Homeschool Wrap Up Week 24

We did not get very much bookwork completed in our homeschool this week.  Last week I thought that Emmie was getting better from her cold, but Sunday night she was up for hours in the middle of the night complaining that her ears hurt.  So first thing Monday morning, I got up really early and made Chelsea's birthday cake and her lunch request (lasagna) and waited for the doctor's office to open so I could schedule Emmie an appointment.  The office was packed!  We had a bit of a wait and then after seeing the doctor and finding out she had a double ear infection we had to wait on the medicine.  We finally got home and Chelsea was there to have her birthday lunch.  By the time we ate and visited with her it was after two so we did not do any school work.  We had school Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday morning Anthony and Christian both got up running fever and Nick had a bad headache.  We did our Bible lesson and our read aloud and cancelled school for the rest of the day.

Week 24 in our Homeschool:

P.E.: We did two days of Family Time Fitness.

Bible: In Window on the World we read about the Gonds. Our Bible lesson was to read Matthew 19:16-20:28.  Our memory verse was Matthew 7:12.

Read Aloud: I doubled up on our morning read aloud so we could stay on track to finish the book this week.  We read 5 chapters of Amy Carmichael.  In the afternoon we read three chapters of Shepherd, Potter Spy, and the Star Namer.  In the evening we read 3 chapters of The Sword, The Ring, and The Parchment.

Poetry: We started memorizing At the Seaside by Robert Louis Stevenson.

E.C.C.: In Children's Atlas od God's World we read about India.  In The Living World Encyclopedia we read about Mountains, Living and Isolated Life (animals on the mountains), and did a volcano experiment.  We have done the volcano experiment many times, but it's still a favorite.

History: We completed one stop in Passport Ancient Greece.

Art: We did Sailing Adventure from Creating a Masterpiece.

Language Arts: Lily did 3 lessons in Eclectic Foundations B.  Christian and Anthony did one lesson in Language Lessons for Today, writing sentences using present, past, and future tense of a few different verbs. 

Spelling/Reading: We started step 26 in AAR Level 3 but never took a spelling test.  The boys completed  lesson 60 in AAR Level 4. 

Math: We completed 2 lessons in Math Lessons for a Living Education and Alex completed 2 lessons in Teaching Textbooks 7.  Nick started lesson 23 in MUS Geometry.

MFW Creation from A to Z: Emmie did not do any work this week.

Nature Study: We went camping at Daisy State Park.

All American History and God's Design in Nature: Nick completed lessons 21 and 22 in AAH Vol II.  In God's Design for Science he did some hands on science experiments to go along with what he has been reading.

Other Activities this Week:

Monday: After the doctor and Chelsea's visit, Christian had his first soccer practice that evening.

Tuesday: Lily went to gymnastics and Nick had youth.

Wednesday we had Kid's Club.

Thursday Christian was supposed to have soccer but he was sick and stayed home.

Friday the boys woke up with no fevers.  I was very thankful! They are still not feeling 100 percent but they are better. We loaded up and went on our camping trip as planned.  It was a beautiful day, in the mid 60's and sunny.  We had a lot of fun! (see my Nature Study post for more pics)

Saturday was my baby's birthday.  I cannot believe she is 6.  She had fun having her birthday at the campground.  The weather was not as nice.  It was in the 60's but cloudy and windy.  Rain moved when we were sleeping that night. 

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

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Nature Study Week 8: Field Trip (Camping at Daisy State Park)

One of my goals for 2017 was to be more intentional about Nature Study for the four youngest children (5,7,9, and 11).  I want to do Nature Study once a week around a specific theme.  I remembered a friend mentioning a resource she bought at the beginning of the school year and after taking a look at it decided this might be what I needed to help make sure I actually get it done.  I bought Exploring Nature With Children , an ebook with 48 nature study ideas, a poem to go along with your theme, the name of a piece of art work to look up, books, and extension activities.  She also lists coordinating pages from Handbook of Nature Study if you have that book and are interested in looking up more information.


Our week 1 study was on the winter sky.

Week 2 was on the moon.

Week 3 was on trees.

Week 4 was a pond study.

Week 5 was on Candlemas and looking for signs of new life.

Week 6 was earthworms.

Week 7 was on evergreen trees.

The week 8 nature study theme was to take a field trip and go to a place you have never been before or a place that you rarely visit.  We were planning a camping trip to Daisy State Park.  We were trying to go last week-end but couldn't (and I was glad because it got cold!), so we put it off until this week-end. I thought we were going to end up postponing again when two children were running fever the day before we were supposed to leave but their fevers broke and they were feeling better (still coughing and sneezing but better.)  Anyway we had some very interesting nature study experiences on our camping trip. 

They had a 3/4 mile nature walk that we walked twice.  We saw some birds on our walk, some crawdad mud huts (I'm sure that's not the proper name for those), leaves, butterflies, and feathers.  We walked this trail twice.

State Parks offer free educational programs (and actually started charging for some of their programs but that's a different story.)  We went to a program called critter crunch where we got to watch them feed their box turtles, Johnny and June, and their speckled king snake Ella.  Snakes and mice are probably my two least favorite things in the world, but I did watch them feed the snake.  They fed her frozen mice from Petco.  I don't think I could've watched them feed live mice.

They had a really interesting evening program.  We went to a campfire that hot chocolate and smores were provided and afterwards was a star gazing program.  I thought we were just going to look at the stars in the sky (it was a really clear night), but they had a brand new star lab.  It was an inflatable round room.  Once we got inside, she told some Native American stories about the stars and the stars were all around us.  She pointed out the stars and constellations we were talking about and then once we got back outside we could find them in the night sky.  It was pretty interesting.

We  went geocaching for the first time.  That was fun!  All of the state parks around here have geocaches but we have never tried it before.  We found one, and looked for another but did not find it. The children can't wait to do that again!

We also did some fishing of course!

And Lily found lots of freshwater clam shells.

Happy Homeschooling!

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Virtual Fridge: Sailing Adventure

Our art project this week was a Level One project from Creating a Masterpiece called Sailing Adventure.  This project took around 30 minutes to complete and used charcoal, paper, and a kneading eraser.

We had never used charcoal before.  It was a little messy but not as bad as chalk or soft pastels!

Our finished projects. Anthony (11) top left, Christian (9) top right, Emmie (5) bottom left, Lily (7) bottom middle, and mine is bottom right.

Linking up here.

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Homeschool Crew Review: By the Way Book Series

We love to read.  I spend much of our homeschool day reading aloud to the children.  They especially enjoy books about nature or wildlife.  We were excited to have an opportunity to review one of the books in the By the Way Book Series called Florida's Treasure Coast ~ Here We Come!

The By the Way Book Series was written by Joy Budensiek.  The series follows the journies of Alex and Lexi as they travel to different locations and learn about the culture, history, and natural habitat of the place they are visiting.  Through their explorations they learn about God and His creation.

So far there are 6 books in the series:

Florida's Treasure Cost ~Here We Come!

Smoky Mountains ~ Here We Come!

Pennsylvania ~ Here We Come!

Ohio ~ Here We Come!

Washington ~ Here We Come!

Colorado ~ By the Way

4 more books are releasing in 2017 including :
Ireland
New York
Idaho
Indiana. 

Each of the books are hardcover and have beautiful photographs and illustrations.  There are also Bible verses throughout the books. You can purchase the books for $14.99 each.

In Florida's Treasure Cost ~ Here We Come! Alex and Lexi fly to Florida to visit their grandparents.  While they are there they discover many of God's treasures while exploring His beautiful creation.  They learn about the Atlantic Ocean and many of the things you find there including: palm trees, shells, manatees, whales, sharks, insects, Indians, pirate treasure, starfish, and more.  The next day they go on a geocaching adventure to Jonathan Dickinson State Park and learn about turtles, panthers, scrub jays, and more.  They also take a boat Tour to Trapper Nelson's and learn about things such as osprey, and alligators. Back at their grandparents home they encounter a fox, land crabs, lizards, and see a mama sea turtle lay her eggs.

I read Florida's Treasure Cost ~ Here We Come! aloud to my 5,7,9, and 11 year olds.  I chose this book because my parents moved to Florida a couple of years ago and we have visited there a few times.  I knew the children would be interested in reading more about Florida's wildlife.  As I read this book aloud, the children filled out some notebooking pages about some of the creatures described in this book.

This book is packed full of fun and interesting information.  We learned many new things from reading through it.  My boys especially were interested in the information on pirates and they want to have a geocaching adventure of our own ( I am hoping to do that this week-end.)  We had never heard of Jonathan Dickinson or the state park or the story of Trapper Nelson. We loved all of the facts about the topics that were covered and the photographs were beautiful. 

We try to include God in everything that we do and all the subjects that we teach on our homeschool and it is wonderful to find books that put the emphasis on God and His creation.  I love that each of these books in the series focus on a specific place.  We did a study of the 50 states last year and these books would have been a wonderful addition.

To see what my Crew Mates had to say about the By the Way Book Series stop by the Crew Blog!

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