*I don't quit; I perservere*

One of the biggest blessings in homeschooling is all that I have been learning.  I feel like I missed out on so much when I was in school.  I don't know if it's because I didn't retain it, if it wasn't taught in a way that I connected with, or maybe not even taught at all.  Either way, there are many, many things we have been learning that I don't recall learning before this time. 

This week we learned about turtles.  It was neat to learn the difference between a turtle and a tortoise.  There are freshwater turtles and sea turtles - they have webbed feet or flippers and have a lightweight, flat, streamlined shell for swimming.  Tortoises live on land and most have a large dome-shaped shell.  Regardless of the type, all of them lay their eggs on land.  The largest turtle is the leatherback sea turtle.  It grows to an average length of 6 feet and weighs approximately 1200lbs.  We watched a documentary about the leatherback turtle called "A Tale of Two Turtles" that was awesome!  I highly recommend it. 

*God takes good care of me*

We had touched on birds at the beginning of last school year.  We didn't cover all that much so I was pleased to be learning about them again.  We did all kinds of fun activities this week.  We checked out a CD of bird songs from the library - for 2 days we listened to bird calls.  It was neat to listen to but it did get a little old after a while.  

We made bird nest snacks. 

Tried out some different beaks.

We traveled to Canada via our virtual airplane.  We hit some *virtual* turbulance so it turned out to be a fairly rough flight.  We have been enjoying learning all about the different territories and provinces in Canada.  It is interesting that only a small portion of the country is occupied - and most people live near the border of the United States.  The arctic regions are too harsh to live in.  We enjoyed an assortment of Canadian inspired food.  One day I overcooked some chocolate chip cookies.  To mask the taste, I served them crumbled over vanilla icecream drizzled with maple syrup.  They loved it!  We also had a "high tea."   Though it was really past the acceptable hours for tea, we did it anyway.  Kayla studied up on how to have a tea and helped me plan and prepare the menu.  Though, I would say she probably needs to read up a bit more on table manners. 

*If I stay in Jesus I will have much fruit*

Again, this information was review.  We used FIAR over the summer and did a whole study on "How to Bake an Apple Pie and See the World."  We cut out a number of the suggested activities because we had already done them just a few months ago and I just didn't see a reason to do them all over again.  This time around, we learned a lot more about how apples are grown and processed.  We were surprised to learn that a lot of the apples we eat were picked months before we bought them at the grocery store.  Some of the apples we have been eating are labeled that they came from Washington, which is where the kids' grandpa lives.  We made CrockPot Applesauce and it was absolutely yummy!  It didn't make nearly enough for us though!  We focused on the same scriptures from last weeek but also added the Fruit of the Spirit.  I plan on making a Fruit of the Spirit tree so we can remember which fruit is able to grow in us.  We also learned a bit about Johnny Appleseed. 

We had a Mexican Fiesta to celebrate the end of our stay in Mexico.  One of the main highlights of our travels around North America has been our nightly family read-aloud time.  We have been reading a book about Cameron Townsend.  The kids have all been inspired by his life.  We have been visiting the Wycliffe Bible Translators website to keep track of the progress being made around the world.  They have a goal to have the Bible being translated into every language still needing it by the year 2025.  The kids were excited to see that there was information about "Uncle Cam" in the kids section of the website.  We will be sad to leave Mexico but we look forward to moving on to Canada!

*I will live and grow in Jesus*

This week was a review of sorts.  We did a fairly extensive study on plants last school year.  The difference this time around was the emphasis on our relationship with Christ.  We discussed the importance of abiding in Christ using scriptures John 15:4-5.  We collected some leaves.  We then drew some of them and charted the different types of leaves we had found.  We read loads of books about plants and we went a little more in depth about photosynthesis and chlorophyll. 

We traveled to Mexico this week - we went by train and it was quite an adventure!  We have been learning quite a bit about the culture in Mexico.  The book basket for this country was amazing.  Really, the suggested books are always wonderful but the selections for this country had the kids connecting the dots between different books.  I could tell that they were truly "getting it" and retaining what they were learning.  We learned about the desert - that has been very interesting as well. 

For art this week, Sean made a clay sun face.  It took a while to do.  It involved a number of steps.  But it turned out really cute. 

*I am the light of the world*

Maddie and Schylar learned about the moon this week.  It's been a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, we have not been able to spot the moon since we started learning about it.  After looking at a moon phase calendar, we realized that we are in a new moon phase right now.  So, if the night time clouds diminish, we should be able to see the moon in a couple of days.  We discussed how the moon reflects the light of the sun, much like how we reflect the light of Jesus.  Therefore, making us the light of the world (because of Jesus).  We went on a field trip to the museum.  It was a lot of fun going through the Space Odyssey exhibit and watching Cosmic Journey in the planetarium. 

Being in the planetarium was a new experience for the kids.  It was a little disorienting at first and Maddie and Schylar kept asking if the planets were going to touch them.   It was interesting to see the sun, all of the planets, their moons, and the asteroid belt.  Here are a couple pictures of us waiting for the program to begin.

After the Cosmic Journey, we wandered around the Space Odyssey exhibit.  Maddie and Schylar enjoyed making rivers out of the Mars sand.

Lapbooking has proven to be a little time consuming but definitely worth it.  I was not looking forward to storing multiple lapbooks so I began brainstorming ideas on how to do a lapbook/notebook approach.  I think I found a method that will work well for us.  I will share more about that soon.

We finished our second week in the United States.  We ate New York style pizza and New York style cheesecake. 

 I have decided that it is too much to have Maddie and Schylar participate in the art work for the ECC curriculum as well as the art work for their own curriculum.  They will continue to participate in watching movies, listening to music, sampling food, and reading picture books about the various countries but I am going to save the art work for a time when they are older and go through the ECC curriculum together.  The second art project we selected for the United States was a coup stick (pronounced koo).  The word coup is of French origin and means a hit, blow, or strike.  From what we have learned, the coup stick was a stick some North American Indian warriors used to touch their enemies in battle as a sign of courage.  Evidently, it was considered a great act of bravery to charge an enemy in battle and instead of killing him, lightly touch him or count "coup" on him and get away without getting killed.  Each time such bravery would be witnessed, a feather would be given to the warrior which would often be attached to his coup stick.  Since we don't plan on couping eachother, Sean illustrated some of his accomplishments over the last year and attached those and feathers to his coup stick. 

Wow!  This was a very busy week.  I am so thankful that the writer(s) of MFW incorporated a two week introduction into this curriculum so we could ease into the full schedule. 

Maddie and Schylar learned about the sun and how the sun is like Jesus in that He is the light of the world.  They made a sun dial to see how people used to tell time by the sun.  That was a lot of fun (I had never made one).  They made raisins using the power of the sun.  They also painted a picture of the sun using red, orange, and yellow paint.  Maddie has letter recognition down but Schylar is still learning the letters.  Of course, this one was fairly familiar with it being the first letter of his name.  Maddie and Schylar are each working on making a lap book.  This is unchartered territory for me but I think it will be a great way for them to show what they have learned and to review.

Sean learned about the United States of America.  We've been learning a bit about Native Americans.  We did some sand art and will make coup sticks during the second week of the United States.  We've been enjoying singing out of "The Glorious American Songbook" and I'm even working on making a CD with several of the songs.  We have been dining on food from the various regions.  We've eaten biscuits and gravy (SOUTHEAST), chili (SOUTHWEST), BBQ sloppy Joes and baked beans (not enough energy to cook real BBQ) (MIDWEST).  We have more regional food on the menu for the second week.  Sean has decided that he would like try doing a lap book instead of a written report on each country we visit.  I think this will work out well for him.  He enjoys writing but prefers it to be creative writing. 

Reading out of "The Window of the World" has been very eye opening.  Maddie quietly molds shapes out of her play-doh while Sean and I take turns reading and then she asks, "Mommy, why don't these people realize that there is only one God?"  She's so sweet and always innocently questioning why some people don't believe in God.

This curriculum has been such a blessing to our family. 

This year we are using My Fathers World (MFW) curriculum.  We are using A to Z for our younger two and Exploring Countries and Cultures (ECC) for all three.  Maddie and Schylar work on their A to Z lessons while Sean does his independent work and then they all work on the unit study part of ECC together.  We have finished our two week introduction and though we have some kinks to work out, we are enjoying the new curriculum.  All three kids are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their passports so we can visit other countries.  Good thing we are visiting the United States first...the *passport office* is taking longer than expected! 

Monday and Tuesday are our heaviest days, work-wise.  Wednesdays are super busy and we are on-the-go virtually all day with library, worship dance, PE, piano lessons, and then AWANA.  Thursday mornings will be at the co-op we joined this year and Sean may start volunteering at the library on Thursday afternoons.  Fridays will be our light day for field trips, making up work, and such. 

We are looking forward to sharing what we are doing each week.  Visit often!