unit 18 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 18

Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory {+ extras}

Bible verse:
We spent this week reviewing some  of our previous Bible verses.

History:
We finished up our story about Joseph and Issac. They boys traveled many days, ended up getting very weak, tired and hungry. Finally, they found a cottage and were safe.
The next story we read was about the town of Swansea, a widow with 2 children and an Indian named Warmsly. The Indian wanted some hard cider, and the widow refused to give him any because she knew it would make him drunk. Warmsly was angry, and the widow was scared of him. The children made a sparkler candle for a special party they were having. During their party, Warmsly and some other Indians showed up and demanded cider. While the widow was trying to pass time, the candle went off and scared the Indians, and they ran away.
The next story was about a maid, name Experience, and a family that lived in the "fort house". This was a house built of brick with wood on the outside. She seen an Indian coming towards the house and she hid the 2 small children she was watching under 2 kettles while she ran for a gun. When the Indian got to the house, the children were crying and screaming, and trying to get the kettles off.  This scared the Indian, and he shot at the children with his gun. The children were then more angry and frightened and they screamed more. The Indian was scared of the "monsters" he had seen and ran away, and the children were safe.

I asked the boys what they had learned this week about the Indians and Thomas's reply was, "They are scared of the things they cannot see."

On Friday, we read in Matthew 14 about Jesus walking on water. We talked about how the colonist had to trust Jesus, just as the disciples did in the Bible.

  Science:
I made a trail with 2 different scents for the boys to follow, just like dogs follow scents of people. They enjoyed this game/experiment.
 {even Hattie followed the scent}

 {once they made it to the sink, they lost the scent}

*we didnt do the flashlight experiment, the flashlight was in Daddy's work van*
*we didnt do the butterfly experiment*

Art:
Thomas made a candle like the 2 children did and we cut holes for the sparks and put tin foil behind the paper to show the sparks.

Storytime:
We are still reading Who Stole the Wizard of Oz. I think this book is a little bit above what my boys can understand right now. They get confused with all the characters, and when they go back and forth between scenarios.
We also picked up another mystery book from the library called The Boxcar Children The Firehouse Mystery . We read this book in an evening/next morning time frame. They loved this mystery and kept right up with the book. 
They found one more mystery from the library that we will start soon called The Bald Bandit. 

Extras:
Thomas went for his 8 year well visit this week, and is steadily growing in the 10th percentile still. He's gained 5 pounds and a few inches this past year.

We dropped the boys off at cub scouts on Monday night and went to Goodwill. We got some books, and other things......for around $12. 
Here are the books, minus the one Thomas snatched up.

 
Thomas found one book that grabbed his attention, and here's how I found him that night.  

Sarah had pajama day at preschool, and a field trip to the library this week.
Sarah before we left for school.

 Here is another of Sarah with her favorite snack....yogurt.

 
At the library, the kids got a kit to take home and make a pinecone bird feeder. 

  We have been really slack with our "charts" since Thanksgiving, and can tell its time for a break. We will be taking a 2 week break now. When we start back up in January, I will be adding a few new things to our daily schedule. I added the extras to our curriculum page.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and a fun filled break!!

unit 17 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 17

Bible verse:

Casting all your care upon him;

 for he careth for you. 

1 Peter 5:7

The boys enjoyed the Bible verse again this week. Once again, it was easy for them to remember. We talked about casting our cares upon the Lord. We talked about different things that worry us, or for me things that stress me. Then we talked about praying to God to ask for help for our troubles.

 This week in history we  read about 2 little boys, Issac and Joseph, who were taken captive by some Indians. The boys were taken far away and they knew they couldnt be found. They decided to work to gain the Indians trust so they wouldnt be watched so closely and they could escape. They learned to grind corn, and helped carry water, gather wood, and tan deer skins. The two boys learned some Indian words and overheard the Indians plan to take them to Canada in the spring. The boys escaped in the middle of the night from the Indians. They hid during the day and followed the stars at night.

The boys listened as I reread a part of the story of Joseph and Issac and they made the scene of the lake, trees, and sunset.

We talked about fish this week and how fish live and breath under water. Some things we talked about were:
*fish have slimy skin that protect them
*fish have scales that protect by reflecting thier surroundings like a mirror

We also learned a few new words this week regarding rivers.
source: the beginning of the river
bed:the bottom of the river
bank: the sides of the river
mouth: the place where the river runs into another body of water

We used play dough to create a model of a river and labeled the parts. {we did not add water} 

    We started our new reading genre this week: mystery
Our book is titled Who Stole the Wizard of Oz?  We started out by each placing an item in a bag. Then the other 2 of us would ask yes/no questions about the item. When we still couldnt guess what was in the bag we would feel the object, finally the objects were guessed. Here are our items:

Thomas:
Thomas finished up another emerging reader this week and has started a new one. He is excited to read about the "first flight". Since we live in NC this is special to us. He has actually been to the Wright Brothers museum, but he doesnt remember it.
  He is learning fractions in math this week, and is also still carrying, borrowing, and multiplying.
 I have decided to use a different spelling curriculum for next year with him. Horizons has lots of fun activities, but for us we need something more than that. We need to learn the reason why words are spelled the way they are.
Not sure if you can tell in the picture or not, but Thomas got his fingers caught in a door last Sunday night. It turned blue, and was swollen. By today {Firday} he says it feels a lot better.

 Thomas has also been a little under the weather this week. He runs a fever at night, and is congested during the day. He's a trooper and has still managed to finish all of his work this week.

Nathaniel:
Nathaniel is moving right along with his Kindergarten math, he is adding, writing before and after #'s.
 He is also doing good with is phonics. I like Horizons phonics, but I feel that they give a LOT of work for one day/sitting, and not just for phonics, I feel the same with their math. Im not sure what I'll do next year for phonics with him. 

Sarah had her preschool Christmas program Thursday night. She's 1/2 through the year and its going by fast.

Hattie is cutting molars and has been a little fussy.

 She found her brothers math work.......this girl loves to color.

unit 16 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 16

Bible verse:

The eyes of the Lord are in every place,

beholding the evil and the good.

Proverbs 15:3

 Our Bible verse this week was easy for the boys to understand. The Lord knows all things, and see's all things. When we do good or evil, God always knows. Also, God has a plan for our lives, and he shields us.

This week in History was a little sad/scary for the boys. We first talked about the death of the  "cool" Indian chief, Chief Massasoit. He was the chief that made the peace treaty with the Pilgrims 50 years earlier, and also the one that was on his death bed and the Pilgrims nursed him well again. When he died, his son became chief, and died soon after. Next in line, was his other son, Philip. This was bad news for the Pilgrims because Philip hated the Pilgrims and declared war on them. The Indians would hide in the forest and wait on the colonist men to leave their homes, and then they would take the women and children and burn the houses. They destroyed a lot of homes and lives.

This is Thomas and Nathaniel playing like Indians and Pilgrims. The Indian would try to steal the women and children and the Pilgrims would try to "catch" them.

*please excuse our "messy" house, it is what it is, right?*

 The boys made "blankets" that the Indians like to get in trade for their furs. We learned how that the Indians felt cheated out of their trades because the items they got in the trade for land were going bad. The land was more valuable than the blankets, buttons, beads, breads, and knives that they were getting. We have decided that this is where the term "Indian giver" was started. The Indians started war to get their land back.

 
We read about two little girls, Prudence and Endurance, who lived near an Indian tribe. One day their parents left the 2 girls alone while they went to the nearby village. The girls were small, but brave. They jumped in a potato pit, and scared away the Indians with their lanterns.

In science we talked about the sense of sight. We learned the different parts of the eye, and even watched each others pupils get smaller and bigger. Thomas drew and labeled an eye for me.

This is our last week of our fantasy story, The Cricket in Times Square. This has been my least favorite story so far, but the boys seemed to enjoy it quite well. I asked the boys to draw a picture of the city and the country for me to show me where Chester Cricket came from and where he went. Nathaniel was running a fever, so he opted out. Thomas said he didn't really want  to draw it, but since I wanted him to he would. He is my pleaser. The left is the country and the right is the city. {We forgot to label this}.

  Next week, we will start our mystery book.

Thomas started the book  Prairie School this week. He is enjoying this book, but I can tell the words are starting to get a little more challenging. The little boy in the story doesn't want to do "schooling".  Thomas can relate to this since he "thinks" that he doesn't want to do his "schooling".

 Thomas worked on drawing this dog for his writing this week. I'm trying to get him to work on taking his time and coloring slower and putting more of an effort into his work. He's trying to work on his hand writing as well.

 

I am so proud of Nathaniel, this week he finally "gets" the number families and can recognize and say 2 digit numbers correctly. Here is Nathaniel working on his adding with blocks.

  

Hattie loves to color, I sat her in her booster and let her color away. She ate a crayon, but had a great time coloring.

  We had a busy week with doctor appts and time visiting family and we didnt get around to all of our extra "to do's" this week with Heart of Dakota. Hopefully next week will be a little less hectic for us. I hope you have a great weekend!!