This week we had fun: learning about the Wright Brothers, writing letters, doing math, working through Explode the Code, mastering tricky spelling words, and getting our hearts ready for Easter. Come see! Pretty Easter sun catchers! I found this idea online- it went perfectly with our Resurrection Eggs! We continued watching the Decorah eagles on the eagle cam this week- even Paris enjoyed watching! A thank you letter for our friend who told us about the eagle cam. This is what we've been learning in our Singapore Math program. And here's a peek into our Explode the Code book. (LOVE this book!) Explode the Code books are very reasonably priced, and have been super beneficial to our homeschool. A special treat for our mailman. The boys spied from the window when he came to our house. They said he looked happy. The other side of the mailman's card, decorated by the Fantastic Okapi. I just noticed he made Jesus' cross green; how neat- everlasting life is found in Him! A neat Wright Brother documentary. Thank you, library! (Excuse my messy tv stand, yikes!) Some of the books we rented from the library this week. It always makes me happy when I am able to find two books that go together perfectly... I read one aloud, and the Fantastic Okapi reads the other. These two books did exactly that- yay! The boys had fun pretending to be Orville and Wilbur. Now get ready for some FUN mail! Our mailbox was bursting with treasures this week: Reading a letter from a new friend in France. (He was SO excited- it was even written in french!!) And here he is with a letter from a new friend in Nevada. He made a friendship bracelet- how fun!! He also received a letter from a new friend in Illinois- I somehow missed taking a photo of that one, bummer! This little cutie celebrated his fifth birthday this week. Time flies when you're having fun, right? Green Owl, you bring so much joy to my life. You always know how to make me laugh- you are the silliest little boy I know. You always make me feel smart with your curious questions ("Mom, what's bigger: one zero zero nine OR one zero zero six?") Your hands are always covered in marker- you're your own special rainbow. You make me the best dandelion bouquets, are always doodling happy MOM pictures, and your bright smile can light up any room. Most importantly, you love Jesus. You sing cute songs to Him, and your prayers are always overflowing with praise and thankfulness. Green Owl, I am so thankful for who God created you to be, and the silly happiness you bring to my life every day. It's a blessing to be your mama. Here's a little birthday fun: Cheers to being five! A treasure found at a local thrift store- another fun way to practice math facts. We started doing 4 day a week school, but I found the Fantastic Okapi doing this on our day off. When you homeschool, the learning never stops. :) I caught him mid-addition, heh. We were happy to see birds eating the treats we made last week, yay! They weren't poison after all. My cute little artists... ...and their beautiful masterpieces!
Happy Easter, friends. May you find time to focus on the master behind the most beautiful masterpiece this Easter: JESUS! How great is His name, He is so worthy of all of our praise.
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I love having creative boys! Our theme this week was birds. We read studied them, read about them and painted them. A friend told us about the Decorah Eagle webcam. We enjoyed watching the eagles. You can see them too: http://m.ustream.tv/decoraheagles (Go check 'em out!) We also worked on our Singapore math and Explode the Code series. We have all been battling colds this week, so we weren't able to complete all of our projects, but it was still a fun week. Here's a peek at some of the things we did this week: A few of the books we read. The book in the middle was my favorite. The Fantastic Okapi's favorite is the book that's on the couch cushion. For Social Studies, we read the story of John James Aubudon. The Fantastic Okapi like how he signed his name JJA. We also used maps to talk about places birds migrate to. We had fun making bird treats. Mr. Mustard Seed joined the fun and helped them build a bird house. Birds With Shapes tested their ability to follow directions. Overall, they did a really good job. The Fantastic Okapi's bird is on the top. The Green Owl's is on the bottom. After they finished their birds, they went crazy coloring the background! Heh. The Fantastic Okapi wrote a letter to his new penpal in Rhode Island. Before writing, he read about the state in his state book. I started using Explode the Code for spelling. It's working out REALLY well. I create our spelling list based on Explode the Code's words for the week. On the first day, the Fantastic Okapi reads the words, draws the word, spells the word and writes the word. I cut his words apart and use them as flash cards for the week. Because the words coincide with Explode the Code, he gets extra practice learning them. So far, it's been pretty super! We had a lot of fun with art! The boys worked really hard on their projects, and our new bulletin board is f.a.b.u.l.o.u.s! The templates for the birds can be found on this blog: http://learncreatelove.com/ I definitely recommend checking it out- it's bursting with creative fun! I decided to try something new this week. I encouraged the Fantastic Okapi to write a report on his favorite bird. He chose the Peregrine Falcon. We had fun researching it. After we finished our research, we created a little presentation. He REALLY enjoyed this project. I hope to make it a weekly part of our homeschool. In other news... The dogs have been enjoying time outside. We haven't been outside as much as I have hoped, mainly because of the colds we've been fighting off... but we have managed to have a little fun in the sun! Er, shade. (The sun has been pretty MIA!) And here is my 3rd student.
He likes to sit in this chair while we do school. True story! I hope ya'll are having a super week! Be sure to check back next week; we'll have adventures to share AND the Green Owl will turn FIVE! Oh my, it's been a LONG time since I've posted, hasn't it? Is anyone still there? Still reading? Still following our homeschooling journey? I hope so. After a three-ish month break, I plan to blog regularly again. Weekly updates and such. I hope you'll stick around. :) We've been keeping busy! Mid-January, I decided to stop using HOD as our curriculum. For the most part, we enjoyed our time with HOD, but we were ready for something new. HOD gave me the confidence I needed to piece together my own curriculum. I am thankful for that. And so, for the past few months, we've been on our own little journey, and it's been GREAT! The Fantastic Okapi has told me he "loves his new school!" and even wants to "do" school on weekends. Good stuff! I don't have many photos to share with you, but promise to do a better job at capturing our days in the future. For now, here's a little peek at some of the stuff we've been up to: A fun game we use to practice math facts! I numbered the inside of an egg carton and placed two fuzzy balls inside. Ashton closes the lid and shakes it up. The fuzzy balls land on 2 numbers, and he adds them together. It's pretty fun! Some of our recent art work. We rented "Our World" by Millie Miller from our local library a few months ago. AMAZING book. The Fantastic Okapi fell asleep with it every night. I researched it on Amazon and Ebay, and was happy to discover she also made a USA version. It was tricky to find both of these books- apparently there aren't many out there, but I'm happy they're part of our home library now. Our new curriculum definitely requires more prep work on my part, but it's so rewarding! We spent a few weeks traveling around the world. We studied countries, people, animals, climate. We really enjoyed our little journey! We read some great books and "met" some amazing people. We also started notebooking- a GREAT way to organize what we learn, and it makes it easy to review. And, the Fantastic Okapi LOVES notebooking! Here's a peek inside his notebook: It's Ernest Shackleton! The Fantastic Okapi re-enacted his journey with Legos, too. It was fun! Homeschool Creations has amazing country and flag pages for notebooking. We LOVE them! The Fantastic Okapi started writing to penpals. He recently sent letters to Las Vegas, New Zealand and Rhode Island. He also sent a postcrossing card to Germany. We're excitedly awaiting a letter from a new friend in France. If your child would be interested in exchanging mail, please let me know! The Green Owl has been keepin' busy too. He does his own little school. (We'll start kindergarten next year) He just about knocked my socks off today when he spelled "SEVEN" on his own. I was so surprised- I rewarded him with a jelly bean treat! And lastly, a few "fun" family photos: Thanks for taking time to ketchup, er, CATCH UP with us!
We look forward to sharing more of our days with you in the future. And, a quick little shout out to the fabulous Mrs. Sandra Helder-- if you happen to be reading this, please know I am thankful for the mail you've been sending. You will hear from me soon! |
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