Sunday, November 22, 2009

Weekly Highlights: Week 19

Bible: "Moses is Born"- Ezra started writing 1 sentence summary this week.

Reading & Writing:


Math: Fractions

Science: Stars & Planets


Solar System- (Pluto is no longer a planet! In 2006, Pluto was demoted as a "dwarf planet".) This week, we discussed the size of each planet. Next week, we'll discuss the distance (from the sun) of each planet & re-place them according to their distance.

The long paper below the planets represent the width of the sun. (Our sun fits about 100 Earths across!)

Activities: "Measuring 300 cubits = length of Noah's Ark" (Catch up work from previous unit.) In Bible times, 1 cubit represented the length of a man's arm- from the tip of middle finger to elbow. Approximately 18 inches, which happens to be exact length of my husband's arm. We cheated a bit. Instead of counting each 300 cubits, we used the long stick, which measured 4 cubits. We counted 75 (4 cubit unit X 75 =300 cubits). It was a really cold day, so my husband appreciated the quicker conversion.
Ezra standing at the end of Noah's Ark. Ephraim in the background walking to the starting point of the Ark.

Kind of hard to see- way far back, in front of the red/ white fence, stands Ephraim with his hands up- indicating the starting point of Noah's Ark. You get a good idea of how big the Ark was! (We wanted to add the width, but our street wasn't wide enough.)
Arts & Craft: Beads- We love this quiet, creative activity. You place the beads in a pattern, then you iron them to melt in one big piece of art. Very fun for the kiddos..... well, except when something totally unexpected happens! Keep reading below.
So, my dear sweet Erzsebet decided (still don't know why she did it) to stick one of the beads up her nose! Let me tell you- that was a first for us. Our oldest or our youngest never did anything like this before. She started to panic & cry realizing that the bead was stuck. We tried getting her to blow her nose real hard a bunch of times. She was crying, her older brother was crying- he thought she was going to die. Ephraim got a flashlight & looked up her nose. Sure enough, it was stuck way up & he could see the tiny yellow object. He works with computers, so he had this pincher tool with very skinny ends.... & got it out! I have no idea what else we would have done. I have no training on what to do when your child sticks something up his/ her nose.... other than to call my doctor in the middle of the night. I was feeling quite stumped & nervous. Then when the bead came out, I couldn't help but laugh hysterically at the whole scenario! My daughter laughed too. She was so relieved- gave her daddy a dozen kisses, hugs, & went back to playing with beads while singing Christmas carols. She did learn her lesson though. So, the moral of the story is- don't let your 4 year old (or younger) play with beads without reminding them where NOT to put them! :)
If you're a parent of young children, you must own one of these tools! You never know when you're going to need it! :) It saved us a trip to the doctor's & for that, I'm very thankful! :)

Final thought: The "Operation" game is on sale at Target this week. I think this will be a great gift - as a nice reminder- for my family!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Weekly Highlights: Week 18

MATH:
This week's unit was on Money. This was an easy unit since MFW's daily math (number of the day) covers + & - / tens & ones with coins.


BIBLE:
Story of Jacob (the Ladder dream)
Story of Jacob's Twelve Sons (I always like to include that he had a daughter too!)
Story of Joseph, Part I, II

READING & WRITING:
ph = /f/
1 sentence summary

Ezra reading the Bible Reader. (Yes, those are antlers. We're celebrating Christmas early this year.) :)

SCIENCE:
Volcano experiment 1- Magma (toothpaste) changing the shape of land (soil in the yogurt cup).
Erzsebet filling the cup with potting soil.

Before:

After (squeezing the toothpaste from the hole under the cup)


Volcano experiment #2:
First, create a mini volcano out of clay, with a hold in the middle. Place 2 T. of baking soda in the hole. Then pour vinegar into the hole.


Wa-lah! A volcano eruption. Be sure to do this in a bowl or a tray.

Be sure to stop & fully enjoy the excitement on your kiddos' faces. There will most definitely be some squealing & cheering. Now, that's what it's all about. Their faces are my reward! They love hands-on learning!

SNACK TIME:
Enjoy an extra minty, high in fiber yogurt!

...be sure to share some with your monkey-see-monkey-do younger sibling! (ok, they're just posing- don't let them eat the soiled toothpaste magma!)


SPECIAL EVENTS:
Yes! The children & I put up our Christmas tree this week. This is the earliest I've ever done this... it's always been the day after Thanksgiving. Why not? It's never the wrong time to celebrate Christ's birth!.... Right? We've been listening to Christmas music since October & when you have a fake tree, with children who are old enough to look at the calendar EVERYDAY counting the days 'til Christmas, it's easy to get into the spirit early.
Ezra also got to attend the UO vs. ASU game with daddy on Saturday. It was in the mid-30's & the kick off time was 7:20pm, but the boys had a great time bonding & cheering for our favorite college football (our alma mater) team! The Ducks need 2 more wins to go to the Rose Bowl!

Weekly Highlights: Week 17

BIBLE: This is Ezra (and my) favorite part of school. It helps that Ezra has such a love for hearing Bible stories. He is always asking more, which is great- especially this week! We had some catching up to do (from our sick days), I thought this would be a great week to treat him with a few extra stories. :)

Tower of Babel: This is such a great story in explaining how so many languages came to be. It also reminds me of Acts 1:8- "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." The Lord spread out the people from Babel. God wasn't pleased with them congregating in one spot, building a tower so big, to make a name for themselves. Likewise, we are to spread out & spread God's Word. He gave himself unto us, in a form of a man. So that we can relate to Him in all stages of our lives. So that we would be filled with His spirit. So we can be effective in sharing His love with others. So that others may come to know Christ & be saved. We are to be like salt, but too much salt (in one spot) isn't a good thing.


Abram & Sarai.

Son for Abraham.


Wife for Isaac:

I absolutely love this story! It gives us another great opportunity in talking to our children about selecting his/ her future spouse. It's never too early to instill those values- how & what to look for godly characters... and how to rely on the Lord for help, like Abraham's servant did.)


Esau & Jacob:

We had so much fun with this story! We decided to act this one out. My son laughed his head off when I screamed & pulled out ("gave birth") 2 baby dolls out from under my sweat shirt. (Do not add the screaming part, unless your child fully understand the curse women have received from Adam & Eve's story.) Ezra must not have expected it, because he fell over his chair from laughing so hard. He thought it was the best thing ever & even retold this story at dinner time. It was definitely fun to create a visual to show what it must have looked like when Esau came out, with Jacob holding onto his twin brother's heel. The conflict between the twins had begun since they were in Rebekah's womb. Again, this is a great story in teaching about sibling rivalry, forgiveness, relationships, honesty, etc.. There's so much to teach our children in each of these stories.... Seriously, who needs parenting magazines, when you have the Manual for Life in the Holy Book God has given us- that we can read freely??!!!


READING & WRITING:

e = /ea/
oy & oi = /oy/
e, i, y preceding letter 'g' = 'changers'


MUSIC:

Lots of Traditional Christmas Carols!!


Other Activites:

Studying Camel's Feet- Following the "Wife for Isaac" story. How Abraham's servant was able to travel a long distance with 10 camels loaded with presents. Camels have wide feet that keep them from sinking in the sand. We had an activity in learning about the effectiveness of camel's feet- using pencil, quarter, tape & sand.


Making Lentil Stew- (To reinforce the story about Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for some bread & lentil stew) Lentils are a small plant, like a pea, that grow well even in poor soil, and have been an important food in the Bible lands area for centuries.
Heat in a large soup pot:
1 1/2 T. olive oil
Add & saute:
1 chopped onion
1 minced clove garlic
Add:
4 cups water
1 cup lentils
1/2 t. cumin
Cook the soup 30~45 minutes until lentils are tender.
Add:
2 T. lemon juice
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
(For a less authentic option, add one can of diced tomatoes & cubed ham or crumbled bacon.)

Friday, November 13, 2009

Special Family News

In my previous post, I mentioned "feeling nauseous & low on energy"....

Well, I've also been craving spicy food & ice cream (which actually isn't all that unusual for me)....

Putting these clues together, you've probably already figured it out.

YES! We're prego, preggers... pregnant again. Woo hoo!

Yes, Prego with #4. "It's in there" alright. BTW- I just found out "Prego" literally means "I pray" in Italian. Very appropriate I must say. :)

We've been waiting to share this news until we had our 1st prenatal appointment. The baby is doing great. We're in our 12th week currently. It is the size of a lime & weighs about 1/2 ounce. Just over 2 inches, head to bottom.
I'm a little curious about how having a fourth child will affect homeschooling next year. We will be done with this school year before the baby is born, which is a relief, but I'm not too certain how to go about handling it all. I guess I'll keep praying! "Prego!" In the meantime, any advice, encouragements & experiences you want to share would be greatly appreciated!

Weekly Highlights: Week 16- Sick days.

We did school only 1 day this week, as the flu virus crept into our home. :( Ezra got sick first, then my hubby. My 2 other kiddos had colds, but didn't catch the flu bug. Whew~! It was a tough week, as I was feeling nauseous & low on energy... but thankfully, I survived without getting sick. I look forward to the day when we'll be in Heaven, where there is no sickness, no worries... where I don't have to be obsessive-compulsive about washing hands & sanitizing everything in sight. I must say I also look forward to getting a new body too! ;)

We reviewed the story of Noah this week. We haven't measured the length of Noah's arc yet, but we're excited to get outside & count 300 cubits! (We may cheat & convert the cubits into feet, but Ezra is insisting on counting the entire 300 cubit units.)

We did manage to make it out to our church's amazingly fun Harvest Fest. We stayed the first hour, then went trick or treating in our neighborhood, then enjoyed a yummy tuna casserole for dinner. All in all, it was a good week in that we got to spend a lot of family time together at home.

In closing, here are the kiddos in their Halloween costumes.

Ezra as David the Warrior (Bible costume we put together during school- Day 27, MFW).


Ezekiel as the plague (ok, a cute frog):

Erzsebet as God's princess: