We had to do pre-Thanksgiving because its a big job and we had a BIG event the next weekend... This is our set for our children's worship series entitled "Unfrozen".

Behind..... and on a 2 month break from ECC

 So, excuses excuses... I am very behind this year. ECC has such a different flow that it just  creeps up on me. Plus, I really underestimated the work of adding in Hulk. So I promise to get up our stuff for Canada and Brazil, soon. We have taken the month of November off to  following the girls interest in Greek Mythology. I hope to have some pictures of that up soon. I found a great unit online through Teachers Pay Teachers that we have really enjoyed. A lot of great writing work, that they haven't fought me on because they are so into the subject matter. Read alouds right now are myths and the Percy Jackson series.  This December we are going to focus on Math, reading and Christmas Activities ( i hope to post my plan soon).  We will pick up ECC again in the New year.

Brazil......

  

  We left the frozen north and headed south to Carnaval in Brasil. The kids really got into making the Carnaval masks. We used some pret make heavy white masks, paint, and Christmas floral picks for our plumage. We listened to Samba music from You tube while we painted and studied these 2 weeks. Our favorite field trip was to our local  Brazilian Bakery  (http://brazilianbakerycafe.com/Menu.php) for lunch. We tried a wide variety pasteis. One was filled with Queijo ( fresh mozzarella cheese), another hearts of palm, another with a spiced chicken and then ground beef. I loved the Hearts of palm, Ying loved the chicken ( lots of spice and green olives). Hulk and Yang voted for the Queijo..lol...  We then tried out a few desserts. Ying got a Bom Bom de morango ( strawberry bon bon) and fell in love. She decided she'd rather have these then birthday cake next year..lol. I had a wonderful passion fruit mouse in a chocolate cup. Might be the best dessert I have ever had. Really was great. From the whole trip I was really proud of the kids. from their manners to willingness to try new foods to even attempting "hello" and " Thank you" in Portuguese. The Brazilian steakhouse was out of our budget for this study but we made our own. Very simple recipe that has turned into a favorite here served with corn, and a retread of the Cilantro Lime Rice we discovered in Mexico. Something tells me much of our ECC journey is going to center on crafts and food with the ages of my kiddos. Its what they seem to connect with.

Here our Pintrest board for Brazil and South America-
www.pinterest.com/lettinghimlead/mfw-ecc-brazil-and-south-america

Canada, Eh?

Ok let me be honest... Canada fell flat. We did it. its done..lol... but no great crafts or food. We made the above cookies to  celebrate the end. They don't do Canada justice or real food justice at any rate..lol. Yep I am awful I have nothing to add, eh?

Welcome to Mexico

Welcome to Mexico....
 This week we left our study of the USA behind and ventured into our southern neighbor. We  are taking our time in Mexico and spending 3 weeks instead of 2. I am mainly adjusting the schedule because of our extracurriculars taking such a chunk out of our time I have been feeling majorly rushed and find myself turning into "Monster Mommy." This weeks more relaxed flow has been so much nicer. We started our week fresh off vacation with  "Art day". We made banner "papel picado" (Paper banners) and tissue paper flowers that we used to decorate the living room and the dinning area chandelier. Theser were our final products.

 I am also chaning up how we study the country.  We are going to swtich to doing lapbooks on most countries I think because my girls seem to prefer it. Maybe its more "primary" grades then I was thinking this year to be but its fitting. We are using a free version through Homeschool Share.: Mexico Lapbook The most fun we had this week was with food. We got adventurous and tried new things. Had some successes and some failures..lol.. but everything was edible. we started our week with a delicious Chicken Tomatillo Soup. Recipe available here:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tomatillo Soup. Got 6 thumbs up from the pack and we had leftovers enough to drain and try to use as a filling for our empandas. Unfortunately, I did not master emapanda dough. We will try again in the next two weeks. The dough I did make fired up nicely into disks that we served with the leftovers. Below is Hulk assiting with our empanda attempt. And then our final "sell your mistakes" dish..lol

                          

We made bean burritos for lunch most days.... Kids loved them...

We had breakfast burritos with Egg, sausage, & cheese served with a side of Papya.

Our Biggest Adventure was Ceviche de Pescedo with Cilantro Lime Rice. This got mixed reviews. Ying judged in edible, Yang asked for it never to be served again, and Hulk ate it like it was going out of style. Both girls were a little off put by the uncookedness..lol

We went out for Ice cream for desert that night as a reward for everyone trying so many new things this week.

Saturday night we tried Carne Asada with Elote ( Mexican grilled corn). It was fabulous.

Here are links to some of our recipes:

The Ceviche de Pescedo and Carne Asada were from a cookbook called Not just Tacos I got a while back for free on Amazon.

Cilantro Lime Rice

http://www.chefandherkitchen.com/2013/06/cilantro-lime-rice-recipe-easy-mexican.html

Elote:

http://www.iwashyoudry.com/2013/07/05/elote-mexican-grilled-corn

Also here is a link to the pintrest board I have created for Mexico and Central America:

http://www.pinterest.com/lettinghimlead/mfw-ecc-mexico-and-central-american/

We were also blessed this week by obtaining free access to Discovery Education streaming via our local PBS stations. This has been an amazing source for us of video about Mexico and our science topics.  Hulk has been watching episodes of Reading rainbow on Mexicican folktales, and the girls  are informally teaching themselves some Spanish via some videos. This week it has really taken the place of our bookbasket.

I thank the Lord for his mercy and sticking with me through the last few months. I was really getting frustrated and angry, feeling pulled in too many directions, and second guessing my choice of having the kids at home. He put his hand on me and carried me through the storm, and I am seeing the light again. Praise Him and His Glory. He is so good to me.