Friday, November 23, 2012

Week #16

It's Thanksgiving...yippee!

I absolutely LOVE this time of year.  So, why not spend the week learning all about the history of this great holiday.
Artsy Girl and I read The Thanksgiving Story this week.  This is an award winning book that I found to be very fun to read.  It is short enough that we finished it in three days.  It was part of our Adventures in My Father's World Curriculum.  For science we learned about pumpkins...did you know they float?  We had mixed answers when I asked that question.  I said, "yes" and Artsy Girl and Dad said, "no".  Well, what do you know...they float!  We also measured our pumpkin, weighed it and used a little math to figure out how much Artsy girl weighs with and without holding the pumpkin.  A little reasoning goes a long way.  Soccer Boy and Artsy Girl both made Native American vests out of paper sacks and performed a super cute little play for the family on Thursday.

All in all a great, short week!  We have so many wonderful blessings to be thankful for...our beautiful healthy children and the freedom to live in such a wonderful country that allows us to choose the path that we feel is right for their education.  May God bless you & your family this holiday season!



Week #15

Soccer Boy and I began our study of insects!  I must admit this was an area that I have been dreading, to say the least.  I have absolutely no interest in insects and I find them a little creepy.  However, I may have jumped the gun a little in making my assumptions.  We have had a great week studying the Letter "Ii".  We began the week learning about ladybugs and he made his own pet rock ladybug.  She's super cute and we will use her as a paperweight on our school table, too.  I found this really cute little Insects & Arachnids case that we have been using for some up close and personal viewing of our insects.  We are off for Thanksgiving next week and will resume the following week with our study of bees and make our own ant farm as well!



Artsy Girl spent the week learning about Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey & Georgia.  These were the first four states to adopt the Constitution and become "states".  We reviewed state capitals, state birds and famous people/foods from each state.  We decided that we like Hershey's and New York style pizza the best!  We continued with our science study of birds & nests that follow right along with the states.

We have a light week planned for next week as we will be doing some Thanksgiving activities!


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Week #14

Along with our home studies, Artsy girl and I spent the night in Huntsville at Space Camp with our American Heritage Girls troop. We had lots of fun (and very little sleep) learning all about the space program.
Soccer Boy finished up our study of the letter "Ww" and water. He learned about liquids and solids and continued adding sight words. I mailed off our form to receive our ants as we begin our study of insects next week.
Artsy girl was a very busy little bee this week. Along with Space Camp, she completed her study of The Declaration of Independence. We will move right into learning about the states as they were added. We also began a study of birds and nests and we will continue to learn about the state birds as we study each state. We also did an artist study of Henri Matisse and his beautiful paintings. She has decided that he is one of her favorite artists so far. He used beautiful colors and even some collages as well. She finished her Art School classes at the Memphis College of Art. This is her fourth series of classes and she continues to love her art.