We have been focusing quite a bit on music lately, especially our composer study of Haydn
We even found this wonderful little book at the library.
It is a nice little biography, with charming pen-and-ink illustrations, and the kids were really excited to see some of his actual music inside.
If all goes well, we'll be back on track to jump into RtR: Week 9 next week....
This week in My Father's World :RtR the kids have continued learning about the neurological system of the body - focusing on the 5 senses.
Using The Body Book, they made a 'lift the flap' model of the head, which details the sense organs. (This is no easy feat for poor Julie who is quite squeamish.) Any pictures/drawings of anatomy make her a bit queasy. She was a trooper though, and her model turned out great.
The top
The under layer
In History we are learning about the struggle for power between Octavian and Marc Antony, how Herod came to be ruler in Jerusalem, and how the oppressed people in that nation were waiting for a Messiah: whom they thought would be someone that would rescue them from the oppression by the Romans
We are also learning about Haydn - his life and his most well known works.
We did not buy the "Best Of Haydn" CD that came with the deluxe MFW package, because we have found that most music is so readily available (for free) on the internet these days.
We especially enjoyed this portion of "The Creation"
So far this week we've learned about the life and death of Julius Caesar.
We're enjoying the book Augustus Caesar's World by Genevieve Foster, (which is part of the MFW curriculum package.) It is written in a very engaging story-like style, instead of just spouting-off hard to remember facts.
The kids have been making notebooking pages based on our readings, as well as doing some of the coloring sheets from the Story of the World activity guide - (which is not a part of the MFW package, but we ordered it anyways, because they enjoyed it so much when we did SOTW Vol.1 a couple of years ago.)
Julie likes to take notes while we do our reading, (and then we found a picture of Caesar by following the recommended links in the Usborne internet-linked books.) But Joseph prefers to color the SOTW pages while we read.
Obviously he takes quite a bit of 'artistic liberty' with his renditions.
In vocabulary this week we continue our study of the Latin roots for numerical words and in science we are studying the brain and nervous system.
In history today we studied the Punic Wars and learned about Hannibal crossing the Alps with his elephants. The kids were amazed and amused by that story.
And Katie learned who is at the center of History [or rather His-(s)tory.]
In science we made a 'model' of a cell.
The baggie represents the cell membrane, the checker is the nucleus, and the colored water is the cytoplasm. (We sort of improvised since the experiment originally called for jello and a grape...but the kids got the main idea - so I'm counting it as a success.) :-)
Then we made a notebooking page about cells, types of cells, and cell division.
And speaking of division. Julie is doing long division. Sigh....it's hard for me to get excited about that...but for her sake, I'm sure trying.
First we read inWindow on the Worldabout how the Christian church flourished in Russia for many centuries, and then after the Bolshevik revolution - religion was basically outlawed in communist Russia, and many people were either martyred or exiled to Siberia for their beliefs. Just within he past two decades have the Russian citizens been allowed to worship freely.
Next we read a chapter in R&S Homelands Around the World that told us more about Siberia. It is very geographically varied - with mountains, forests, stepes, plateaus, and the arctic tundra.
We learned more about the tundra - including the phenomenon of "permafrost,"
and we did a science experiment to help us further understand the concept.
(My pictures didn't turn out very well - sorry)
In this dish are three layers
-The green jello represents the deeply frozen 'permafrost'
-Then there is a layer of soil on top of that - which represents the top layer of tundra soil that does thaw - usually only to a depth of a couple of feet.
-On the very top is a layer of snow
In spring in Siberia, the snow melts...but because of the permafrost the water is not able to absorb into the earth, and as a result....much of Siberia liooks like this.... Houses are built on stilts that are drilled into the ground so that they don't sink.
(The kids thought that was so interesting.)
For art - we did our best to draw St. Basil's cathedral.
For music we are listening to selections by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev including:
The Nutcracker Suite, Swan Lake, and Peter and the Wolf -
and we are learning about some of the orchestral instruments.
I highly doubt I'm going to get the kids to eat borscht (beet soup) or caviar,
but just maybe we'll try some blini later this week!
I found some really neat finds at our local World Market store
that will add a bit of fun to our study of Japan. Some colorful chopsticks, some Udon noodles,
little teacups, and some 'cookies' and rice candy from Japan.
I figure we'll have a little 'tea party' on Friday to wind up our study, and have our treats then.
In other news, Annabelle is doing much better than I expected without her 'Nuk.'
This hasn't come without consequence, though.
In addition to giving up her Nuk...she has given up her NAP!
She had been taking a 2-3 hour nap daily, but since I took her Nuk away, she has yet to fall asleep during the daytime. So - she's been rather cranky - and we have had a very hard time doing school in the afternoons this week. :-(
Bedtime has been easier, though....she's 'worn-out' by that time.
And...unfortunately...she discovered a 'substitute' for the Nuk.....
I didn't know what else to title this post because it's just going to be a mish-mash of school stuff - LOL.
I've been trying to come up with a way to organize the books on my shelves so that I can find what I want when I need it. We have a lot of books here at our house, and I want the kids to have free access to them all, but at the same time - I would like to be able to find stuff when I want to put them into our 'book basket'. So I've started a system of color-coordinating the books, and I'll place a label/sticker on them if they match-up with one of our 'themes" for My Father's World.
Right now I only have it divided into the two years that we have done/will be doing (ECC and RTR), but eventually I hope to add science, and the other years of the history cycle in there as well. (I guess I need to find more stickers!) ;-)
In other MFW news - we are starting Japan this week, and
can I just mention once again how much I LOVE this book! I know it is technically not a part of MFW:ECC, but I can not recommend it highly enough as a supplement to ECC. It really does tie in so well.
We are not going through the textbook in order, but I have marked the sections of the book,
(using Post-It notes) that correspond to the countries that we are learning about in ECC. There really isn't much scheduling to do that way...
When we have time we just open the book, find the right tab, and start right in. :-)
And - to show you how nicely they line up...here's a comparison
MFW:ECC
R&S: Homelands Around the World
North America:
USA
Mexico
Canada
North America:
USA
Canada
South America:
Brazil
South America:
Brazil
Ecuador
Europe:
Norway
France
Germany
Europe:
Switzerland
France
Germany
The Netherlands
Greenland
Africa:
Kenya
Africa:
Nigeria
Asia:
Saudi Arabia
India
China
Japan
Russia
Asia:
The Philippines
Japan
Russia/Siberia
Australia
Australia
Antarctica
Antarctica
Iceland
Pretty neat, huh?! There's even a few extra countries in there that we have added, and we have loved reading about the different cultures.
Another suggestion if you decided to do MFW: ECC - buy the largest binders you can find!
These are 3" binders and they are stuffed! (and we still have about 8-9 weeks left!) I'll probably end up making a separate binder for their science notebooking pages - which is a shame, because I think it is really is neat to look at this huge volume, and see all of the hard work the kids have done this year, and how it all ties together.
But they're not the only ones....look at little Katie-Noel's binder! She's got lots of great stuff in her's, too!
This week in MFW we learned about the ancient Chinese puzzles called tangrams.
There are seven pieces, called tans, in the puzzle - which are put together to form shapes.
The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape using all seven pieces, and the pieces cannot overlap.
They start as a square
We read a wonderful book that gave the kids some fun examples of these puzzles.
It was called Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert.
The book begins with a grandfather and a granddaughter sitting under a tree.
The grandfather tells her a story about two little foxes
And the foxes play a game - where they change into other animals and chase each other.
Here are some of the animals they become:
No study of China would be complete without a sample of their magnificent cuisine!
(So - I had Paul swing by and pick up some Chinese take-out after work.)
We tried Crab Rangoons, Egg Drop Soup, Fried Won-Tons,
Sweet & Sour Chicken, Cashew/Almond Chicken, and Lau Chow Chicken.
The kids liked it all, and they had fun using chopsticks to eat.
The restaurant included some 'cheaters' for the chopsticks - which we thought were pretty neat. Julie and Joseph did very well with them (Joseph even wore his new 'dragon shirt' that we found at Goodwill in honor of our celebration.) And my "Little Miss Independent" refused to use the cheaters....but look at her go!
As for Kate - her favorite was the soup. She had 2 bowls!
We're wrapping up China this week and moving on to Japan!
We sang one of my favorite hymns in church this weekend, and as we sang it - I couldn't but help think of how well it ties into the whole "missions" theme of MFW this year.
"Hark! the Voice of Jesus Crying"
1. Hark! the voice of Jesus crying,
"Who will go and work today?
Fields are ripe and harvests waiting,
Who will bear the sheaves away?"
Loud and long the Master calleth,
Rich reward He offers thee;
Who will answer, gladly saying,
"Here am I, send me, send me"?
2. If you cannot speak like angels,
If you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus,
You can say He died for all.
If you cannot rouse the wicked
With the Judgement's dread alarms,
You can lead the little children
To the Savior's waiting arms.
3 If you cannot be a watchman,
Standing high on Zion's wall,
Pointing out the path to heaven,
Offering life and peace to all,
With your prayers and with your off'rings
You can do what God demands;
You can be like faithful Aaron,
Holding up the prophet's hands.
4. Let none hear you idly saying,
"There is nothing I can do,"
While the multitudes are dying
And the Master calls for you.
Take the task He gives you gladly,
Let His work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when He calleth,
"Here am I, send me, send me!"
Author: Daniel March, 1868
Composer: Joseph Barnby, 1883
Once again, I'm just a tad bit disappointed, because in their lesson plans for the Middle East there is a 3 week study of Saudi Arabia and the beginnings of Islam, but almost no mention of Israel or Iraq (which, Biblically, I think are VERY important countries!)
Now, I realize that these countries are (probably?) studied much more in-depth in MFW's next program, "Creation to the Greeks"....but since we already studied ancient history last year - we will be skipping that.
Still....I would much prefer that my kids learn about Israel (its location, its culture, and and its role in the modern world)....and so that is where we are shifting our focus to for the next couple of weeks, and 'tweaking' the MFW lesson plans once again.
So, instead of coloring the Saudi flag (on which the Arabic writing on the Saudi flag says something along the lines that Allah is god ) we will be instead coloring the flag of Israel.
We will still be discussing Saudi Arabia - but we will be discussing it from a historical point of view and contrasting it with Israel.
Mostly we are going to learn about how two brothers became the reason for all of the conflict between the Muslims and Jews of today.
Genesis 16 1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.
But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children.
Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me.
May the LORD judge between you and me."
6 "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best."
Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
8 And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.
9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her."
10 The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."
11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:
"You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers."
So Ishmael is family line from which Muslims are descended.......
But...Abraham's other son, Isaac, is the line from which the Jews/Israelites descended...and the nation through which God chose to establish His covenant, and bless the world - as the very family line of Jesus is traced all the way back to Abraham.
Genesis 17
18 And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"
19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year."
Genesis 22
17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
So.. this is the context in which we'll be studying the Middle East for the next few weeks!
Well....I think I have finally found the first unit of MFW that I'm disappointed in...
I know that they are just trying to fit everything into a 'workable' school year schedule, but I must admit we were all a little bit sad to see that there are only three weeks devoted to all of Africa, and that they only focus on one country (Kenya.)
So...we're 'going off the map' and writing our own plans for Africa.
We'll still be doing a little bit of the 'packet' from the World Geography book, but our main lessons will come form the Rod and Staff Textbook "Homelands Around the World" - which gives a really overview of the country of Nigeria. It also discusses African animals and their habitats, the African climate, and typical African homes, customs, foods, and natural resources. The kids are really enjoying it so far.
These books have activities, worksheets and information about several African countries including: Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Morocco, and Egypt.
We are making our own 'packet' of info based on these countries -
to gain a broader view of the beautiful continent of Africa.
We are still following the MFW readings for science and Bible,
and we are reading a biography of David Livingstone (although not the one that MFW recommends.)
The kids had fun trying to make galimoto cars from wire,
and next week we're even going to try tie-dye!
For our final art project for France, the kids made silhouette self-portraits.
We used sheets of poster board and black paint, and they turned out SO nice!
(Although Joseph looked at his and said -
"Wow, Mom...you're right...I really DO need a haircut!")
And on a side note...let me just mention how difficult it is getting an 8 yr old boy to SIT PERFECTLY STILL long enough for a project like this!
This week we wrap up our study of Europe.
Truthfully, I wish we could spend more time here, as there are so many vastly different groups and cultures within such a short amount of space. It is fascinating!
In the MFW:ECC teacher's guide there are two blank weeks at the end of the year. Originally I though we may just skip over them and be done with it...but now I'm considering adding one or more of the European countries. (Ireland maybe?)
As I switched Germany and France in the schedule, we are finishing with France.
We've been listening to French composers, looking at French paintings ( Monet, Renoir, etc.),
and look...Julie even learned how to make the Eiffel tower with string!
In science the kids have been learning about forest animals, bacteria, and endangered animals.
Today we're having crepes and "French hot chocolate" for a snack! Mmmmmm!
Crepes:
1 c flour
2 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/2 c water
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve warm.
Next stop = Africa!
The kids are REALLY excited about this! What's even better is that last week CurrClick's "Freebie of the Week" was the Teacher Book Bag's Continental Hop Africa! (A GIANT [150+ pages] lapbook/notebook about the animals of Africa and their habitats!
As for Katie...this week she will
-learn more about letters, numbers, colors and phonics in the Rod & Staff ABC series.
In Little Hands to Heaven she will
- Learn about Isaiah and Jeremiah in her Bible lessons
-do art and science projects related to the Bible lessons
- practice skip-counting by 2's and 3's
- Do activities based on the letter "O"
We are also doing a 'mini-unit' of Before Five in a Row with the book The Snowy Day.
(I though t hat was an appropriate choice since our world looks like this these days....)
I had really hopped that we could get outside and do some of the activities that the character in the book enjoys (making footprints in the snow, snow angels, and sledding) but since our weather this week
looks like this........
Mostly Cloudy
-8°F ( Wind chill -26°F)
I figured it's too dangerous to go out - and maybe we can make footprints with paint instead.
As we enter the second half of the school year I must say that overall I am very happy with the way things are going. I'm not nearly as 'restless' as I was last year, and I really think that My Father's World has been a good fit for us.
Lately we've been studying Europe/Germany.
The kids have been working on their geography packets, and in science we are learning about forests in the northern temperate zone
and the different types of trees.
We are really enjoying reading through the book of Matthew, too.
We did decide to go back to The Memory Bible (Bible verses set to music) for our memory verses though, as opposed to the verses from Matthew (planned by MFW.)
The kids have a much better time remembering the verses when they are set to music, and as long as they are 'hiding God's Word in their hearts'... it really doesn't matter to me which method we use. ;-)
We really do love MFW, but that being said....there are certain parts of the curriculum that I feel are...hmmm how shall I put it?...'lacking' isn't the right word.....but maybe 'dry?'
We have found that reading from ANY of the atlases is enough to make us cringe.
I can't believe I'm going to say this...but we're actually switching to a TEXTBOOK
to add more variety and interest to our reading!
We are swapping out the atlases for this book instead. It goes along wonderfully with the countries being studied, and I think it will be a much better fit for us!
Another thing that we have temporarily given up on are the missionary biographies.
I know many people who use MFW love them - and that they are a favorite part of the curriculum for some....but they just don't 'fit' well for us. They have a lot of details (dates, places, names of acquaintances, etc.) that may be interesting to older readers, but my kids are distracted by them and they are having a hard time staying focused and following along.
I may rethink them later this year, but for now we are instead choosing books from the 'book basket' section, or choosing our own read alouds that tie in with the areas we are studying - (example: as we study Europe we are reading about Corrie Ten Boom.)
Other areas that I am switching around a bit are our reading and writing programs.
While I still really like the Beautiful Feet literature program, it just isn't working for us in the way that I had hoped. I had been assigning chapters of certain books to both Julie and Joseph ( each at their own level) and then I had made worksheets, based on the study guide, with questions that pertained to their individual assignments. However - the independent reading just wasn't working out.
I couldn't keep track of how far they were in their books, and both were struggling with vocabulary/foreign words.... So we are scrapping it for now.
Joseph will return to the Pathways series that he loved so much last year, and Julie will return to CLE or possibly Abeka...(I have a bunch of Abeka readers that I picked up at Goodwill, and she really seems to enjoy the stories in those.)
We will, hopefully, continue to read through the Beautiful Feet books as family read-alouds.
As for writing...Writing Strands was not working out well for Julie at all - (or for me!)
For now we are just going to be doing the writing portion from this book that I picked up (for 50¢)
at that awesome warehouse sale last fall.
It's actually fairly decent, and covers a variety of different writing topics and styles. I hope to find a better program for next year, but for now, Julie likes it - and I much prefer it over Writing Strands. Joseph is sticking with Spectrum writing, as it seems to be a good fit for him.
As far as Katie is concerned things are going quite well.
She loves doing her Rod and Staff ABC Series workbooks, along with all of the activities from LHTH.
Some things that we have added for Katie are the Christian Liberty Press kindergarten science workbook (recommended by Heart of Dakota,) and I also found a bunch of worksheets/printables that coincide wonderfully in one of my old books from my days as a classroom teacher - LOL!
So, while we learned about how God made the land in the CLP book...Katie then has pages like his that goes along with that theme.
Katie is struggling a bit with phonics/reading however, (which is not uncommon for kids with apraxia.) First Reader is not working out as well as I'd hoped, so I'm re-evaluating what would work best for her.
I'm wondering if 100 EZ Lessons would be a better fit?
For those of you with special needs kids...I'd love to hear what worked well for you! :-)
Snow Treasure This is a ('based on a true') story about how a group of Norwegian school children helped rescue $9 million in gold from the Nazi's during WWII.
and our other read aloud is
Kirsten's Surprise: A Christmas Story This is an 'American Girl' book about a pioneer girl from Sweden named Kirsten, and her first Christmas here in America. In this book we learned about the Swedish Christmas tradition of St. Lucia's Day.
( Which... coincidentally...just happens to be today...Dec. 13th!)
Julie has grand plans to dress up for us tonight like Kirsten. I'm looking forward to seeing her surprise!
For art this week the kids made felt squares using the traditional colors of the Sami people of Lapland.
(Julie's) (Joseph's)
Next we are headed for Germany and central Europe.
(*Note: we will be switching MFW's plans for Germany and France, and studying Germany first because we thought that Germany was such a great area to be studying at Christmas time!"
In our studies of this part of Europe we will be learning more about Martin Luther, and we're going to learn about the (real) St. Nicholas and Good King Wenceslas. We'll also be studying several famous German/Austrian composers (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Handel, and many others!)
And we may even learn a few Christmas Carols in German - including Stille Nacht.
For reading we will be going over several of Grimm's fairy-tales including: The Pied Piper of Hamlin, The Bremen Town Musicians, and Hansel and Gretel.
(and we hope to top that last one off by decorating a gingerbread house!)
This past week in MFW we've been studying Scandinavia / Norway.
This has been a lot of fun for the kids, and had a lot of meaning, especially since this is Paul's heritage.
We played the MFW 'geography game' for Europe, and we read several library books about the Laplanders.
We also tried several new foods .
(The Lingonberries, the Julnacke crackers, and the Julmust soda were not big hits with the kids...but I rather liked them!)
These cookies were a big hit , though... Can you guess where we bought them? (or...as Annabelle spells it...)
This week we're looking forward to building the gingerbread house
and trying the MJOLKCHOKLAD (a.k.a. - milk chocolate.)
We also hope to try making some of the fun recipes found in this book. (I definitley think I'll skip the Lutefisk, though!) ;-)
The kids also tried their hand at rosemaling (although I don't think they quite 'got' the concept of it - and it turned into more of a free-form painting activity.) We still had fun though!
The kids decorated boxes - which they can use to store all of their papers and art projects for the year. :-)
Katie has been doing well in school, too.
This week in LHTH she learned about King David and his son Absalom.
2 Samuel 18:9
Now Absalom happened to meet David's men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom's head got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going.
Katie made a picture of Absalom with his hair caught in the tree.
We're looking forward to learning more about Scandinavia this week!
We are finishing up our studies of South America.
It's been a busy week, but we found time to do some fun projects.
We finished our biography of Jim Elliot this week
(We chose to read a different book than the Nate Saint biography that MFW recommended. It was basically very similar, as Nate and Jim were partners taking the Gospel to the Auca/Waorani tribe in Ecuador, but the book we chose was a little more 'kid friendly' regarding the deaths of the missionaries.)
The kids each made a model of Nate Saint's plane.
For science this week we studies birds of the Amazon rain forest.
We learned how God designed birds' eggs to be incredibly strong,
and that the shape of an egg (an arch) is one of the strongest in architecture.
We did an experiment to prove just how strong eggs/arches really are!
First we hollowed out 4 eggs and cut their shells in half ( We put a piece of tape around the middle of the shell. This allowed us to cut the shells with scissors - without splitting them)
Next we placed the shells on the table so that their arched shapes were pointing upwards.
And then we started to place fairly large/heavy books on top of the shells, one book at a time,
to see if the (fragile?) shells would collapse.
It wasn't until the 11th book that we saw any sign of stress ( a slight crack),
and still they held!
The 15th book was the culprit though!
Altogether the empty eggshells held 18 lbs of Books!!!
Then (using one of my new resources that I bought at the sale last weekend,) Julie and Joseph made a giant diagram of a rain forest. They sorted out the trees, the plants, and the animals into their proper levels (emergents, canopy, understory, forest floor) and made a huge 'picture' on pieces of butcher paper.
And finally for music this week we found a great CD at the library that fit in perfectly with our studies. Joseph really liked the samba music, and he had to get his maracas and play along.
(At least it wasn't his whistle!)
And speaking of music ...we have also started using this
It's a wonderful book that comes with a CD. It telly you a little bit about the instruments themselves, plus facts about composers, and the 'eras' of classical music. We are doing notebooking pages to go along with it.
Hello....I'm Michelle!
I am a Christian wife, a homemaker, and a homeschooling mother of 4 wonderful children! This is the journal of our adventures in homeschooling!
Homeschooling is not just our method of education....it has become our way of life.
But Joseph prefers to color the SOTW pages while we read.
(We sort of improvised since the experiment originally called for jello and a grape...but the kids got the main idea - so I'm counting it as a success.) :-)
Sigh....it's hard for me to get excited about that...but for her sake, I'm sure trying. 
)
Houses are built on stilts that are drilled into the ground so that they don't sink.
Some colorful chopsticks, some Udon noodles, 
(I guess I need to find more stickers!) ;-)
I know it is technically not a part of MFW:ECC, but I can not recommend it highly enough as a supplement to ECC. It really does tie in so well. 
There really isn't much scheduling to do that way...
I'll probably end up making a separate binder for their science notebooking pages - which is a shame, because I think it is really is neat to look at this huge volume, and see all of the hard work the kids have done this year, and how it all ties together.
She's got lots of great stuff in her's, too!
a turtle
and a goose
Julie and Joseph did very well with them
(Joseph even wore his new 'dragon shirt' that we found at Goodwill in honor of our celebration.)
And my "Little Miss Independent" refused to use the cheaters....but look at her go!
"Here am I, send me, send me!"
) we will be instead coloring the flag of Israel. 
and in science we are learning about forests in the northern temperate zone
It goes along wonderfully with the countries being studied, and I think it will be a much better fit for us!
I hope to find a better program for next year, but for now, Julie likes it - and I much prefer it over Writing Strands. Joseph is sticking with Spectrum writing, as it seems to be a good fit for him.
This is a ('based on a true') story about how a group of Norwegian school children helped rescue $9 million in gold from the Nazi's during WWII.
This is an 'American Girl' book about a pioneer girl from Sweden named Kirsten, and her first Christmas here in America. In this book we learned about the Swedish Christmas tradition of St. Lucia's Day. 
(Joseph's)
Can you guess where we bought them?
(or...as Annabelle spells it...)
(I definitley think I'll skip the 
( We put a piece of tape around the middle of the shell. This allowed us to cut the shells with scissors - without splitting them) 
Joseph really liked the samba music, and he had to get his maracas and play along.
