Give Thanks To The Lord

This week we began our Thanksgiving study with "Give Thanks To The Lord." A book Luke loved reading over and over again. He enjoyed counting the many "Sarah Dogs" throughout the book. He pointed out that the illistrations had to been done with pencil because they had so much detail. It hit me at that moment, WOW he really is learning! We discovered many new vocabulary words and just enjoyed our cuddle time together reading and laughing. Our Bible lesson was on my favorite verse, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine..." I think this lesson was for me more than for him. My Mom had some test ran this week and we are still awaiting the results and I need to remember this verse! We continued our RME and MUS lessons for reading and math and he is catching on quickly. It was a fast blurry week with lots of running around for others and just spending time together. There were no fits or tears, and for this I have a merry heart!

November 3-7, 2008

We are going back to FIAR this week. We will row "Another Celebrated Dancing Bear" by Gladys Scheffrin-Faulk. For social studies we will learn about Russia, the culture, the onion domes, and the circus, of course. We will also have a lesson on friendship and discuss what it means to be a good friend. During language arts we will discover new vocabulary from our story; occupation, czar, elegant, glum, samovar, magnificent, jealous, audience, marvelous, pyramid, comical. We will dramatize the following words and phrases from the story; applauded, bowed, beamed, drew near, giggling, chattering, mopping his brow, kicking during dancing, and leaping. Our art lesson will b eon etching and warm colors. During math this week we will continue addition with MUS and revisit the theme of time. (seconds to minuets to hours to days to weeks to months to years) Our Bible lesson this week will be about David and Johnathan. This will allow us to reiterate the theme of friendship. We will do an experiment about freezing and boiling points for our science exploration. We will also continue our reading lessons with RME.

Books We Will Read This Week:

How the Tzar Drinks His Tea by Benjamin Elkin

Count your way through Russia by James Haskins
The magic nesting doll by Jaqueline K Ogburn
The etcher's studio by Arthur Geisert
Russian girl : life in an old Russian town by Russ Kendall
Berlioz the bear by Jan Brett
The mission of addition by Brian P Cleary
Ninjas don't bake pumpkin pies by Debbie Dadey

This Week @ K5 In Our Cozies........

This week we are studying PUMPKINS, what else? We have many fun activities planned. We kicked off our week of pumpkin study by carving our very own jack o' lantern. Luke picked this kitty pumpkin off the cover of one of the many pumpkin books we checked out from the library. Travis drew and carved it almost exactly like the one depicted on the cover of that book. Luke was very excited when we took it outside and lit it up. It was truly adorable. The rest of the week should be just as much fun. Here is a list of our plans;

Language Arts: We will begin "Reading Made Easy" for our journey in learning to read! We also will revisit simile's and create our very own pumpkin simile's. We will read many books about pumpkins. We also have a lower case pumpkin vine activity.

Social Studies: We will discuss the holidays we celebrate and why, as well as what happens on the special days. We will have a generosity lesson after reading, "Pumpkin Town" by Katie McKey. We will also have activities to work on etiquette and social skills! ( much needed at this age! LOL!)

Math: We will review "unit bars" and then begin our lessons on addition and it's symbols in our Math U See curriculum. We will use candy pumpkins to continue our addition study. YUMMY fun! We have a "complete the pumpkin pattern" page to complete. We will also use 3 small gourd pumpkins and compare them by weighing them and measuring the circumference of each.

Bible: We will copy and discuss the verse Zech. 8:12 and how our Lord blesses the seeds to bring forth an increase. we will discuss the awesome creator and how he takes a tiny seed to care for us!

Art: We will carve, paint, and decorate pumpkins. We will also create a monster bag for trick or treating. We will also decorate cup cakes!

Science: We will study pumpkins by classifying them, learning the life cycle, and the many different ways we can use them.

Cooking: We will roast pumpkin seeds, bake and decorate Halloween cup cakes that correspond with all of our October lessons. We will make spiders, bats, owls, and pumpkins with our dear HS fiends the Ray's!

On Fri. night we will visit Kevin, Stacy, & Skyler's house for hot dogs, cup cakaes, and trick or treating!! Luke plans to be Luke Skywaker for his costume, custom made by GrandJo, of course!!

Our Study Of "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen

This week we continues our journey with another mysterious creature, the owl. This is one of Luke's favorite animals. We have had a grand time discovering yet another one of God's awesome creations! Below is a list of our activities from this week
Social Studies: We learned where New Jersey is on the US map, placed our story disk, and colored a picture of the state flag, bird, and flower.
Language Arts: We discussed simile's and metaphors from the story and created some of our own. We read a poem "The Owl"and then Luke dictated an owl story of his own.
Art: We discussed the tree's and shadow work used by the illustrator in the book. We tried to draw one of the trees and then made a bare tree on paper by blowing black paint with a straw. We also made an owl mask and Luke acted out a mother owl caring for her owlets.
Math: We discussed units of time and made a clock Luke with a minuet and hour hand. Luke practiced telling time with his new clock. We also went on a "time piece" hunt to discover the many ways we tell time in our home. We experimented and guessed how long a minuet was. We did activities and timed them to drive home the point of the length of time. We also worked on number recognition and writting numbers.

Bible: We learned about the CREATOR and how marvelous his works are! We read Psalm 136 & Psalm 8:3-4
Science: We studies the owl and the many fascinating facts about this animal. We are thankful they eat a lot of rats!! We also learned about the phases of the moon and manipulated felt "moons" to better understand this concept.
Other: We had an owl maze. We also read books on scarecrows and did a scarecrow craft. Luke created new binnacles and gave them all names and practiced writting the names for some hand writing practice. He also played Jump Start Kindergarten to work on his phonics.
It was another fun filled busy week here!

Why Fall Is My Favorite TIme of Year!

Psalms 33:6

By the word of the Lord

were the heavens made;

and all the host of them by

the breath of his mouth!

Monday October 20, 2008 our family went to Sky op Orchard in Hendersonville, N.C. It was a sort of "impromptu" trip where my brothers, sister in law and nephew, Benjamin got to go. It was an absolute perfect fall day! The morning was complete with fresh warm apple cider donuts, apple picking, feeding farm animals, and a hay ride. We finished the day with barbecue and a visit with Daddy in Black Mountain. Although the visit wasn't perfect it felt good to be together as a family since this happens so rarely now. I could say a lot about it but I will let the pictures speak for me this time.

This Week at K5 In Our Cozies

We will continue our "creepy crawly" October theme this week with "Stellaluna". This is a story about a fruit bat who doesn't fit in to her new found family of birds. Below are th eubjects that we will study.
Social Studies: We will discuss adapting and the feelings experienced in this book
Language Arts: We wail discuss and explain what a simile and onomatopoeia are. We will discuss some grammar and show that the capitalization of names and other proper nouns. We will also look at the very descriptive language used in this book to paint a picture of the happenings in the story. Do reading comprehension book.
Vocabulary; clutched, downy, clambered, anxious, peculiar, perched, sultry, limp, babble, graceful, clumsy, and muse
Math: Count all the bats, birds, stars through out the story. Bat dot to dot. Continue MUS lessons.
Gross Motor: "Fly" like bats & sing "The Batty Bat"
Art: Discuss the medium used in the illustrations and weather they are like cartoons or realistic. Make an egg carton bat craft.
Science: Bats, predators, defenses from them, echolocation. Classification of herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores

Where has the time gone? It is the middle of October and I haven't blogged in quite some time!! Life has been happeining and at a very high pace around here. So far this month we have studied one of Luke's least favorite spiecies, spiders! He hates them. We read "Sophie's Masterpiece" and pulled our other lessons out of this book with the help of HSS. For Social Studies we delved into the 7 wonders of the world and speculated how thses this could have come to pass. We attempted a few of them with blocks as well. We made an "Itsy Bitsy" spider book in the correct sequence of the song. We also had fun singing and acting out the song! We had a long list of new vocabulary words; wondorus, incredible, masterpiece, swatted, scampered, scuttled, exhausted, and wonderment. We made a list of all of Spohie's homes and what gift she tried to make each owner. We also had a review of personification. On Wed. we discussed and discoverewd the art of weaving. We weaved a placemat with orange and yellow consruction paper then laminated it, Luke was quite pround. We also had a discussion on "masterpieces" and we explored some of the famous masterpieces. His favorite was "Jungle With A Lion" by Rousseau. His least favorite was Mona Lisa by da Vinci. We discussed the geometric shapes in the webs the spider spun. We continued to work with MUS building in the concepts of units and combining them. We made spider webs with plastic spiders on them and Luke even decided to draw a few spiders himself even though they are not his favorite thing. The coolest thing is that there is a gardern spider right outside our living room window that has been busy weaving and eating in preperation for her babies!!

"The Salamander Room"

This week as we do K5 in our "cozies" we are visiting "The Salamander Room" by Anne Mazer. We will discuss the relationship between a mother and her child and share some of our childhood fantasies together. For language arts we will do a list of the perfect ingredients needed for the salamander room. We will create our very own salamander room and we will make salamanders out of dough then bake, dry, and paint them as a family. We will practice our "Ss" sounds and practice writing them as well. We will look for and count the many critters that fill the pages of this book. We also have a butterfly maze to conquer.We will take a nature walk to Pope Field and taken in all of God's fabulous creations. We will do leaf and trunk rubbings and discuss texture.We will do a salamander study, classify the salamander, and go through the life cycle of a salamander. We revisited the theme of dry and wet measure while making the dough for our salamanders. It should be an exciting trip through "The Salamander Room."

Our Fantastic Field Trips

This week Travis took the week off and we planned some educational field trips. Our original plan was to heat to Charleston, S.C. to Patriots Point and to the beach. When hurricanes Ike hit Texas and gas rose to near $4 - $5 a gallon we decided to stay closer to home. We took a shorter drive to Coulmbia Childrens Museum and the Columbia Zoo. As we planned our trip and shared the news with Luke he excitedly said, "Mommy the museum will be great for our human body study!" It was so relaxing just to get away and be together as a family and watch Luke LOVE TO LEARN!!

The museum was much better than we expected! We spent 3 hours there! There was so much to see and do, so many opportunities for hands on learning! We started the exploration at the larger than life "Ed~Venture". Where we climbed around inside the body of a boy complete with sound effects of bodily functions and a journey through the major body systems. It made our lessons from last week come to life in a way we will never forget. From there we went to explore bones, joints, and the functions of the skeletal system. There was a mock dentist office where Luke got to play the role of the dental hygienist. There was also a huge "operation" game where we pretended to be surgeons and remove the bones and organs of the patient. We got to test our heart rates, blood pressures, and oxygen saturation's. Next we were off to the Dinner. It was a kichen full of foods, pots, pans, and even a cash register where Luke pretended to swipe our credit card for payment. There was a video of the digestive system. Here we reviewed the food groups and classified the different foods. From here we went to the work place stations. We began in the Piggy Supermarket where there were shelves full of groceries, miniature shopping carts and even cash registers! It was the cutest thing! Luke loved picking out his own groceries complete with his own birthday cake and donuts. Next we were off to the farm complete with farm sounds, a tractor, a cow to milk, as well as peaches to pick from the trees. There was also a "farm house" with big white rockers on the porch. Then it was time for the Dalmatian Firs station where Luke donned his fireman coat and boots and prepared to rescue people and put out fires. There was a real fire truck where he and Travis pretended to drive and save me from a fire. Near the end of this exhibit there was a fireman pole that Luke slid down repeatedly. The third stop was an automotive area with a bright red VW Bug for the children to play and put gas in. In this are there was also an SUV replica on the wall with tires that we could change. So Luke got his first lesson on how to change a tire. Lastly in this section we moved on to the construction area. Here Luke got to build a LEGO building as tall as him, so pluming, and even build a "brick" wall. There was also large walls with huge nuts and bolts where we built a cube big enough for Luke to fit in. The next adventure in the museum took us all the way to Timbuktu! There too were many interactive exhibits that took us net fishing, camel riding, living in a thatched roof house and even playing percussion with an African band. This area was complete with an explores vest and camel to climb on back of. There was even a room where we could write our names in the Arabic language.

Next was the news station and weather center where we pretended to do the news. There was a music room with many interactive things to do in the world of sound. The last adventure was the water and bubble exhibit. There were tons of ways to make bubbles of all sizes. There was also a mock river system complete with a dam and fountain system all workable by the children.

There was fun and learning for kids of all ages and we will go back again!

We stayed the evening at the Hyat Place and hung out and played together as a family. The next morning we were off to the Columbia's River Banks Zoo, a place that we frequent often. It is one of our favorite day trips. All of the animals were extremely active that day. It was a joy to watch God's wonderful creation!

We were all exhausted and ready to return home after our action packed two days. We were all so thankful for our time together as a family! We feel so blessed to have this opportunity to be together. Thank you Lord.

A Sunny Surprise

This weekend I came down with a nasty bladder infection and I felt awful! On Sunday my fellas went to church while I stayed home to continue to recover. Around 12 pm I hear the car doors slam, so I went to the door to welcome my sweet boys home. When I opened the door to my surprise I saw my little prince charming running as fast as he could with a bright yellow bundle of gerber daisies!! WOW! What a way to make me feel better!! I also got a bar of dark chocolate and was quickly informed I had to share that treat right away. "It's DARK chocolate Mommy", Luke announced proudly! What wonderful men God has blessed me with. I am so thankful Travis took the time to teach Luke the sweet lesson of blessing the lady in his life (for now) with such a sweet sunny surprise!

"Amazing Me!"

This week we take break from the FIAR titles and do a lap book from www.homeschoolshare.com on the human body. Here http://www.homeschoolshare.com/my_body.php

Objectives this week~Learn and sequence steps for brushing teeth.~Match number symbols to corresponding number of body parts.~Explore steps for healthy living.~Sort food into the proper food group – fruit, vegetable, meat, dairy, and grain.~Listen to exercises and perform the corresponding movement.~Memorize Psalm 138:14.~Solve the body part riddles.~Learn the color of your eyes and identify other objects that exemplify the same color.~Use fine motor skills to cut and paste.~Reciting and sing poems and songs related to the body~identify major organs and discuss thier function~explore God as th ecreator of man, In HIS image! Above Luke is working on a life size "Luke" drawing and placing lables on all the major parts of the body. As we started this project Luke said, "This IS awesome!" This is a subject I LOVE so I think my enthusiastic attitude is rubbing off!

Night Of The Moonjellies

This week Sept. 2-4 we are continuing or sea life journey by rowing "Night of the Moonjellies" by Mark Shasta. During Social Studies we will learn the states that make up New England and discuss where they got the name, "New England". We will place our story disk on the New England states and discover what part of the USA they are located. For Language arts we will contrast the two words frenzy and peaceful and find examples of these in our story. Our vocabulary words are; marina, pier, and moonjellies. We will make a list and add to it with each reading of the story of the many food items served in the story by the sea. For art we will discuss and look for examples of how the illustrator, also Mark Shasta, uses different shades of blue to show dark and light in his pictures. During our FIAR math study we will learn about money and the different denominations of US currency and coins. Our Bible lesson will be on responsibility and how God expects us to do all things as unto HIM. Our Science study will be on jelly fish, of course. We will read several books on jelly fish and discuss the many fascinating facts about these jellies. We will make a "life at the sea" flap book that describes the things that we can experience by the sea when using our 5 senses. For this we will also read, "The Sea Shore Noisy Book" to give us more ideas. This should be another fascinating week of sea life discovery! The picture above is from last weeks study on "Nico's Octopus" where we had school, "under the sea"!

My $12 Find!

This past Sat. I went with my sister in law and BFF, Stacy to yard sales. This was the find. An antique floor lamp for $12. It was in the garage at one of the sales we went to and we were unsure if it was even for sale, but Stacy, the bargain hunter, asked the man about it for herself. She had just bought another one recently and decided she did not need another one. I told her if she didn't want it I did. So that was it! It was mine! My favorite flower is a tulip and now I have one that will never wilt! It gives off the most beautiful ambient glow! Yeah me!!

I have the Net again!

Last Wed. our Internet went out! I had just said the Sunday before that I could not live a week without the computer. What I should have said was I could not live without the Internet! I had no idea how much I use it! Tonight out Internet company came out and got us up and running in a short time! YEA!! My family is all so excited we each are surfing at the same time! We are blessed to have such awesome technology at our finger tips!

Our Latest Family Members

Today we received an email from my neighbor

to ask if we wanted 2 beta fish. Luke was so excited, so of course we accepted. Here they are, aren't they a couple of beauties? We decided as a family to name the "dark" one Anakin and the orange one Obiwan. We we will call them Anie and Obi for short. They are a unique presence there on our coffee table. Thank you Ms. Donna for or for our fun surprise.

"Nico's Octopus" by Caroline Pitcher and Nilesh Mistry

This is the title we will explore this week. (Aug.25-29, 2008) The story takes place in Greece. We will locate Greece on the map and discuss the customs of this unique place. Our science study will be on the octopus, what else? We will discuss the many fascinating traits of this animal and it's classification. We will discuss the animals amazing creator and how His design gives the octopus may ways of defense. We will also explore the sacrifice and commitment of the octopus mother and draw parallels between them and human mothers. We have National Geographic's "Deep Sea Dive" dvd which we will view over and over again! LOL! For our Math studies we will learn about the prefix "octo" and some of it's uses. We will also discuss odd and even numbers and color an octopus to enhance this lesson. We will also continue lesson 10 from our Math U See curriculum. For our snack and art we will make an octopus out of marshmallows, pretzels, and gel icing for the eyes.(both cute & yummy). (see picture above)

Mary Anne the Steam Shovel

Today we continued our studies with "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel". We began our day on the deck because it was such a perfect morning. The weather was beautiful. We enjoyed listening to the book on CD with bag pipe and symphony music in the background. Luke discovered a dot to dot of Mary Anne on the CD jacket cover, so I made a copy and he completed it. After that he wanted to color the Mary Anne from the dot to dot. He completed picture with a drawing of Mike Mulligan at her side. Luke even illustrated dirt coming from her mouth and a large hole in the ground that the old steam engine had dug. Next, we moved our lesson from the table to the sandbox and played with our very own Mary Anne, even though she wasn't the color red. Luke created one story after another with Mike, a lego man in overalls, and his trusty steam shovel. He constructed roads, cellars, canals, and more. As we played we were able to discuss many aspects of the story like how Mike took great care of Mary Anne and how she was able to keep on working despite being old. We discussed how God wants us to take care of the things he gives us. We also thought about how even when things grow old they are still useful and God still has a plan for them, just like when Mary Anne was used at the end of the story as a furnace instead of being thrown away with all the other steam engines.
We continued our studies with a geography lesson; learning the cardinal signs of the map, North, East, South, West. Luke completed a map of the imaginary town from our story, Popperville.
It was such a joy to be with Luke this morning and watch him learn to love learning! We were in God's creation learning and taking in our very own beautiful back yard. As we played we saw a flock of geese fly overhead and we speculated on where they were headed. We also saw a monarch butterfly and wanted it to land so we could get a picture of it. There was a fairly good sized lizard with a blue tail that ran up the wall as we dug through the sand toys. It was just a banner day at our little school of one! Perhaps the greatest fun of all was watching our crazy dog Sarah run as fast as she could through the yard with her big goofy grin!! We pretended she was Mary Anne and was digging and working as fast as she could and she seemed to play along running faster and faster as we cheered!! This was a great day of love, laughter, and learning!! Thank you Lord for this awesome opportunity! May we have many more days like this one! We are still enjoying k5 in our cozies!

Blessings from above

Today I worked at the out patient clinic here in Easley. God chose to remind me throughout the day how blessed our family was in September of last year. I treated several patients with major injuries leaving them in severe pain and disability after car and motorcycle accidents. I felt it was God's way of gently reminding me of His mercy and grace throughout Travis' devistating car crash and through the past 10 months. I want to praise the Lord today for a husband who can still work, live, and laugh after what could have been a fatal incident. Thank you Lord for his healing and for showing me today your awesome power once again!