Fun Day

We attended an annual fundraiser in our community, Fun Day. There were all kinds of activities as you can tell by the photos.

Unit Week-Sharing with friends

Tera's candy giraffe
Daniel's little man
Before
After

A couple of our homeschooling friends came over yesterday, Sarah and Amanda with their kids to participate in our unit. JP dissected a worm for the kids. As much as I don't like dissection, it was really interesting. We had a diagram in our science teacher's edition and it was easier than I thought to find all the parts on the not so alive specimen. All the kids made A Winter Count, which is a Native American pictoral calendar. So they drew 12 pictures to represent things that they had done in the past year. I didn't get any pictures but I thought they did a great job. I did a demonstration I found online called Delicious Classification, where you use candy to symbolize the different animal groups. For example, a junior mint represented an insect because it has a hard shell (exoskeleton) and gooey insides. A twizzler was a worm and so on. Then the kids receive a bag of candy pieces and made their own creatures. They turned out really well. We had lots of giraffes, candy men, a dog, a worm and some other things I can't remember now. We played a game called Animal Antics-boys against girls. It too dealt with classifying vertebrates and invertebrates. We ended with lunch, kids playing and adults talking. It was a great time and I was excited that all the kids were into the activities and participated.

The Collage of Doom

Tera's collage
Daniel's collage

This was the last day of our unit week, so we just had a few loose ends to finish. We had a review time on Mammals, Reptiles and Birds and a few small projects. An Animal Classification worksheet and a mammal picture to draw, label and write 3 facts. The big project of the day took 3 hours to finish. I assigned a vertebrate collage, my only rule was no white could show. Who knew that was so hard? Whining, complaining, sighing, and 3 hours later they finished. They didn't complain the whole time, like the time I was helping them. (I'm probably exaggerating just a bit but when something seems easy, it's so frustrating when your kids act like it is the hardest thing you have ever asked them to do. I wasn't exaggerating about the 3 hours. I helped a little more than I really like to but could sense they were getting frustrated). Next time, I'll make the paper a whole lot smaller, I didn't realize they would have that much trouble. They were so tired when they were done, I made them both go lay down for a nap. They haven't taken a nap in over 2 years, but today they are at least gonna try. We are done, their projects look great and I'm pooped, what a day!

Unit Week- Vertebrate/Invertebrate and Lewis and Clark

A Happy Bell Pepper

Kandinsky Circle Collage- Daniel

Tera's Collage

This is our unit week. We are studying Invertebrates and Vertebrates and Lewis and Clark. Here is a list of some things we have done this week so far:

• Reviewed the two chapters in our science book and our history chapter.
• Read tons of books: Snails and Slugs, A Picture Book of Lewis and Clark, Hungry Animals, Who Eats What? How We Crossed the West, Sacagawea, Selections from Going Along with Lewis and Clark, Lewis and Clark ad Butterflies, Bugs and Worms
• We are working our way through a biography of Sacagawea
• Did a lunar cycle activity using a table lamp, a larger ball and a smaller ball- representing the sun, earth and moon respectively. This didn't turn out as well as I had hoped
• Reviewed our French Muzzy
• Wrote a riddle about an arthropod
• Played several games that went along with our unit- Carmen Sandiago USA, Zooreeka and Hullaballo.
• Practiced speaking in sign
• Constructed a Kandinksy Circles Art Project found at Deep Space Sparkle Online Art Lessons
• Visited the pet store and classified the animals we saw there into vertebrate/invertebrate categories. The crabs were the only invertebrates we saw.
• Talked about life cycles of frogs and salamanders
• Watch a video on the Lewis and Clark expedition found online at Have Fun With History.
• Discussed the different animals that Lewis and Clark found on their expedition.
• Wrote descriptions of an animal for someone who had never seen them before.
• Colored a map of Lewis and Clark's route
• Drew a map of our yard.

Tomorrow we are having some fellow homeschoolers over for some group activities. We are:

• dissecting a worm (JP's job- I wanted to throw up looking at the little wiggly things)
• A Winter Count- a pictoral calendar
• Delicious Classification- using candy to represent the different groups of vertebrates and invertebrates. Then the kids will make their own creations.
• Zany Classification Game- a two team game on classifying animals.

We finish on Friday with a few more activities. I have been very manic depressive when it comes to blogging so hopefully I'll post some pics later this week on the rest of our unit.

Michael's new milestones

Michael has just started sitting up on his own and starting to inch (crawl) across the floor. I'll be uploading a video of that soon. He checked out great at his appointment. 27 1/2 inches long and 17.8 lbs. He is a healthy growing boy who turns 7 months old on Sunday. We are thanking the Lord for answered prayer. The dr. found no evidence of the problem Michael has had since birth, God has shown himself as the Great Physician once again.

More Pics of Daniel's birthday