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.