January Cloverbud 4 H Meeting

For the last several years, for our January meeting Ms. Linda from  Arkansas Game and Fish has come and presented a program for us.  In the past we have done: Arkansas Fur-bearers, Bears, Turkey, and White Tail Deer.  This year our program was on Arkansas Endangered Species.

They started out by doing a demonstration on what happens when a species starts dying out in higher then ordinary numbers and how that can lead to becoming endangered.  They talked about the different things that can cause a species to become endangered and what kinds of things we can do to prevent a species from becoming endangered.  Then they split up into 5 teams and did some riddles to try and guess which Arkansas endangered animals she was talking about.  After that they did a coloring page about an endangered beetle.

We had a pretty good turnout for the meeting 15 children counting siblings and that was with two of mine missing.  Next month we are doing a program on kitchen science.

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The Unstoppable Winner Is......

Jessica!

Congrats Jessica!  Check your email!

Thanks to those who entered!

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Homeschool Wrap Up Week 21

We had a bit of an off week this week.  Art was out of town for several days which doesn't affect school time but does have an affect on our days.  Then we have had this bug running through our house.  Christian started it last week with a low grade temp, headache, runny nose, and cough (he still has all but the temp over a week later)  then Anthony had the same symptoms starting Tuesday afternoon.  Emelia started complaining of headache Tuesday night with no other symptom but fever and so did Lily.  Nick and Alex both started sneezing and sore throat but no fever.  By Wednesday morning the girls and Anthony's fevers were gone.  Thursday everyone seemed to be ok (still runny noses on the boys) and Chelsea had a meeting so we went to town, dropped her off and grabbed some books from the library.  Then I ran into Walmart for a few quick things while they stayed with Nick in the van.  We ran through the drive through, picked Chelsea up, and headed for home.  Friday morning both the girls woke up with fever again and sore throats and runny noses. Anthony got a strange rash on his face and Chelsea developed cold symptoms.  My children don't get sick very often, but when they do, they do it well :( .  But really I am very thankful it wasn't more serious, although I am so ready for these bugs to get out of my house!  They are still coughing and sneezing but all the fevers seem to be gone.

So all this to say we did not get much done this week.  Our morning school work stayed mostly the same.  Anthony was excused the days he wasn't feeling well.  Lily would've been too, but she was insistent that she wanted to do the Bible lesson in the mornings.  We did not work at all on our Land Animals lapbook for this week but hopefully can get it done next week.  Nick and Alex did their normal morning and afternoon school work.  Christian and Anthony did not do Spelling/Reading all week long.  The girls did not do any work except Bible and they did do an Adventus Piano lesson one day, and made their ABC Snack although they didn't eat much of it.

I just love watching them work together!

We did start a little bit on a new review.  Mango Languages has a homeschool edition and there over 60 languages to choose from including Pirate!  Chelsea started working on the Russian and Nick took a look at the Latin.  This week we are also going to try German, Chinese, and Pirate.

While we were at the library, I was looking for some Civil War era books for the younger children.  I am reading aloud Across Five Aprils to the older children and it is a bit heavy.  There is not much historical fiction on the Civil War for younger elementary.  I did borrow Civil War on Sunday (Magic Treehouse) from a friend and picked up a few reference books on the Civil War that has a lot of pictures of uniforms, weapons, etc..and one about the Underground Railroad.  We will be taking a look at those this week.

Hopefully everyone will be back to normal this week!

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!

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Review: Princess Ever After by Rachel Hauck

One of the biggest benefits to reviewing books (besides of course getting to read great books!) is that I have discovered some fantastic authors that I may never have otherwise.  Rachel Hauck is one of those authors.  I absolutely loved her book The Wedding Dress that I reviewed back in 2012, so when I was browsing for a new book to review and noticed her name again, I knew I would be interested in reviewing the new book.  Except, when I read the book description for Princess Ever After, I saw that it was part of the Royal Wedding Series and it was the second book.  I requested the book anyway knowing that it would take a little while for it to come, and in the meantime bought the first book, Once Upon a Prince and loaded it on to my Nook.  The first book was wonderful and I couldn't wait for Princess Ever After to arrive.

Regina has begun her new life.  She gave up her career as a CPA and started a business doing what she loves, restoring old cars.  But, her plans are turned upside down when Tanner Burkhardt, the Minister of Culture for the Grand Duchy of Hessenberg arrives in Tallahassee with unbelievable information and a request.  He says she is a long lost princess and he needs her to return to Hessenberg with him to take her place and save her country's independence.  Regina is overwhelmed and doesn't know what to do.  She likes her life the way it is and doesn't want to move over 4,000 miles and be put in charge of a country that she knows nothing about.  With the help of Tanner , who has his own fear of failure to overcame, she makes the journey to Hessenberg only to discover that there is an opponent that wishes to abolish the throne forever.  Is she meant to restore an ancient nation, or ancient cars? Together, with a little divine intervention they discover Regina's true heritage and the healing power of true love.

I loved it!  Everyone needs a happily ever after story.  Princess Ever After is a great romantic, modern day fairy tale. Women all over the world have dreamed that they really were long lost princesses.  In this story the dream comes true.  But along with the dream comes a lot of reality.  Even though becoming a princess sounds like a dream come true, for Regina it meant walking away from everything she has ever known into a world she has never known and facing an enormous responsibility without knowing if it was the right thing to do.  Plus it came with a bit of mystery. Why didn't her grandmother or her mother ever tell her the truth?  What were they hiding and why?  Regina has to face these things and figure out what plans God has for her life.  Tanner feels like he is a failure who can do nothing right.  Yet, he takes on the task of bringing the princess home and helping her figure out where she belongs while along the way finding out a lot about himself and rediscovering his faith in God.  We can all see parts of ourselves in Reggie and Tanner.  I loved their characters and how they changed throughout the story.

If you are looking for a great,Christian,  lighthearted, romantic, fairy tale, you will love Princess Ever After. For me,one of the tests between liking and loving a book is if I want to read it more than once.  If I just like it, I won't, but books I love I read multiple times.  I will be reading the books in the Royal Wedding series more than once. I highly recommend them and other books by Rachel Hauck.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Princess Ever After for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

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Review: Smitten Book Club

Book Description

 "Consider that your beau is like a coveted novel whose compelling first lines you’ve just begun to read.” —A Gentlewoman's Guide to Love and Courtship

 At a rummage sale, Heather, a member of the Fireside Book Club, discovers a turn-of-the-century romantic advice book written by a once-famous Smitten, Vermont, resident. When she shares the precious volume with her friends in the club, they find clues about a hidden treasure rumored to be buried in their tiny town. 

As Heather, Abby, Lia, and Molly take turns reading the book, each projects onto it her own literary tastes. Heather sees it as a mystery. Abby discovers delicious dashes of Jane Austen. Lia sees in it the idealism of a bygone day. And Molly just wishes they'd made the book into a movie!

 One by one, each of the women finds romantic love—often in spite of the historic book’s advice. And in searching for the legendary gold, the friends discover the best kind of treasure. The kind that brings hope and healing to each of their hearts."

The Smitten Book Club is the third book in the Smitten Series written by Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, and Diann Hunt.  Each of the books takes place in a little town called Smitten Vermont.  Each of the authors writes a section of the story dealing with one of the characters.  Each of the three books focuses on different sets of characters although you do see some familiar faces in each of the books.  Because of this, you really do not have to have read prior books to read the Smitten Book Club, but if you are like me, you will not want to start a series in the middle and will want to go back and read Smitten and Secretly Smitten before diving into Smitten Book Club.

This book focuses on 4 friends: Heather, Abby, Lia, and Molly.  At the beginning of the book, Molly looses her husband and the town rallies around her to find ways to help and support this young widow and her child.  The first section, Love by the Book is Heather's part of the story. She will do whatever it takes to help her friend, but can she trust an old love her broke her heart?  The second part of the book, Shelved Under Romance, is Abby's part of the story.  Shy, withdrawn librarian Abby needs to learn to let go and enjoy a bit of adventure in her life.  But isn't Wyatt everything her father always warned her about?  The third story, A New Chapter is Lia's story.  An old friend moves back to town after loosing his wife with his young daughter.  Lia has always loved him, but he never saw her as more than a friend.  Will his feelings towards her change?  The last part, Happily Ever After is Molly's story.  A year after loosing her husband and Molly is floundering.  Her business is failing and they have still not uncovered the missing treasure. Can Molly trust her business rival or will he succeed in sabotaging her business and leaving her with nothing?

I very much enjoyed going back to Smitten Vermont through the Smitten Book Club.  Sometimes you just need a happily ever after story and for me, these stories fit the bill.  These 4 authors do a great job writing a collaborative book.  The ladies in the stories lives are not perfect, but through trust in the Lord, and friendship they find their way through trouble circumstances, pick up, and go on.  I think we all want to live in a place like Smitten (minus the cold and snow of course!) with the love and friendships that are made and kept there.  I enjoyed the bit of mystery as well and the excerpts of The Gentlewoman's Guide to Love and Courtship.  I did find it very sad that the choice was made to have Joey's wife die in a mall shooting (doesn't happen in the book but that is why he has returned to Smitten) but that unfortunately is a sign of the times we live in and the random violence that happens all around.

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of Smitten Book Club for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

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ABC Snacks: Letter B

Last week I wrote this post about All About Learning Press new blog series on Snacking Through the Alphabet.  This week we made the letter "Beautiful Butterfly" snack for the letter "B."

I have to mention, both of my girls have been under the weather this week.  But they were so looking forward to making this snack, that we went ahead and made it on Friday.  They had a great time making it although they didn't feel like eating very much of it.

To make this snack we needed:

apples
raisins
carrots
celery

The only thing I had to do for the girls was to cut the apples and celery and give them all of their supplies.

To go along with the Beautiful Butterfly snack, we read the Berenstain Bear's B Book and  book about butterflies.

I laminated the recipe with a picture of the girls making the snack and added it to their ABC Snacks cookbook.

*link to All About Learning Press is my affiliate link.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend!!

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Review and Giveaway: Unstoppable

Since I grew up in the 80's and 90's, I of course knew who Kirk Cameron was and watched his show every week.  As an adult, I am more impressed with what he and his wife have done with their family.  I have enjoyed movies such as Fireproof, and Monumental and  I was very interested in the opportunity to review his newest documentary Unstoppable.

Visit the official website: http://unstoppablethemovie.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unstoppablethemovie

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/UnstoppableDVD

About Unstoppable:

"Inspired by the death of Cameron’s close friend who succumbed to cancer at the age of 15, Kirk Cameron takes viewers on an inspiring and hope-filled visual journey to better understand the biggest doubt-raising question in faith: “Where is God in the midst of tragedy and suffering?” Going back to the beginning—literally—Kirk investigates the origins of good and evil and how they impact our lives … and our eternities. UNSTOPPABLE will prompt audiences to consider the role that pain and suffering has in our lives, as they affirm their personal views on faith, and encourage conversation starters about God, suffering, and hope. In theaters for only two weeknights (Sept 24th and Oct 3th, 2013), UNSTOPPABLE: A Live Event with Kirk Cameron sold a staggering 260,000 tickets and reached a theatrical gross of over $3.2 million dollars. In just two nights this independent project sent a loud message – audiences want thought-provoking and meaningful entertainment."

Unstoppable is approximately an hour long and it has been rated for 12 and up.  I myself might out that a bit higher as it is a pretty heavy topic. The basic question that is being discussed in the DVD is why does God allow bad things to happen to good people.  Why is their suffering,  sickness, and tragedy and where is God when all of this is going on.  To answer this question, Kirk goes back to the beginning; to the formation of the world and the first man made out of dust.  From there he goes on to the first woman and the serpent in the garden, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood.  He discusses the Tower of Babel and moves on to Jesus, the Cross, and the triumph over death.  Through it all he shows that even out of the greatest tragedies comes the greatest triumphs and that God uses all things for good.

 Unstoppable deals with something we all question from time to time.  We all face tragedy, suffering, and pain and it can be hard to understand why these things are allowed to happen. Sometimes it can make people loose their faith.  Unstoppable does a good job using the Bible and showing the good that has come out of tragedies and that everything God has done has been for a purpose.  There were a few things that were presented differently than I have ever thought of of before and gave me something more to think about.

Giveaway!!

I am giving away a copy of Unstoppable.  To enter leave a comment on this post.  Giveaway is open to US and Canada residents 18 or older.  Giveaway will close Thursday January 30th at 11:59 pm.  Winner will be drawn at random.  Good luck!

"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post. Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification."

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Homeschooling and Discipline

One of the questions I get asked from new homeschoolers, people who are thinking about homeschooling, or people who are just curious is, " How do you get them to listen to you and do their work?"

For children coming out of the public school system, this can be a bit of an adjustment.  They are used to listening to a teacher all day long and not their parent and they do not see you in that role yet.  Getting used to the idea may take some time.  I know we had a bit of an adjustment and a battle of wills when my oldest first came home from school.  Getting her into a routine right away and showing her what she could expect and when helped her make that transition from school to home.

But for the rest of the children (and Chelsea after those first few weeks), homeschooling is just an extension of our regular family life.  They listen to me and do their work because that is what is expected of them. There is no other option.   One of my favorite Bible verses says, " Children obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord.  Fathers, provoke not your to anger, lest they be discouraged." (Colossians 3:20-21)  They listen to me and do the work that is expected because that is their job, just as it is my job to teach them.

Do they ever grumble and complain?  Sometimes.  Do they ever procrastinate?  Absolutely.  Do they always pay perfect attention? No way.  They are kids.  They are going to grumble on occasion over a Math assignment.  A 10 minute writing assignment may end up taking 30 minutes because they are procrastinating over writing it.  They are going to get distracted or stare out the window from time to time instead of listening.  Sometimes they will not complete their assignment completely as directed (cutting corners) and will have to go back and do it again.

One of the things that has really helped me keep the children on task throughout their day is to follow the same routine everyday.  Our school day starts at 9:30 everyday.  If the children are late, there is a consequence.  Our school day ends at 2:00 everyday.  If they have not completed their work by 2 then they are not allowed their 30 minutes of media time with the exception that if they are having trouble with something and have to wait on me for help.  Having media time after school gives them motivation to get their work done on time and a consequence to not get it done on time.  This has always worked  well for me, and they hardly ever get that time taken away from them.

One thing I do want to say, is listen to your children.  If they are giving you a hard time about schoolwork, there could be a legitimate reason.  They may be fighting about their Math assignments because they truly cannot "get it."  They may have a different learning style than how they are being taught.  Of course they need to be respectful to you but they may have good reason for not being able to complete their work.  With little ones, this can be harder to figure out because they may not always verbalize things well.  But if your child is usually respectful and a good listener and then all of a sudden gives you a hard time when it is school time, there may be something going on with him.  Has it been cold and he hasn't gotten enough exercise?  Is she developing a cold?  Is the same thing over and over again everyday just boring him and he needs a change?  Maybe you could set aside the Math books for a day and play store, do a Science experiment, or go to the library.  Learning should be a delight not a chore (ok not everything is going to be a delight) and maybe changing things up a bit can fix the problem for both of you.

Happy Homeschooling!

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Cleaning Off the Shelves For Sale: Notgrass, Math U See, HWOT, Apologia, Latin Alive, and More

I am making plans for next year and have started by cleaning off some of my shelves.  I found some things I didn't even know I had.  Here is the list of what I am selling so far.  Paypal payments only unless you are local and want to pay cash : )  Prices include media mail shipping and are negotiable.

Math U See- We do not use the Test and Activity Books so these are brand new with no writing in them.

Alpha Test and Activity Book $10
Beta Test and Activity Book (I have 2 of these) $10
Epsilon Test Book $8
Zeta Test Book $8

Apologia Exploring Creation Through Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal-I have an extra one of these so it is brand new.  $15

Handwriting Without Tears Letter and Numbers For Me New $8

British History James P. Stobaugh Teacher and Student slightly used, no writing or highlighting $20

Notgrass Exploring Government-Includes Text and We Hold These Truths-It is the older spiral bound version and is showing some wear but still in good condition $35

Latin Alive Book 2 Student and Teacher-no writing, some shelf wear $35

Scaredy Cat Reading System Level One- used for review purposes.  Some of the student book has writing in pencil and the cards and games have been cut apart.  You can see everything it comes with here.  $30

Set of 5 Jean Fritz books- good condition, minor shelf wear $16
Can't You Make Them Behave King George?
Will You Sign Here John Hancock?
Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
And Then What Happened Paul Revere?
Why Don't You Get a Horse Sam Adams?

Set of  Awesome Science DVDs-$10
Explore the Grand Canyon
Explore the John Day Fossil Beds

If you have any questions, email me.

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Homeschool Wrap Up Week 20

We had a great week in our homeschool this week and we got a lot accomplished!  Christian has been feeling under the weather though.  He started with some nasal congestion, sore throat, and low grade fever lon Tuesday afternoon, so he did not do any school work Wednesday or Thursday.  Instead he had a Star Wars movie marathon while laying on the couch, eating soup and popsicles and drinking Gingerale.  He still isn't 100 percent, but he is better.

The first big accomplishment of this week was completing Nick and Alex's 4 H Record Books.  All of my "spare" time over the last couple of weeks has gone to working on them.  It is quite detailed and not at all easy for 9-12 year olds to do on their own.  Chelsea of course is fine to complete hers on her own after we go over the list of everything she has done.  I am glad to have that finished for this year!

We have been able to double up on lessons in America the Beautiful.  Since we are also assigned two chapters of a book to read each day I have been reading two chapters in the morning and two in the evening and that has worked out well.  Our current book is Bound For Oregon. I am hoping to finish Book One by next week.

We finished working on Primates in Apologia's Land Animals.  This week we are moving on to Rodents (oh boy!)

Nick and Alex finished up their 3 paragraphs on Whooping Cranes in IEW.  The lesson is on writing reports using different source texts.  They were given three mini books on Whooping Cranes and had to read through the first and last sentence in each paragraph and highlight words that were the same or meant the same thing to tell them what the paragraph was about.  Then they had to choose one of the topics, create a key word outline and write a paragraph using their checklist telling them what stylistic techniques they have to include and what banned words they cannot use.  I have found that having the free IEW app on our iDevices has come in very handy to help the boys find what they need without having to flip through their notebook.

We completed another lesson in Math, Reading, Spelling, and Latin, and 4 lessons in Bible Study Guide For All Ages.

We had some fun this week with our first Eating Through the Alphabet Snack.  You can read my post on it here.

We also did a little Art at Home on Friday.

And worked on our Nature Quilts on Saturday.

I have started planning for next year.  I am working on a pile of items I need to get listed to sell and have started looking for a few things I am certain I would like to use next year.

Just in case you are interested in some things that I am reading, I thought I would add that into this post.  I am reading the 90 Day Bible NIV version which has you read the Bible from cover to cover in 90 days.  I bought it for my Nook and it tells me where to stop and start everyday.  I take it with me when I am putting the girls to bed at night and stay in there with them until I am finished reading the assigned section.  I am also reading Six Days The Age of the Earth and the Decline of the Church by Ken Ham.  I love Christian Fiction and Historical Fiction.  I just finished The Smitten Book Club and will be posting a review on it soon.  I also received 2 gift cards for my birthday that I could buy books with.  I did end up buying 3 books for the children, but the rest I spent on myself.  One of the books I bought that I am reading now is Once Upon a Prince by Rachel Hauk.  I had an opportunity to request the second book in the series Once Upon A Princess for review, but I wanted to read the first one first so I bought it.  It is a fantastic Christian romance.  I am not finished yet, but so far I have loved this book!

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!

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Working on the Nature Quilt

Last winter, we started going to a Nature Quilting Program at Grandview.  Each month there was a program on a nature topic and then everyone was given a quilt square pattern on that topic.  At the end of 12 months you would have 12 squares to sew into a Nature Quilt.  I thought this would be something that Chelsea might be interested in, but honestly she really loves sewing clothes, but she is not so much into quilting.  Some of the other children: Alex, Christian, and Lily were very interested though.  So I had to figure out how I was going to able to have a 9,6, and 4 year old be able to make these quilts.

What we decided to do was to print off templates for each of the nature topics.  Then we traced them onto an ironable Heat and Bond, ironed them onto the material, cut it out, and then ironed them again onto a 10x10 inch square.  We had finished several squares by early spring, but then as life got busy we did not have an opportunity to work on them for awhile.  The last several weeks have been cold or rainy,, so we have started working on the quilt squares again.

Alex decided he did not want to work on his (he got some model cars for Christmas he has been putting together), but Lily and Christian were ready to get them finished.  We finished all 12 squares yesterday for both quilts.  Our 12 squares are: butterfly, fish, flowers, white tail deer, bird, bat, snake, frog, arrow heads, bee, ladybug, owl.

Lily's Quilt Squares

Christian's Quilt Squares

Lily wanted to get hers sewn together.  She was very excited to get to help use the sewing machine.

Lily's all sewed together

Since we live so far away from anywhere that sells material, I got on joanne.com yesterday and was ver happy to see they were having a 50% off sale and $2.95 flat rate shipping.  I let Lily and Christian pick out two colors to go around the quilt panel and what they wanted for the back.  Hopefully it will come this week and we can get this project finished!

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Art At Home:

Since we have not been having art classes until our teacher gets moved into a new building, I have been trying to do at least one art project a week.  Last Friday we had no electricity so we were not able to get one done, and the two weeks before that we were on Christmas break, so it has been awhile.

Today I picked an easy project for the four youngest children to complete.  My two older boys were late doing their chores so did not participate (I do not yet know what I am going to do for Art for them if classes don't start up again soon.)  We used the Usborne Art Treasury and looked at The Golden Fish by Paul Klee and read a little biography about him.  Then the children created their own artwork based on this page.  They first had to draw a picture on water color paper with pencils. Then they used oil pastels to color it in.  Last they painted over the page with blue watercolors.

Christian

Lily

Anthony

Emelia

This week, Classical Composers Monthly had a freebie for those subscribed to their newsletter (this has expires tonight 1-17-14 at 11:59 pm) for a free set of Fine Arts I prints (usually $14.99.)  Each one is a print of a famous artist along with who painted it, when and where it was painted, what technique was used, and some interesting facts.  I printed them out and laminated them.  Then I chose five and hung them around the house.  Mona Lisa in the school room, Picasso in the upstairs hall, Monet in the family room, Van Gogh in the dining room, and Pieter Brueghel in the hall bathroom.  I plan on changing these out every few weeks.  I think this is a nice, natural way to introduce and familiarize the children with famous art work without adding even more to my schedule :)

Happy Homeschooling!

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ABC Snacks: Letter A

If you read this blog regularly, you know how much I love All About Learning Press.  Lily is using All About Reading Pre-1, Christian and Anthony are using All About Reading/Spelling Level One, and Alex is using All About Spelling Level 3 and will be starting Level 4 soon.  The other day, I received an email (I am on their email mailing list) about a new series that was posted on the All About Learning Press Blog called ABC Snacks: Eating Your Way Through the Alphabet.  You can find the blog post here.  There is a snack listed for each letter of the alphabet that your pre reader can make.  Each recipe can be printed out and they have a cover that you can download and print out so you can put all of the recipes into a cookbook for your child.

I thought this was such a cute idea!  I wish it had posted back in the fall when we first started All About Reading Pre-1 because this makes such a great hands on activity to go with each letter as you are learning them.   But we just decided to start back at the beginning of the Alphabet and do each one of the snacks.  Today was letter A.  We made the "snack" at lunchtime and listened to The Ants Go Marching In as the ants marched across the muffin tin.  We did 12 muffin cups since 2 girls were eating out of them.  In them we put tomatoes, carrot sticks, ranch dressing, 2 of cut up hot dogs, 2 of mac n cheese, pudding, applesauce, goldfish, and ketchup, and a small pieces of lunch meat.

Then I printed out a picture of the girls making the snack and the recipe for the snack.  We glued the picture to the recipe page , laminated it, punched holes in it, and put in in a binder.  This will be their cookbook. When they look back through it they will have not only the recipes, but see the photo of what they made as well.

They had so much fun with this and can't wait to do letter B!

*links to All About Learning Press are my affiliate links.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I use and can recommend.

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Homeschool Wrap Up Week 19

I had intended on getting this posted yesterday, but my son was using my computer to stream the Denver Broncos game and by the time it was over, I didn't have time to use the computer.

Anyway, last week was our first week back to homeschool after Christmas break.  It was really nice to get back into our regular routine.  Monday we got off to a bit of a slow start but the rest of the week we managed to get right back into our regular schedule.

We are steadily making our way through America the Beautiful.  We have started doubling up on the lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays and doing single lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  As much as we are enjoying this curriculum, I really want to finish it this year and not have it take two years.  We finished our Brady read aloud and will be starting Bound For Oregon this week.

Everyone completed another lesson in Math.  Chelsea has almost completed Algebra 2 and Math U See Stewardship is arriving this week.

Nick and Alex moved on to the next lesson in IEW on writing reports. The video segment was very long so we split it into two days.  The first report they are writing is in Whooping Cranes.  They completed one keyword outline and wrote one rough draft paragraph.  We will be working on the rest of the assignment this week.

Before the break Anthony and Christian finished IEW PAL Part II.  They are not yet ready to move on to Part III.  We are going to wait until next fall for that.  In the meantime I found some copywork for them from Simply Charlotte Mason that was free and they will work on that the rest of the year.

Wednesday we had an opportunity to do some hands on science.  We went out to Grandview and did a program on fossils.  It was so nice to be able to go to a fossil program that did not have any evolution references.  The children got to make 3 different types of fossils, dig fossils out of plaster, and complete a fossil lapbook.  You can see everything we did here.

In our Apologia science we are working on a lesson on Primates.

Thursday started off being an ordinary day.  It was rainy and yucky outside.  When we started working in the morning, I thought that the lights in our school room seemed dimmer than usual.  But the children didn't think that they were so I didn't think any more of it.  We did our normal morning school work, had lunch, and started on our afternoon school work.  Then the power went out.  It was only out for a second, but when it came back on the lights downstairs were flickering a little bit.  Then we went to use the stove a little later and the stove wouldn't work.  The cooktop or the oven.  I hadn't been downstairs in awhile, so I didn't know the lights were still flickering down there.  I thought the oven had bit the dust as it is over 25 years old.  Art brought home pizza for supper since I couldn't cook anything and started looking into the problem.  Then the really strange things started happening.  Things were turning off and on by themselves, lights were dimming all over the house, light switches downstairs were turning things on upstairs, and the heat went out.  After checking things over inside, Art went out to the box outside and it was knocked sideways on the pole and he could smell burning wires.  It was after 7:30 so we turned off everything in the house and went to spend the night at a friends garage apartment.  The children thought it was a great adventure, Art and I not so much, but we were so thankful to have a free place to spend the night.  Our fear was that whatever was wrong at the box had shorted out our heat pump.  The next morning we headed back to the house and waited for the power company to come out.  They got there around 11:30 and turned off our power.  There was some kind of leak in the seal on the box that allowed water to get in and blew the breaker.  If we could get it fixed before 5 than they would come back and turn on the power that day.  If not it would be Monday morning.  So I went back to a friend's house with the children and Art went to buy everything he needed to repair it.  He worked outside in the pouring down rain for 4 hours and got it finished about 4:00.  I called the power company and by 4:45 our power was back on!  And the heat pump and stove were working fine!  The children and I loaded up the van with our air mattresses and clothes we had taken and headed back home.

I did not do much with the little girls this week.  We did not start a new BFIAR book.  Lily did a new letter page, and worked on her piano lesson twice and they got to go to Grandview and make fossils and made the lapbook.  Lily is also working on her nature quilt (Christian is doing one too) and has one square left to make before we can start sewing it together.  I will post a picture when they get the last square done.

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!

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January Grandview Program: Fossils

Once a month we have been going out to Rick Evans Grandview Prairie for a hands on educational program.  We did bats and made bat houses in October, learned about the Caddo Indians in November, and learned about Eastern Bluebirds and made bluebird houses in December.  Today our program was on fossils.

I was really excited to be able to go to a program that was on fossils that was NOT evolutionary!  There was no mention of millions of years in this program.  Instead, we heard a talk about fossil basics such as: what is a fossil, how fossils are made, what the right conditions are for forming fossils (rapid burial, kept from oxidation, away from bacteria, and out of reach of scavengers), the different types of fossils, and the scientists who study fossils.

We got to see a demonstration of when an animal dies on the ocean floor and becomes a fossil.

Then the fun began.  We got to make three different types of fossils: amber fossils, cast fossils, and mold fossils.

Examples for the children to look at

We started with the amber fossils.

Then we made the cast models using clay, plastic animals, and Plaster of Paris.

They turned out really great!

Next we made the mold fossils using air dry clay and plastic animals.

Each child also got to take home a fossil to excavate from a hardened cast of plaster.

And the supplies for a fossil lapbook.  Lily worked on hers this afternoon.

There was a recipe included for edible amber fossils.  If I can pick up the supplies we need we may make those this week-end.

It was a great program that all of the children really enjoyed!!

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