Adventures in My Father's World - Last Day!

Yeah! We're done with our 180 days. Hannah is really excited about being able to wake up and just run outside and play or help me in the garden.


Here is her poster of the names of Jesus that we added to throughout the year. JESUS is the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, THE BREAD OF LIFE, THE SOLID ROCK, LIVING WATER, THE WAY, GOD WITH US, THE LAMB OF GOD, THE VINE, THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE KING OF KINGS, SAVIOUR, GOOD SHEPHERD, THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, THE WORD, THE ALPHA AND OMEGA.

Adventures - American History

This is our final week of lessons! We are actually done with these two books - American Pioneers and Patriots (fictional stories about children living in the time period) and . . .

Exploring American History (a text book style account of people and events).

We've listened to and learned some of the songs in Celebrate America this year also.
Together we've read many books from the library and watched videos about America and it's famous people. Some serious, some fun. This is America, Charlie Brown was very enjoyable for the kids.

Recently, we read a fun book called The Scrambled States of America and Hannah worked a United States foam puzzle.

Adventures - Birds

Here's a sampling of Hannah's state sheets. We put all 50 of them in sheet protectors and put them in a binder. We enjoyed learning about the state birds. Using the cards included in her curriculum as a guide, she colored the bird and flower on her sheet. She also wrote in the state's initials, the capitol city and added a sticker of the state flag.
During the winter, we kept a log of the birds we saw outside our window. Here is what we saw from most often to least often.

Black-capped chickadee / Cardinal and Tufted Titmice /American Goldfinch and Eastern Bluebird / Purple finch /House finch and House Wren / Mourning Dove and Junco /Nuthatch /Pine Sisken and Blue jay / Red-bellied Woodpecker and Downy Woodpecker



This Bird Songs book from Aunt Charlotte was fun for looking up birds and also for identifying birds that we could not see, like the barred owl that Josiah and I heard one night - Hoo, Hoo, Hoo-Hooo.

This Eyewitness Explorers book that I found at the Thrift Store is also interesting. . . . . Keep watching Wordless Wednesdays for more of our snapshots of birds.

Ephesians 4:29

Do you know what Ephesians 4:29 says? Some time back, Hannah had the assignment of putting a jumble of words together to form this passage of scripture. Josiah had his own set of words to play with, too.
Here Hannah is working at it. "Words with capitol letters probably come first and words with a period come at the end of a sentence."

Then she added her own choice of pictures. These were from when we did the story of Nabal's wife, Abigail. Anyone want to offer an application?

Josiah enjoyed using the tape roller and cutting out his own pieces.

This is how Josiah's turned out, with a picture of Timothy and another of a high priest blowing a trumpet? How do these illustrate the verse? Leave a comment.

Adventures with Magnets

This was part of our science for this year. The kids found it fascinating. The kit included cards explaining how to do each experiment and almost everything you would need.

I only got pictures of this one - showing how same poles push against each other. Wow!

Hannah is lifting the purple magnet and it is pushing the orange magnet.

This is so cool!

Read Alouds

Farmer Boy was about the life of Almonzo Wilder. He was a busy boy on a busy farm. This was a very detailed account and I found it interesting that he was always thinking about food. No wonder, he worked hard from before sunup to sundown. And the amount of food he ate was beyond my comprehension.







The Courage of Sarah Noble was the story of a girl who went with her father to cook for him as he built a house for the family. When the house was done, the girl had to stay with some indians until her father returned with the rest of the family.








Sarah Whitcher's Story is suppose to be true. A young girl wanders off and gets lost in the woods. She finds refuge with a bear (whom she mistakenly thinks is her big furry watchdog from home) Attempts to find her are futile until a stranger comes, who has had a dream revealing her whereabouts. Thanks are given to God, because He has answered their prayers through this stranger.








On the Banks of Plum Creek is about the Ingalls family's life on the open plains. When they first arrive, they move into an underground house. In time, a house is built and pa hopes to make money with the crops he grows. Laura and her sisters have a lot of fun and adventures.
Hard times do come though, storms and locusts (angry grasshoppers), and discouragement, and pa has to go miles away for work because the crops have failed.




Sarah, Plain and Tall surprised me. I had heard of it, but never read it. Didn't even know what it was about. Starts out sad. The mom had died and the dad has put out an ad for a new wife, someone to raise the children. Sarah answers the ad and moves a long way from her home to come and see if she is up to the task. Well, the children love her and want her to stay, but are unsure if she will stay. Sarah has a love for the sea (where she came from) and wonders if she will be happy so far from it.





Mountain Born was my favorite. I love stories about sheep and shepherds. Life raising sheep was vividly portrayed in these pages and the relationship between the boy and his special lamb, Biddy, I found very touching.









In Grandma's Attic is full of life lessons told to a granddaughter. In each short chapter, a wise old grandmother shares the mistakes she's made growing up to the delight of the listener.







I've enjoyed reading these books to my children this year. Of course, I won't stop reading during the summer. We may go back to reading The Boxcar Children books that we started last summer.

Adventures in My Father's World - Part 2

Since Part 1 was about the beginning of our year of homeschooling, maybe Part 2 can be about the finishing of our homeschool year. So here goes - We waited toward the end of the year to let Hannah try out these CD-ROM games that we picked up last year at the conference. Oregon Trail and Liberty Kids (included together in this History Pack)

They are recommended for 9 years and up. Hannah played Liberty Kids first. In this game you are a reporter and you must gather information about historical events by "talking" to people that you meet. Some information is pertinent and some is not. The player must decide. When they think they have enough data, they return to the printing office, run by Benjamin Franklin and select the items that will be published. At this point, the game will let you know if you have chosen the correct facts. You can proceed to choose a picture and a title for your article and even print it out if you wish. For example, the first job is to report on the Boston Tea Party. Hannah really enjoyed this game and it was a good review of what she had learned earlier in the year. There was also an interesting aspect of the game - some people would not give you information unless you find certain objects and bring them to that person.

Oregon Trail is a much more challenging game. You are a pioneeer in the 1850s setting out across the frontier. You start by choosing what you will take with you, then joining a wagon train out west. Along the way, you encounter hardships (mosquitos, sickness, animal bites, extreme cold, dust from other wagons, etc.) and can "ask" for advice on how to best handle them. There are forts, indians, trading post, and towns along the way to help you. You must take advantage of hunting and fishing and gathering as you go, to keep your supply of food from dwindling. You can also ration food, trade with other pioneers and indians, and set your pace of travel. When you come upon a fork in the road, it is wise to check the guide book. There may be more to this game than what we have figured out so far. I have been playing it with Hannah and I even find it difficult. Word of warning - the pictures are realistic looking and although there is nothing gruesome, people die (it shows a picture of pioneers at a grave) from infection, starvation, thirst, and unknown diseases. We have never made it to Oregon in the short time we have been playing, which is quite discouraging. When your character dies (pretty depressing, huh) you have to start all over again. So what is good about this game? You learn that pioneer life was HARD! Also you learn what plants are edible and which ones are poisonous. You're traveling through places that you may have read about in your studies. As you "talk" to people and watch the intermittent animated stories that pop up at intervals you learn more about history.

January Days

It's kind of hard to remember the colder days of winter - playing indoors with the dog . . .

. . . doing school work and reading on the couch . . . with Little Lady, of course. . .

. . . recess when the weather permits . . . soaking in the sun through turtlenecks. . .

. . . and more fun school . . . . like picking cotton . . . what? Yes, picking cotton! Well, actually they were cotton balls that I had glued cardboard seeds into for the kids to TRY to pick out.

They each had only one ball each to do and it took quite a while. This was suppose to allow them to see how hard it was before the cotton gin was invented. I think it worked.

Quill Pen Writing

Back when the Declaration of Independence was written, there were no ball-point pens. What did they use? Quill pens, of course.

I bought craft feathers, cut the tip at a slant and then made a slit at the end where it would touch the paper. I did not make ink from berry juice. I think I used food coloring. It worked alot better than I thought it would. Dip and draw!

Adventures - Farm days

In October 2008, we took a tour of McDaniel Farm Park. The guides showed us tools and things that were used and gave us a tractor ride, but nothing can beat the ANIMALS! They indulged us and let us visit the farm animals twice on this day. There was a pony, a cow, a pig, some ducklings and other fowl, a sheep, a goat, and cuddly soft bunnies. This goat was so wonderful and did not seem to mind at all the attention Josiah bestowed on it.

Hannah liked the bunnies best and could have sat all day just holding a bunny, I think. She was very good-natured that day, though and allowed others a turn as well. We did not know the other people on the tour with us that day, but they were a well-behaved bunch. No running and chasing animals.

Josiah, do you like the bunnies, too?

Adventures - Set Sail

The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria are ready to set sail . . . across the "ocean blue"? . . . .
For us, it was a nice September day and we were able to go outside and really enjoy this activity.
The boats are made out of aluminum foil, craft clay, pencils for masts, and a paper sail with the name written on it. Hannah was able to do it with very little help. She did find out that if you use too much clay the ship will sink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Ready, set, go!

Adventures - Names

Before we began our study on the names of Jesus, we talked about how important a name is.
Then we made name cookies.


Hannah diligently worked on hers and Josiah even tried his hand at it!

We used sugar cookies and wrote on them with food coloring markers.

I also wrote to them in their mother/daughter and mother/son journal about their name and why we chose it.

Adventures in My Father's World - Part 1

Day 1 -

Let them eat cake! Since we would be studying American History, why not start out the year with a red, white, and blue treat. This was suggested in our curriculum.

Start with pound cake, smother with whipped cream, and let the kids decorate and eat
their handiwork.

I think Josiah enjoyed his! And Hannah was well pleased with hers also.

Hannah began learning the Pledge of Allegiance, too. We were off to a good start.