Week in Review

We celebrated the Light of the World.

We played Pente and Spin the Dreidel (per the kid's request).

I worked on my rug!

Hannah painted and wrote stories.

Josiah played with his dinosaurs.

And. . . we geocached!

(Ha, Ha, . . . it looks like a tiny Josiah balancing on the GPSr)

We logged the following:

1 failed attempt

9 found caches

1 mega geocoin

1 travel bug

1 letterbox

"Yes! I found two!"

Hannah's find

Interesting container

Interesting tree

Our first geocoin

Back of coin

Oh Lucky You, our first travel bug

Back of it

Peacock Place letterbox with mulitcolor stamp

Other tradable loot

"Where's the next one?'

Wordless Wednesday - Oh Deer!

"They're looking at us, Deer. Wave!"

We found this while out geocaching on Monday.

Mice in the Kitchen?

On a trip to Grandmother's

A day that was dreary

We arrived a day after Christmas

Tired and weary.

Then what to our wondering eyes

Should we see

But a red poinsetta

As big as a tree!

But that is not all

Our eyes did behold

Don't shut your ears

This story must be told.

In Grandmother's kitchen

As neat as a pin,

Was something I spied

And I had to look again!

So still and so quiet

They made not a sound

And yet I could see them

going round and round.

They circled the platter

And shone with delight

To give each passer

A shock of fright!

Oh, mice in the kitchen

I shall not complain,

Don't think me crazy

I am totally sane.

But I proceeded to pick one up

By the tail,

It gave not a squeek,

At least not that I could tell.

From chocolate to almond,

A cherry inside!

I ate all but the tail,

It was tough as hide.

I washed it all down

With lemonade and iced tea,

Then dashed away home

To write this for thee!



Wordless Wednesday - Happy Hannukah

Latkes

Josiah got to light the menorah

A Look Outside

Iris blooming in December

Wildflower

Peas in bloom

One pink pea bloom?

Nice green lettuce

No standing water on this pool cover!

The key? Height and tight!

Hope you enjoyed our little walk.

Joints and the Nervous System

After making our skeleton model, we learned about joints. We made this model. It looked like it was going to be pretty cool. Now, I'm not sure it was worth the effort.



Dysfunctional joints

 The pivot joint is suppose to show how the bones at the base of the skull work. Uh, this explains why my head spins off sometimes ( : o ).  Then, you have the ball and socket joint, as in hip, shoulder. If the pivot joint had too much movement, the ball and socket joint does not have enough. Our model only moves in two directions ( ; \ ). 

bum knee

And last, but not least, I have heard of people's knees going this direction, but it is very painful. The knee joint in our model goes forward, instead of back. Hannah pointed this out to me, and she was very disturbed by the "wrongness" of it all. Like mother, like daughter?
I believe a kinesthetic approach is better for demonstrating the movements of the joints, AND alot more fun! If you have this book, The Body Book by Donald M. Silver and Patricia J. Wynne, I recommend that you skip making this model and just let your students locate the joints on themselves and demonstrate what they can do.

Packing Party

Grab a shoe box and some wrapping paper and join us as we prepare gifts for Operation Christmas Child .

1.

Pick a box and some paper.

2.



Wrap your box

Or get Mom to help you.

3.

Fill your box with socks, pencils, paper, washclothes and soap,
candy and

TOYS!

4.

Add a note if you'd like.



5.

Label your box for a girl or boy, then add it to the stack.

6.

SMILE! You and your FCFE friends packed 80 boxes for OCC!

The story behind this event:
A member of our homeschool group organizes this every year. Last year when we met, the goal was 50 boxes, which we easily exceeded. This year it was 75. Because the interest has been so great, we had to hold it at Rockbridge Baptist Church instead of her home, this year. Throughout the year, people gather items that can be put into the boxes, so that on the day of our packing party, we can lay them out assembly line style. What fun we have!
Most of us bring a sack lunch and enjoy spending more time together, eating and talking. And the kids get some time to run around and play. Today was a beautiful day for that, too.

Hannah enjoying lunch with some of her friends.

Thanksgiving in Pictures

Family

food fresh from the kitchen

(with the exception of the turkey, which was done outside)

a walk in the woods

a nap

The Bronze Bow

We finished our first read-aloud of the year, The Bronze Bow recently. It is set during the time of the Roman Empire, in Palestine, from the perspective of an eighteen year old Galilean boy named Daniel. The only family he has is an aged grandmother and a sister, but he has left them to join a band of zealots in the hills. In this story, Daniel learns the meaning of true friendship, family loyalty, and the forgiveness and healing that Jesus brings. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this is during the time of Jesus. Does Daniel meet him? Read the book and find out for yourself.

No Bones About It

We've been making some paper models this year as we go through our science studies on the human body.
The 5 Senses
The eye
The ear
The tongue and taste buds
The Skin
They all have flaps that make them interesting. Sorry there are no pictures of all those. It would take up lots of space.
Today, we did the BONES! Fun! And I got pictures!
There is alot of cutting and taping/gluing involved. I helped cut some of Josiah's pieces to save time, but he does most of it himself. Hannah needs no help at all.
Hannah's reaction to all of this human body stuff is "Gross".
Josiah's boyish reaction is "Cool. Let's make it look spooky".

Whistle while you work

Josiah! Your eyes look just like your skeleton's

Is this Hannah's idea of a joke?

You may see these "characters" again as we will be adding things to our skeletons as we go along.

Corn Dawgs Field Trip

Today we enjoyed a trip to Corn Dawgs with some of our homeschool friends. It was a beautiful day and there was lots to do. The kids all had a blast.

Make your own photo slideshow

Thoughts for Thursday

One of the many perks of homeschooling is that my child is not confined to a desk. They can take their work anywhere. What better place than the quiet of nature to sit and compose.

Theron was actually home on this day, putting on the pool cover, and snapped this shot of our little writer.
This is what Theron was working on.

He keeps trying to come up with some way to prevent water from collecting on the pool cover. When he does, we can probably make a lot of money from his invention.