Final Friday

Why homeschool? What is our purpose?

In the state of Kansas one must register their homeschool as a private learning institution, legally. And that institution needs a name and a purpose. Well, today I had a prompting from the Holy Spirit about our purpose.

After sharing some books this morning, we peddled our 1 mile ride today at the Manner. The kiddos love the freedom and I love the safety! But, to get home again, we passed the home of a widow we know. Miss Margaret. She used to be an active part of our lives when Student was younger. We worked in Weekday Bible School together for the public schools, back in the day. We used to remember her often and visit regularly.

Well, our priorities have somewhere been lost. In comes Final Friday!

In a close-by metropolitan area, Final Friday is a reason to have Art socials, drinking brigades and music played all-through-the-night just to glorify the world. However, our version of Final Friday will be for His glory...the whole purpose of homeschooling. Thus, Final Friday will be our realization to care for orphans and widows. What if this were our Final Friday to complete this service for The Lord? We shall act on this command of our religion today, and each Final Friday we are given.

We will make our way back to Miss Margaret's place and with us bring blessings of music and cards! May Student's music bless all in His name.

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Veggie Tales

How did God create girls different than boys? Well, if you are still wondering, and haven't figured it out... 'tis true that girls are talkers and boys are doers.

Student created a puppet theatre today. We reviewed our Literary terms from our Literary Thursday Lesson blogpost. And, this girl student remembered well, but couldn't keep her play under 5 minutes for a video post! Really, if there are characters to introduce, an antagonist to overcome, and a resolution ...well, you see it is all fun, but long! So our family will enjoy some live entertainment once Dad returns!

The puppets are colored oh-so-beautiful with colored pencil that we couldn't get to come through in the picture. But, the characters are full of expression, as Student loves the extra sessions on Veggie Tales videos that teach one to draw the characters. She has had lots of practice!

Our morning 1 mile ride brought us to the local library and we have filled our cabinet with all new books. Toddler was pulling books out ready to get reading right when we returned home. And taking turns with Student, we read a small portion of our pile. Cuddly and warm... not too many times can a Teacher safely read that way in school... just another blessing God has given us through our adventure in homeschooling.

Afterwards, time to splash in the backyard and soak up some sun, our summer day was complete!

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!

Life Skills

Today was almost our first sick day. With a Teacher tiring faster than usual, and breathing treatments every 3 hours for Student, we fit in just a little homeschool today.

Really, her attendance record was the only thing that she didn't master last year, at Christian School. With her tendency to have a lung infection with each cold, she missed 23 days just in the last 9 weeks! Now, at home, we can do just what there is energy for, and pass the rest onto a day when breathing treatments don't make our schedule for us!

In between resting, and meds, Student worked on life skills today: just one of the grrrreat benefits of homeschooling!

1- Cooperating with Toddler to create a Lite Bright picture

2- Measuring and mixing brownies to enjoy

3- Cleaning all of the gathered dust in her room

4- Entertaining herself with drawing while Teacher has to be on bed rest

5- Multi-tasking

6- Recycling & reusing what we have to embellishing a project to coordinate with the color scheme in her room, as anything having to do with fabric is a valuable life skill!

Student was able to multi-task and practice her skip-counting while dusting. We squeezed in counting backwards, as well. Ending the day with outdoor activity time at the park, we are looking forward to rest for all tonight!

Student: It was fun, but a lot of work to fill in the whole clown picture. The hat was lots of lights working together to make one big color.

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!