Friday, April 26, 2013

Unit 33 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 33 Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory {+ extras}


{I'm sorry that there are no pictures for this week's review, blogger isn't uploading my pictures for this week}

Bible:
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine:
but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Proverbs 17:22
We talked about our attitudes, and how having a positive attitude will make others happy, and a bad attitude with make others sad, and not want to "play" with us. We talked about what a "good medicine" does, and how we want to stay healthy and happy. We named some people we know that are always cheerful and how it feels to be around cheerful people.

History:
This week we talked about a little girl named Hilda that had came from Norway with her family {dad, mom, and 2 brothers}, to live on the Great Plains. In Norway, Hilda had a really nice house and lots of friends. When Hilda's family moved, they had to live in a sod house and she had no one to play with, and she complained a lot, missing home. In the winter, Hilda's dad and brothers went to town to get supplies, and on the way back they were caught in a snowstorm. God was watching over the men and the oxen led them back home. In the spring, a group of  covered wagons came through and stopped at Hilda's house. Hilda fogot how sad she was {missing Norway} because she was busy playing with the babies that were in the wagons. Hilda's mother told her that one of the wagons would be going back to Norway and that she could go back with them and live with her grandmother. Hilda decided to stay with her family.


Science:
We talked about different kids of dirt and colored a map to show what kind of dirt the western states have.  We learned that in the Great Plains the dirt was dark black which was good for growing crops.
The Indians taught the pioneers how to grow corn and wheat. We read about seeds and the different parts of a seed. When found the little "helicopter's" outside {aka maple seeds} and broke a few open to see what we could find. We also made a replica of a seed with playdough and covered it in saran wrap to be a coat for the seed.

Art:
We talked about snowflakes and how that no 2 snowflakes are exactly the same. We also made paper snowflakes and compared them.

Geography:
We found Norway on the globe, and seen how far it was from the Great Plains. We talked about how different the land was in Norway and the Great Plains.


Storytime:
 We started our last book genre today: Folk Tale. Our book is The Apple And The Arrow. To introduce the folk tale genre we played telephone. I told a story to Thomas, he then told Nathaniel and then Nathaniel said it aloud. The story was basically the same, but with some details added or taken away.  Folk tales are often changed as they are retold. 
We talked about the words: compare and contrast. We talked about the differences and similarities between the setting of the story and our home.
We talked about virtue, and found that in the story the father wouldn't bow to the pole and hat and thought he was showing virtue.

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Abeka:
In our Abeka studies, we learned about percipitation, and about the atmosphere. We also talked about slaves and America's future.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Sarah's 4th Birthday

 Happy Birthday Sarah Hope


On April 21st, 2009, my boys became big brothers to a little princess. We named her Sarah Hope. She was born a toddler, I say, weighing in at 9 lbs and 12 oz.


Sarah with the midwife
1 year old



2 years old
she was almost 3










4th birthday party




I cant believe she's 4 now. Time surely does fly when you are having fun! Sarah means princess, and she definitely  lives up to her name. She's a very sweet, loving, caring little girl. She loves her brothers, that we call "the boys", and her little sister, Hattie. I pray that the Lord continues to bless her, and gives her many more happy, healthy years with us.



Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Unit 32 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 32 Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory {+ extras}

Bible:
A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: 
and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24  

 
We named our best friends, and talked about our BEST friend, Jesus. He cares for/about us when it seems that no one else does.

History:
This week our focus was on the Oregon and the California Trail. 

 We started the week off with a story about a little girl named Nell, who had traveled the Oregon Trail with her family. She was 10 years old and was left alone by her father to take care of her twin siblings for a few days. Why, you ask? Her mother was sick and her father needed to take her to a nearby town to get medical help. While caring for the twins, Nell gave them some molasses and a feather to play with until they fell asleep. Nell accidentally fell asleep along with the twins, and awoke to strange noises outside. It was a BEAR!! He had smelled the molasses and opened to door to find it. Nell threw the molasses jar outside and then shot the bear with a pistol.


Nell shooting the bear


After reading about Nell and the Oregon Trail, we read a story about a boy named Ken. Ken traveled alone to meet his father on the California Trail.  Ken's father had went to California to find gold, but he didn't find very much and opened a store instead. During Ken's journey west, California became the 31st state in 1850. 

We made a bar graph of the population in California in the years: 1848,1849, and 1852.


kinda hard to see, but this is an overhead view of the graph

upclose view of graph
*The huge increase in population is because gold was found during that time in California.


Geography:
We found a map with markings of the Oregon Trail and studied it . 

We remembered that the Oregon Trail started in Missouri. 

Some other places we talked about were:
Platte River
Mississippi River
Great Plains
South Pass
Snake River
Columbia River
Oregon City

Science:
We read about bears and learned that black bears can grow to be 10 feet tall and weigh up to 1,700 pounds.



Bears dont have hands like we do, but they have paws. What would it be like to have a paw instead of a hand? We found out......with paws you cant pinch things!! 

it would be hard to write with a paw

Sarah's paw

picking up an eraser

Boots picked up a paper clip

Artistic Expression:
We talked about how God watches over us all the time. He NEVER sleeps, and he never gets sleepy or tired. 


Storytime:
We finished our realistic fiction book, Mountain Born, this week. The boys really enjoyed this story.  We talked about our favorite character{s}. We talked about problems in the story and what we might have done to solve the problem. 

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We learned about wind, storms, and weather in our Abeka studies.

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Extras:

The boys finished up their Horizons studies this week. They are excited to be finished up with those. Thomas will be taking his end of grade testing as soon as I order it!! 

We won a set of Toob toys from a giveaway on  Grace Filled Homeschooling's blog. The boys were allowed to choose 1 Toob. They were torn between the Powhatan Indians and the Jamestown Settlers, but choose the Indians. When the Toob arrived from Safari Ltd. inside we found lots of goodies.

Toobs:  
*Powhatan Indians
*Jamestown Settlers
*North American Wildlife

Also, an egg with a baby dinosaur inside, a calendar, and also a pack of good luck mini's. 

These have been a big hit here at the house!!

"Hattie, dont mess with them". ~Boots

Indians VS Settlers

Hattie fell asleep eating!

Thomas reading his ER book.

 

Friday, April 12, 2013

unit 31 review {BLHFHG}

Unit 31 Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory {+ extras}

Bible:
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your
body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, 
and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air:
for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. 
Are ye not much better than they?

We talked about how worrying doesn't help anything or anyone, and how it can make your body weak and sick. We talked about how God loves to give us things, and that we should always remember to praise and thank him as often as we can.
 
History:
The Pioneers that traveled in covered wagons lived in wagons as they traveled West. At night, they stopped the wagons and made a circle and a few Pioneers would guard them from Indians and wild animals. 
We learned about 3 westward trails that started in Independence, Missouri:
1.The Santa Fe Trail
2.The Oregon Trail
3.The California Trail 
We focused on the Santa Fe trail this week. We found a map in our book and traced the trail with our fingers. Some words we studied were: plain, Great Plains, pass, Raton Pass, source of a river, and the Rio Grande. We didn't go into much detail on those, but they did "hear" the words. 
We read a story about a boy named Nick. Nick took a trip West with his dad on the Santa Fe trail. On the way, a storm came and Nick lost his hat. When Nick and his father got to Santa Fe he seen the men wearing sombreros and he wanted one. He didnt have any money but he had a few items in his pockets he was willing to trade for a hat. He was about to trade his pocket organ {harmonica} with a little boy when his dad came and gave him a hat. 
Nick was playing Yankee Doodle on his pocket organ. The boys pretend to be in Santa Fe and dance as the spanish people danced. We learned that the men wore sombreros and the women wore bright-colored skirts. They enjoyed dancing in Santa Fe, and danced around the sombreros.

Here are the boys dancing around a hat {we dont own a sombrero,yet .....}


We also added to our timeline this week!!
 
Science:
 We studied fireflies, or lightening bugs as we call them.Lightening bugs are insects and have 3 body parts, 6 legs, and 2 antennae. We learned that fireflies light up when they are searching for a mate. 
  

Storytime:
We are still reading our realistic fiction book, Mountain Born. 
We talked about the setting of the book, and how this story could very well have happened.  We also talked about integrity {being honest and doing what is right, even when no one else is watching, so that you may be blameless in the eyes of the Lord. Self control was another topic this week. Sometimes its hard to have self control. Here are some things the boys listed that are hard to control:
  • biting fingenails
  • wanting to say mean things to my brother
  • wanting to say bad words    
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Thomas:
Thomas got a special treat this week. He finished 3 Diary of the Wimpy Kid books recently so his daddy let him rent one of the movies from Amazon. 
He is doing well with his math, and has 6 more lessons and he'll be done with his math. He is also almost finished with his emerging reader books. I am so proud of the progress Thomas has made this year with is reading.

Nathaniel:
Nathaniel is enjoying reading and is progressing with his words. He 5 lessons left of math and phonics for the year.
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Abeka

This week in our Abeka books we learned:

health: manners at school and church

science:we talked about energy, gravity, and friction

history: American Cowboys
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Extras:
my laundry helper

Hattie wearing her sisters shoes


sisterly love

"Hattie, get on my back and ride"~Sarah

"Hattie, get UP"~Sarah
 Until next week................

Friday, April 5, 2013

unit 30 review {BLHFHG}


Unit 30 Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory {+ extras}

Bible Verse: 
We reviewed previous verses including :
John 15:13
Galations 5:22-23
Luke 16:10
Proverbs 22:6
Deuteronomy 5:16

History:
Some Pioneers traveled west in "wagon trains". They  had lots of rough days/nights and some even died along the way.  We read about a boy named Dan who was traveling west with his family. Dan was a busy boy, everyone wanted his help with the daily chores on the way. I'm thinking it must be the name "Dan" because my husbands name is "Daniel" and is called on for help quite a bit. One morning Dan heard a noise that turned out to be a stampede of buffalo headed toward the camp. The mules and oxen were scared by the stamped and scattered across the prairie. Dan had a very interesting life, one night while hunting with his father, Dan found an abandoned wagon. A strange sound was coming from the wagon, and lo and behold, it was a baby. Dan's mother took the baby in and cared for it just as her own.


Geography:
Do you know what the 2 longest United States rivers are? We do! The Mississippi River and the Missouri River. We found them on a map, and traced them with our fingers.

Science:
We read about the American buffalo, the Bison.
My boys LOVE the State Farm Insurance commercials and I found this one for them to watch.

 

After learning some information about Bison, and seeing pictures of them, the boys pretended to be bison. They wallowed, horned trees, and stampeded. 

We learned that Bison grow to be 6" tall and 10" wide so we made an outline on the floor to be the same size as the adult bison. As you can see, the Bison would swallow up both of my boys.


We also read about vultures {birds that fly on a column of warm air}. We used an index card to be a vulture and blew on under the arc of the card and tried to make it "fly". When Dan found the wagon, there were vultures circling around it.



 {This is our Wednesday visitor, Nathanael with his new glasses}


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 We actually did more last week in school, but I waited to long to write the blog post, and have forgotten some of what we did. Lesson learned! We have been on spring break this week and my mind is a little fuzzy trying to remember a whole week back.

We took a mini vacation to Kentucky/Indiana from Friday-Sunday of last week to visit some friends. We had a great time and the kids did NOT want to leave. They are already begging to go back as soon as it gets warm.

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Here are a few more pictures from last week!!


Thomas working on his math lesson.

 Nathaniel reading to Hattie.

 The dog got into our trash and the boys helped clean it up, 
of course I paid them $5 of school money.


 Sarah and our neighbor, Sophie, playing after preschool


Well, its turned sideways, but look at #7. This is Thomas's language paper.
He is a true "Cross" to put drop with sun =)


Thomas and our friend, Nathanael, playing on the ipod.
Nathanael has taken on our laziness and has been staying his his pajamas
until around lunch time!



Hattie eating a snack.
 
 Sarah leaving for her Easter party at preschool.

And last but not least, a picture of our family on the most important day of the year.....EASTER.




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