The Lord your God is with you, he will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing Zep. 3:17

Nov. 23, 2009 - THANKS

Thanksgiving is around the corner and this week's unplug your kids challenge is 'Thanks.' We made a

THANKFUL TREE

Each day the kids pick a leaf and we write something they are THANKFUL for.

To make the tree the kids cut some leaves I had leftover from our Autumn wreath.

I cut out the shape of the tree.

Next the kids took turns finding the letters we needed to stamp THANKFUL

We all really enjoyed this project and the responses have been so sweet to hear. So far the the kids have been THANKFUL for....

*Hippos-L

*Reagan (our dog)-L

*Momo's (My Mom) back was healed.-L

*For a house-L

*Our food-P

*Being good today.-P

*That God sent Jesus down.-P

*Builders that made our house.-P

*That God forgives us.-M

*God made us.-M

*My family-M

*Jesus died for us.-M

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Nov. 18, 2009 - CATS (unplugged project) and DOLLS

Following the weekly project at 'unplug your kids' this week's theme was CATS.

Mason's C-A-T acrostic poem.

We made clay cats and read some interesting books.

Here's some neat facts we learned:

*Cats hate water because their fur doesn't insulate well when it's wet.

*Cats hear better than dogs.

*A cat usually has about 12 whiskers on each side of its face, arranged in rows. A cat also has whiskers on many other parts of its face, as well as on the backs of its front legs.

*Whiskers protect the cat's eyes, since the hairs trigger the cat to blink if something touches them.

*Most cats have 5 toes on each front paw and 4 on each back paw, for a total of 18 toes.

Make-shift craft for a lazy day

Newspaper dolls

We crunched paper into a ball for the head. Than took a spread and crunched it vertically, taping it to the head, for the body. A spread crunched horizontaly taped to the head and neck became arms. Another spread crunched vertically and bent was taped to the bottom of the body for the legs. Lastly, we taped all over. They weren't the greatest, but they kept the kids busy all afternoon.

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Nov. 15, 2009 - Outdoor Hour Challenge-Oak trees and Acorns

Following the 'Handbook of Nature Study Blogspot' we did an outdoor hour challenge this week, and checked out some local oak trees. We learned, from Anna Comstock's 'Handbook of Nature Study' book, there are two classes of oak trees

Black Oak and White Oak

The tree we observed had...

dark bark

leaves with pointed lobes

some acorns remaining in the tree

Through this we concluded it was a Red Oak Tree, which falls under the Black Oak Class.

Black oaks have bitter seeds, where White oaks have sweet seeds.

Interesting Oak Tree Facts

* They can live to be 200-400 years old.

*Acorn production does not start until age 20-50.

*Even the healthiest oak tree can not produce a healthy acorn crop two years in a row. A large crop is produced every 4-6 years.

* Wood is used to make ships, furntiure and wagons.

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Nov. 6, 2009 - Purple!!!

I love the color purple. 'Purple' was this weeks unplugged challenge. We had so much fun getting together with friends to make purple candles and purple popcorn. Candle making was easier than I could've imagined. We cut the wax then melted it. After it melted we added the color and scent.

We poured the wax and waited while it cooled.

I think the kids really got a kick out of this project! Just in case candles weren't enough, we whipped up some purple popcorn too.

Some corn syrup, marshmallows, powdered sugar and food coloring turned into this yummy purple snack.

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Nov. 6, 2009 - some nature

After feeling like nature study got pushed to the back burner for too long, we headed out with some friends to check out the cattails near our house in the glorious season of fall. With our Nature Handbook, 9 kids and one crazy dog in tow we looked, gathered, drew and learned.

Checking out all the seeds. Here's Mason's nature journal entry for the day.

We recently tried some new letter crafts. I made the letter with masking tape and had the kids scribble all over. This is Payden's.

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Oct. 26, 2009 - catching up

Haven't been blogging much lately, not sure why. Though today I thought I'd catch up. Not long ago we went to 'Living History Colonial Days.' A bunch of really talented, knowledgable and well dressed actors put on a reenactment of the events leading up to America's freedom. There were also 7 or so stations to further explore Colonial life.

Poor Payden thought this boy was really shot!

Checking out the honey comb---maybe eating some too.

Some of the stations included; artillery and ammunition, food production, weaving, fort building, music, woodworking, candle making, bee keeping, and games.

The kids really enjoyed their day learning here!

I'm blessed to be part of a really awesome Charlotte Mason group. We do monthly Mom's meeting nights and monthly kids poetry picnics, craft, or nature walks. Recently one of the Mom's was gracious enough to teach 20 kids to finger knit or spool knit. Mason has really taking to the handiwork. Here's him working on his spool knit snake.

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Sep. 23, 2009 - Composer and Artist Study

We started following Ambleside's Artist/Composer study last year and the kids really enjoyed it. This year I decided to stay with their artist study, but get a little more in depth with some composers. We're using Opal Wheeler's book, 'Mozart The Wonder Child' (see book shelf.) I fell in love with this book right from the start---picked it up and didn't put it down the first night. The kids have also enjoyed Miss Wheeler's warm accounts of Mozart's fascinating childhood. At the end of each chapter is a peice of music Mozart composed, we listen to them on 'youtube.' Along with Mozart we're studying the Italian artist, Raphael. Today we looked at 'Vision of a Knight. ' Here's Mason's painting.

We're trying to get back on track with scripture memorization. Here's Mason's copywork of Psalm 13:6. I asked him to draw something that shows God has been good to him---he drew pizza.

And......our volcano experiment. My husband did a great job making it with the kids. We talked about the magma chamber, vent, crater, ash cloud and lava. We also discussed the differences between composite and sheild volcanoes.

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Sep. 8, 2009 - caves!

We're exploring caves in science. Here's Mason's notebooking page about our experiment.

We used...

We mixed the epson salts in warm water until the water was cloudy and no more would dissolve. Next we tied paper clips to either end of a peice of yarn. We hung the yarn between two jars. A saucer between the lowest part of the string and the experiment is complete...well, minus the waiting. It took three days for us to see some formations.

We observed how dripping water can deposit minerals and make a formation---similar to staglamite in caves.

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Sep. 7, 2009 - Nature walking at Barr Lake

One of our favorite places to hang out is Barr Lake. We headed there last Monday with one of our favorite families to nature walk with (kimalita.)

The kids checking out the view with some binoculars.

The view of the water with some canadian geese.

Stopping to study a spider's web.

See the hoofed deer track?

A beautiful butterfly pausing long enough to let us capture her picture.

Cottonwood tree with a quiet squirrel.

Lots to check out inside--like these furs, bones, antlers, snake skin and feathers.

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Sep. 1, 2009 - Giraffe's

We headed to the zoo with some friends to focus our study on one of God's glorious creations, the giraffe.

The world's largest mammal is quite interesting. A special on PBS recently found that these social animals are not silent or limited to bleating, hissing and coughing. They actually communicate using infrasound, not audible to the human ear.

Also interesting is the maneuver they must pull to drink water in the wild. Bending over like the above picture makes them vulnerable to predators. Because of this they drink 3-4 gallons at a time and eat acai leaves, which contain a lot of water. This allows them to go several days between drinking.

A cool pair of glasses that allowed the kids to experience what it's like to see like a giraffe.

Intently checking out the giraffe hide.

The kids drew while we talked about some giraffe facts. This is Mason's artwork.

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Aug. 28, 2009 - Learning along the way....

Mom has been feeling a little under the weather these past weeks. So, learning time has had a more flexible approach. Mason and Payden worked on drawing a map when we read 'Lentil' with Five in Row. With this we talked about compasses and direction. While driving lately I've been asking them what direction we're driving (the mountains out here make that a fairly easy task--they are always to the west.) Mason has gotten quite good and can typically tell me which direction we are going or turning. Today I had him direct me to the store...and he did it! What a great way to learn and test =-)

Here's Mason showing off his earth. This shows the core, lower mantle, upper mantle and crust. Did you know the crust is 6 miles deep? We also learned the inner core's temperature exceeds 5,ooo degrees F.

Payden has been working on the letter 'L.' Here's his cotton ball L's.

Eden doing her thing---she's the first kid we've had that will color for more than 5 minutes.

We're headed for a camping trip this weekend, I'm sure we'll find lots to learn!!

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Aug. 25, 2009 - YaY, for a new school year!!!!

We're back! It feels good to be back to doing school---and blogging. We started lessons the first week of August, but I was slow getting back to the blog. The kids have grown and are doing fabulous. We had an incredible summer, filled with waterparks, swim lessons, miniature golf, sleepovers, camping, a trip to a beach in NE, bike riding, visits from family, a new dog and I'm sure lots I forgot. Two weeks into the summer I thought we were going to have to start back up to school, but incorporating a summer schedule and planned activities got us through it, with lots of fun for all!

Mason (6) and Payden (4) are the two mainly doing lessons, of course Logan and Mya Eden are learning lots too. We're using Beautiful Feet this year and recently finished up 'Leaf The Lucky.' Here's Mason's picture depicting Leif discovering North Americia in about the year 1000 A.D

We're also using Five In A Row. We started with 'Lentil' and are now enjoying 'Madeline.' This is Payden and his friend Isabella counting the 12 girls.

Today we harvested some basil from our garden. I had the kids cut the stems leaving about 4-5 inches.

The kids loved picking the leaves off.

After washing them we'll chop them in the food processor, drizzling in olive oil. Then we'll freeze the basil in ice cube trays, one cube equals about 1 Tablespoon of fresh chopped basil. More to come.....

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Apr. 16, 2009 - It's been a while,

but here's what we've been up to....

We went to the zoo with a wonderful friend and her 4 kids. So, us two crazy Moms braved 8 kids 8 years and younger. It was lots of fun!

Here's Mason eye to eye with a Komodo Dragon.

Some cool Komodo Dragon Facts:

1. They're the largest living lizard.

2. They were thought to be a myth until 1912.

3. Their saliva is filled with bacteria. If their prey doesn't die immediately, infection will soon set in. Komodo's trail the injured animal until septicaemia sets in and kills it.

4. Komodo's mate for life, a rare behavior of lizards.

5. Indonesia is the only place to see Komodos in the wild.

The kids got plenty close to see this peacock's gorgeous tail.

Such a magnificent sight---it reminds me what a God of order we serve. That he would so intricately design each eye feather with such uniform spacing. Not only can a peacock deploy his tail feathers, but he can also make them vibrate and produce a characteristic hum--music to it's creators ears, I'm sure!

I love this little guys camouflage.

Our most recent nature walk, with our great nature loving friends.

The older boys are creating a habitat for a beetle.

Lots of hanging bird nests. Most likely these are Oriole pendant nests, but we did not see any Orioles that day. We did see some American Robin and Geese.

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Apr. 9, 2009 -

We've had a late winter in Colorado. With all the recent snow we used the 'rain gauge' we built at 'Lowes build and grow clinic' to measure snow instead. We filled the gauge up to the 1.5 line.

We waited for the snow to melt.

And after about a half hour we noted that our snow had shrunk in half--from the 1.5 line to the .5 line.

Here is Proud Payden practicing his I's, with little brother Logan to cheer him on.

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Mar. 25, 2009 - Wordless Wednesday

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Mar. 24, 2009 - ?? Math Curriculum ??

Seeing as how this our first year homeschooling, we aren't very seasoned with the pros and cons of each curriculum. This year I am using Saxon 1 for Math with Mason (5 1/2 yrs. old.) I feel Saxon reviews too much for him. We are choosing between 1. Singapore Math 2. Math U See or 3. Horizon Math for next year. I'd love to hear anyone's opions/experiences with these.

For the past 6 weeks I have been doing lessons with our 4 year old, Payden. I am following the ABC Jesus Loves Me curriculum. He has thoroughly enjoyed it, and is making huge strides in learning. I also attribute this to him turning 4. Here's some of the fun activities we've been doing to teach him his letters.

Play-Doh letters

Drawing letters in sand or salt--here we used couscous.

Letter matching games involving cutting, matching and glueing.

Daddy had the weekend off and took the boys to an open space in our neighborhood to fly their new kite. It took a while, but once they got it up it was quite hard to get down.

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Mar. 20, 2009 - Anyone else think it's strange....

My kids LOVE edamame. They'll eat it by the bag-full--which is fine with me because it's very nutritious. If you don't know edamame is simply soybeans, picked at the peak of ripening befor they harden. A half cup of this yummy snacks packs 9 grams of fiber---the same as about 4 peices of whole wheat bread.

If you read our blog reguarly than you know Mason has gained an interest in space/spacecrafts/NASA etc. We headed to a free day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Mason had a blast in the space center.

More pictures from the Museum:

Our tadpoles arrived today. This is their habitat. We'll keep you updated as they grow...

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Mar. 10, 2009 - If you haven't heard...

Mason got glasses! Turns out our little scientist is going to start looking the part.

With the weather (really the whole winter) being so mild where we are, we decided to make the drive to Boulder and hike Red Rocks trail. Now, going in we didn't realize this 'hike' was in fact scaling a mountain. Or, we probably would have left the two 30 lb. babies, strollers, sick children, and our terrible directions at home. It was indeed funny--I'm sure, watching my friend and I lug 9 children, 6 of them under the age of 5, up a rocky mountain side. It was, however, a fresh breath of God's beautiful creations.

After our recent field trip to LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics) Mason has become very interested in 'Kepler,' their spacecraft launched on March 6th. We found a Floridia news station that had the live NASA audio stream--very cool!

Kepler made its entrance into space after being in the works for 28 years. The planet-hunting spacecraft will be on a three and a half year mission looking for planets similar to earth, with parent stars like our sun.

Today, oddly enough, it snowed. As glad as I am that we don't live in the mountains anymore, I was secretly hoping for one or two last snowfalls this winter. We found these icicles in our backyard and brough them in to see how long it would take for them to melt ( we also needed some rainwater for our venus fly trap.)

44 minutes---much longer than I would have guessed.

Here's some facts about icicles the kids and I discussed:

*Icicles are formed when water freezes and expands.

*Icicles are usually found on the sunny side of a building because the sun's rays melt snow or ice.

*The melted water is pulled down by gravity, refreezes, and forms an icicle in an inverted cone shape.

Here's the latest addition to our fun. Our Venus Fly Trap. The kids have been enjoying feeding it. We've learned they way they attract their food is by the color inside the trap, as well as an inviting smell. Since there aren't ( I hope) many bugs in our house, we've been feeding it ground turkey, turkey bacon, or lunch meat.

and.....

On a side note, here's Mason with the fish he caught at The Bass Pro Shop catch and release pond. Payden caught one too, but Mommy left with the camera---opps!

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Feb. 26, 2009 - A change of pace

While Mason was doing great with the Phonics Pathways reading curriculum, I saw the need for him to memorize 'sight words.' So ( in the beauty of homeschooling) we put the book away for a while, and have changed directions to learning sight words. We start each week with six new words from this list (FYI the words begin on page 152) and build on the ones from the previous weeks. We've used a few different fun ways for him to work on them, such as:

* Sight word BINGO

* Snowball fight --the words are written on crumbled up peices of paper and tossed with a partner.

* Basketball--played with the same papers as above, if you can read the word you get to attempt a basket.

* Painting sight words

* Hide and Find---if you find one, and can read it you get a prize. Our prizes were raisins.

* Hopscotch---sort of, we made a large grid with the words in chalk on the driveway. Each player took a turn by tossing a rock to a word and reading it.

We're started a new artist and composer study. The kids painted 'The Wanderer above the Mists' by Caspar David Friedrich, while listening to Hungarian Rhapsodies No. 2 by Franz Liszt.

Our last beak in our continuing winter bird study was the water strainer. Here's Payden illustrating how they work. We're now moving onto bird feet.

This is sweet Logan, who said to me "It's ebwefing gween day Mom."

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Feb. 16, 2009 - We love nature walks

Off to a Colorado State Park today, it's only 5 minutes from our house, and we love it. We also love the 60 degree weather in February--wish it wasn't leaving.