Monday, August 7, 2006
Summer pictures
Posted in Education
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We've had a pretty busy summer full of great projects for the kids. I thought I'd share a few photos from their recent ventures. Birdhouse building with Daddy:    Here are a few pictures from the Lemonade Stand that they set up during our Garage Sale last weekend    This is what I like to call, "Another Satisified Customer"  |
Monday, August 7, 2006
Our school year
Posted in Education
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I haven't been posting much due to the fact
that it has been blazing hot outside and I've been trying to keep these
little munchkins of mine from going insane. It's so much worse than a
rainy day because it looks like
it should be a nice day for playing outside...it's just sooo hot... So,
we are all very relieved at the opening of our neighborhood pool this
weekend and spent most of the morning there! A good, solid naptime is
almost a gaurantee... I've been anxious to get out all of the books that we've collected over the summer for our first "official" school year and start to get everything all ready and planned out. I thought I'd post about our plans here. Our homeschooling philosophy is a combination of the principles laid out in Teaching the Trivium, by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn with a Charlotte Mason style. Our Bible time is done all together and we will be reading a Proverb each day and working on their memory verses that Daddy starts with them in the evenings. We'll also use that time to work on any other memory work that I think would be good for them. At night we'll be starting Herein Is Love, by Nancy Ganz. Science we will do together as well. We'll be reading through The World God Made and the Christian Liberty Nature Reader, both from Christian Liberty Press. We'll also continue on with all of the bug catching activities that have pretty much characterized our summer. The boys built a birdhouse with Daddy a few weekends ago so I think we'll also spend some time learning about the various birds that come to enjoy the feast. For Travis (starting Kindergarten), he will be working through Horizons K Math workbooks (he LOVES workbooks and begs to do them!). We will also be sharpening his reading skills using our McGuffey readers and tons of reading aloud. We also going to work through the Drawing with Children book together (probably once a week?), which I'm really excited about. For Sam (3 1/2), we're working on letter sounds using the Get Set for School workbook by Handwriting Without Tears. He also really loves using his "letter lines" (the wood pieces from HWT) so we will continue to use those. We bought the Rod and Staff preschool workbooks for him to start and he can't wait to get into them! Caroline will sit with us during our hour of schooltime each day and color (now that she will do do without eating crayons!), play with playdoh, work puzzles, shape sorters, look at books...etc. I'll also continue to do activities with her from our Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready (June Oberlander) book. She enjoys most of those activities and I just skip any that don't seem like they would be fun. : ) She also absolutely loves being read to and is loving the books from the Before Five in a Row reading list. In addition to all of that (which I don't plan on spending more than and hour-and-a-half a day on), we will continue on with our reading aloud. One of the books that I'm most excited to get to is Little Pilgrim's Progress, by Helen L. Taylor. I think the boys will really love it. And, for those of you with boys (or adventuresome little gilrs!) we've discovered The Squire and the Scroll (Jennie Bishop) this summer. I anticipate reading that one almost daily for the next few years. : ) That pretty much sums us up for this year. We're all excited for our year to begin but, for now, we plan on taking complete advantage of these remaining lazy days of summer. We'll be back at the pool after naptime. |
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Our science project
Posted in Education
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Almost three weeks ago we stayed with my
sister-in-law and her family in their mountain vacation home in western
North Carolina. Our boys enjoyed the great fun of catching caterpillars
(which were in abundance - I've never seen so many!) and keeping them
in a water bottle. They carefully collected leaves for them to eat and
sticks for them to climb on and were so excited when, the very next
day, those caterpillars formed their chrysalis (which Sam calls their
"racoon" - I just don't have the heart to correct that one to "cocoon"
just yet!). They have been sitting here in our school room for weeks
now and every day we've been checking on their progress. I'll admit, I
didn't have much hope for a spectacular ending to this little project.
I was doubtful that we were actually providing the right environment
for them to actually live, much less grow into a butterfly. The
pessimistic side of me even came out as I was sure that even if they
did "pop out" (as the boys like to say) they would likely be moths
instead of butterflies. But not the boys. They were certain all along
that Hermie, Wormy and Squirmy would be beautiful. So yesterday, as the kids were napping, I sat down at the computer to check my email. That's when I heard the faint fluttering sound.... I looked over and, sure enough, we had a butterfly!! An actual butterfly! I ran upstairs to wake the boys (only something truly special would ever cause me to interupt naptime!). The looks on their faces when they saw their first butterfly (whom Travis said was definitely Hermie) was priceless. They were in awe. We took the bottle outside and cut the top off so that he could stretch his wings and fly out. The boys were so sweet about letting him go - they said they were sure that he was probably starving after all that hard work in there! As he flew through the yard they ran after him saying, "Goodbye! Have a great day! Your friends will join you soon!". Wormy was "born" last night and, yes, we got the boys out of bed again so that they could see him off. We're still waiting for Squirmy..... Here are some pictures from yesterday afternoon. I've been trying to find out what kind of butterfly he is. Any thoughts?    |