Goodbye Space

Bittersweetness for us, but alas, we have to depart. Not for space, but rather, from space. Our unit is complete and we will be sending out email invites out during our Fall Break for our Space Open House. Student kindly asked for "scripts" today when I reminded her that it would be her job to tell about her projects and learning! What a kid!

Also along the lines of completion, we are 5 lessons away from finishing Genesis in History. Today was a grand story of a wedding, right along Student's royal liking! Soon, we will continue onto Exodus, with our focus of Egyptian culture.

Our pledge to the flags and The Holy Bible have become such an entertainment! Toddler has been practicing for Awana that begins next week! Student is such a sweet teacher, too. We are so glad to have the opportunity to live in a country that gives us the freedoms to serve our God and our country.

Today's blessing came with the name of Jo. She surprised Student and took her away to an afternoon of girl-time!

Violin in our afternoon and creating more flashcards for Math, this has been our homeschool day!

Student's Take: It was fun, I didn't even know I was going to go out with Jo! We played at the park. Then we went to the store and got a snack. Then we went to her house & played dress-up. And then it was time to go. I went home.

Suffix Delight

Delightful students are hard to come by, but The blessings of The Lord have provided me with one today!

Student is working on our magnet board that Principal put together for us. The frame was from an auction that nobody claimed, the metal from The Yard, and we made the magnets from our ever-so-loved yo-yos! It's home is in the laundry room, so there is a crisp presence of sun.

Now the real blessing comes in with the homeschool materials, as both the magnet letters and large flashcards were given to us by families that God provided through. Once the word gets out about homeschooling, everyone works together!

Suffix , root word, and verb were our focus in Language today. School House Rock was a grand part of this lesson! As well as skimming through History, Space, Vocab Review, Math & Reading, our load was light. Light days will probably continue as long as Teacher is up with Braxton-Hicks through the night hours. Though learning continues in every aspect of life, some are planned through curriculum and others are a renewing of the mind daily that only God can orchestrate!

Student's Space Thoughts: The first astronaut to put his foot on the moon, was Neil Armstrong. It took him 3 days to get to the moon, and 3 to get back to planet Earth with the other 2 astronauts. This happened in 1969!

Pen Pal

Student has had a relationship with Lehi, a student at Vanderpol Christian Academy in The Philippines, for a year now. We have not written as much as we would like to, so today marked our first pen pal day at homeschool. We took the opportunity to learn about the form of a personal letter, and Student completed it quickly.

In addition to a letter, Student included this yo-yo bookmark she sewed for Lehi, today.

Cursive continues, and Student connected her first letters today to form a word. Having learned the first 3 letters of the alphabet, out natural choice for a first word was cab.

Counting down to our last 10 facts in Space for Science, we have only a few more projects to complete before our open house!

Our outing to the store brought another opportunity for Student to gain life skills with her pricing lists, and then contrasting least and most expensive. The winners today were pork chops, and baby socks.

Reading another chapter in her chapter book, working on her flashcards for Math, studying the next two chapters in Genesis, Student is steadily making progress in her schooling. Toddler, on the other hand, is steadily creating distractions from her schooling! I remember thinking that the actual teaching time would be so much less from a traditional classroom because of our one-on-one learning... wonder how much time a newborn will add to our daily schooling?! Can't wait to see!

Student: It was fun making my yo-yo bookmark for Lehi! Lehi lives in the Philippines. I am sending it to The Philippines. One of my church members is in The Philippines, right now. We think she is a little bit older than me. But that's ok, I like the age I'm at!

Movin' Monday

On the move again, can't wait to get OFF the move again!

Mondays are so mobile. Student does well with the change of schedule, but at the same time, she fills my ears with requests to "...just be home..."!

I am thankful to God that we have a home, and one that we can call homeschool.

This Artful sketch is the creation of Student and Principal. They had each been trying to fit in drawing time yesterday, and as they did so together, they created this!

Also on the colorful side of school today, we received a game to help Student learn her next song in Violin: Piggies and Chimps. This will come in handy all week, as we are preparing for a performance for Fall Fest.

We introduced new flashcards in Math, combo dot cards, and they are colorful as well. Student wondered why they all were only blue as we have a 24 pack of colored pencils...but this was only the color for the fives family. So, her hopes of a rainbow weren't crushed! Everything is color and Art through her eyes.

Seatwork for Phonics and Language squeezed in between Reading today. Books about Fall seem to be a favorite right now. Poppleton is still in our pile of Library books, as well as whatever makes it into the bookbag before we reach our 12 book limit on our Library trip. Finishing our mobile-Monday with a trip to the park, and a walk full of Kansas wildflowers, there will be a colorful bouquet drying in Student's room this week.

And Space? Why yes, we are almost complete with this extended unit. As Principal will be at the homeschool for a week when the new addition arrives, we are planning our Field Trip and open house. Can't wait for each of these! Wonder which will happen first?

Student says: I like the white wildflowers. The dark purple are nice, too. I wanted to keep waking, but we didn't know where the path ended.

As a teacher, there are several ways to present an assignment. So, try to solve this assigment riddle:

Take one Student given a leading personality

Add the traits born to her from her parents

Mix in the Eldest sibling tendencies

And what assignments fit this beautiful creature best?

laissez-faire

French for "to let do".

Give this Student the supplies and she will run with them! This clown is from her art project book of lessons she can easily do alone. Self-directed and always a few dazzling features added, all she creates is full of "her touch!" She was to color it, simply with crayons, but with glue and fabric at her fingertips...she couldn't resist!

On the same note, what other books could we be reading than, Fancy Nancy? Student fell in love with this series last summer. We had the opportunity to read the Dazzling Book Report to ready Student for her own first report. We will continue preparing for this and soon see all that it has created!

Math, Phonics, Language and History all fell into the mix today, as well. Our reading of Space facts is almost complete. The biggest reaction has come from Toddler, however who has turned his firefighter helmet into part of an astronaut space suit. What world will we be in tomorrow? Homeschool can be anywhere!

Dolly Art

Sewing session produced this little sweetie of Student's creative design and skills: Dolly.

Student used her machine to sew the limbs and then stuffed them with clouds of polyester surrounding her. Fabric choosing was easy this project, as she wanted some parts to be the same as her cousin's choice for her doll. And, in the end, there is no doubt that those eyes and those earring additions to the regular pattern, resulted in a Student original! Thanks to Heather for bringing the pattern to our session!

For a Friday, we are thankful for the sun and breeze and have experienced our share of recess today!

Math continues with new seatwork that arrived with the last bits of our first grade curriculum, just yesterday. Our chart counting to 200 received some activity today, along with place value flashcards.

Phonics and Space learning are among our end-of-the-week activities. Student however, is so interested in her new cursive writing tablet, that she is motivated to finish each subject just to be guaranteed that cursive will follow!

History was prompted by Student's creation of our flags, yesterday. We researched both the Christian and American flags. Student right away had big plans for her paint colors yesterday, and truly was disappointed about only using 2 colors! So, we just had to learn why those colors were chosen. This kid-friendly site was a big help!

http://www.kidskonnect.com/content/view/355/27/

and Student says: The colors of the flags are the same. The red on the Christian flag, is for Jesus blood. White is for purity that Jesus has, and the American flag has white for purity, too. But, our country is not holy.

Making the doll was my favorite part. It was cool having school at night! It was really fun to finish the doll, but I was sad that I didn't get to finish it that night. But I will sleep with her tonight!

Fall Session

Fall semester is now in session!

There is a focus in our home that has been missing for some time, now. Scheduling how to serve God through so many venues, has always caused some stress and hurry in our daily lives. Now that our energies for serving are focused to our children in homeschooling, there is an amazing calmness and relationship budding between all of us. Thank you God, for establishing the work of our hands.

Our day began on cozy covers with the beginner reader Bible. Student picked 3 stories to read aloud. This was such a focus for her, today. I know that the schedule of a classroom has to work on time to fit in everything that is expected to be taught. And here, at homeschool, we have a schedule, but when Student kept reading, and reading, I was so thankful to have the opportunity to let her continue. My expectations were for her to re aloud 1 story. I am so glad there is no teeth-pulling included in her Reading these days! I was not this avid of a reader as a child, and I pray that this love would continue for her.

Continuing with our Space studies in Science, student is rapidly growing in anticipation of our field trip to the Cosmosphere. We had the opportunity to learn about the big bang theory, and see how it contrasts with what is taught in The Holy Bible.

To begin our day thanking the Lord, our Art lesson today included creating both the American and Christian flags for our allegiance pledges. Student enjoyed painting with gouche on each. Though this would have been a fun opportunity for sewing, applique of 50 stars sounded much too ambitious. So, we are saving that for our Sew session this evening when Student will create a doll with her cousin. The scraps are collected, and Student has her fav fabs ready to go!

Flashcards have become the definition of fun for Student! Her eyes light up when we pull them out, and when Dad steps in the door, he is bombarded with them! Even Toddler is getting a feel for how to use them and teach Student. Also, to prepare us for upcoming Math learning, Student created a number chart from 100 to 200 today. Teach us to number our days, oh Lord.

Student: It was fun painting it! It was hard to paint around the 50 stars.

I really enjoyed drawing my altar picture from the 450 prophets of baal and Elijah story.

Yeah, I am excited for sewing night.

Dark Field Trip

Could God have planned his star-show anymore perfectly? Right in line with Student's studying Space, we rolled out of bed at 2am to have a field trip this morning.

Yes, a near-by passing comet produced tail-spinning falling stars last night. Meeting up with family and donuts from the local shop, His presence and beauty was seen atop a hill this morning.

Student: This is fun! I know the birth and death of a star, and these meteors are made of pebbles, or rocks that are hitting Earth's air and burning in fire.

Guest Tuesday

When did these kids get so technologically-advanced?

Our homeschool day started with a bike ride to the neighborhood park. Quite the experience at an evos park. http://www.gerberleisure.com/EXPAGES/EVOS.asp

This is our newest city attraction, and built right in our area! This park claims to give kids mental and physical challenges during their "play". However, during our bike ride there, the kiddos did succeed in the high-tech satisfaction of pumping their arms at diesel drivers and obtaining a honk or two!

After their engaging play, we skip-counted and enjoyed snack at the picnic table in the morning shade. Counting by 4s was the number choice today, as Guest Pupil was hoping to work on her multiplication facts of 4.

We pulled out the Old Skool Math games just to throw off our Guest! We began with homemade flashcards for our Guest to fine-tune her Multiplication. Student loved to help her practice and then switch and work on her place value flashcards. After all of the giggle-filled learning, we moved along to the FIRST MULTIPLIER. This handy tool pictured above in the first picture, was used by Guest Pupil's father in his days of learning. Afterall, it's all in the family, with homeschool!

They loved the colors, use of both hands and the noises of the sliding parts...all things missed out on with computers. And the other moving-part Math game? Well, SKILL BALL, straight outta the 50s. It is metal and requires one to crouch onto the floor to roll the ball in three turns and add up the end score. They love learning away from the table/desk! Anything to get their bodies moving and grooving for learning!

Back at the table, we continued with History from Genesis ch. 11. Searching the maps and globe, we located the area where The Tower of Babble was in The Mesopotamia. Guest was fascinated to have free reign of the globe and find all that she could with no time limit, like at school.

Next, the kiddos looked up their key words and took their best guess at defining them prior to reading the dictionary version. This is fun for everyone, and always makes a good read on the blog!

Guest Pupil:

Envy: an ivy type

Ziggurat: a rat type

Babylon: babbles

Student:

Envy: poisonous

Ziggurat: unkind

Babylon: a city

Finishing up with reading and Space facts, we enjoyed having our Guest before she starts school this week. Summer School is drawing to an end.

Star Death

Student and Guest Pupil turned these clippings of color into a Star Death tile project. Sizing fluid with paintbrushes, scissors with Toddler around, add in a blow-dryer to speed the process, and this is what you get!

Guest Student describes her Star Death tile project as follows:

And Student describes her Star Death tile project as follows:

Fine Arts Friday

It just turned out that way! We had some plans of homeschool for our Guest Pupil today. And, as any Teacher has experienced, plans are best on paper...

With a revised list of to-dos, the students checked off each:

Music

Science

Art

And lunch was last!

Beginning with Music, we returned to Toddler's favorite activity of Rhythm Sticks. It was especially entertaining with Guest Pupil, as she is going to be a fourth-grader, and 1st grade was fun for her to return to today. And so with their rhythm sticks, AKA: kitchen utensils, they tapped on eachother and moved as the record instructed. Of course it is always fun to weird-out a non family-member by pulling out the phonograph!

Today's Death of a Star lesson from our Space unit lead us to Art, where Guest Pupil and Student created these hanging collages each including an element from our Death lesson. They suggested we have a funeral for their dead stars, but all good things must come to an end, and time was gone before we knew it!

Student: It was fun!

Growing

Growing a Student is so much fun! It will probably be more work, once the family addition arrives. However, this Student is excited about growing through homeschool and the family's growing, too.

Today we began our reading aloud, lounging on the side porch in the Summer morning coolness before the rain today. Little House on the Prairie. What else is there? We do so love vintage and things of past days, and bringing this book over from the bookshelf at Grandmother's will be a great addition to our Reading. Student listened through the first chapter, and then read aloud from Miss Spider. Yes, Toddler was sitting with us, but only until he remembered that he was outside, and then off on his bike he went!

Maybe it was the peanut butter zucchini cake that we started our Thursday morning with, but the energy around homeschool today has been top-notch! And as the weather keeps spitting down rain, we know the truth about these kiddos and the barometric pressure! So, with that in mind, it is a wonder that the two could cooperate in Computer today. Helping each other, and taking turns... sounds like the reason homeschool would be less effective with only one student!

Reviewing number penmanship and continuing to get closer to 200, Student completed this work quickly and neater than usual. Along with Space facts, History and Phonics seatwork, the day has come to our Space project. This Growing Star display is in it's first stage, we shall finish it's display tomorrow. As we will be half-way through our Space unit tomorrow, when we welcome a Guest Student. Yes, for a day, Student invited a friend to come alongside and learn with her! With Summer in session for most school-goers, she excitedly accepted the invite to come to homeschool!

After we add some glitter in the background, Student says this Star Born display will be ready for the Space open house!

Tree Research

Moving right along. Student is appearing to be blessed with Dad's Math brain. She was so excited for the special section of first grade Math, entitled "Thinking Cap". Well, it was to be a thinking exercise that may take time, and she was done in one second! She has only had this today, but we will continue and surely it will be more of a challenge, as not every day is the first lesson!

First Lesson from our curriculum that is to come in the mail, that is. We have the instructional texts and Student and I have been making our own worksheets for the seatwork, and really that has been fun. However, with a new member of the family on the way, it will be much smoother to have the prepared seatwork when there is another to care for.

History moved onto Noah and the building of the ark. Gen 6& 7. We found that our text said Noah made it of Cypress trees, and our Bible said Gopher wood...so we began our online research to see the difference or similarities of these woods.

In the Douay Version, Genesis 6:14, God commands Noah: "Make thee  an ark of timber planks. " In the King James Version this is written:  "Make thee an ark of gopher wood. " Modern scholars believe it means  the extremely durable wood of the tall massive evergreen cypresses  that, together with towering cedars and oaks, clothed the slopes of the  Lebanon and other mountain ranges in Biblical times. "Gopher" is very  similar to the Hebrew and Greek words for cypress.

_as written in Biblical Trees History

Student had her own guess of defining our Bible Dictionary words from History, which were as follows:

Iniquity: following God's ways

Holy: perfect

Cubit: a video game

Well, after looking up the words we both learned the correct definitions. But one of three is pretty good guess work!

Continuing Reading, Student will finish the last chapter of her first chapter book tomorrow. Student certainly got her fair share of reading in History today, as she read all of the side notes of interesting facts. This talked about tools and such as Noah and his sons built the ark...here's her artful version pictured.

Space facts continuing as well. We are working up to our open house and much-anticipated trip to the Cosmosphere! By Thanksgiving, is our goal.

Student: I learned about Noah's Ark. He made it out of cypress wood/ gopher wood.

I am talking about my space facts, here. and i love them!

Another name for a meteor is: shooting star. I learned about the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.

Fabric Space

Yes, it is only Wednesday, but when we conjured up this idea, we couldn't wait for Friday! Student completed her seatwork of History, Phonics, Handwriting, Art and Math...so after she read 4, count them, 4 chapters of her first chapter book, Prairie School, we got to work creating her first solar system model.

Solar system of fabric, of course! Student picked the scraps and in the process of putting it together, she endured an iron burn. With the help of an ice pack, the eyes were full of tears, but none were shed.

In History we studied Cain and Abel from Genesis. Student had fun answering the questions, b/c she knows this story so well, it was quite easy. But new to her, was the question:

Who was Adam and Eve's 3rd son?

Other than work, we played in the rain and enjoyed our 1 mile ride in the morning sunlight from above. And during rest time for Teacher and Toddler, Student enjoyed Computer. What a mid-week day!

Student: As you can see, I put blue fabric in the background for the dark outer space. Then, I took the colors of the planets in fabric. Then, I traced them and cut the circles so that the different sizes, not the same size of the planet, but one that a human can see, so the sun was the biggest. You can go on the planet, because it is right there! I got Mercury a little too close to the sun, because we started with Pluto, and so Mercury is on the sun. And the planets are too close in this one.

My favorite part was cutting out the fabric circles. My uncle said to research about Pluto not being a planet anymore...here it is!

Keeping Up

Well, we officially have 6 1/2 weeks til adding to this family, here at homeschool, and there is much to keep up. Student has kept up with her violin, and completed her summer lessons today. She has also kept up with her space facts, and review in Math. And for her Reading seatwork, we have almost completed & emptied those, too.

We will be finishing our curriculum plans with the ordering of a few last supplies this week. Student looks forward to that! New and exciting things always come through the mail!

We have gotten a start on History, Science and Art already. And with a steady climb in Reading, there is much to learn before Fall Break when our addition arrives. Upward and onward, we shall overcome.

In addition to seatwork in Phonics and Writing, there was cutting and gluing to practice sorting. Also, Student had the opportunity to get some Life Skills lessons today from a friend. They repaired a bargain necklace Student bought while scavenging the local sidewalk sales this past weekend with Dad. I can't imagine the great conversations they must have, as Nancy is a part of a family legacy that honors The Lord in all they do. Good friends and family make for good Homeschool!

Student: Cool! I like it when my seatwork shows me how to do it, and it does some of the work for me!

In the Garden

Today marked the end of a week, each passing us right through Summer. Where is the time going? We have truly been blessed to have this opportunity to homeschool and get experience before the addition to our family in September.

History moved onto Adam and Eve in the garden. Student spelled and looked up her dictionary search words from our story today:

abundance

cheribum

cleave

transgressor

We talked about the difference, word by word, contrasting God's directions about the Tree of Knowledge, and the Serpant's version of what God said. It is so important to help the next generation understand about Satan's deceptions, and his native tongue of lies. He lied then, and continues to use this language to deceive.

Space facts continue to orbit Student's brain. Our focus was Pluto, and Mercury today. We are 1/4 of the way done with our 100 space facts. We plan to have an Outer Space Open House, so watch for the invite! Student will share and show what she has learned throughout our unit.

Violin, that is another story. We are hitting a rough spot, where Student doesn't desire to practice, and complains most of the way through our sessions. Of course she acts well-mannered for her instructor once a week. But, it is a struggle at home right now. We focus on games and will work on a video for the blog of her latest song: Lightly Row. Maybe this goal will bring back some fun for her!?

Our project, for this Friday, connected to our studying Mercury. Student will account for her crater project.

Student: I put flour on a plate. Then, I took a marble and dropped it and it made a crater in the flour. The first time I dropped the marble from too high, and it was in too deep and it was hard to get out. Mercury's surface was the flour, the marble was a rock, asteroid, hitting the planet.

Wake Up

In the middle of VBS week, Student has been waking up late. Schedule? Not this week!

We began with our 1 mile bike ride in the morning sun and shade. She and Toddler loved going under the highway, they usually don't get to go in that direction, so there wasn't much fuss to keep them going! They have gone 2 miles before, but it was a bit of a struggle. So, this was truly a nice length of ride to help Student wake up today.

Reading goes on and on, faster and faster. Her favorite books take less time to get through, and Toddler requests more and more of her developing reading for his pleasure. She is especially excited about graduating to chapter books. It just sounds so big!

A short review of subtraction, Student says she is ready to move up to double digit subtraction. Those asteroids sure make it fun to do Math. Student does well both with and without the manipulatives, at this point.

To finish our lesson on Creation, in Bible History, an Artwork is included that parallels with the subject, Student did some learning about The Sistine Chapel Frescoes. Her very own version of creation is quite nice! This super site saves her painting and displays it in action, just as she designed it, color by color, stroke by stroke. We love Art.com You can view it here:

http://artpad.art.com/?kn91jc1iai6w

Student: As you can see, mountains that slant down, come forth rocky land. One rock, burst up by the pressure of the Earth, and God is sitting in the middle, and the sky is over His head, as you can see.

More facts about space are lingering in Student's brain, as we are hoping to get all 100 done soon!

And the Space Walk Continues...

More Space facts entered the brain, today. Space Math and Reading were included, as well. Student read from #3 in our Sesame Street Series, for adults to read to tots...and she finished the continuation of the Penelope story in #4 volume. We had these books when I was a kid, and NEVER did I read them as quickly as she does. Praise the Lord for her love of reading!

We began our Old Testament History today, with The Children's Illustrated Bible. Maps and timely drawings galore!

This will cover much of the needed History lessons for our first semester, and part of the second. I still haven't figured out when we'll break for American History, it is just a short amount that is required for First grade, not to mention she knows much of it already. But, with the Abeka background Student has, she has fulfilled much of the first grade requirements, and so we are working on second grade also, just to keep up with schedule of her Christian school, if The Lord's plan be to send her back next year.

Introduction to The Bible, was our first lesson, which introduced Student to her Bible Dictionary. We get to look up a few words from our lesson, prior to reading it, to get a preview of our lesson. Today's dictionary word list:

Oracles

Law

Hebrew

Gospel

Student looked up and read the definition to each word. She seems to enjoy this challenge.

We also covered the dead sea scrolls, first Bibles printed on papyrus papers, (which we have a papyrus plant on our side porch, so now student wants to try to make paper:)

and the first authorized Bibles, and the story of the King James version.

Student: I like learning about space.

I learned about some stuff in the Bible. There are 66 books in the Bible. Generation by generation, mouth by mouth, teaching their child, to child, to child, tis was the time when the Bible was not written, so the stories were told this way to their children's children.

3D Earth Model

A cooled, painted, and dried model of the Earth Layers, by Student!

No blue paint in the house, so it must be a polluted day, as the Earth looks green with cloud cover!

Fine Motor SKills

Student had a day without Pupil, so girl-time and cuddly reading prevailed!

We got to pull all the tabs, remove all of the hidden features and read all about minerals today, as part of our Space unit. We practiced looking for items in the dictionary, and easily understood the concept of alphabetical.

And, even more exercise for those First Grade fingers, Student continued on her cross-stitch flower for the baby. She is using the pattern from my Grandmother Darlene's cross-stitch rose quilt on our bed. She has continued a design that has now been through 3 generations! I just love sewing! Could it be anymore rewarding to see her loving the things I love?! Truly, I pray she loves that which our Father loves, and hates that which He hates.

Student: I learned that rubies are found in Burma, and I found it on the globe. I am a mineral! And, strongest, most valuable mineral is diamonds.