unit 15 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 15

Bible verse: 

His lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the Lord. 

Matthew 25:21

We jumped right back into our studies on Monday. We talked about the Pioneers coming to New Amsterdam {which would later become New York City}. The name change came when some English war ships came and took over {sent by the Noble Duke of York}.Some ships brought some cows, sheep, and pigs over to New Amsterdam. This made everyone happy because this would mean they would have milk and butter.

This is a game we played with cotton balls {cows}, tape {an island}, and index cards {canoes}. The object was to keep the cows on the island. I took 1 cow at a time off the island by canoe while one of the kids took them back after they were unloaded. We timed this for 1 minute to see if all the cows were on the island or not. And our answer was always.....NOT.

We learned of a little boy named Peter, who took care of his cow, Trinka. Peter loved his cow, but he wasnt happy when she knocked him off into the water when she got spooked getting of the ship. We talked about ice cream, and how that we get milk from cow's to make it.

We actually made our own homemade ice cream. {Except for Nathaniel, he pitched a huge fit, so he was taking a break in his bed for this activity}.

Here's what we did:

*add: 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 t. vanilla, 1T sugar to small ziplock bag, get out extra air, zip and shake

*add: 12 ice cubes and 1/2 cup reg. salt to large ziplock bag and zip

*put smaller bag into larger bag

*wrap the bag into a towel and knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ice cream is "formed"

*and we added some sprinkles and extra sugar in the end*

 We also made "curds and whey".  We didnt get many clumps but the milk def. thickened. No one wanted to taste the curds so we threw them out.

 

 In learning about Peter and Trinka, we also learned that a lot of cows ate some poisonous weeds and died. Peter loved his cow, Trinka, and was worried that she might get sick and die too. He trusted God for her well being, and God seen fit that she didnt die. The kids made their own cows.

On Friday, we talked more about our Bible verse and actually read the parable of the talents from the Bible, and acted it out. We talked about talents that God gives us, and how that if we use them to glorify God, we will be blessed, just as the first 2 men in the story. And if we dont, we will not be blessed, as the 3rd man {who was called wicked and slothful}.

This is Thomas covering up the penny to show it hidden in the ground.

 

I forgot to add in our blog post last week that we made some pumpkin spice play dough. They wanted to play with this again this week, so we took a break to create and play.

 We had also picked up some sun catchers at Walmart and they enjoyed painting those this week as well.

 The finished products:

 For storytime, the boys drew their favorite person/part so far in the book. We are reading The Cricket in Times Square. 

 This is Nathaniel's drawing.

 And, once again  Thomas's wont load......ugh. He drew a picture of Chester Cricket in his cage.

 Random images from this week:

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We will be traveling to TN this weekend for my husbands work Christmas party. I cant believe today is the last day of  November!! This school year is going by way too fast.

Thanksgiving Fun {BLHFHG}

We took a break this week from our studies  to enjoy the week of Thanksgiving.

They boys played outside a lot more than I expected, so we didnt get as much done as I had wanted to.

Painting was #1 on the list of "what do ya'll want to do the week of  Thanksgiving?". Sarah and Nathaniel made trees, and painted leaves with  q-tips.

Thomas didnt want to paint, so he stacked cups.

 And Hattie stopped for a rest. She loves chewing on wet wash cloths.

The easy bake oven doesnt get much use {I think because of the "waiting" time}, so before I put it up for sale, Sarah made the last cake. Here she is waiting on her cake to finish baking.

We had an idea from another blog to make necklaces. The boys made "Thanksgiving" necklaces. Each bead represents a part of the "Thanksgiving" story. They are proud of these!! These necklaces ended up being a big hit with the other neighborhood kids too. We had a friends over to make their own necklaces.

Sarah wanted to make some cookies to take to Granmaw's house for Thanksgiving. She enjoyed making these, they were so easy to roll up and she loved dipping them into the sprinkles.

 Her favorite part is stirring!!

 Final product...........funfetti cookies!!

 Mmmmmmmmmm...............

 Sarah and Hattie kicking the blocks!!

 The boys were anxious to make these indian hats. They put a lot of time and effort into the decorations. I think they turned out really nice.

 Nathaniel says his hat is too big.....he's usually hard to please.

I had my camera at our Thanksgiving dinners, and didnt think to even use it. We were too busy fellow shipping and eating =)

I wasn't planning on the week going by so fast, or us being so busy, but we had a great Thanksgiving week. !! We enjoyed the rest time, but are looking forward to week 15 next week of HOD!!

unit 14 review

Unit 14

Bible Verse:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, 

believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions:

 if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

*An Indian came to tell the Pilgrims of a new ship out in the sea that was headed for Plymoth. The Pilgirms were worried that it could be a French ship, so they everyone armed and a cannon ready just in case. {Every boy who was old enough even carried a gun. My boys are sure that they would have been able to handle the job}.

*The ship turned out to be an English ship, with 35 passengers. The Pilgrims were running out of food, and the ship didnt bring any food. The Pilgrims bought some corn from some Indians up the coast and they shared all the food they did have equally.

*This is the Cross of Saint George, the flag that was flying on the ship, designed by "King James" in 1603.
 

*An Indian messenger came to the Pilgrims with news of a planned attack. He brought arrows wrapped in snakeskin. Governer Bradford filled the skin with gunpowder and sent it back to the Indian chief. The Indians were scared and never attacked. The Pilgrims built a large fence around their town for better protection.

 *These are snakes we made. I helped with cutting and we used the "holes" I already from our hole puncher.

*The Indian chief, Massasoit, became deathly ill. The Indians sent for the Pilgrims to help. Edward Winslow made him a broth soup, and soon the Indian chief started getting better.

 *we were suposed to do an experiment with chicken broth, but I forgot to get some at the store....so we skipped that

*On Friday, we read about Moses, the Israelites, the Egyptians, and Pharoh. God had a plan for the Israelites, just as he did the Pilgrims, and you and I. The Israelites trusted God, just as the Pilgrims trusted God.  And guess what?? We need to trust God also, and let him fight our battles.

*We did an experiment with pepper and dish soap.....to see what it would have been like for the Israelites to see the Red Sea parting.

*Math this week has been really easy for both boys. Nathaniel is learning  "twins", and reviewing addition and "what comes next". Thomas is doing patterns, and has learned multiplication by 5's. Nathaniel earned a little over $12 {in one day} for his math work. He was using the coins for his addition problems, and since there was no complaining, I let him keep the money for the store  which is having a 1/2 price sale on all items today!!

*Nathaniel with his money!! 

  

*Thomas's reading book for this week was an Amelia Bedelia book, and well, it took him all of 1 day to complete this book. He loved it!!


*This is Thomas's writing/drawing for this week.

*On Monday, we mopped the dining room/ school room floor. 

Sarah all ready for preschool

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Next week, we are taking a break from our studies since its Thanksgiving week. I like to do for 5 days or none that week. We will be doing lots of Thanksgiving crafts and having lots of fun with friends and family!!

unit 13 review

Unit 13

Bible verse:

And we know that all things work together for good

 to them that love God, to them who are the

 called according to his prupose.

Romans 8:28 

We had a lot of good discussions from our Bible verse this week.  We talked more about God's will for our lives {from our  unit 11 verse }. With the election being this week, I took the kids and voted, and they were anxious to see who won. When they woke up Wednesday morning to find that who we voted for didnt win, they were bummed. This verse in Romans was an encouragement to them, and myself. We talked about how even when we are sad that God is in control and always works things together for good for those who love Him. We talked about what things God has given us that we should thank him for. A few they named were: family, food, a place to live, being able to homeschool, clothes, and friends. We talked about our greatest blessing of all is awaiting us in heaven and  about offering our bodies to God, to be used according to his purpose.

 When spring came, the Mayflower was going to return to England. The captain offered to take anyone back {for free} that wanted to go. No one took him up on that offer. The Pilgrims had a wonderful harvest in the fall, and they wanted to honor God with a feast of Thanksgiving.  They had a week long feast to give God thanks. They invited their Indian friends to come "party" with them. The Indians made popcorn for the Pilgrims, and I made some {microwavable} for my Pilgrims. 

The Indians and Pilgrims played games and we played some too!!

They jumped from a "line" and measured the distance in inches.
1st jump:
Thomas 42.5 inches
Nathaniel 46.5 inches

2nd jump
Thomas 57.5 inches
Nathaniel 46.5 inches

 Thomas tossing the sock

Then we did a sock toss game. They tossed a pair of Daddy's socks into a bucket, and I moved the bucket back each time they made it in.    


We talked about the different seasons and we did a little visual of them. We divided the paper into 4 sections for the seasons, and painted a "bush" for each season.

 

We talked about fall, and how beautiful the leaves were and we learned that when the leaves change colors, its because they are dying. We talked about how death is so beautiful in nature, and even though we get sad when our family/friends die....it really is beautiful to God. We learned how leaves have "veins" just like we do, that carry fod and nutrients to the leaf. Our science project was to make a leaf from a paper towel and put the leaf in water and watch the veins {made from a marker} carries the food to the rest of the leaf that wasnt in the water. It was a really neat visual for the boys. After we did this, we emptied the water and put another leaf into the cup and watched as nothing happened...this showed how the leaf will die and fall off the tree from lack of nutrients.

 

We started our new genre today: fantasy. To introduce fantasy, I wrote this sentence: 
 
The purple cat talked to the dog.

I asked the boys what couldnt happen in that sentence, and they said the cat couldnt be purple, and it couldnt talk.

We changed the sentence to say:

The black cat, purred to the dog.

We talked about fantasy being like your imagination and how you can make up any thing {silly or not} in the story.

Our fantasy book is The Cricket in Times Square. 

   
Thomas read the book Wagon Wheels and is still surprising me with his reading skills. He was a little later than I expected, to learn to read but he's doing really well, and very seldom needs help with the words. In math he's working on multiplying by 0's, 1's, and 10's. I thought I would have to use flash cards with him, but once I went over the "rules" for these #'s, he didnt need the flash cards at all.

Nathaniel is asking me to do his math work independently, which makes me happy, that he's gaining confidence to work alone. 

Hattie had her 15 month check up this week. I took all the kids along, and they behaved really well. I was very proud of them!! When we got home, they played "doctor" on and off the rest of the day. Hattie weighed 18lbs....she's my tiny tot, but she's my baby and I love her just the way she is.

 Nathaniel checking out the store

 Thomas's MineCraft painting, my kids have painted almost every day this week.....next trip to Walmart will be to get new paint!!

We finished school early this week. We were planning on going to South Carolina to visit some family, but that didnt work out. We still may go to Kentucky to visit some friends, but either way.....we are done with school for the week.