Friday, February 22, 2013

Unit 25 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 25 Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory {+ extras}

Bible Verse:
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
We talked about Jesus dying for us on the cross. I tried to put a lot of emphasis on telling the boys that even if they were THE only person on Earth that Jesus would have still died for them. I could see their little minds working.  We talked about people that are "self centered", and what we could do to not be "self centered". The boys said they could give money, toys, and time to others when they wanted these things for themselves, and not wanting to share.
We talked about being in God's army, and putting on God's armor. We read in Ephesians where Paul talked about putting on the armor of God. We talked about how we should be ready to fight, not physically fighting but spiritually fighting Satan and his army. If we have on God's armor, we should trust God and not be afraid. Here are the boys animals with the armor of God on, ready to fight. 






History:
Richard was only 10 years old when he joined the Continental Army. His friends laughed at him when he told them he was going to join. Richard's job was to play the fife for the troops, which kept their spirits high.  Richard and his division was taking captive by the British. The British thought it was funny that such a young boy was in the army, and even more funny that he was just playing an instrument. Richard was forced to fight a young English boy, the boy was still bigger than Richard. Richard won the fist fight and he and his colonol was set free. Once he got home, the children weren't laughing anymore, they thought it was really neat that he was in the army.
 Levi, was another young boy who fought in the war. He was chosen to watch over General Washington's bodyguards. Levi did a great job and even helped George Washington give a dinner party for some very important guest.
We read about George Washington going out among the men in the army in a long coat {disguising himself from the men}. He came upon a corporal and his men trying to build a fort. The corporal told the men what to do, but never offered to help them. Just then George Washington ran up and helped the men get the last log up that was about to fall. He asked the corporal why he wouldn't help his men and it offended the man. He then unbuttoned his overcoat and showed his uniform to the men. This was a good lesson for the corporal and to us as well. We will gain more respect by helping others, and not just barking orders at them. 

We filled in the ending of the Revolutionary war on our timeline this week.

Geography:
With the help of  this website  we found the following battle sites of American victories during the Revolutionary War:
Concord, NH
Trenton, NY
Saratoga, NY
Valley Forge, PA {wasn't on the map}
Yorktown, VA  {wasn't on the map}

We also looked in our book at what America looked like back then and learned that the battles were fought in the NE because that's where the colonies were, the rest was unclaimed land. 

Science:
Thomas made a paper cone and experimented with sound. He spoke through the cone, and listened to the cone. We found that the cone channeled the noises.  Boots cupped his hand around his ear and found that he could hear better when the noises were channeled with his hand. We read about sound, the importance of our ears, and the structure of the ear.




We also talked about the sense of taste. Your nose and your tongue work together to help you taste your food. We tried a little experiment with apples and cinnamon.  
First, the boys tasted the apple. Their response:  "it taste like an apple".
Next, the boys sniffed some cinnamon and then tasted the apple. Their response: "the apple taste really sweet."
Last, the boys held their nose shut {like when you have a stuffy nose} and tasted the apple. Their response: "we cant taste, can we smell the cinnamon again and then eat the apple."

Storytime:
We started a new genre this week: HUMOR.
The book we are reading for the next 20 days is Mr. Popper's Penguins. To teach "humor" we wrote alliterations with the boys names.  

Sorry its sideways............


 We also talked about cause and effect after reading one day.  We learned that for everything that happens {cause}, something else will happen because of that {effect}.
 We talked about the Godly character trait JOY and found different instances in the book where the characters showed joy. 
1.Being nice to the penguin
2.Being happy with the penguin


 Other pieces of our week:
 I finally ordered the Melissa and Doug play money set I had been wanting for our school store. I had $10 of Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks, the money set was on sale, and I have Amazon Prime so I ended up paying less than $5 total. The boys LOVE the money. They like the new money better because its bigger.


I've been having to make lesson plans since adding more reading and the Abeka stuff to our days. Here's this weeks lesson plan.

 
  
We finished White Fang his week, and picked out a new book, Ferret in the Bedroom, Lizards in the Fridge. We read one chapter of the new book and the boys are already a little confused, since the setting is in a public school and the kids are in 6th grade. I had to try to explain:homeroom, running for class president, and locker rooms.

My boys loved White Fang, and I'm expecting that they will want me to read it to them again.


Abeka
Science: We learned more about beavers and the special way God made them.

Health: We talked about staying safe on the streets by following signs, traffic laws, also bicycle, walking and car safety.

History: We talked more about America's songs, and listened to them on YouTube. We also talked about "the people who built America". This was a great review for the boys and they loved seeing pictures of the people in England. I was really happy that they remembered the stories of the pilgrims being caught by King James on their way to Holland.

Thomas:
Thomas read about lots of animals this week in his Emerging Reader book. This past summer,at my dad's, we kept finding these nasty, huge green caterpillar looking things on my dads tomato plants. Thomas read about those this week, and we found out that they turn into hawkmoths. 
He started xtramath this week, thanks to a blogger friend for sharing this site with us. His "score" started out at 30 and he ended the week at 39. Thomas is good with his math facts, he's just not super fast. He is still working on his Horizons 2nd grade math and is moving right along.
No drawing this week.

Nathaniel:
Nathaniel also started xtramath. His score was a 4 in the beginning and he ended the week with a 7. He is like me and doesn't like to be "timed". For both boys, I had to hide the teacher with my hand when they played "race the teacher".
He worked on his Horizons K math and his phonics this week, and even read a few readers.

We also have a friend, Nathanael, who will coming over and doing school with us on Wednesdays until the end of the school year. This week was his first Wednesday and I think he enjoyed being with the boys. If you would, keep his family in prayer, he lost his mother almost a month ago. He is 7, and his sister 9.

Friday, February 15, 2013

unit 24 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 24  {Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory} + extras

Bible:
The Bible verses this week were reviews of the past few weeks.
On Friday, we read about Saul trying to kill David, yet David sparing Saul's life. David trusted God to guide him and didnt listen to his men.
We made a desert, a crag {a steep, rough rock}, and a cave just like the story, but in the picture its a little hard to tell the dimensions.  


History:
The week started with reading a letter written at the time of the Revolution  from little Tabitha, to her cousin John. John had been visiting several months before and she was "filling him in" on the latest news. She told him about George Washington visiting Mistress Betsey Ross, and asking her to stitch together a new flag to represent all the colonies. Tabitha was a lonely little girl, and Mistress Ross was a widow so the two were very kind to one another. Tabitha told John in the letter about Mr. Washington drawing a 6 pointed star, and how that Mistress Ross designed a flag that would be adopted by congress. 
She described the flag:
*it had 13 stripes {of red and white}
*it had 13 stars 
*the 13 in stars and stripes represented the 13 colonies
*red=bravery
*white=purity
*blue=justice

The boys made edible flags. They enjoyed preparing the icing {butter, salt, vanilla, and powdered sugar}, desigining the flags, and mostly eating them!
Thomas, busy working
 Nathaniel working hard
 I made one too!!
 Thomas loved the icing
 This boy just loves to eat period.
 And Baby Hattie screaming for more!!
Sarah was at preschool, but got to "play" once she came home.
******************

We also read about a little girl named Prudence. She worked hard stitching a little flag of her own just like the one that Betsey Ross designed. Her neighbor, William, heard that the Redcoats were coming. Her mother was sick, and too weak to hide the silver. When the Redcoats did come, William and Prudence, were brave and went to face them with a drum and the flag that Prudence had made. The General for the Redcoats spoke kindly to the children, and ordered his troops to keep marching. 

The boys practiced military drills, and enjoyed every minute of it.


Science:
In Tabitha's letter she reminded John of the apple tress, and she even gathered some to send to him. We did an experiment to see what foods were made mostly of water and what food was made of mostly fat.


 I cant get this one turned around. On my computer and camera, its horizontal. But here were the results.


Storytime:
We finished our nonfiction  book If You Lived 100 Years Ago. The boys enjoyed this book and even made a little video from a day's reading.
 Sorry its sideways! And I dont think none of us sound "normal".


We are also still reading White Fang, which the boys just love. We should be finished with it in a few days.

 ****************

In our Abeka books, we talked about animal habitats, beavers, American songs {The Star Spangled Banner, and My Country Tis of Thee}, Francis Scott Key, and safety away from home.


Each of the boys are still pressing on with their other subjects. 

Thanks for reading!! 

Hattie had a sucker and marshmallows for breakfast......



Friday, February 8, 2013

unit 23 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 23 Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory {+ extras}

Bible Verse:


A soft answer turneth away wrath:
but grievous words stir up anger. 
Proverbs 15:1


We talked about how situations can change by the tone of our voice.  We also read about Abram and Lot in Genesis. Abram gave lot the first choice of land to stop the arguing. 

History: 
We started out the week by reading about a little boy named Eli. Eli was a young boy who lived in the wilderness by the Blue Ridge Mountains. A young surveyor, named George, came by to spend the night. The Indians were mad about their land being surveyed and surrounded Eli's house with plans to burn the cabin. Eli bravely and  approached the Indians outside {and spoke softly} and showed them a little pair of moccasins that belonged to the Chief's daughter. Eli's mother had taken care of the little Indian girl when she strayed away from her camp. Years later, Eli found out that the surveyor, George, was actually General George Washington. 

The next story we read was about a little girl named Patience Arnold. She was left in charge of the barn door key by her mother. She was busy making her sampler, but longed to play outside. She was obedient and worked hard on her work. While working, some soldiers came and demanded the key of the little girl. She spoke softly, but refused to give them the key.  The soldiers tore the house apart looking for the key and they also trampled in her mother's herb garden.

Geography:
We learned about  the British system of describing land and how it was used to outline a person's property. We made our own outline of our property.


We also cut out a 3 foot piece of yarn which equaled a "chain length". We measured our kitchen by the yarn.

 The boys also enjoyed acting out an Indian war dance followed by an Indian welcome dance.

In our Bible reading, we learned about measuring.
 Length means how long something is. 
Breadth means how wide something is.

Thomas measured our dinning room by his own feet. Next we drew a scale of our room.




You cant see it, but we wrote down the measurements on the orange paper.

Science: The boys made their own herb gardens. Sarah colored a princess.





Storytime: We are still reading parts of our nonfiction book, If You Lived 100 Years Ago.
We have read some very interesting things about New Yorkers 100 years ago. 
We made a bubble map of our reading one day. {This was acually an activity from week 22 that we didnt get to}.
The topic we read on this day was clothing for girls. The boys thought the most important idea was that they dressed different for different events.


Thomas:
math {Horizons math 2}: multiplication tables, fractions,  line graphs, equations, solids, shapes, odd/even numbers, measurements, and patterns
drawing: 3 little pigs
By the time he finished the 3 pigs, he was too "tired" to color or write.



Nathaniel {Horizons math K}: adding, subtracting, recognizing equal parts, and counting by 2's and 3's

Abeka health: we reviewed the first 11 lessons

Abeka science: We talked about different animals learned about animal instincts and their "purposes". Some animals give us food, and some catch harmful insects and animals.

Abeka history: Topics this week were Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day {which they loved}, and America's patriotic songs. We talked about the song "Yankee Doodle". 
Did you know that Yankee Doodle :
* was written by an English army doctor?
*was actually making fun of the Americans?
*a doodle means something foolish?

Nathaniel wrote his own words to the tune of Yankee Doodle.

A little boy whose name is Boots
is a very happy boy.
He loves his daddy very much
and loves his mother too.

I also started setting a timer {10 min} for each of the boys and they read on www.starfall.com, and we started a new game at www.zoowhiz.com. So far, no complaints from either one!!


Extras:

My tired princess taking a nap.
 Thomas and Hattie. Hattie is 18 months now. At her doc appt., she was 19 pounds and 31 1/4 inches tall.
 Baby Hattie loves to draw.



Saturday, February 2, 2013

Unit 22 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 22 Beyond Little Hearts {+ extras}

*We had a very slow week this week, and didn't get a whole lot done, and didn't go in depth like we normally do. I also have a prayer request, we had a friend {wife, and mother of 2 young children} who went on to her Heavenly home this week, please keep her family and friends in prayer, the Hall family*

Bible Verse:
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 
2 Corinthians 9:7 


We talked about being cheerful givers. We remembered times that we have given things or our time or talent cheerfully, as well as times we gave grudgingly. We know that God loves a cheerful giver, so we are going to try our best to give more cheerfully. 

History:
We read about Benjamin Franklin and learned that he was a very kind man and a cheerful giver. He enjoyed sharing his inventions with the people of Philadelphia. He invented the lightening rod and he even made an iron stove for a family that needed to stay warm in the winter.
We also learned of Deacon Drowne, a copper smith in Boston. The children {one was Samuel Adams} loved to stop by and see his creations. One favorite was a  large copper grasshopper. 
Peter Faneuil, was also a very giving man. He gave the city of Boston a new public hall. We searched youtube for videos of Faneuil Hall and found a few that were interesting. The grasshopper that Deacon Drowne made was placed as a weather vane on top of the new market. {We didn't get to make the replica of  Faneuil Hall, and we hope to get to that next week}.

Science:
We learned about the lightening rod and about lightening and how to count how many miles away the storm is by counting the seconds after the lightening strikes until the thunder sounds.
We studied insects in our science book. We learned that they have 3 main body parts: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. We made some homemade peanut butter play dough, and turned it into grasshoppers. 









Geography:
We found some things on a map:
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
the Atlantic Ocean
Lake Erie
Pittsburgh

Storytime:
We didn't read too much from our nonfiction book If You Lived 100 Years Ago. We will make the bubble map next week, since I think my boys would enjoy that.
We finished Lisa and the Drainpipe Prayer. And we read an Amelia Bedelia book.

Abeka:
Science: We talked about having good hygeine, and keeping our skin and teeth clean. We also talked about getting enough exercise, sunlight, and rest.

Health: We talked about our nose and how our nose is used for smelling, and the different parts of our nose. We talked about getting enough vitamin C and drinking lots of liquids to prevent colds. We also talked about the importance of brushing our teeth and going to the dentist. We talked about our household chores and why we should keep our house "straightened". We also talked about what type of clothes we wear in each season.

Our America: We reviewed the 4 states that touch our state {North Carolina}. I quizzed the boys on facts about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and they did really well.  We read about Memorial Day and Flag day. We also read about Betsy Ross, and learned more about the American Flag. We read about the Fourth of July, the Liberty Bell, and Labor Day.

Extra:
self portrait of Boots

 Hattie caught on the table {again}.
 This is where Thomas loves to sit while I read.
 Hattie and mommy {I sure am going to miss this one day}
 We took Friday off, and went to the local science center and then to McDonalds with some friends.

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