CHRISTEPHI

We had another wonderful week learning about what happened to Noah and his family after the Flood, and about Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent. On Monday we learned how to make a quick sketch of the Bible Lands using the silly sentence, "E.T. purrs in the red nile med."  The kids thought this was hilarious and really enjoyed their newfound map drawing abilities.  I even found tiny Bible Lands drawn on some math pages this week. We worked together to craft a summary of Noah for their notebooks. I wrote it for Mister E's and Miss M typed hers on the computer, printed it out, and pasted it on. I think I own every reproducible Bible times coloring book out there. The kids love picking out a picture to color while I read to them. Mister E said Noah got really dirty while building the ark, that's why he colored so much dirt on him. And his skin was brown because he worked outside in the sun so much that he got "toasted. We added an...

While many families were back to school this week, for us it was also the start of an entirely new school year.  I always get excited to start afresh in new books with new material to cover, brand new pencils to sharpen, unspoiled new notebooks to write in.  But at the same time I always enter this phase of panic where I look at all the new stuff, the new schedule, and wonder how on earth I am going to manage to pull it off.  Of course, once I get started it's really not that bad. After all, you really only need to manage doing one thing at a time, and that's not nearly so difficult! I think the hardest thing this week was getting used to waking up "early."  I tried to get everybody on a practice schedule our last week of vacation, but since Daddy was still home from work, nobody wanted to go to bed on time. They all stayed up late snuggling in blankets and watching movies or playing video games. I made sure to get myself in bed at a decent hour though, because...

We are nearing the end of Calvert 1st grade, so we decided to knock out the last two chapters in our science book with a dedicated Science Week!  So far we have explored  position and force  and  simple machines and magnets .  Then we started investigating the different types of energy: first heat and then sound . It's the last day of Science Week!  Just as heat and sound are types of energy, so is light!   Light is the form of energy that allows us to see. Some materials let a lot of light pass through them. Other materials block out light completely.  Miss M tried a few materials to see what lets light through and what doesn't. Plastic wrap, waxed paper, aluminum foil, an empty paper towel tube, and a rubber band. First she covered one end of the tube with plastic wrap and tried looking through it. She could see light!  Then she removed the plastic and covered the end of the tube with waxed paper.  She could se...