Glimpses

Science - We've been getting boxes from TinkerCrate this year, and they have been fun. The kids look forward to them each month. This month's box was making circuits to light up paper lanterns.

History - I always feel like History and Langue Arts overlap a ton at out house. For MLK day we had a poetry tea time where we watched the youtube video of Dr. King's entire "I have a dream" speech. Then we made hand print wreaths and pasted a quote on them to hang up in the school room.

Art - Ivan's art class doesn't start up again until February, so he's been working independently for the last several weeks. One of the things he made was this, which he calls "A Tree in Three" it is a tree, and he split it into three sections where he used acrylic paints on top, colored pencils in the middle, and oil pastels on bottom.

Math - My wonderful friend Wynter is working on writing a math curriculum. As she's been putting her webiste etc together she's come out with some really fun activities. One of those activities are these fun clocks that help you tell time, learn to count by fives, AND work on your five times tables.

Friday Fun - We've been meeting our homeschool group at the Springville Library on Friday afternoon to play games. It's been a good option for winter time. The kids can still see their friends, we moms can still see our friends, and no one has to be outside freezing to death.

Heading out on a Friday to play games with our home school buds at the library.

Language Arts - We're a little heavy on the langue arts at our house. Sometimes I think we could list just about everything we do under that category. :) We finished listening to Johnny Tremain. We've been doing copy work exercises from it all month, and having some awesome discussions. This middle grade reader is a bit slow at first, but by the end your heart is swelling with pride and love of country. James Otis's speech about "A man can stand up" tied in nicely with our study of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, and we talked about how what the colonists started clear back in 1776 is something we are still trying to fully realize and bring about today.

We also listened to The Red Pencil, but haven't started any work from it yet. Lincoln and Ivan have both read Finn Family Moonmintol, which is where our copy work will come from next.

Lincoln read the biography of Leland Melvin and completed a biography box style book report. As part of the report he made and flew a straw rocket. Ivan has been reading Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart.

Scripture Study - We begin our school days by singing a hymn, having a prayer, and reading a few verses from the Book of Mormon. This year we are attempting to scripture journal also, by using the "Box-A-Day" method. 

We take a piece of paper and fold it into 16 boxes. Each day, after we read, we draw a picture in one of the boxes about what we read, or something we learned, or thought was interesting. At the end of 16 days, when our paper is full, we get out a lined paper and write on it more in-depth about what we learned/thought was interesting/our testimony....basically anything that encompasses putting thoughts to paper about what we've been reading. Then we stick the lined paper, and the box paper back to back and laminate them together. Hopefully by the time we're done reading the Book of Mormon we'll have a fun little picture journal, and our thoughts about what we read, to go with. 

The first 3 pages of my scripture journal

Up close. I require that we write the verses we read for the day at the top of each box. Then I encourage the kid to either copy a portion of a verse  or to in some way write an explanation to go along with their picture. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

A box from Ivan's journal. I love  how well he conveys expressions, even in stick figures. 

This is the back side of one of Ivan's journals. I have them do this part "free-write style" which means I don't correct grammar or spelling. What I'm concerned with here is content, and narrative voice. I want them to feel safe expressing their deepest thoughts without fear that they will get all marked up with red pen. 

CO-OP Classes - Co-op is about to start up here again next week. I am signed up to teach two classes this semester, Animal Science to Ollie's age group, and Poetry (which is titled Wacky Words, so it sounds more fun and less intimidating) for the older kids class. I'm actually really excited for both these classes, but they will be a TON of work. Their are eight weeks of class. These are my class description write-ups. I did them by hand because my computer was being stupid. But, sometimes doesn't it just feel really good to put pencil to paper? It was a really enjoyable exercise for me. 

Homeschool Showcase: Wax Museum

The Wax Museum is my favorite Showcase that we do each year. I love seeing what the kids come up with and the different ways they choose to present. It's fun.

This year, Lincoln, Ivan and Adelia decided to go as Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea. (They may or may not have been highly encouraged by me to do something that went together, so we only had to squeeze in the time to learn about 1 subject matter and make 1 poster, instead of 3. It just makes life that much easier to have them doing the same thing right now, judge if you must.)

 The kids and I read these two books from my new favorite series, in preparation for the Wax Museum. We also listened to a Jim Weiss CD titled "Gone West" which talks about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We also read a few different picture books that we found at the library.

I think the kids' favorite part was coming up with costumes. I admit I ordered Adelia's off of Amazon. But every needs a Native American costume in their collection, right? I'm sure we'll get our money's worth out of it. To go with her costume, Del wanted to wear her sparkly pink boots...very authentic, I'm sure. She was also delighted that Aaron came up with a way to use an infinity scarf as a carrier for Rapunzel, so that Rapunzel could be Pompy and ride on Adelia's back. Lincoln and Ivan both found hats in the dress-up box that they liked. Lincoln decided to wear his church vest with it, and Ivan opted for some suspenders fashioned from a pirate belt. And we drew on some sideburns using an eyeliner pencil. So cute, all of them!

Lincoln was Lewis, and wanted to focus on the journals that were kept along the way. His speaking part:

"My name is Meriwether Lewis. I was a secretary to Thomas Jefferson when he made the Louisiana Purchase. President Jefferson sent me and my friend William Clark to explore the new land, look for a water way across it, and claim Oregon Territory for the United States.  On our journey we found many plants and animals and things we’d never seen before. The groundhog is one example. We kept detailed notebooks of our trip that included many drawings."

Ivan was Clark, and he wanted to tell about meeting Grizzly Bears. His part:

"My name is William Clark. My friend Lewis invited me to be a co-captain on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the new land bought in the Louisiana Purchase. On our way we found many plants and animals. Once of the most dangerous animals we came across were Grizzly Bears. Once when we were hunting we saw a Grizzly Bear and we tried to kill it while it was asleep, but the first round of shots didn’t work. The bear came after us, and it was angry! We reloaded and fired some more shots. This time we killed the bear, and used it’s meat for food."

Obviously, Adelia was Sacagawea. She wanted her part to be short, and to talk about carrying her baby on her back. :) Her part:

"My name is Sacagawea. I was as a guide for Lewis and Clark. I carried my baby on my back all the way across the country and back again."

Here are all the kids who participated in Showcase. I loved the creativity that went into the costumes and presentations. Everyone did so well. Wax Museum is my favorite.

Biography Box: Neil Armstrong

All week long Lincoln has been working on this research project called a Biography Box. I think it turned out really cool.

First off though, I need to put two thumbs way up for the "Who Was" book series put out by Scholastic. The have a book on just about any famous person you can think of. The writing is well done, age-appropriate, and interesting. And it's got lot of pictures. These are great chapter books for kids who prefer to read about "real" things/people versus fictitious ones. They've been a huge hit at my house, a great addition to our library.

So Linc has been reading these biographies. Since one of our educational goals with Lincoln is to work on being able to summarize what he's read in writing, I got on Pinterest looking for a fun way for him to do a biography report and I found a template for this awesome Biography Box. I was in a hurry, so I just bought the template, but it would be so easy to make it yourself.

Basically it's a medium box glued on one side into a larger box. On each flap are different facts you learned (ex. 3 obstacles your person had to overcome, what they are famous for, 3 character traits, 3 fun facts, 3 objects that remind you of this person, etc.), or a picture of your person. Fold all the flaps up, and make a lid big enough to slide down over them, this will hold your box together, until you take the lid off to look at the facts. Pretty easy, but so much cooler than a report.

Lincoln's favorite part was doing the pictures. But he also said to me, "Wow Mom, I used to think Neil Armstrong was just a boring old guy, but now that I've read the book I know he did tons of cool stuff." So, I think the project was a hit.