'13/14 Week 9 Day 4

The rain finally stopped and we took off to check the damage of last night's storm as soon as our school day was over. 
We had not been on a nature walk in a long time. As soon as we had taken just a few steps, we heard a slithering sound in the grass and sighted the dark ribbony figure slipping into the pond (thankfully a few good yards away from us). It reminded us that nature is not hibernating yet and we need to be careful. I am so thankful for dogs who always accompany us whenever we venture out and about. 

Because of that and the rushing flood waters in the creek, we were not tempted to go far and deep. Still, even our short stroll gave us a number of pretty surprises. 

We concluded our walk by picking up fallen branches to build a bonfire later.

"Mom, look - I am Samson!"

'13/14 Week 9 Day 3

I thought, it was a quiet day. 
Well, at least, until I turned the computers over to the kids to explore the SFS Kids website on their own. The Music Appreciation was our last class. We reviewed briefly all the things we had learned so far. I read a short story from Ventura's book "Great Composers" that talked about the melody, rhythm, and harmony of music. The SFS Kids website echoed the subject and both kids had a blast experimenting with different harmonies and composing their own melodies.

Bible. The morning Bible story was about Balaam and his talking donkey.

Math. Tens and ones - making some things in math visual and tangible.

Science. Andrew continues his studies of the human body. Our brain has been the subject for the past few days. Here Andrew and Saara are checking each others' reaction speed.

The SFS Kids website is an awesome interactive place for some basic knowledge about music.

'13/14 Week 9 Day 2

This has been the most productive Tuesday ever! I am trying to always stay realistic and not expect too much from a day when we spend the better part of the morning in town for Saara's ballet class and then library. 
Today, however, there must have been more than 60 seconds in each minute because we took our time and did some extra-curricula things, and still wrapped up our day at our usual quitting time.

Andrew was very excited to be done with all of his math and have no homework.

Bible. The story of the brass serpent. The Isrealites complained again and were punished with an invasion of venomous snakes.

But everyone who was bitten by a snake was healed when they looked at the brass snake Moses erected in the middle of the camp. Our versatile stuffed viperwas not as fancy, but I do not think he minded the mop handle very much.

Science. Saara has been learning about water, how it shapes coastlines and makes caves. We looked at the photos from a month ago from our own cave tour in West Virginia. I asked Saara to give me a small summary of her trip to the cave. I wrote it down and asked her to draw a picture of her favorite part of the tour.

She said, she liked everything in the cave, but at the end of the day a pool with some fish in it won. Here's a picture of the pool, the hand rail and her wearing a helmet.

 

 I was so thankful to be able to borrow this book from the library. For weeks now, we have been reading and learning about some symbols of the US. This book fit our studies perfectly. I find it very useful, so much, that I am determined to to find a copy for our own library.

'13/14 Week 9 Day 1

The weather outside is still warm and far from being fall-like, i.e. chilly. We have barely had any reason to put on long sleeves yet. Still, fall activities are full underway. Last week end saw us carving pumpkins and baking up a storm of pumpkin goodies and - of course - our community's hayride that is always a fun one. We have so much candy to consume now!

Back in the classroom, the schoolwork was done well and efficiently, although one subject dragged itself into a homework after school hours. Andrew does not have as much hands-on math activities as he had last year. Most, if not all, of his math lessons are written tasks. He does a great job completing the lessons, but we need to speed things up a bit. Individual work we do not have time to cover during the day, Andrew has to tackle after all other schoolwork is done. That has become his homework. 

Bible. We started our morning with the story of Aaron's rod budding. Last storm shook down some big branches and one of them became handy for today's craft.

LA. Saara (and Andrew too) have been going over letter sounds, short and long vowels, and some word families. Saara finishing up words by adding a final letter.

'13/14 Week 8 Day 4

The kids and I spent the whole morning at the dentist office. I used the rest of the school day to catch up with subjects we have fallen behind a bit. And I am happy to announce - we are all caught up now!

'13/14 Week 8 Day 3

The day was busy as usual and it got truly enjoyable after we watched Saara's science video about freezing and melting/warming up. It was a very tasty affair for the most part. :)

Science. After watching the video and reading about freezing and melting, we got busy in the kitchen bringing out things we wanted to try to freeze, including Mom's leftover coffee.

Science can be delicious!

How much for the pig? While we were waiting for the freezing experiment to do its magic in the freezer, we did majority of our schoolwork.

The trays stayed a bit longer in the freezer than originally planned (our LA took us longer to accomplish), but, oh, what a fun it was to test the different ingredients, especially the chocolate frosting and peanut butter.

The kids recorded their findings on the blackboard.

'13/14 Week 8 Day 2

Tuesday is our ballet and library day. To manage the amount of borrowed books in our house, I gave each child a canvas bag and said that they can choose as many books as they can fit into their bags, but they have to haul the loot themselves. It did not scare Saara at all - her bag was full to the brim. 

Shorter school day still means serious school work.

Obviously, Andrew's reading comprehension book is about Robin Hood.

'13/14 Week 8 Day 1

Our day was rather heavy on the science side. Saara read a lot about the polar regions and Andrew did some experiments involving sight. 

Andrew filled out another book report and is ready for his next reading practice book which is a poetry book this time. He has really enjoyed reading rhyming lines in the past. 

Our last class today was music appreciation. We sang some songs and looked at the basic long and short notes. Their music teacher at the children's choir introduced the notes and rests to them a month ago. So today, it was a good review of the information they already knew. 

Science. Saara reading and comparing the Arctic and the Antarctic. A great poster from a book by the Schoolzone.

Andrew checking Saara's peripheral vision.

Music appreciation. Among other things, Andrew and Saara learned and tried playing short and long notes with the triangle. It was a lot of fun. We used a Youtube tutorial for this activity.

The notes and rests and the triangle on the head. :)

13/14 Week 7 Day 5

I stayed up late last night cutting and folding and gluing together an awesome replica of the Israelite tabernacle. A wonderful website to find this easy printable craft is sundayschoolsources.com. 

Andrew continued to learn about the five senses. Yesterday, we read about how our eye works and he enjoyed some experiments with light so much, he wanted to repeat them again today. 
We also read about how our sense of smell works. This topic produced a lot of giggles when we talked about 'buggers'. But we were very serious when we discussed why it is so important to grab a tissue when we sneeze. 

We read a whole lot more today - in history, reading comprehension, vocabulary learning, reading practice. I am so thankful, that unlike yesterday, we had a lot of 'oomph' that kept us going and enjoying every minute of it.

Bible. The tabernacle.

 

Science. Andrew is wiggling his finger in front of the flashlight and watching its upside down image appear on the wall. That is how our eyes work.

'13/14 Week 7 Day 4

Bible. This is our Moses with a brightly shining veiled face.

This was an odd day. We did our school work, but it was completely 'lackluster'. Even our little Bible play in the morning did not help much. Oh, we got all our work done well, but the usual energy was not there. 

Oh, well...

'13/14 Week 7 Day 3

The sunshine outside drew both kids out of doors every time we took a break today. Great fall weather. The cheery feeling helped us get our schoolwork done in time and well. Andrew took his third math test and did a good job. Ordinary day, but wonderful nevertheless.

'13/14 Week 7 Day 2

It was a long day, but in the end, it really did not matter because both kids had a great attitude. There were a lot of things that dragged our school day into late afternoon. All of them were a lot of fun and, truthfully, it is not our fault that there's only 60 seconds in one minute. Time flies when you are having fun.
We also did a great deal of very serious 'sit-down-and-write-in-your-workbook' type work - practicing handwriting, spelling out short vowel word families, tacking additions and subtractions, etc. So, this balanced our day into the realm of 'very good' once again.

Math. Saara reviewing ordinal numbers using buttons.

LA. We have not memorized any poems for a while. I chose a simple four-line poem from Saara's "High Five". We came up with some cute hand motions to it and within a few minutes Saara entertained us with a sweet recital. Video below.

Civics. We reviewed all the symbols and some facts about them today. Also, we looked up all the National Holidays in 2013.

Science. It rained all morning long, but right after lunch, we were able to go outside and collect a few leaves for Saara's science class. She has been learning about plants and how they need soil and water for growing. Today, it was all about sunlight and photosynthesis.

We looked at different leaves, their shapes and texture.

Along the way, we squeezed in a little art project.

Andrew's science was about one of the five senses - the sense of touch. He used his sister as a guinea pig for an experiment or two.

Freezing your fingertips (holding the ice cube for 40 seconds) numbed the sense of touch and it was not easy to pick up rice grains.

This experiment was called 'fooling your senses'. One hand from the hot water bowl and the other from the ice cold water bowl, felt the warm water in the middle differently.

'13/14 Week 7 Day 1

Saara could not wait to start her school work again. Andrew was not as excited and he really started pulling a face when he saw his math lesson. Partly, I do not blame him. Today's portion (and tomorrow's as well) was quite a lot. I am considering dividing it up into smaller sections. 
Other than that, it was Saara's ballet day which means using a shorter version of the lesson plan. What I had planned, got done and it counts as a successful school day, the more that the kids worked hard at their lessons.

Saara learned a thing or two about the oceans and seas today. She knows "Finding Nemo" by heart, has seen numerous videos about sea animals and read books about the same. So, it was kind of a tall order to find something new for her. I did, however. A few videos about the sea floor on Youtube floored her and her brother.

2013 Field Trips: 12 States Plus Washington DC

During our two weeks of vacation, Andrew and Saara traveled through 12 States (excluding Texas), plus we took a short day trip to Washington DC. After every leg, the kids and Dad took out the US map and tracked our travels with a highlighter. All of us were thoroughly amazed how far we traveled and how much we saw and experienced. I am thankful to God for His protection and His blessings during our travels.

Together with Texas it would be 13 states in two weeks. We got out at every border to stretch and take pictures at the welcome centers.

From one end to the other. Almost.

2013 Field Trips: The Letchworth State Park, NY

While visiting family, we took the advantage of good fall weather and took a day trip to the Letchworth State Park in New York. Our main goal was to enjoy the beautiful fall colors and changing leaves, but we were treated to much more.

The kids got to see a 'real live' dam.

The park was rich in fall color and in trees we do not see in Texas. Beside the maple tree, the kids learned to recognize the birch and the weeping willow.

More falling water! The Upper Falls at the Letchworth Park.

This is known as the 'Grand Canyon of the East'.