'12/13 Week 36 Day 3

Our morning was special. During our Bible reading we talked a lot about the Lord's Supper and ended up having one ourselves. I was surprised how seriously both of them approached the subject. They were happy and respectful. I believe, they did understand that Communion is not just a snack but there is a deeper meaning behind the command Jesus gave us "Do this in remembrance of me".

Priceless. I could not resist taking a picture of Andrew praying.

Saara finished her math book for the year, but she is not done yet.

The history of Rome when it jumped from a republic to a kingdom is full of new names. We had to sort them out somehow. I printed out some cartoonish clip art pictures to go with each name. It seems to help memorize the characters and events.

'12/13 Week 36 Day 1

   A very busy Monday. At first, it looked pretty blue, but it brightened up as the day went on. 

   The highlight among other many things was, of course, the science movie. We are still exploring and experimenting with light. Today, Andrew (and Saara) learned about how light travels. We all huddled up in the kids' bathroom and did some tests with light and its rays. 

   In LA, Andrew learned a little about alliteration and went crazy coming up with is own phrases. The best one was: "Queen Elizabeth's quiet court". With the rest, you had to have a rather excellent imagination to make sense of the phrase. But, Andrew got the point of what alliteration is. 

   It is very odd, but if there are snakes involved, Andrew can remember the story so much better, even names. In History, we are still working on the memorizing facts about the Roman empire and Julius Caesar, Augustus, and even Antony. But Cleopatra and how she met her end seem not to be a problem at all. Odd. But it works. 

   Did I say, it is a busy Monday? Saara's got her game tonight in the 90 F heat. Oh, bleachers, here I come!

Andrew learning about ounces and pounds and feeling the weight.

 5 lb. My 'sack o' potatoes' feeling how much he weighed when he was born.

The flash spoiled it all, but Andrew was having fun directing his light. He said it was much like shooting. Light does travel straight.

Andrew making the 'light-bunny' on the wall illuminate the tennis ball on the floor. Using mirrors and light.

This was our favorite experiment: building a model of the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon. Andrew finally understood the moon phases. Can you spot the half moon tennis ball?  Pretty cool.

'12/13 Week 34 Day 4

What a fun morning! Our Bible reading time took twice as long today because the kids could not get enough of the puppet show. The simple (and, to children often, boring) story of Jesus' prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. I read and the kids worked as puppeteers one by one and together. I think, I read the story over and over at least half a dozen times. All good. One way to dig yourself into the Bible and make it alive.

Captain Cook made us laugh a lot today again during our LA lesson. This chapter mentioned an extinct dodo bird. A short video on Youtube gave us more information on the bird and why it is no more.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VbBiZV8Qhw

In History, we continued reading about the life in the ancient Rome. I had recorded a couple of history programs about gladiators and Pompeii an as the storm clouds were moving in and we could not go outside, we settled in front of the TV and watched parts (appropriate) of  the programs. 

"Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus!" Learning some older hymns this week during our morning Bible time.

Andrew's Bible reading talked about the apostle Paul and the 'thorn' he had. Although his was not a real one, we used real mesquite thorns to discuss the ways God answers or does not answer our prayers.

The puppet shows are always such a big hit!

'12/13 Week 33 Day 3

We like spending out time with the Romans. Today, we read about how houses and aqueducts were built. Rich Romans decorated their floors with mosaic patterns and I had Andrew and Saara try their hand at creating mosaic patterns as well. A great website for making mosaic designs: http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/mosaic/mkmosaic.htm

After our History lesson, we dug right into the second chapter of "Mr. Popper's Penguins." We took a look at all of the 17 different penguin species and measured most of them on Andrew and some on Saara. The Emperor Penguin is a notch shorter than Saara. What a big bird! 

As Mr. Popper wanted to have a penguin for a pet, I had Andrew choose an exotic pet he would dream of having. To help him out, I let him use his book about animals we had read in the beginning of this school year. Did I say, dream of having? I am glad, for Andrew chose King Cobra. 

I had prepared a sheet for him to write explaining why he would like this particular pet and where would it live. I realized that although I have given Andrew a lot of writing assignments, they have mostly been spelling and copying exercises. Sonlight has plenty of creative writing tasks, but somehow they have not quite worked for us. 

Having Mr. Popper's story as our background, however, has made the transition from just practicing spelling to writing full sentences on his own much easier for Andrew. I was glad to see how focused and eager he was to write down his very own thoughts. 

Our day ended with opening the box from Sonlight with all brand new materials for our next school year. Now, tomorrow we will have Mr. Popper open his box with the surprise. Can not wait.

Andrew and Saara creating their mosaic patterns.

Andrew's duck

Andrew's two eagles in the sky.

Penguins. All 17 of them.

My one 'penguin' measuring the other 'penguin' to find out how tall is the real penguin.

Andrew had a hard time choosing his exotic pet for Creative Writing assignment. I can not believe he chose the King Cobra. Brrr!

'12/13 Week 32 Day 3

Another good day. Dad was home, but this fact did not distract us at all. Rather helped, I think. Andrew was more focused than he had been in a few days. He enjoyed his reading and writing tasks. 
Later on, when he and Saara were out in the woods with Dad building a fence, Andrew gave Dad a long and detailed lecture on the history of Rome, starting from Romulus and Remus all the way to gladiators and aqueducts. Dad could not believe the boy could talk so much. Knowledge empowered. Not a bad thing at all, I think. :o)

'12/13 Week 31 Day 4

The day was rainy and the weather turned cold. Which meant no baseball games for the kids tonight.

My voice is almost out of the silent woods and I was able to read to the children all the materials today. Hurray!

Other than that, it was a rather ordinary school day. Andrew does not like the cursive sentences in the Amelia Bedelia book. But he likes the book. 

Andrew also enjoyed a online game in our History class. After reading about the great things that the Romans are famous for, like building roads, aqueducts, etc., we watched a couple of short videos on the Youtube. Also, we read and watched a little bit about the life of the gladiators. I hope, one day we can visit Rome and see the ruins of the Colosseum. Meanwhile, I need to dig out a photo  I took ages ago of a smaller amphitheater in Spain to show Andrew. Will he be impressed?

'12/13 Week 31 Day 3

Another rather quiet day. My voice still cannot handle a whole chapter of reading out loud, but it is letting me do a bit more than yesterday.

In History, we read some more about the rise of the Roman empire and I had Andrew watch a short video online about the Punic Wars. We have more material coming on Romans tomorrow.

Andrew's reading practice is taking a bit longer with his new book. It is one of the Amelia Bedelia books. They are cute, but part of the text today was in cursive and Andrew had hard time recognizing a different (cursive) font. Even the letters he has been practicing in his cursive writing, he barely recognized. We chewed our way through those sentences. Thankfully, Andrew liked Amelia Bedelia, so I have no fear that reading this book will be a success. 

As the weather forecast for tomorrow is not rosy at all and I am still hoping my voice will find its way back home, we will not be taking a trip to the library tomorrow. Who knows, the kids' games could get cancelled as well.

Carthage vs Rome.

We finished out Language Arts class today reviewing compound words. I downloaded this simple puzzle game from Teachers Pay Teachers website.

'12/13 Week 30 Day 4

I could not get Saara out of bed this morning! So, I let her sleep and started our school day off with just Andrew. Our tete-a-tete did not last very long because 'the princess' decided to roll out of bed and join the school work. 

If yesterday found us up and doing things, then today we had more of a 'class room' day with lots of worksheets to fill out and exercises in workbooks to finish. It was not tedious nor monotonous work, thankfully. 

Andrew did oh-so-much better today contracting his words. It does not mean we are now done with the subject. We will keep revisiting the 'lls and 'ds and the lot of them, but it is obvious to me that he understands the mechanics behind the contractions. 

Andrew enjoyed his History class today. Of course, we talked about the Celts that are 'almost as good as the Vikings'. Well, he did understand the difference between the two warrior nations. For once, the Vikings never wore a kilt. I did have to explain the difference between a 'skirt' and a 'kilt', and between 'a plaid' and 'a tartan'. Thankfully, I had saved and shipped over all the books I used when prepping my for my finals at the uni. I have a number of them about tartans and kilts and clans, etc. of Scotland. Andrew loved browsing through them and looking at the pictures of the Scottish Celtic traditions and heritage. We also found ourselves in a deep discussion about the druids and their religion. 

And this was about it. Next week will bring us closer to the end of the school year. The countdown has started - seven more weeks to go.

Andrew and Saara recorded in their journals the progress of their beans. Andrew's are about ready to be planted.

Math. 2D shapes for Saara. She had to recognize, match, read, copy, cut, and glue. The worksheet is from Teachers Pay Teachers website.

Andrew recognizing his 3D shapes. The worksheet is from e-classroom website.

Saara's reading practice story was about a girl who had to prepare an "All about Me" poster for her class. I printed out my own version for Saara and Andrew to fill out. Both of them loved doing it. I seriously love Saara' portrait of our dog (it looks like a cross between a porcupine and a beaver!) What warmed my heart was while Andrew wanted to become a ninja when he grows up, Saara wanted to become a missionary.

'12/13 Week 30 Day 2

We caught up with everything I postponed yesterday. We started our day outside. As we are getting closer and closer to summer, morning becomes the only enjoyable time of the day. The rest of the day is just way too hot to be outside. The children played some, Andrew practiced his throwing and catching for baseball, and both kids helped me water the seeds they planted in the garden. A morning well spent.

Back inside, I read, they read, they wrote, practiced, copied and spelled. As Andrew was rather drowsy in his History class yesterday, we went over some basic facts about the mound builders. We also proceeded on to Africa and read a little about the Kush people. 

And in Science, we studied different ways food can be kept fresh. I am hoping the kids will see me preserve some beets soon and have a hands-on experience about preserving food. 

But now back outside. We will be there the whole evening as Andrew has his baseball practice and Saara her next game.

And another one down! Saara completed her third Language Arts workbook. Now to the fourth and last one.

A picture dominoes game from Saara's magazine. It served as Saara's reading (reading the rules of the game) and following the instructions practice. Of course, it was a lot of fun!

'12/13 Week 30 Day 1

The weather is changing on us again. I could feel it in my bones. And it was obvious in every yawn that Andrew took. We kept it short today as after lunch I found more comfort in laying down than staying up.
Thankfully, I mean it for real, I am very thankful that I almost never have those days when I have to postpone lessons because I am not feeling well. But teachers, no matter what class room they are in, do have sick days.
Before I had to make the command decision and postpone our LA and Science class. We did get a bit done. Our Bible class was full of discussion and prayer this morning. In Math, Andrew was excited to see that the straws he organized on the table formed an image of a cube. And in History, we went over some facts about the first tribes in North America and watched a video about these mound builders. 

Saara and Andrew recorded in their journals the progress of their seeds.

Saara naming the shapes and counting their sides.

Andrew building an image of a cube out of straws.

And then he tried to draw the image on the paper. It took a bit practicing but he mastered it pretty well.

'12/13 Week 29 Day 5

Sweet school day. I wish, every day was like today. 

Again, I let the kids play outside for about 10-15 minutes before we started our classes. It seems to suit them and me well. They get to run off a bit of energy, get their lungs full of oxygen, and explore the morning fields which can be full of treasures, like the poor half frozen moth Andrew found.

Our Math class has not seen this much running around kind of activity in a long time. We continued our studies of 3D shapes or solids and after reviewing the ones that we already were familiar with, I launched a house-wide scavenger hunt for shapes. It was a lot of fun! We organized all of them in categories and discussed the ones that did not make the cut and why they did not suit the group (like Andrew thought his flat pillow would be a cube). 

I sound like a broken record, but I and the kids are enjoying our vocabulary learning time so much more now that we are doing it during the day. One more big benefit is that I can use the computer without much hassle to pull up pictures of objects the kids are confused about. Anything from cobblestones and wagon jacks, to dikes and stork nests on wagon wheels. Great time of reading, learning, and exploring. I have created a board on Pinterest just for that purpose. http://pinterest.com/millscreek/the-wheel-on-the-school/

Saara combined a few subjects in her reading task today. She read and followed the instructions and completed a science project about starting seeds. 

In History, Andrew got his first glimpse of the early American native tribes and the Mayan culture. He was very interested in the ball games the Mayans played. :o)

Andrew's 'morning moth'.

  

 Learning 3D shapes. On the computer I have open The 3D Sorting Activity from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Our 3D 'loot'. Saara's baseball cap does belong with the cones because it has a picture (logo) of a volcano on it.

Saara busy with her reading/reading comprehension/following instructions/science/fine motor skills task.

'12/13 Week 29 Day 2

They said it was going to rain and it did. I let the children play outside for a little while in the morning before the weather turned nasty. Any outdoor activity had to be postponed or canceled in the afternoon. That included also Andrew's baseball practice and Saaras third T-ball game.

Our school day was not much disturbed by the outside wet conditions. I was very pleased with Andrew for remembering the main facts about Alexander the Great's life. After reading a bit more about him, we watched a video about yet another wonder of the Ancient world - the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

We did a nice amount of cooking today as well. Saara read out loud a recipe for a spring salad in her High Five magazine. We are not much of asparagus eaters (at least have not been) and the kids even did not know what this funny looking vegetable was called. But they learned the name fast and also how to snap the stalks. I must say, their very first encounter with the vegetable was not a delicious kind. They did not like the dish, but I applauded them for being willing to at least try and not fuss about it. They also agreed that maybe a different recipe would work better.

The rest of the day was kind of slow, but fruitful nevertheless. 

I could not get the internet to work on the kids' computer this morning. We do rely on the technology quite a bit these days, don't we.

Snap!

Well, we could not go to the ball park this afternoon. But the kids were not too disappointed. They got a nice slice of Mom's Estonian strawberry cake at the end of the day.

'12/13 Week 29 Day 1

It was a busy day! I had no time to take pictures. I do not think, I had THAT much planned for today, but everything we did, we did it with all of our hearts and souls and minds. What is most important - we all enjoyed every minute of it. 

As I was printing out new Bible verses for Andrew and Saara, I wrote down one for me too. It has been a while since I have memorized any verses. I do it alongside with kids every week, but it would not hurt to add one more for my sake. 

Since we started Minor League and T-ball, our evenings have become very busy and our usual Read Aloud time before bed has not been happening for a while. Today, I changed the order of our Language Arts and Reading time. To incorporate the vocabulary learning and reading comprehension time in during the day made the LA time a bit longer, but it was actually more animated and active. For instance, I asked Andrew to act out words like 'to stride' or 'hobble' or 'to stand in awe', etc. Both kids thought it was a lot of fun. 
Saara's Read Aloud nursery rhyme brought us outdoors where I gave them a series of jumping directions - anything from jumping jacks to twirl and jump. 

Andrew seems to like Alexander the Great a lot. We galloped through his 13 years of conquering travels in ten minutes - it was a well presented story touching on the main points of Alexander's achievements, like the lighthouse and the library in Alexandria. We will talk more about him tomorrow, and might even watch a video about the lighthouse.

Sideways gallop.

Mid-air turn was their favorite jump. :o)

Andrew copying his new spelling words and Saara practicing her letter "R".

'12/13 Week 28 Day 4

At the end of the day I realized that today was our last day before Easter break. Sort of, I should say. Because of myriad of baseball practices, we have fallen behind with our Read Aloud books and I owe the kids a few science activities. We will be using the break to catch up on these.

Our day itself was active and short. We managed to finish our Bible reading and Reading Practice before the scheduled pest control showed up. We spent the next hour outside while the inside got prayed and dry out.  We played some baseball and then decided to take a walk to the meadow. The hour was up before we knew it.

Back inside, I found a couple of documentaries about the formation of the Paricutin volcano in Mexico. Andrew's Reading Practice book told the story of how the volcano was born. Rather interesting. 

The other captivating program Andrew and I watched was on TV and it was called "Egypt: What Lies Beneath". Can you imagine an archeologist looking up into the space instead of digging to find the treasures of time? Amazing how nowadays one can use satellites to find the lost (and forgotten) pyramids and even cities.  

And, here we go now. A week without lessons before the final leg. 10 more weeks.

Skirts, boots, and T-ball

Bubbles in the bluebonnets. Taking a break from studies and waiting for the pest control to get done.

'12/13 Week 28 Day 3

As we have loads of driving to do and places to go in coming days, I decided to skip the story time at the library and focus on school work. The more that tomorrow morning we will be ousted by pest-control for an hour or two. 
We did loads of math today - new things and old. We looked at the 'dozen', counted money, learned about the pyramid among other things. 
In History, we finally got to Alexander the Great. After reading about his father Philip and Macedonia, we watched a scene from Oliver Stone's 2004 movie "Alexander". 
And, yes, as soon as the school part of the day was over, we ran outside!

Easter comes by the DOZEN.

So, what do you do when one of the numbers is missing?

Comparing.