CHRISTEPHI

Week 13 of Adventures in U.S. History is earmarked for Thanksgiving. It is a stand-alone week that can be moved to an appropriate time of year.  Since we started our school year in February, we'll likely do Week 13, or Thanksgiving Week, as a finisher for our school year. We "travelled" through a few more states this week!  Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina.  Miss M was a bit distraught that "Maryland" isn't pronounced Mary-land.  Miss M's favorite book about states in our basket book so far has been Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America by Lynne Cheney . (affiliate link)   The illustrations are fun and engaging and it's simply loaded with interesting facts about the states! Our 50 States by Lynne Cheney In science we learned about the American Robin, Black-Capped Chickadees, and Northern Orioles.  All three of which we have as regular backyard visitors.  We sat outside and listened care...

It was finally the week we've been waiting for…the start of our study of the 50 states !  Miss M has been anticipating this all along and has already memorized the states, their capitals, their shapes, and their locations, thanks mostly to the fun little game Stack the States . When she's interested in something, there's pretty much no stopping her from learning about it!  We have a large map of the U.S. on the wall in our hallway and she spends a great deal of time looking at it, asking questions about the names of places or the legends on the map.  She's really enjoyed some of our book basket books on the states, but her especial favorite is United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds Their Stories, Their Glories . (affiliate link) We are learning about the states in the chronological order of when they joined the union.  First was Delaware, aptly nicknamed First State, then Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia.  Next week we'll learn about a few m...

We had a busy week and lost some of our regular school time on Tuesday (dentist appointments!), so rather than feel like we were playing catch-up all week, I decided to skip the majority of our science lessons.  We were supposed to grow mold this week…and I just didn't want to deal with it.  I know, I know, bad mama, right?  Don't worry, Miss M won't let me get away with not doing it at all. I'm sure we'll do it some time down the road! While we didn't do much in the way of (scheduled) science, the kids had a blast examining the bones of a possum we found last year.  They tried to guess what the different bones were (skull, mandible, vertebrae, ribs, scapula, teeth) and even pretended to put them together in some really kooky ways!   Unfortunately I didn't take a picture 'cause I was busy doing dishes while they explored. A brother and sister who love each other! In history this week we learned about George Washington and the beginning of the Rev...

This week was probably our funnest week yet!  We learned about Paul Revere (and made a tricorn hat!), made a quill pen and berry ink, and took school outside for some nature sketching. Little Guy being tough enough to fight the British in his tricorn hat. We learned that Jesus is the Living Water and added to our Jesus bulletin board. We had a couple gorgeous days before the rain and gloom set in, so Miss M took her book basket outside. We learned about the Declaration of Independence this week, so we made a quill pen and some ink from black berries.  To make the ink, you take a half cup of berries (we used frozen blackberries, thawed) and mash them thoroughly.  Then pour it through a strainer discarding the pulp and seeds and retaining the juice.  Stir in 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Whatever isn't used must be stored in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator. Smashing berries for ink. I watched...

Last weekend I was busy getting all ready for Kids Clothes Week and didn't get my week-in-review post up!  I figure I better get it posted before I get any further behind. Little Guy has been "doing school" with Ooka Island (review coming soon!) and is learning to read!  He has collected five books in the game and is so proud of his achievements! This is the Path to Reading that documents Little Guy's progress on Ooka Island. I think Little Guy feels a little left out since he doesn't know how to read yet (he's only 3!).  He sees how much fun his big sister has reading and he wants to join in the fun! Reading about the seasons upside-down. Most days, book basket time goes something like this with Miss M getting lost in a book for at least 15 minutes. Tuesday my mom came, so we made Tuesday our Friday and just did math, reading, and our nature walk.  Nana brought her rigid heddle table loom and showed us all how to weave a placema...

While it wasn't a bad week in our homeschool, it was a slightly disorganized and disjointed week.  We got everything done and had pretty good attitudes, but it just didn't feel like things ran smoothly.  Here are a few snippets of our week. Monday was a dreary, gloomy day.  In order to get some good light for reading, Miss M dragged her bean bag chair and giant teddy bear to the back door.  She sat there cozily reading a second Happy Hollisters book! Miss M's favorite way to learn a new memory verse is to write it on the white board and then erase a word at a time, reading it between each erasure and filling in the missing word. She gets so tickled when she gets towards the end and there are only a few words left. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock" (Matthew 7:24). We learned about what it means that Jesus is our Rock and how we can build our lives on ...