Last Friday Cameron and I went to the observatory with my sister and two nephews.

The round dome is an observatory room.  It isn't used anymore and I didn't get a picture of the big one.

The grounds were very beautiful!  There were georgeous dog woods.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  It was an almost unnatural shade of pink. But they look very different up close.

Cameron loves to spend time with his cousins.

Jesse (the eldest and on the right) is going through a non-smiling phase. (Please don't rub off on Cameron!)

The main telescope is enormous.  I think they said it was 45 feet long.  It is an entity unto itself and the dome is built around it.

The wood floor moves up and down the equivelant of two full stories.  The dome roof only has one slit that opens but it also rotates.  They can look at just about any angle in the sky.

Cameron got to move the telescope.

We weren't able to observe the night sky as it was not only cloudy but also raining.  I think I was more dissappointed than the boys.

We also viewed the smaller telescope and we were able to view inside it.  They had postage stamps in between the two lenses.  That is the width apart that the lenses must be.  Cameron is checking it out.

Last week of school.  We are officially done! We were supposed to finish Friday, May 2, but that day ended up being a very, very busy day.  Instead of trying to squeeze in the last day of school, we finished on Monday.

Math:

• telling tiem with Roman numerals
• multiplication
• counting change that is mixed (not in order from biggest to smallest)
• matching Roman numerals with proper tally marks

We finished every last page in our math book.  It was a pretty exciting day to finish up with that.

Literature

History:

• From Viking Tales "King Harald Goes WEst-Over-Seas"

Nature:

• Chapter 44 Pine Grosbeak and Redpoll from Burgess's Bird Book

Poetry from Oxford Book of Children's Verse

• Before the Rain, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
• After the Rain, by Thomas Bailey
• May Day, by Sara Teasdale
• Hark, Hark! the Lark from Cymbeline, by Shakespeare

Math:

• 1/2's, 1/3's
• tally marks
• multiplication from facts on a graph
• Roman numerals. (Picked up on these VERY quickly)

Literature:

• "King Lear" from Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare

History:

• "King Harald's Wedding" from Viking Tales

Nature:

• "Cobwebs" from Parables from Nature

Poetry from Oxford Book of Children's Verse

• The Fairies, by Rose Fyleman
• Calico Pie, by Edward Lear
• Weather, anonymous
• Try Again, by William Hickson
• The Blind Men and the Elephant--A Hindu fable, by John Godfrey Saxe
  

Green Hour Challenge #3: Now is the Time to Draw

This week take your 10-15 minute nature walk.  Follow up with discussion and the opportunity for a nature journal entry.  Discuss your nature time with your child and again try to draw out some words from your child’s experiences. You should explain that you would like them to start making a book of with their experiences from their nature study. If they make a page for the book each time they have nature time, they will have a whole book filled with their own words and drawings to look at by the end of the year.

This week, we started in on drawing.  We have made some attempts at this before.  I had a few loose sheets here and there but wasn't keeping them organized.  So I made a nature journal.

Our drawing wasn't exactly from our nature walk.  We both sat outside in our back yard to draw the same flowers.  But now that I have the journal, it will become a bigger part.  He was so excited to start in on it. 

There weren't any bees near the flower as we were drawing but he was so excited about journaling that I told him that he could.   I should have gotten a picture of him drawing, he was so intent.  I think it is a great first entry.

Our nature walk this week was pretty exciting.  I have lived in this house for 24 years and in this town for 28.  Not even 1/2 mile away, there is a nature trail!  It has apparently been there for a very, very long time.

At first Cameron wanted to run ahead and I told him that we were here on a nature walk and it was about taking our time and observing nature.  We saw many great things. Stink cabbage, decomposing trees, trout lillies, numerous little streams flowing into a larger creek, and quite a few other trails for later exploration.  We didn't make it to the end but we did find out that it ends at a park that we've been to many times.  Who knew?

Optional assignment for parents:
Take a look at your attitude towards outdoor time. Has it changed since starting these challenges? Are you committed to keeping up your Green Hour time because you see the benefits stacking up in your family? Have you started keeping your own nature journal or photo album of your experiences outdoors with your children?

I've always enjoyed nature but I really like this taking a much more conscious approach.  The challenges have changed this for me.  I love the times Cameron and I spend just exploring and making our own observations.and having to look up things we don't know about.

I have started keeping my own nature journal because of the challenges.  I'm still learning how I want to do it and what I want to do with it but it has really become a pleasure and a joy.  The details that suddenly jump out at me because I'm trying to put it down on paper is amazing. Here are a few pages.

A forsythia branch and my daffodil.

An unknown plant found on a different nature walk.  We tried to figure it out but still haven't come up with what it was.  A twig from a budding tree and on the opposing page a tree at a park that always fascinates me.  I am pretty sure that it is a shagbark hickory.

A closer up of the sugar maple (I think) bud,

The other day, I was reading what was next over at Barb's Green Hour Challenge and saw that we were starting to incorporrate drawing.  I have started my own nature journal and am loving it but wanted Cameron to have something special for his own.

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out! And it was so simple.

You could make these any size.  You can use poster board, heavy card stock, or file folder.  I used a file folder.  I cut the front 9.5 x 6 and decorated it with scrapbook paper.  The back I cut 11 x 6.  The back needs to be 1/2 inch longer than the front.  Your paper for the inside of your book should be 1/4 inch shorter all around.  (I actually had the paper first and made my covers 1/4-inch bigger all around)

Then fasten it together.  I used brads.

How simple was that?  Cameron LOVES his book. 

A philosophy of Charlotte Mason is exposure to great literature, good music, and the arts.  So I've been playing a classical station on our AOL radio during the times that Cameron is working on math and copywork.  It gives us the name of the song as well as the artist.  Cameron has been very interested in the names of the songs.  I can barely remember the names from one to the other on some of them but it is about exposure. 

Just now, while Cameron was working on his copywork, I turned on the radio and was working on something in the same room.  He informed me that the song had changed.  I said I didn't think it had but I would go check.  Well it in fact had changed.  He is noticing the differences, even to two similar songs, both with piano and violins.  So I congratulated him on his keen observation, then read him the title and artist.

"Divertimento in B-flat by Wolfgang Amedaus Motzart"

He tries out the words himself.  Then informs me that B-flat is the same as A-sharp (which it is).  How did he know this?  He's been very curious about the piano and even though he is taking lessons, he hasn't learned this yet.  But he asks lots of curious questions about the pieces I am playing.  In all those questions he must have asked a question about flats and sharps.  I had forgotten.  But he remembered and it has stuck with him.

Just had to share what exposure and curiosity can do to a child...to the positive of course.  But this also comes as a warning to me too.  He is exposed to way more than I would want him to.  I also need to keep his healthy curiosity filled with good things. 

Things are really moving fast.  There doesn't seem to be a day where the calendar has a free space. 

We have less than two weeks of school.  I am so tempted to just finish it up right now.  But no, we will perservere to the end.  I am not required to count days of school until Cameron enters the third grade but I am "practicing" now.  PA requires 180 days.  We already have 177 days on the calendar! We are coming down the home stretch.

I've already started getting organized for next year.  I will soon have the school shelves reorganized and ready to go. 

This was our first year using Ambleside Online.  I didn't do everything that is suggested for a CM'er (Charlotte Mason) to do but we added a few things and we will add a few more things next year.  I'm very pleased with the way things have gone this year using AO.  I wasn't sure about it at first, mostly because Cameron is slow at learning to read.  But, as many people tell me, boys usually take a little longer and for some, it doesn't click until around 8 years old.  CM is a lot of reading.  But he loves the stories, most of them, and his narration skills have improved vastly over the year.  We went from not doing narration at all to being able to recall details from a retold Shakespeare story several days later.

I am learning too.  I've started my own nature journal which I am LOVING.  I've always wished I could draw and I am pleasantly surprised with my results.  It really makes you pay attention to small dettails.  I'm noticing things in God's wonderful creation that I never really paid attention to before.

This week was also my library's annual book sale.  They seemed to have twice as many books this year as they did last.  I got a few great finds.  I found some classics that we will need for school that were in great shape.  I found a two volume set about composers and their music.  That will be very helpful in the coming years as we study composers.  I got a few books on nature, one of them being a wildflower identification guide.  It is for a specific area, but as I leafed through, most of those wildflowers are in this area as well.  I did pick up a few duds, but they were 10 cents, so I do not feel any great loss and will just give them back for another sale.

Cameron is improving in soccer as is his coach.  Last night we had a practice that was much better than the week before.  Cameron is still not understanding all the in's and out's of the game and doesn't pay attention as much as he should but I'm sure that will improve as we go along.

Well, my early morning quiet has come to an end.  The day must start.  There is much to be done. 

Memory: Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Math:

• beginning multiplication facts
• >, <, or =

Literature:

• "Twelfth Night: from Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. Our library has this book on CD and we listened to it in the car.  I think we will be getting this out for next year too.  It made for nice car trips.
• "The Cat Who Walks Alone" from Just So Stories

Poetry:

• My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Child's Song in Spring, by Edith Nesbit
• The Rainy Day, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Over in the Meadow, by Olive Wordsworth
• The Prayer Perfect, by James Whitcombe Riley
  

OK, so these challenges are supposed to be one a week, not one a month.  Even if there are several weeks in between, I'm going to stick with it.  Maybe eventually I'll get more consistent.  Even if it has been a month since our last nature entery, we ARE out in nature more often.  I am much more mindful of it and pointing it out and I have noticed Cameron's growing interest and knowlege. 

Green Hour Challenge #2

"After your walk, challenge your child to come up with words to describe the following things."

One word to describe something we heard:

• Cameron: Drumming (woodpecker)
• Danielle: Scolding  (Blue Jays)

Two words for something we saw:

Bible:

Worked on a "Bee-attitude" lapbook that we saw at Jamin's blog.  We will finish it up next week.

Missionary stories with the Millers Chapter 9 and 10.  Chapter 9 was about a missionary lady that had an orphanage in Egypt.  Chapter 10 took place in Mexico and centered around two teenage boys that walked to far off villiages to preach the gospel.  These are good at helping us work on our big world map that is hanging up.  A friend gave us this great cloth map that has been invalable.  Anytime there is a country mentioned in our reading we find it on the map.

Memory:

Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving; and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him and bless his name.

Math:

• adding 3 digit numbers with carrying
• tally makrs
• subtracting from 13
• doubling
• time word problems (30 minutes = half hour and figuring out what time characters needed to leave)
• early multiplication (in first grade!  who'd of thunk it)
• greater than, less than or equal too

Literature:

Free Reading:

• We have been reading Pinnochio by Carlo Collodi for quite a few weeks.  We usually read our free reads at bed time.  Narrations are not expected from free reading selections but I always did a personal recap and was always surprised that he was able to recall details from weeks before. (Yeah, it took us a few months. LOL)  I have never ever read Pinnochio but have seen the Disney version.  They are almost two completely different stories.  Disney's Pinnochio comes across as guilable, sweet, innocent.  The real Pinnochio was obstinate, disobedient, and unproductive but does make a change towards the end of the book. 
• Another free reading book we polished off this week was Saint George and the Dragon retold by Mararet Hodges.  It was not very long.

History:

• "Gyda's Saucy Message" from Viking Tales (Cameron's Narration)
• "The Sea Fight" from Viking Tales (Cameron's Narration)
• Pocahontas by D'Aulaire (Cameron's Narrations 3, 4, 5, and 6)

Nature

• Chapter 39 from Burgess's Bird Book Nuthatch and Brown Creeper (Cameron's Narration)
• "Daily Bread" from Parables from Nature (Cameron's Narration)

Poetry from Oxford Book of Children's Verse

• Tumbling, anonymous
• If You See a Tiny Fairy, by William Shakespeare
• Rain, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Daffadowndilley, by Christina Rossetti
• Little, by Doris Aldis

We both were giggling at "Little"

I am the sister of him
And he is my brother.
He is too little for us
To talk to each other.

So every morning I show him
My doll and my book,
But every morning he still is
Too little to look.

I cannot believe how fast this past year of school has just flown by.  We have just under four weeks left.  I'm thinking of coming up with a summer schedule of nature study, math facts (aka flash cards) and reading to help keep those sharp. 

Right now we are enjoying the mild weather.  It is sunny but not hot which in my mind is PERFECT weather.  I will try not to complain when the weather is hotter, at least not complain too much.  Cameron is exploring the great outdoors and comes in each evening dirty, a little sweaty, full of stories of things that he saw, and absolutly happy.  It's so good to get all our school work done before lunch, at least most days.

Cameron started soccer this past Saturday.  He was beyond thrilled when he got to be the goalie, not just once but TWICE.  Can you believe it?  And he only let one shot get past him.  He is learning new skills at practice this year too.  We weren't able to make it to any of the practices last year so this is going to be a great help.

Cameron has also been taking piano from a young woman at our church.  I actually tried to teach him myself but for some reason, I just couldn't do it.  It doesn't make sense.  I teach him for school, I teach him about life, I teach him about the Bible, I've taught him at church and Sunday School at times but I just could NOT teach him piano.  He really likes his teacher.  She does a great job with him.  Now if we can just remember to practice.

I am also participating in the 30 day Bible reading challenge over at Ponderings from my Heart.  I've been a little hit or miss with my Bible reading lately so this was a good reminder.  I am working my way, very slowly through Romans.  I'm in chapter 10 right now.  I'm reading all the notes in my study Bible, looking at some of the cross references (there are A LOT) and taking notes of my own.

At church, I am busy this month with teaching the 2's and 3's during church time.  It has only been a few years since Cameron was this age but it seems vastly different with these children.  I don't know if it was because when Cameron was 2 and 3 I was living with a 2/3 yo and was constantly in 2/3 yo mode. 

I had a so-so first week but now I think, and pray, that I'm back on track.  This week we study how God made the very first man and woman, Adam and Eve, and that God made each of us.  Then we made our own man out playdough.  I made some Chocolate playdough so that we would all have plenty to play with.  The problem...it smells DIVINE!  It looks scrumptious!  It tastes HORRID!!!  (Yes, I actually couldn't resist the look and smell.)  But the children really enjoyed it and it took a long time to lose interest.  Next time though, it won't be chocolate!  I don't remember where I got this recipe, but here it is.

Chocolate Playdough

• Mix 1 1/4 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 Tablespoon cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 cup boiling water
• Stir quickly, mix well.
• Cook over low heat until dough forms a ball.
• When cool , mix with your hands.
• Store in airtight container.

It will smell good enough to eat but without sugar in it kids (Or adults, like me) will not want to taste it a second time.

Bible:

Read through the book of Jonah while continuing work on our whale lapbook.  We worked on Jonah printouts from HERE to put in our lapbook.

Missionary Stories with the Millers: Chapter 8 was a short story from Hudson Taylor's ministry in China.  After witnessing to a man of his need for Christ, the man fell in the water and began to drown.  Taylor jumped in after him to try and save him because he hadn't gotten saved.  He implored with a nearby fishing boat to help him but they were apathetic and uncaring until Taylor offered to pay them for their help.  But time had run out for the drowning man.  So many of us are still like this today with our lack of care of those dying and going to hell. 

Memory:

Psalm 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Math:

• counting by 10's starting with non-10 numbers (ex: starting with 27 or 52)
• April calendar
• tally mark
• Took survey of which sandwich people would like.  Graphed results
• addition facts for 13
• number chart: 971 - 1,000
• adding two 3-digit numbers

Literature:

• Began reading Pocahontas by Ingri D'Aulaire (Cameron's Narration 1 and 2)

History from Viking Tales

• "Harald is King" (Cameron's Narration)
• "Harald's Battle: (Cameron's Narration)

Nature from Burgess's Bird Book

• Chapter 37 Chickadee (Cameron's Narration)

Poetry from Oxford Book of Children's Verse

• Wishes, by Sara Teasdale
• To March, by Emily Dickinson
• Spring, by William Blake
• April, by Sara Teasdale
• The First Bluebird, by James Whitcombe Riley

Bible:

Wordless Lapbook

Missionary Story with the Millers: Chapter 7 was about a Ethipian Christian Ato Desta

Memory:

Psalm 100:1-2 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.  Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Math:

• odd and even
• greater than or less than
• fill in the missing sign
• greater than and less than with the fractions of 1/2, 1/3 or 1/4
• adding 3 double digit numbers

Literature:

History from Viking Tales

"Olaf's Fight with Havard (Cameron's Narration)

"Foes' - Fear (Cameron's Narration)

Nature from Burgess's Bird Book

• Chapter 35: Hummingbird and Shrike (Cameron's Narration)

Poetry from Oxford Book of Children's Verse

• The Spicebush in March, by Sara Teasdale
• The Sandman, by Margaret Thomson Janvier
• Fog, by Carl Sandburg
• The Lily, by William Blake
• All But Blind, by Walter de la Mare

This week we did something different for Bible because we are finished with our scheduled reading.  I saw this Wordless Lapbook over at Just Call Me Jammin! and we did one of our own!  Cameron worked on cutting things out while we read our missionary story for the week and then we worked on a color a day.

I think he did a great job of tracing and cutting out the letters!

I took construction paper and cut out squares to make each color a booklet.  I put the pages for each booklet in and stapled it together.

He wrote what each color stood for on the first page:

Page 2 had a corresponding Bible verse and then I drew a visual reminder.  He was excited about finding out what each days picture was.  LOL  I'm glad he's impressed with my drawing.

Each day he copied part of a poem/song about the colors.  I would have had him copy it on his own but to make sure it all fit on the one paper, I typed it up on Word and put the font color as lightest gray so that he could trace.  I figured it was good practice and reminder of how to shape each of his letters.

Then  across the bottom we put the ABC's of Salvation

We took a lot of our ideas from Jammin' but one of the great things about lapbooking, you can change things around and make it your very own. 

But like Jammin' I will list what all we used.

Black

• Page 1:  BLACK  sin
• Page 2:  Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
• picture:  little stick figure standing on cliff.  God on opposite cliff.  This equals the great gulf that we cannot get over. 
• Page 3: Text taken from this site

Red

• Page 1: RED (in red font) blood
• Page 2: I John 1:7 ...the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
• picture: Jesus on the cross with red crayon for blood.
• Page 3

White

• Page 1: WHITE (in outlined font) clean heart
• Page 2: Psalm 51:7 ...wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow
• picture:  Stick-figure kneeling at the cross with a black heart over head.  Second frame has stick figure one other side of the cross with big smile and heart that has "Jesus" written on.
• Page 3

Gold (or yellow)

• Page 1: GOLD (in yellow font) Heaven
• Page 2: John 14:2 ...I go to prepare a place for you.
• picture: cliffs with stick figure and God again but added cross spanning the great wide gulf.
• Page 3

Green

• Page 1: GREEN (in green font) growing
• Page 2:  II Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
• picture: Stickfigure reading Bible and praying
• Page 3

"A" booklet

• Page 1: A:  ADMIT
• Page 2: Admit you are a sinner
• Page 3: Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.

"B" booklet

• Page 1: B: BELIEVE
• Page 2: Believe in Jesus.  Put your trust in Him as your oly hope of salvation
• Page 3: John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

"C" booklet

• Page 1: C: Confess
• Page 2: Confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord.
• Page 3:  Romans 10:9, 10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Poem: (It's also a song!)

My heart was black with sin,
Until the Savior came in.
His precious blood, I know
Will wash me whiter than snow.
And in God's Word I'm told,
I'll walk the streets of gold.
I'll read my Bible and pray,
And grow in him every day!

Jennybell  posted a question about what we use for Bible.  I have also been asked by a few others about our Bible.

This year I focused on Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts.  The history books of the New Testament.  I read straight from the Bible every day.  I have nothing against Bible story books but there is something about reading straight for the Word of God.  This is such a great way to stop and explain different words or what is going on.  Cameron has expanded his vocabulary from these readings too.   I made a coloring book for Cameron to work on while I was reading.

I put two passages per page.  I found these pictures at Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry.  They have 325 lessons from the Old and New Testament.  You can download each lesson for free or you can send away for a free CD. Each lesson has what to read from the Bible, a coloring page, and some extra pages:  word searches, quizzes, cross word puzzles and mazes.  Cameron LOVES mazes so I put the coloring picture with a maze for each lesson. I put all these in notebook folder to hold it all together.

I'm really excited about next year's Bible.  We will be using Calvary Chapel again but we will be using it together with a Bible cirriculum from Anne's School Place.  Again, we'll be reading straight from the Bible.  But it also will add some great extras that I'm really looking forward too.  (And it's a free download!)