Song of My Heart - Homeschool Blogger

Change of Address!

Sat, 3 Nov 2007 00:23:00 -0500

That's right - I'm moving! I've really enjoyed being here at HSB, but I'm wanting to try something new. Please come visit us at our new home: http://shannon-songofmyheart.blogspot.com/ . That's where all of our fun will be posted from now on!

Blessings,

Shannon

What we've been doing...

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:07:00 -0500

As mentioned in my last post, we used last week to finish up some projects and do some things around the house to get ready for Grammy and Grampy's visit. Tomorrow I'll post photos of a couple of those "projects". But for today I wanted to share what a fun time we had with the Grandparents. The kids absolutely reveled in having them here. They played and laughed and played some more. We went to Superman's flag football game on Saturday, and he was so tickled that Grampy and Grammy were there to cheer him on.

Then at home we played some more football with Grampy in the family room!

"Grace Week"

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:32:00 -0500

We're having "Grace" week at our house right now. My in-laws arrived today for a visit and will be here through Sunday, so we decided to do some decluttering and other things around the house in preparation for their visit. The kids and I also took the last couple of days to finish up some projects we had started. I'll post more about our week (and hopefully with photos of what we've done) after Sunday. Meanwhile, we have all been so looking forward to Grammy and Grampy's visit and are excited about doing some fun things with them this weekend. The kids were ecstatic when they arrived tonight!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

More Madeline Fun

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:21:00 -0500

Towards the end of our Madeline unit we've been learning about the human body and what a marvelous miracle it is. We've also talked about our bodies being gifts from God. This has been especially meaningful for our 6 yr. old son who has asked Jesus into his heart. We've talked about his body being the Holy Spirit's home and how we want to take care of Jesus' "house". Tomorrow we'll be reading some books about healthy habits and doing some really neat experiments about germs with a Magic School Bus Kit that Grammy Kaye, Aunt Tara, and Uncle Gary gave to Giggly Girl for her birthday. Anything science related is usually a big hit around here, as was this cool project we did on the parts of the human body. I got this idea from Paige P. on the FIAR boards. I'll post instructions after the pics. Both kids really enjoyed doing this. I can tell it's been one of Superman's favorite activities because in two different phone conversations with Grandparents it's been the first thing he mentioned to them when asked what he was up to.

Instructions on making a "wearable" body parts outfit.
What you need:

* brown paper bag,
* 3 sandwich baggies
* paper towel tube
* flexible straws * glue
* tape
* yarn
* dry manicotti noodles (and rigatoni noodles if you want)
* construction paper heart
* labels for each body part if you want
Instructions:
1) Cut arm holes and a neck hole into the paper bag. This will be the wearable "body."
2) Cut out a construction paper heart and glue it into position onto the body.
3) Label the paper towel tube "esophagus" and thoroughly tape a plastic baggie onto the bottom of the tube. Label the baggie "stomach." Glue the "esophagus" down the center front of the "body." Once the body is worn, have the child "drop" a piece of candy from the mouth, into the esophagus, and watch it fall into the stomach.
4) Take 2 flexible straws and thoroughly tape baggies to the ends of the straws. Tape/Glue the baggies to the chest area of each side of the body -- they will be the lungs. Once the body is worn, the child can blow into the straws and see how the lungs inflate and deflate.
5) Under the stomach, glue lots of yarn to show the intestines. You could make a "glob" of yard at one point on the right side to show the appendix.
6) On the back, glue the dry manicotti noodles to show the vertebrae of the spine. You can do one vertically and one horizontally to show the vertebrate and the disc in between. I'm going to use manicotti noodes for the vertebrate and rigatoni noodles for the disc.

Balloon Chasers

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:20:00 -0500

Today was one of those days where almost no school had happened. I had our day planned out so nicely, but due to some unplanned "errands" that I ended up having to run, the only lesson that we accomplished was Superman's Reading Made Easy. (He is sailing right through and doing a fabulous job! He also gets a canary eating grin on his face nearly everytime he reads the new three-sentence paragraph at the end of each lesson. I am so proud of him.)

Anyway, after running errands, dealing with a small "accident" that the tree-cutting company had in our backyard (don't worry, the only injury was to our playset), getting the girls down for a very quick afternoon nap, and then getting everyone ready to go to football practice, I was ready to hand the baton to someone else for the rest of the day. (Hubby wouldn't be home until much later this evening.) We made it through a chilly football practice with me chasing Sweet Pea for a lot of it. She had these sudden urges today to jump up and make for the parking lot, and she is fast! Even before we got to practice, I knew that even an easy dinner wasn't going to happen tonight, so I made the kids' day by announcing we would be going to one of their favorite restaurants to get carry out for dinner.

So on the way home from practice I called my hubby to trouble-shoot the "incident" that occurred with the playset. (I know, I should not be on the cell phone while driving, but I had to get his input on this, and the van is the most quiet place to carry on a phone conversation with him.) While conferring with hubby, I missed my turn to the restaurant and had to proceed through a very congested, major intersection to turn around. Just as I was about to make my turn, my 4 year old (Giggly Girl) yells "Mommy, Mommy, look, look!" I look to my left and see a very large, very colorful hot-air balloon, and it was very close to the ground and not far away. It was drifting just above the rooftops of a nearby subdivision, and I thought I could figure out the whereabouts of the entrance to the sub. So I said, "Let's go chase it!" (Yes, we were all tired and very hungry, and it was getting close to bedtime, but I just wanted to do it!) Of course, the kids were ecstatic and began telling me to turn here, go this way, etc. We easily found our way into the subdivision, took a left turn, and bam - we came right under the balloon as it crossed over just above us. It was so low that we could clearly see the faces of the passengers. So we continued chasing it - out of the sub., across a fairly major road - and by this time we realized it was going to land. So we pulled into a parking lot right next to the field where it was landing, and we got to watch it land, get deflated and wrapped up.

Now this may not sound like a huge deal, but for me and my kids it was. They've only seen a few hot air balloons, and those were from a distance and up pretty high. This one was so gorgeous in color and of course, it was just enormous in size because we were right there at it. We were enthralled. (And of course, ever the teacher at heart, I was encouraged to find out that Superman remembered the name of the gentlemen who invented the hot air balloon. We just finished The Glorious Flight a couple of weeks ago and learned about the Montgolfier Brothers.) Just to top it all off, when I googled hot air balloon to get a pic. for this post, I found the one pictured above. It is almost identical to "our balloon".

Thank you Lord for caring so much about us that on this somewhat trying day You saw fit to send us a brightly wrapped present, one that would thrill the hearts of my children and encourage the heart of this frazzled Mommy.

You Make Me Smile!

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:37:00 -0500

Thank you to my sweet friends Amanda and Heather for giving my blog the "You Make Me Smile" award.

This is what the person that created this award says about it. "The thing that I love most about blogging is that I learn so much about a person just by reading their blog. I have met MANY wonderful people with wonderful stories to tell, and I am grateful every day for each person that I have the pleasure of crossing paths in life with. I wanted to create something special for the top ten people who have inspired me through their blogging; the stories they tell, and the lives that they lead with grace and dignity. I visit their blogs for inspiration and encouragement."

Well, dear Amanda and Heather, I can honestly say that visiting both of your blogs always puts a smile on my face. You both inspire and encourage me!

Now to pass this award on. I have met so many lovely people through homeschooling, particularly the FIAR boards and through blogging. I really don't know how to single anyone out. Sooo, to all of you dear ladies who take the time to stop by here for a visit, I am presenting you with this award. I'm fairly new to the world of blogging, but each one of you who have left such kind comments truly do encourage me and brighten my day. You make me smile!
Blessings to all of you.

Adventures with Madeline: Our Week in Paris!

Mon, 8 Oct 2007 20:19:00 -0500

We've been in France for two weeks now, first with the Bleriot Family in the Glorious Flight and now with Madeline. We have had so much fun visiting this beautiful country! Last week we "visited" some of the famous landmarks featured in the book Madeline and especially focused on the Eiffel Tower. I found directions for building a model of the tower with legos. If you're interested, here is the link. I supervised and helped out some, but they did quite a bit of this themselves. They especially liked making the red-blue pattern in the tall skinny part of the tower.

They can now locate France, England, the English Channel, and Paris on a map of Europe. We colored maps and flags, continued to add to our French vocabulary, and over the weekend Superman and Giggly Girl cooked a "French Feast" for their Daddy. Using recipes from the Five in a Row Cookbook and the FIAR archives, we prepared a fruit and cheese tray (real Camembert cheese - the kids loved it!), French Onion Soup, Quiche Lorraine, Raspberry Crepes, and Chocolate Pastries. They did most of the work. I cooked the French Onion Soup and put things in the oven, but they did the rest! We were so proud of them. They hung in their for a long time preparing this feast, and they were really pleased to present it to their Daddy. They even managed to tell him the French names for most of the dishes. It was really a fun night with everybody pretending to be fancy and using their best manners for this five course meal!

Watch out Food Network, here come your next two star chefs!

Superman preparing the crepe batter - operating the blender is so much fun!

Giggly Girl blending the quiche filling - she even cracked eggs like a pro!

The Quiche Lorraine is ready to bake after much sampling of the gruyere cheese!

Translating the menu for Daddy

And now the best part - we finally get to eat the feast!

This week we'll be finishing up Madeline as we focus on healthy habits and the human body. I'll post more later in the week!

Four for Tea!

Wed, 3 Oct 2007 21:55:00 -0500

Last year we had teatime on a few different occasions. The children loved it, but we never made it a regular part of our routine. So this year we are going to have teatime once a week, usually on Tuesdays. It's usually just Superman and myself around the tea table because the girls are napping. But this week they were up earlier than usual, so they joined in the fun! This week, in honor of fall, we opted to have apple cider in lieu of tea, and Superman wanted his with marshmallows in it. I thought, ooh yuck! But actually it was quite good! Here are a few pics.:

I'm not ready to trust Sweet Pea with my fine china yet, so for now she's using her standard sippy cup!

Giggles thinks "toasting" is hilarious!

As long as she doesn't have to stay seated, Sweet Pea thinks teatime is great!

At teatime we usually listen to some classical music. This week we chose some movements from Handel's Watermusic Suite (one of our favorites around here). Sometimes I'll read poetry. We like to hear selections from A. A. Milne's When I Was Very Young. Some weeks we'll just sit together and have a nice chat. I think that's my favorite kind of tea time.

The Glorious Flight

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 23:30:00 -0500

I am so excited because this week we "rowed" our first official Five in a Row title of the school year. I chose The Glorious Flight to coincide with a local airshow that we went to last weekend. (See pics. above and below.) It was soooo hot, but we had a ball and saw some wonderful aerobatic flying!

My kids are avid airplane fanatics, so this book was a natural hit around our house this week. Here is what we've done so far:

-We've focused quite a bit on geography. Both Superman and Giggly Girl can locate France, England, and the English Channel on the map of Europe. We also enjoyed looking at pictures of the White Cliffs of Dover and Dover Castle.

-We've learned to count to eleven in French. Yes, eleven, not ten, because it was the Bleriot XI that crossed the channel! :) We've learned a few other French words and tried some Camembert cheese during our Tuesday Teatime. (We'll be doing more with France next week when we row Madeline.)

-We've discussed other modes of transportation. The kids came up with a list of 18 different things and surprised me with some that I had not thought of like "sled" and "sky-diving".

-We've used some lessons from the FIAR Character Supplement including things we do as a family and how God is with us even when we feel all alone.

-On Thursday we had a substitute teacher - Daddy! He did an excellent job of teaching the kids about the parts of an airplane and the pilot alphabet. He showed them how to spell their names using the special "Pilot talk" (alpha, bravo, charlie, etc.). They loved having him teach, and it was fun for me to listen in on some of that.

-We'll be finishing things up this weekend, as we talk about inventors. Kurt's grandfather was an inventor, and we'll be putting him on our timeline and in our notebook as we put those pages together tomorrow. I'm also hoping to do a field trip to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum either Sat. or Sun. They have got some really amazing aircraft there, and they even have a Bleriot XI!

Finally, we've read some wonderful go-alongs this week that I'll share here:

Amazing Flying Machines (Eyewitness Juniors)

The Airplane Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta

First Flight (The Story of Tom Tate and the Wright Brothers) by George Shea

Lindbergh by Chris L. Demarest

My Blue Boat by Chris L. Demarest

Humphrey, Albert, and the Flying Machine by Kathryn Lasky (very cute book that my kids really enjoyed)

Kids' Paper Airplane Book by Ken Blackburn

and other assorted airplane picture books

This has been a fun week. As I sit here and type, I'm thinking that we might just extend this unit into the first couple of days of next week because there are several more activities that I think the kids would really enjoy. Stay tuned!

Goodbye Dinosaurs!

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:14:00 -0500

We've done so much since I last posted, but I've only got time to post the last of our dinosaur stuff here right now.

We made lapbooks to summarize everything we had learned in our dinosaur unit. The kids worked really hard on the items that went into these, and they really got into decorating their front covers. Here are a few pics.

Front Cover - Luke traced "Dinosaur" and free-handed his name. A huge accomplishment for him!

The top book has descriptions of dinosaurs that Luke dictated to me. The bottom book contains mini "reports" on five different dinosaurs. Luke chose the dinosaurs, a picture to go with each, and dictated the info. to me about each one. Opposite page: photos of our fossil project

This was a graph that shows the measurements of a few different dinos. We went out in the backyard and marked off all of their lengths with a (very long) tape measure. This was a fun activity. The kids really were amazed to see how large and small some of these really were. Especially Apatosaurus - he was 90 ft. long!

These are just a few pages from the lapbooks. We also included our Scripture memory verses (Psalm 8:1-4), our reading list, and some other projects and pictures.

And finally, here is a list of books we really enjoyed during our study of dinosaurs. Hope you find these helpful!

What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? by John Morris and Ken Ham

Dinosaurs of Eden by Ken Ham

Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton

If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most

Dinosaurumpus by Tony Mitton

Four and Twenty Dinosaurs by Bernard Most

Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolen

Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

and other books in this series by Jane Yolen

All of these were terrific. Superman and Giggly Girl are still asking me to read them, even though we've already started a new unit!