On Saturday in the mail we got Mieke’s test scores. Just as I suspected she had all the questions right in both the language and math sections. Smart girl :-) She did really well and at least I’ll have the hubby off my back for a couple of months.
Our Bible memory verse for the week came from 1 Peter 2:22 “Jesus committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth”
Just another reason why we can believe EVERYTHING He says...He is incapable of lying or deceit. He committed NO sin. Wow, as a sinful being I cannot even imagine what it must feel like to never have committed any sin...
Our Bible studies this week focused on Joseph, Joseph in Egypt and his role there. Joseph facing his brothers, testing his brothers and finally revealing himself to his brothers. Yikes, can you imagine the therapy this family would’ve needed. For years they lived with the lie, the brothers knowingly deceived their father into thinking that his beloved son, Joseph, the apple of his eye, was dead and now they come home with the news that he is alive??!!!?? Wow, I’m sure they had a lot of explaining to do. I wonder if they ever came clean about what really happened all those years ago. Nonetheless I’m sure Jacob was very happy to be reunited with his son, even though I think it must’ve been a little weird not seeing each other for such a long time...people change so quickly...
The rest of our studies focused on Insects and food preservation. Of course in Ancient Egypt and bible times the way of food preservation was a lot different than it is today. And with improper food preservation techniques you’ll get food poisoning, another one of our focus topics. We also learned about the food pyramid and making informed choices about the food we choose. Some are just saturated in fat and oil and often times we eat too many grain portions a day. Mieke enjoyed learning about the food pyramid and that frozen yogurt is healthier than ice cream.....now, if only we can walk the walk :-)
This week we finished the last LLATL lesson in the red book. There’s a sense of accomplishment with each last lesson completed. I like the feeling :-) Our spelling words were water, sand, little and land. We ended the year’s work with the 7th assessment and Mieke scored 16/16 on that.
On Monday MAFA ended. The parents were invited to a “Muster Day” where the kids showed us how they have learned to march and also showed us the colonial games they’ve learned through the year. We got to sample some goodies...and boy those cookies were GOOD!! :-) There was also some corn bread and lemonade.
In the evening MAFA held their end of year program where we got a sampling of what the kids have learned, not just in Mieke’s class but in all the other classes too. It was nice to be able to see what the kids had the opportunity of doing especially with regard to the music, drama and art.
Mieke’s group performed a short play titled “Tea Overboard”. It was set in the time of the Boston Tea Party. Mieke played the role of Mrs. Conrad and she thoroughly enjoyed it.
On Tuesday we went to the B&G club for some swimming. I just watched from the bleachers but it’s getting hot fast and maybe next week I’ll take my swimming suit too and join in the fun.
On Wednesday we went to a friend of Mieke’s house to work on our AHG. We learned what it means to “Honor my country” The girls had fun and made some sand art cookie jars where the dry ingredients are poured into a canning jar in different layers. It came out beautifully. We’ve decided to present it to people in our group who has served their country in the armed forces.
2 Peter 2:19b “For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved”
On Thursday we went to the Capitol Center for the Arts and watched a performance of Charlotte's Web. It was very good. They way they changed the scene was really impressive. Well worth the $7pp :-)
On Monday at MAFA Mieke learned about the Lewis and Clark expeditions. They viewed maps of their route of exploration and talked about some of the difficulties they encountered. They also discussed Sacajawea and her role with the “Corps of Discovery”. They viewed pictures of her with her baby and the coin minted in her honor in 2000. In art they studied Native American Art and pictographs. They listened to a story and viewed corresponding pictograph. They created their own pictograph on a teepee. In Music they learned about Native American music and instruments. They listened to samples of the music while sitting around a campfire. In Drama they rehearsed the play.
We took the week off since Mieke’s birthday is Wednesday. On Wednesday her dad took the day off too so we can treat her a little. We took her to Bolton, Mass to Animal Adventures and we all had a great time. Her enthusiasm about the animals is truly contagious. We also went out to eat at the diner and it was fun. It was very quiet, we beat the dinner crowd and missed the lunch crowd so we were almost the only customers in there and the service was excellent :-)
I ordered the first grade CAT test and it arrived on Thursday. On Friday morning I had Mieke do the language part. I didn’t think she would have any problem since I thought it was very easy. It’s technically supposed to be “vacation week” but she didn’t even consider it school since she enjoyed it so much. I want to send it in to be marked but we’ll have to finish the math section first, maybe early next week
On Saturday we had a birthday party for her at Leda lanes’ light house and the kids had a blast.
This week our Bible lessons centered around Jacob and Esau and how Jacob tricked his dad, Isaac, how he fled to Haran to his uncle, Laban (another trickster) and the dream Jacob had about the angels going up and down the ladder.
In Math we reviewed some more. Mieke wrote a test on Thursday and scored 21/24 and now we're starting to practice using test prep materials.
We continued our language studies and the words this week were: night, read, fire, helped. These words are a piece of cake compared to the ones from sequential spelling and even though I don't mention this often we still do our sequential spelling daily.
On Monday Mieke went to MAFA and they discussed the Industrial Revolution. They learned about machines invented during the Classical Era and how the new industry affected lives positively and negatively. They learned that kids worked in the factories operating machinery, often kids as young as 6yrs old and for 14hrs per day!! Shocking huh? Then they watched a video demonstrating the cotton gin and steam engine. In Art they learned the importance of sheep and wool in the classical era. They reviewed the steps from shearing the sheep to weaving the wool and they each took a turn carding wool and then they began working on their weaving. Mieke brought her unfinished project home and finished it the same day...with Dad's help after she got confused :-) Robert Schumann was the subject of the music class for the week. They learned about his life and listened to samples of his music. In Drama they learned about the Brothers Grimm and their famous fairy tales. They looked at different scenes in the opera Hansel and Gretel while they read about the story. They rehearsed the play. I can hardly wait to see it...only a few short weeks left.
On Tuesday when we got to the B&G club they said they had no lifeguard on duty and so we weren't allowed to swim (policy blah blah) but I had time to chat with some of the other homeschooling moms and Mieke and the other kids kept themselves busy playing in the gym and they even got out the parachute and had tons of fun playing with it. It was impressive to see how they managed to get together, make up a game and work together to make it work.
Our Bible this week focused on Death and how it's a part of life. It's more important to focus on God's will than it is to focus on death. We also discussed burial practices in the Bible times and compared them with burials today. We also discussed Marriage practices then and now. The Scripture centered around Abraham's death and Izaac getting married to Rebecka.
We closed our human body study with learning about the circulatory system and the nerves and brain. Mieke made a nerve necklace showing how the message are being transferred from one nerve to another and then she made a brain hat. She had fun playing with all the human body crafts.
For Math this week we reviewed some of the work we've done during the year. I want to do testing sometime in early April. I decided on the CAT test since it's easy, inexpensive and only a low stress way of getting her used to testing in general.
In Language this week our spelling words were liked, school, teach & more. We focused a little more on our vocabulary curriculum and finished 2 lessons this week. On Tuesday we finished a lesson about building sand castles and on Thursday we finished a lesson on flying a kite. We are very close to being done with the Wordly Wise Vocabulary Curriculum.
On Monday Mieke had class at MAFA. They played "A day in the life" where each child had to portray a child in a colonial family. They acted out some chores like fetching water, gathering eggs, sweeping, making beds etc. They also learned how to knead bread. In Art they learned about the history and importance of candles in the classical period and then they took turns dipping taper candles. In Music they learned the terms concerto and oratorio and then reviewed the instruments and sections of the orchestra. For Drama they colored pictures of a colonial person similar to their character in the play. They reviewed lines and worked on stage movement and positions as they practice "tossing tea"
On Tuesday we didn't go the B&G club but we did go to the AHG meeting Tuesday night.
On Friday we had a fun day of rollerskating at the Roller Kingdom. Some homeschoolers got together and decided to rent the place for 2 hrs or so and we had the place to ourselves. It was a lot of fun and not even expensive. Mieke made a new friend, Jordan, and I met a new homeschooling mom, Jeannine :-)
This week our studies continued with learning about the human body. We studied and made crafts to learn about the digestive system, respiratory system and touched a little on the reproductive system. I'm not in any hurry to get into the details of the reproductive system :-)
We completed our last math lesson for the year this week. The lesson was about bar graphs and line graphs and reading and making them. Mieke enjoyed this. On Friday she scored 11/12 on her test.
We finished yet another lesson for LLATL and now have about 4 lessons left...it's so exciting to be able to count back the weeks now, knowing the end is near. The spelling words for the week was born, every, state and farm.
On Tuesday we went to paint pottery. Mieke painted a doggie and I painted a leprechaun. On Monday night we made a Leprechaun trap. Unfortunately we didn't caught the naughtly little leprechaun who turned our toilet water and milk green, but Mieke did have a note for him, would he decide to return :-) Of course I had to rewash all the floors where he left his green little footprints, not to mention the mess he made once he realised that the gold we left wasn't real :-)
On Monday Mieke attended MAFA. The reviewed rooms in the colonial home and discussed the meaning of Muster Day. In Art they completed their diorama's of colonial rooms and in Music they studied the life and music of Franz Schubert. In drama they practiced the play and did a full run-through of the play and learned stage terms such as "off stage" and "feeding lines". They played "Quoits" and reviewed the games they've learned so far. We would have a chance to see what this is all about once Muster Day comes along :-)
On Tuesday we went to the B&G club for some gym time and some swim time.
Our bible verse for the week came from Philippians 2:8b and states "He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross"
It is of course talking about Jesus and the big sacrifice He made out of both love (for us) and obedience (to His Father).
This week we studied the concept of Marriage, what it means to us and how God intended it to be. We discussed the various home settings and decided that our house is a Patriarchal home. We're working hard to keep it this way, since I'm a little bit of a control freak (did I just admit that? - it's the first step right:-) but really, all jokes aside we want our home to be the way God intended it to be. With the husband/dad as the head of the house. We also discussed family and our differences and similarities to each other and to other families.
In Science we were working on the human body. We had a short overall of the whole body and then we tried to dig in a little. Mieke had a lot of fun learning about different cells and making a cell mobile. We covered just lightly on the urinary system and then we made some crafts to go with our other lessons on muscles and the skeleton. This is my piece of cake. I love the human body studies and everything that goes with it.
In Math this week we are on our second to last lesson and covered the reading of gauges and thermometers. Mieke found this to be quite easy. On Friday she scored 9/12 on her test.
For language this week our focus was mainly on Poetry with a new poem or two every day. On Monday we read "The Swing" which we knew as a little song. Tuesday was about "Tired Tim". Wednesday was "Celery" and "The Kitten". Mieke really enjoyed learning the one about the kitten and made it into a little song that she was singing the whole afternoon especially while swinging on the swings in the backyard. Thursday's poem was "How doth the little crocodile" and on Friday we did "My shadow". This last one was not new to us as we had previously studied it. On Friday Mieke had to complete Assessment #6 in LLATL and she scored 16/16.
We continue using the sequential spelling...and still love it very much.
On Monday we were late for MAFA....we overslept....now you may wonder how it's possible to oversleep when MAFA only starts at 12:30pm....but it was Daylight Savings Time and I think my age has finally caught up with me because for the first time in 8 years I'm having trouble adjusting to the change!!
So at MAFA Mieke learned more about life during the Classical Era. They reviewed all the historical figures, artists and composers learned so far and also reviewed clothing, homes and modes of transportation like carriages, coaches and boats and also the incorporation of the newly developed steam engine into transportation of the early 19th century. In Art they learned about dioramas and then they began making their own diorama of a room in a colonial home. In Drama they reviewed their lines and practiced one scene. They also made Jack snow (maple sugar snow, Jack Wax) and discussed the importance of maple syrup to the early Americans.
On Tuesday we didn't make it to the Boys & Girls club for the gym and swim since we had a little work to catch up on after Monday's episode. We did go to the American Heritage Girls meeting on Tuesday night though.
This week we didn’t learn any new bible verses. We are currently on a catch up chapter in our Weaver Curriculum and so we took this week to just study the Bible. We were supposed to make character sketches but we didn’t really get that far, instead we just read the stories and did some extra activities. Maybe after the Human Body unit when we get back to more character sketches we’ll just tackle them all at once. I’m really excited about getting into the Human Body study since it’s my favorite subject.
Anyway, so we studied in depth Abram’s walk with God and the promises that God made to him and how Abram’s part was to simply have faith. Not too much to ask one may think but of course a lot harder to apply. We studied the relationship between Hagar and Sarah and Abram....triangles are never good :-) We talked about covenants and what it means and we discussed how making covenants with God resulted in circumcision and also name changes in Abram’s family. Abram is now name Abraham and Sarai became Sarah.
In Math Mieke practiced some more subtraction, multiple digit subtraction with carrying/regrouping. She’s becoming quite good at it and on Friday she scored 10/15. Again an issue with her concentration. If time’s up and she’s not done they’re being marked wrong. I’m at a loss here. I just don’t know WHAT I can do to help her stay focused.
We continued our daily spelling exercises using Sequential Spelling, which I absolutely love!! I doubt there is a better fit for us out there. This is IT!! Yes, I love it that much!! The spelling words for LLATL this week were: sea, rain, around and tree. I’m not sure that I like LLATL much any more but I guess we’ll stick it out for another year since I already purchased the next year’s school books, but after that I want to move on to something else.
On Monday we got tons of snow and MAFA declared a snow day. They were in a lot of company since most schools in NH and MA was closed. Unfortunately on Monday Mieke and DH woke up with stuffy noses. Yep, we’re sick...again!! Seriously we’ve been sick for most of the winter and it sucks!!
Needless to say we didn’t go to the Boys & Girls club for our weekly gym and swim.
Oh, lol, almost forgot. Mieke was in tears over a word problem on Thursday. Not so much the usual tears kids have with word problems but rather the content was upsetting to her. It stated:
10,456 spiderlings hatched in my garden. 8,912 of them got eaten by the birds. How many grew up to be big spiders?
Well, she was extremely upset about the birds. I should’ve known trouble was coming when after reading the first sentence she started talking about how “cute” baby spiders are etc. Lol, I tried not to laugh too hard :-)
This week was a vacation week for public schools and some homeschool co-ops but since we are trying to finish this year so we can have a little vacation before we start with second grade, we decided not to take any time off.
This week we continued our study of the planets and used our planet models to study the relationship between the planets. We also learned about the moon and sun in more detail. Pluto was demoted and is no longer being viewed as a planet, so now our solar system has 8 planets. Regardless we still studied pluto and Mieke still learned all the names by singing a song.
Mercury Venus Earth and Mars
These are the planets that dwell with the stars
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus too
Neptune and Pluto
I know them, do you?
In Math Mieke learned more subtraction by using money. Subtracting money...interesting.
LLATL's spelling words for the week included lose, found, lady & then. We also continued our spelling.
Since it was vacation week, Mieke didn't have classes at MAFA on Monday and we didn't go to the Boys & Girls club on Tuesday either. Since they cater to all kids we knew the place would be very crowded.
On Thursday we had some friends over for pizza and some playtime. The kids enjoyed it and so did us moms :-) I should organize stuff like this more often but it takes so much planning. It had to be rescheduled since it snowed on our previous set date.
This week our memory verse came from Ecclesiastes 12:1a that states “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”
We continued our studies on space with a special focus on the sun this week and of course our rotation around it being responsible for our seasons and weather.
Mieke learned a little song to memorize the names of the planets in our solar system and learned about how all the planets rotate around the sun, how they form 2 groups (inner and outer planets) divided by an asteroid belt and how we’ll never be able to land on the outer planets since they’re mostly made of gas and doesn’t have a rocky core like the inner planets. Pluto was demoted and is no longer recognized as a planet but we still learned about it, not too much since this week’s study was just an introduction and we’ll really get into it the following week. She also learned how our rotation around the sun causes our seasons and that during some times of the year the north pole has only daytime and some other times only night time.
We also learned how the sun benefits us with it’s warmth and light and how God placed it just the right distance from us to really be perfect. Light breaks up into colors (rainbow) and we even decorated Mieke’s bedroom ceiling with some constellations and she’s keeping a weather diary for the rest of the month.
In Math this week we focused on subtraction using four digit numbers. She’s really getting good at this, even though I have to sometimes remind her to pay special attention to the sign (+ or -). On Friday, much to my surprise, she scored 100% on the test.
In LLATL this week the spelling words were: bark, made, mind and same. We also finished the Success in Spelling this week and I’m so thrilled about it. Now we can focus all our spelling attention on the sequential spelling. We still practice daily and it’s really a wonderful program. I can recommend it to anyone looking for a great spelling program. The best part is that she doesn’t have to study for it and she willingly participates every day...without much complaining :-) as long as I tell her ahead of time what the first and last words are.
We also did some vocabulary study this week. I’m also working on getting this done but I don’t want to do more than one lesson a week. The curriculum calls for 3 days a week and completing 1 lesson over a 2 week period but I find that that’s just ridiculously slow and unnecessary. It’s a little overkill since the words are very easy and in most lessons Mieke only learns about 1 new word out of the 10 we cover. This week’s lesson was about welcome wheels and was about a boy and his dad who goes to the opening of their town’s new bicycle trail at the park.
We went to the Boys and Girls club for some swimming on Tuesday but when we got there they had a sign up saying the swimming pool was closed (life guard not on duty = no swimming) so we had an extra hour of gym time. It was good and the kids actually started all playing together unlike other times where they usually team up and play by themselves. They invented some games and enjoyed it. The exercise is good too :-)
Oops, forgot to mention earlier that the spelling words for the last 4 SIS tests were.
Spelling test # 14 (2nd grade level): end, even, here, home, land, large, men, move, must, need, put & read.
Spelling test #15 : such, try, turn, us, well, went, why, again, air,
Spelling test #16 : away, change, found, hand, high, house, kind, learn, letter, mother, off & page.
Last test #17: picture, play, point, should, spell, still, study, world, (first name)(last name)(city of residence)(street name). The last four I just added because the test had fewer words than the other tests and I thought it would be great for her to practice her first & last name and other important information that she knows by heart and may not know how to spell. Turns out I was wrong :-) She scored 100% on each of the 4 tests the first time she wrote them. We did one test a day starting on Monday and by Thursday we were done. There’s a certain amount of emotion going with the completion of each subject area. A job well done. It’s a great feeling. We only have about 2 more months of the school year left since we started a little ahead of the gang we are going to end up ahead of them too, but it works out perfectly since it would correlate with her birthday month too and it’s always nice to have vacation around your birthday. We’re taking her birthday week off too. It’s still a little while since then but I like to think about it :-) I’m practically counting the weeks and days until then.
On Monday at MAFA they reviewed the artists, composers and historical figures they learned about and then discussed homes and chores in the colonies during the classical era. I have to start searching for a shoe box since they’ll be making dioramas (making a mental note right now!) In art they learned about quilts. There’s a lot more to it than what it sounds like. The patterns actually have some real meaning behind it. They’re also working on making their own quilts. “but you can only see it at the end of the year” according to Mieke :-) Quite frankly, I can hardly wait for the end of the year because I know they’ve been working on a lot of great projects. In music they listened to fiddle and banjo music of the period and learned a common group dance....haha, wished I was there to witness that!!
In drama they’ve been working hard on the play, making a full run-through, reviewing blocking, stage position and projection. Mieke knows both her lines. “It’s not against the law to burn tea, Captain” and “Ladies, we are gathered here today to speak against the tea tax!” – yep, you guessed it...the
This week’s bible verse came from Psalm 119:165 “Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble”
This week we started our new unit about Space & the Solar system and in Social studies we learned about astronomers, their jobs and tools of the trade, telescopes. We also learned about man’s use of the stars mainly with regard to the calendars and how it’s influenced by the interaction between the sun, moon and earth. We studied the history of timekeeping, from the earliest sundials, to water clocks and sand clocks to candles as well as the pro’s and cons of each method of keeping time. It was quite an interesting subject.
In Science we learned that the Sun is our solar system’s nearest star and that all stars give off energy in the form of light. We learned to identify some of the constellations in the night sky as well as learned some of the names of the stars and our bible lessons tied in well with readings about the stars, the moon and sun and even the fact that God knows each and every star’s name.
For extra effect we visited the Planetarium where we strolled through the exhibits and even completed a scavenger hunt. It was lots of fun. We also watch a presentation called “Our place in space”. It was a lot better than what I anticipated :-)
In Math this week Mieke learned all about ordinal numbers, the months of the year, days of the week and tally marks. It was just coincidence but I loved how it tied in with the rest of our studies this week. It was perfect. On Friday Mieke had scored 100% on the test. She was very pleased with herself but she really considered it to be very easy.
In Language we finished yet another lesson of LLATL and the spelling words for the week were: people, saw, they & when.
I’m pushing to finish the Success in Spelling just because I don’t like dropping curriculum halfway, so this week she wrote 2 tests. On Monday the words were:
form, great, help, line, mean, much, old, right, same, set, show & small.
On Tuesday she missed 2 words on test 13. She missed through and different but on the retesting on Thursday she scored 100%. The words were: tell, three, through, too, want, where, another, ask, because, big, different & does.
On Monday at MAFA they began their “elective” study on the life in the U.S during the classical era. They discussed the fashion of the period and discussed how clothes were made and how much they cost. In Art they made hats (bonnets) of the colonial period. They’re going to wear these hats in the play. They also tried their hand at making “samplers” as girls of that period often did. The watched a movie on Francisco Goya (I’ll have to google this guy). In Music they discussed folk music and reviewed instruments of the period. In drama they discussed their costumes and the colors of the costumes and how the colors portray a certain trait of a character like black for evil or mourning and purple for royalty etc.
Mieke started getting sick on Tuesday and she wasn’t feeling too well, but luckily we were still able to do school. We missed AHG on Tuesday, I was still driving around to the pharmacy to get some medicine because we ran out of it earlier in the day and I didn’t want to take her out in the cold. She was running a fever that seemed to go down a while after taking medicine, staying low for about 3 hrs and then back up as soon as the meds were worked out.
On Wednesday we didn’t do a lot of school. We first went to the Concord DMV so I could renew my driver’s license. Good news is that since we have green cards now we no longer need to go all the way to
Our Bible verse for the week was Proverbs 30:8a which states ”Keep falsehood and lies from me.”
This week in math Mieke learned to do subtraction with 3-digit numbers. She’s doing very well and it’s nice to see how it gets easier for her to do it. Practice, practice, practice :-) Her concentration was very low on Friday and since I’m letting her do timed tests, she didn’t do so well on the test. She only scored 7/14 because she only completed 7 problems during the whole time. It’s frustrating, especially since I know she CAN do the problems. I don’t know, I’ll have to work something out to help her concentrate. Any advice is appreciated :-)
Our LLATL spelling words for the week were: white, black, roses & spots.
For success in Spelling, she wrote tests on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday.
On Tuesday the words were: than, water, way, who, after, back, give, good, just, know, little & live.
On Wednesday the words were: man, me, most, name, new, only, our, place, say, sentence, sound & take.
On Thursday’s test she missed 2 words. So she wrote the test again on Friday and this time got them all right. The words were: thing, think, very, work, year, also, any, around, before, boy, came and follow.
This week we also completed two lessons of the Wordly Wise vocabulary program. I’m using it this year, I thought it looked really nice, and it is, very colorful and Mieke seems to enjoy it, the only problem is the words are extremely easy and more often than not she already knows all the words, but like with all the curriculum I buy and use, I don’t like to stop in the middle and hence we will continue and finish it this year. I’m definitely looking into getting something else for next year or else just doing my own thing.
Our Bible this week contained the story of Ananias and Saffira and also read a lot of verses concerning money, riches & the poor. God require of us to not be lovers of money. In our society where money is such an important commodity it can sometimes be hard to not place too much emphasis on money. The most wonderful blessings cannot be bought with money and Riches is not nearly as important as having Wisdom. We saw that too by studying Solomon and God granting him a choice between being rich or wise. We can honor God by being kind to the poor and taking care of them the way we would want someone to take care of us should we ever be in that boat.
We discussed world currencies and that different countries uses different currencies and sometimes different denominations.
On Tuesday we didn’t get to the Boys & Girls club and we also didn’t have a meeting with the American Heritage Girls.
On Monday Mieke went to MAFA where they learned about the Adams family (no not THAT Adams family!!) but the American John, Abigail and John Quincy Adams family :-) and their role in the Revolution and the government of the US. They also discussed Home Education :-)
In Art they studied the Spanish painter Francisco Goya and watched a movie about his later years and discussed the different types of pictures that he painted. They also discussed different types of portraits and then they each had to draw a self-portrait.
For Music they reviewed Beethoven and events happening in the world while he was alive. They also listened to samples of his music.
In Drama they practiced their lines “on stage” with special focus on saying the lines loudly and clearly.
They also made “whirligigs” or “buzz saws” – a popular toy of the period.
We’ve just started a new unit and we’ll work on it for 2 weeks. It’s all about stewardship, wars and money. We are working in chapter 9 of volume 1 of the Weaver curriculum.
The bible verse for the week comes from Psalm 119:165 “ Great peace have they who love Your law, and nothing can make them stumble. “
It’s so true too that if we obey God’s law and want nothing more than to please God then nothing will be able to make us stumble and the devil will try in vain.
The LLATL spelling words for the week were: rough, tough, should & was. On Friday there was an assessment (no.5) and Mieke scored 30/30 on it :-) Smart kid!
In Math this week Mieke learned to read time with focus on the hour and putting it with the minutes to be able to read time. We practiced by reading a lot of clocks but it seems I still have to remind her occasionally to read the hour first and then the minutes. We are going to have to practice this on and off or else she will lose it again.
We learned about money and where it came from. How it all started and what metals were used in minting. Mieke made some towers out of pennies, comparing the amount of pennies used in each tower and calculating the difference. She had lots of fun playing with the money. We also emptied her whole piggy band and sorted all the coins. We also learned about tithing and stewardship and learned some lessons about money that even we, as adults, sometimes forget. I helped her sort all the coins by denomination and then we made towers of 10. At MAFA I got a baby bottle that the church was distributing to be fill with money to give as donations to the Care Pregnancy centers in Nashua and Manchester (because abortion shouldn’t even be an option!!) And so I taught her how to give 10% of all her money to the cause. She enjoyed giving money to “God” and I tried my best to explain that the church will use the money to help babies and that God doesn’t need the money to buy clothes or toys :-)
So, we decided that with the leftover money we’ll go to the bank to get it counted and then we’ll visit the bookstore to buy her a new Bible since she’s already done with the 3rd one and currently her dad and I take turns in translating the Afrikaans bible her grandma gave her for Christmas. We’re already almost halfway through that one too!!
We also learned about the history of money in the
We also talked about being content and that happiness and success is not determined by the amount of money but rather our attitude towards money and how we use it.
We also continued the Success in Spelling by completing 4 tests during the week. The words on the first tests were: word, your, about, go, has, her, him, into, like, look, make & many. The 2nd test’s words were: more, other, out, see, so, some, them, then, these, time, two & up. The words on the 3rd test were: will, would, write, been, call, come, could, day, did, down, find & first and the words on the last test were: get, long, made, may, my, no, now, number, oil, over, part & people.
On Monday Mieke went to MAFA and they learned about elections and the office of the President of the
On Tuesday we went to the Boys and Girls club for some gym time and some swim time. I took my swimming clothes but really had no intention on getting in the pool. The water is just not warm enough for me. It was fun catching up with a friend and meeting a new one :-)
On Wednesday we had a huge snowstorm and hubby worked from home.
On Friday I started feeling a little off...the beginning of sickness for me and sure enough, Saturday it was worse. I wanted to stay home since we were invited to a friends house for playing and even though I didn’t want to miss out on the fun, I was just feeling so miserable. Hubby wouldn’t let me stay home and sulk.
Sunday morning I had to go to church since it was the first Sunday of the month and I have to take the birthday cake for the people having February birthdays to church and also had to attend a Deacon’s meeting. When I came home I went straight to bed and slept for most of the day.
I didn’t initially plan on taking this long with the animals unit but it seems Mieke is enjoying it so much that I really don’t want to rush it.
Our Bible verse for the week was actually the AHG memory verse she needed to learn. It comes from Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength.
On Wednesday we got together with a friend from the American Heritage Girls. Mieke and Cassandra are the only girls who are Pathfinders and since the Pathfinders and Tenderfoots are in the same group they’re mostly doing the older group’s work, so Carey and I decided to get together and do the Pathfinder work with the girls. They did a couple of crafts like a “He is Risen” craft and made some adorable bird feeders with seed & pine cones...it was a bit messy but lots of fun.
For Science we focused on Reptiles and Amphibians and Insects. We also made a mural with animals from these 3 classes on it. We also learned about birds, bird’s eggs and how birds are useful to people (food, eggs, clothing). We learned about who John James Audubon was and how his study of birds helped to answer some questions about bird behavior specifically migration patterns.
The math this week was subtraction with borrowing (regrouping) and I cannot say enough good things about the Math-U-See program. I was not looking forward to teaching this concept. I thought for sure we were going to get stuck here and we’re going to have to stay on this topic for 2 or 3 or even more weeks but we watched the video and Mieke snapped it right away. The light bulb went on and I’m so proud of her and so giddy with this program :-) On Friday she scored 9 out of 12 on the test. She made some silly mistakes, not specifically with the new work we learned.
In LLATL the new spelling words were: their, weigh, from and for.These are so easy compared to the sequential spelling. On Friday she was evaluated in Sequential spelling and the words she needed to spell were: shoving, show, drove, blowing, robe, exploded, enjoy, delayed, loaned, soaking, crime, unguarded, starring, marching, home, soap, understanding, depends, demanded and exciting. She scored a perfect 100%. We had just completed day 80 of book 1.
I decided that we should also finish the Success in Spelling program since we are already halfway through and we only have 17 more tests to go for 2nd grade level spelling....but instead of doing 1 test per week, we’ll do about 3 or 4 tests per week until we’re done. so on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she wrote a test per day. The words on Monday’s test were: a, are, and, as, at, be for, from, have, he, his &
On Monday Mieke went to MAFA while I came back to clean the house. They learned about Thomas Jefferson and his accomplishments, the
This week our Bible verse came from Romans 1:20
For since the Creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
I think this verse answers the question of what happens to people who have never heard of God or Jesus. Where do they go? Well, personally I believe that creation is all around us, without question it didn’t just “happen with a boom”. The evidence is all around us and we are without excuse!!
This week we continued our study on mammals. We completed a mural with zoo animals (mostly mammals). This week was our completion of our study of mammals and marsupials (animals with pouches). We learned about how animals help people and dogs who work. We also made a little book about all the working dog breeds.
This week was a special one in which we also learned how to make our own butter from heavy cream. It’s very easy, just put the cream in a tight closing container and shake. It takes a lot of elbow grease, but it’s so worth it. I made some homemade bread to go with it and it was delicious!! So, just shake until the cream turns into butter. Then drain the buttermilk (white milky leftovers) by rinsing the butter in cold water. The butter will go rancid if you omit this step. Put it in a butter dish and refrigerate for a while....and enjoy!!
In Math this week Mieke learned to read time. We focused primarily on reading minutes. She practiced counting in 5’s and then switching to 1’s.
The LLATL spelling words for the week were: flavor, color, other & two.
We’re still working on the Sequential spelling too. The words are a lot more of a challenge and I can see how she is challenged but at the same time her skills increase from day to day. I’m very satisfied with the program and will continue to use it.
On Monday there was no MAFA class.
Our Bible verse for the week was Proverbs 6:6
Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
It’s interesting, well actually, just something to note is that God knew (He’s the Creator after all) that all worker ants are female, and hence the “consider HER ways”
Our studies this week centered around animals, Annemieke’s favorite subject. We read about various jobs of people working with animals like a zoo keeper, vet, game warden etc. We also read about how animals are used by people for entertainment and study like in the circus, hunting and taxidermy. We started learning about how the Animal Kingdom is divided into Vertebrates (animals with a backbone) and Invertebrates (animals without backbones).Vertebrates are subdivided into classes of animals like Mammals, Birds, Fish, Reptiles and Amphibians etc and Invertebrates are subdivided into classes like crustaceans, insects, worms, spiders etc.
Mieke also wrote an animal alphabet with each letter of the alphabet. She also drew her favorite animal (a lion on that particular day :-) and had to finish a sentence “I Love animals...” and she wrote “because they are cute”
For health we discussed safety around animals, in particular dogs and snakes. And for a field trip we went to the pet store to look at reptiles and other animals:-) This of course was a real treat to little Mieke who are absolutely crazy about animals.
This week in math she learned to do multi-digit subtraction (without borrowing) and on Friday she scored 15/15 on her test.
We continued our study in Language Arts and started and finished lesson 22 this week. The spelling words in LLATL were: learn, early, heard & here.
On Monday Mieke went to MAFA and they learned about life after the Revolutionary War and the constitution and government. In Art they studied a painting named Watson and the Shark from John Singleton Copley. In music they listened to some selections by Chopin and in drama they learned about blocking. They also practiced some lines from their play.
We’re taking the next 2 weeks off since both of them have holidays right smack in the middle of the week.
25 December 2008
Happy Birthday Jesus!! And Merry CHRISTmas to all :-)
1 January 2009
Happy New Year!!
May 2009 be the year that we all set our hearts to honor HIM!!
Psalm 128:2
You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.
I wasn’t up for a full week of school and decided to focus on Christmas for the week since Jesus’ birthday was coming up. We watch the movie of the Nativity story.
For math we just reviewed the math facts and went through the flashcards, did a little bit of problems, mostly column addition. I didn’t want to start with newer, harder math until I was sure that we’ll be working full steam again. Having holidays in the middle of the week really doesn’t work well with our schedule. It seems to upset the whole equilibrium of our schooling...as much as there is one :-)
We back tracked a little with the spelling, just a day or two and then continued as usual. We finished a week of LLATL and the spelling words were sign, goat, some and said.
MAFA is finished for the semester and we have a couple of weeks off, which fits me perfectly since I needed the break. We also didn’t go to Boys and Girls club just because I’m not sure when the schools are having vacation time and I really don’t want to be there when all the school kids are there. I can imagine it to be like a madhouse with all the kids there :-)
This next week was just a whirlwind of things that needed to be done. In order to make the trip back home we needed to renew Mieke’s passport since it had expired in August. I cannot thank the
Ok, so we left for S.Africa on the 3rd of December. Arrived on the 4th of December at
it was around
After that we went to my fil’s house and we stayed there for the remainder of the visit. The last day in S.A we went back to my parents’ place and slept there the last night. Luckily I got to see them every day since they came to visit every day!! I was so thankful about it. It feels very strange being in S.A and not being with my parents...I have to be honest and say that those 8 days were the longest days in my life. I cannot explain it but it felt like every day was just dragging on...maybe it’s normal, I don’t know...I’ve never lost a parent-in-law before. It’s just sad and even now, writing about it, makes me a little sad too but like I told or tried to explain to my daughter, a funeral is not so much a sad event but it should also be a celebration of the person’s life. I’m keeping my focus on that fact and also on the knowledge, the hope and the faith that she’s in a better place, with Jesus, and one day we’ll be together again
The memorial service was held on Monday, the 8th of December. We flew back the 11th of December, which technically was the 12th since it was after
So, we arrived home on the 12th of December around
Ok, so we got out of the airport and found out that our ride wasn’t able to come pick us up anymore. I was figuring out a couple of options, taxi (very expensive) or bus. I’ve seen some Boston Logan buses in Nashua before, so we hauled ourselves over to the information and found out that there is indeed a bus that could take us all the way to Nashua, exit 6 (our exit) or 8. So we waited, and boy was the weather a shock!! Imagine coming from almost 100F to 28F!! Haha, DH was still in shorts. It was cold, it was freezing, the wind was icy and blustery. But the bus finally came (it was late and I had thought we had missed it and would have to wait about 2 hrs for the next one to come) and we got on it and it was smooth sailing from then on.
We got off at the next stop to buy the tickets and it was about $12 pp opposed to who knows what had we taken a taxi instead. I don’t think our bags would’ve fit in a taxi, to be honest. So I made a phone call to a friend of ours and he was so great. He came to pick us up and took us home. Then we learned that there was some widespread damage due to an ice-storm the previous day and that a LOT of people was without power. I was praying very hard that we would have power because I was exhausted and having to go home and deal with bags and no power would’ve probably pushed me off the edge :-) God answered my prayers and we were of the lucky few who had power. It looked as if we may have been without power for about 26hrs but luckily it wasn’t severe enough to cause damage (like broken water pipes).
The next day I had to go to the church so we could have the dress rehearsal for the Christmas pageant and DH made a stable and manger for the play. It went well. One of the little boys refused to wear his costume and on Sunday we had the play. It was good. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. The kids had a blast and I’m thankful that it went well. We were still exhausted but happy and thankful that we had power. A lot of the people in the congregation was still without power.
28 November 2008 – Friday, Black Friday
I went shopping this morning, it wasn’t as thrilling as it was last year. Maybe because there wasn’t a lot of things I absolutely wanted that was on sale. The worst was wal-mart, oh, man, it was a mad house. Anyway, so I went back home, got back into bed and later woke up. Then we decided to go somewhere and I honestly don’t remember where we went....probably to Best Buy but anycase, I went to get the mail and it contained some letters from the INS. I opened it and couldn’t believe it!! I received my green card in the mail!!! This was so unexpected!!! I checked last week and they hadn’t updated the site in some time and it looked like they were still working on cases 3 months older than ours, so you can only imagine my surprise. I couldn’t talk, well I did, but then I just started crying. I was so overwhelmed with joy!! The 3 letters were 2 approval notices and then my green card. I don’t know why we didn’t get DH’s green card yet but I’m sure we’ll get it soon since his notice said it was approved on the 21 of November 2008 and mine were approved on the 24th of November 2008. I’m pretty sure it just got separated from the other mail. We came back from the store and the church and I decided to call my parents to share the good news. It was well after
29 November 2008
This morning hubby couldn’t wait to call his parents and share the good news. I mean this is something that we’ve been praying for, for a looooooong time. His parents were thrilled to hear the good news.
We got the horrible news that my mother-in-law suddenly passed away. We’re still in shock.