Starting the Year Off Right

 It was a bit of a challenge getting back to the books today, but we made it.

The best part was probably our read aloud, Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John. I remember seeing it on television years ago. I don't remember it having a Christian theme, but the book definitely does. The issues of salvation and forgiveness are dealt with in a way that kids can really understand. Mine get excited about me reading the next chapter.

Another thing my kids get excited about is helping in the kitchen, so I let Josiah assist with making potato soup tonight. It was not planned, it just sort of happened. I asked him to bring me some potatoes and afterwards he wanted to hand each one to me to peel and chop. Then he wanted to add them to the pot. Then he wanted to help with the stirring and adding other ingredients. He never left me and kept talking about how yummy it was going to be.



 Hannah came in and I got her to wash the dishes that were in the sink while we cooked. She actually likes doing this, too. I like it when a plan comes together (not what happened this time, because I did not plan it), but I also like it when people just come along and offer to help.

Hannah, Please Help Me with My Math

 Hi, would you like to do some math? We have picture cards that represent ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands. I will be the teacher. Say you have 2,475 and 3,645. When you combine them you have 5 thousands, 10 hundreds, 11 tens, and 10 ones. We can't write the number like that. If one of our sections has a 2 digit number, we have to trade to make it 1 digit. In the above picture we have traded our 10 ones for a ten, making our tens a whopping 12! We need to do some more trading.

 Okey, that's good. You traded 10 of your tens for a hundred. Now we have 11 hundreds. Do we need to do moe trading? Yes! You can trade 10 of your hundreds for a thousand leaving you with 6 thousands, 1 hundreds, 2 tens, and zero ones. In other words 6,120. Good Job!

 Do you want to play again?

A Winter Smilebox

This photo album generated with Smilebox

Wordless Wednesday - How to Stay Warm on a Cold Day

Thanksgiving 2010

Create your own free digital slideshow

Josiah's Bike Riding Tutorial

Josiah recently learned how to ride his bike with just a little instruction and some practice. I wanted to get a video and was not expecting a tutorial as well. But I'm not surprised. I hope that you can tell that his speech has improved also. Since he goes to speech therapy and is encouraged to practice his speech, I think he takes it seriously and literally. He seems to be the most outspoken person in our family right now.

Hope you enjoy this video!

My Father's World - Nature Study

Before the weather got too chilly, we gathered on the deck and made nature journals. Using needle and thread we sewed together brown packing paper (recycling).

We read about trees and identified some of the trees in our yard.

Josiah really enjoyed doing this.

















Hannah had picked up a Junior Ranger book when we went to the Indian Mounds and has been doing some of the activities in it.

She began entering things in her nature journal right away.












Then we had the opportunity to go on a field trip with an expert. The weather had turned colder, but we headed out anyway.

She taught the kids how to identify trees by their shape, bark, leaves and fruit. They learned about conifers, animal homes, and got to play a game.

Josiah has to get to know the tree while blindfolded, then find the tree again after taking off the blindfold. It's harder than it looks. Then the kids gathered leaves to identify using field guides.

All of the kids seemed to like the cottonwood leaf. It was big and almost heart shaped. The second most chosen was the sweet gum, probably for its star shape.

On our walk, Josiah spotted these bugs on a pine tree. Do you know what they are?

Next we made plaster casts of tree bark, starting with pressing
clay into the bark.

The edges of the clay were turned up and plaster was poured in. We took it home to let it harden and then we peeled the clay away. Alot of fun things for a nature study day!