Sunday, September 19, 2010

Family Portraits





























Jenny Grogg is an amazing friend and extremely talented photographer.... Enjoy!







Weeks 4 and 5

Wigwams
Dom's first soccer practice


Dom Roller Skating for the first time


Abbi Roller Skating for the first time



Abbi "Master Chef" making SOUL food!


My Fathers World Focused on Native Americans in Week 4 and Week 5 on Pilgrims. We have made teepees, wigwams, and read wonderful stories about Native Americans. One of my favorite go-alongs was a few books called "A day in the life of...(Sarah Morton, etc.) which told of the daily lives of the pilgrims. They were fun to read and accurate in information. We read the story of Squanto and fell in love with his determination and perseverence. It was a book that we didn't want to put down each day but liked the suspense. In the end, we settled on eating a Pumpkin Pie with homemade whipped cream to celebrate the first "Thanksgiving". For Science, we discovered the Universe, making a 13 ft. scaled down diagram of the solar system with cardstock, lots of measuring and math, and markers. I was astonished at how much bigger the sun is than the planets... oh the things we forget. Abigail spent a couple of hours on this project, but still refused to hang it in her "horse" room. So her brother gets it in his room. :) He is pleased. Then we studied the stars and constellations. We still haven't made it late enough on a clear night to actually look for the Big Dipper, but we'll fit that in this week (if I can remember!). Abigail memorized her bible verse on day one, so bible is fairly easy for her. I'm beginning to wonder if I should change the verses up each week, instead of giving her so much time to memorize them. I want them to be truely in her heart for good, so I don't want to rush it, but if she can memorize things so quickly, why not put a few more verses in there for her?



The Study of the Indian slavery and stars fit in really well with our Five in a Row studies. In week 4 we read "Who owns the Sun?" which was a great indroduction to slavery. It is a tear jerker, but the kids didn't seem to be "moved" too much by it. We have read dozens of books on slavery now and the kids have really come to love this time period and the freedoms gained since. We ended the week with a fabulous southern soul dinner cooked by Abigail herself. We even invited another family over to enjoy. (ham, macncheese, baked beans, and corn bread... and pie!) It was a dinner that the slaves might have cooked for their masters, and talked about the difference between what the slaves got to eat and what they had to cook. In week 5, we read "Follow the Drinking Gourd", another slave tale, and it has surely become a favorite of mine. We learned a lot about the Big Dipper and the North Star. We also took the time to learn the song that goes with the book (Thank God for YouTube!). The kids then wanted to hear more slave songs, which was fun. Abigail and I have enjoyed reading the Addy Series from American Girl Novels, which is about a young slave girl. We will continue our reading on slaves into the next week (6) because we have SO many great books.


And we ended the week with family photos, thanks to our talented and wonderful friend Jenny. I'm going to make another post shortly with some of the great shots! On Friday we also took a trip with other homeschoolers to a local roller skating rink. It was the first time the kids had ever gone roller skating and it was a blast. On Saturday Dominic had his 2nd game, and they won! He has scored 1 goal at each game and really looks forward to his soccer days.
PRAISE: We have been praying about a way to provide horseback riding lessons for Abigail. It is honestly the only sport that she loves doing and it's amazing therapeutically. Well, I called Coastal Therapeutic Riding Program here in Wilmington, and found that we can bill our insurance for most of the cost through them. We are so excited. We'll be going to the barn to meet her new instructor this Thursday. Praise God for providing this resource for us. What seems like a luxury, is really not for Abbi... and God knows her needs, wants, and desires and loves her more than I can even imagine. :) He sure is faithful.



Friday, September 3, 2010

Week 3

Ferry Ride

Our New Fish

Jellyfish crafts


Jellyfish at the Aquarium!



Cool Turtle


Octopus!



Alligators!

Each week gets better and better!!! I absolutely LOVE our curriculum choices for the year. We have not had this much fun together in so long.

This week, in My fathers world, we studied Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Name of Jesus. We've read stories of Native Americans and life in Jamestown, all written from a child's perspective, which is so intriguing for the children. We'll spend the weekend reading some Pocahotas novels for enjoyment. Next week we'll really get into the study of Native Americans, so this week we focused more on the FIAR curriculum.

FIAR brought us into the world under the sea this week. We read "Night of the Moonjellies" and fell in love with the idea of being along the sea in New England. We studied jellyfish, dolphins, sharks, whales, salt water fish, crabs, eels, and just about every ocean life book we could get our hands on. We learned so much about biospheres and food chains. We EVEN went to the store and bought the kids some fish for a science "project". Abigail is now the proud owner of a Betta Fish, Princess. And Dominic is the proud owner of 2 goldfish, Jack and Jill. And it was all worth it, when on Friday fun Day, we took a trip to the aquarium. The kids would say, Oooo look! A Moray Eel mom! Look at how its yellow because of the slime! And Mom! Look! A horseshoe crab! Let's flip it over and see how it can use its tail to flip back around! And MOMMMMM! MOOOONJELLIES!!!!! Hehehe. And then, oh how excited they were to learn that on the way home, we would be riding a Ferry across the river, just as the child in their story rode a boat the night he found his moonjelly. It was magical and wonderful, and lovely. We even invited some friends along, and had so much fun. Then to finish the wonderful day, we'll be eating some New England Seafood favorites... Lobster, Clam chowder, Fried clams, and milkshakes.

Week 2





Week 2 of homeschooling... we are just beginning to get settled into a routine. I'm impressed at how well the kids have transitioned from summer time freedom to school days filled with activities and schedules. It has certainly not been without it's tantrus, whining, and complaining, but not as much as I had thought there would be. Not to mention throwing the wrench of daycare into the mix. It adds a large family feel to our home, that I seem to love more and more each day.


This week in MFW we studied Christopher Columbus. We read stories of his travels, made ships out of foil (again with the foil! haha). And sailed them on the ocean blue... well, the bathtub. The kids enjoyed sailing the ships with lego men in the tub for quite awhile, acting out the stories we had read all week of angry men getting frustrated about sailing into the unknown for months, while Christopher insisted they'd land in the Indies. :) Too bad he never really knew that what he found was America, a whole new world. My children are fascinated by this.


This week in FIAR, we did "When I was young in the mountains" by Cynthia Rylant. We studied Appalachians, read appalachian folk tales, talked about being content with what we have, and finished the week off with an appalachian dinner of Corn Bread, Pinto Beans, and Fried Okra. Luckily Nelson, seeing the shopping list before him decided to pick up some fried chicken too, knowing that him nor the children would actually enjoy pinto beans or okra. Hahaha. He was right. At least we're trying new things.