Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Hope you and your family have a very blessed Thanksgiving weekend!

Clay pot turkey made by Hanna 11/07

 

It’s Not Too Late for Operation Christmas Child!

 Last year we participated in Operation Christmas Child and we all enjoyed doing it.  The kids were very excited to participate again this year.  We shopped together for our items and it was sweet to see how thoughtful Hanna and Joe were as they selected what they wanted to include in their boxes.  We packed more boxes this year than last, and I am already hoping to pack even more next year.  It is such a good feeling to know that these boxes are going to children who are going to appreciate them so dearly.

This year in addition to the things the kids picked out for their boxes, we included a picture and letter in each box from our family, an Articles of Faith card and a copy of The Living Christ.  After watching a video about how much Operation Christmas Child touched a girl and converted her to Christianity—opened her world to the knowledge of Christ—I had to include these invaluable pieces.

It’s not too late if you want to participate in this very worthwhile cause.  Deadline for drop-off is tomorrow night—November 22nd.  For more info and a drop-off location nearest you, visit Operation Christmas Child online.

Homeschool Weeks 22 and 23

We had a great last two weeks of school.  I’m going to sum them up short and sweet this time.  I’ll make up for it come January:-).  We are just getting back from a week in Disney World and besides being tired, knee deep in laundry and Thanksgiving planning and prep, I’m just not feeling in school mode right now:-).  So, here goes…

Jack enjoyed lots of playing, reading books and a new flannel board set I got that goes along with the book I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie.

  

He thought this was a pretty funny book.  Joe read it while Jack put the pieces on the flannel board.  They loved doing this together.  Joe especially enjoyed reading to Jack and I could tell he was so proud to be helping.

Joe finished up Fall soccer.  He had lots of fun playing this season and is already looking forward to next season.

Joe is reading up a storm!  He’s reading words all over the place—around the house, while we are out and about.  He’s really taking off.  While we were in Disney he read everything in sight.  Jamie couldn’t believe how much he was reading.  I have to admit, I was very proud of him:-).

In math we continued to work in the workbook I got and in the last bit of his Abeka 5K workbook along with Dreambox.  Hanna moved right along in TT Math 6.  She is actually completing two lessons per day.  My plan is for her to finish it—she’s breezing through—pretty quickly and go ahead with TT Math 7.

In science we started lesson 2 in Apologia Zoology Swimming Creatures.  Hanna finished the dolphin she made for her ocean box.  It turned out great.  This is going to be a cool project when it’s all finished at the end of the year.

Hanna finished lesson two in Winston Grammar.  We are both still enjoying it and the slow pace in which it moves/progresses.

In History we completed through chapter 12 in SOTW Volume Two Middle Ages.  This included all timeline events, mapping and lapbook pieces up to this point.  We are ahead of where I intended to be at this point, which is great considering we are about to take a very long break for the holidays.

We moved right along with our Living Christ study and our Thanksgiving Unit study too.  We are having fun and learning with both of these. 

Week 23 we headed to Disney World for a long vacation.  We had LOTS of fun!  Here is a slideshow of some of the fun we had while we were there.

That wraps up the last two weeks of our homeschool.  To see what others are doing in their homeschools visit Homeschool Creations and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Indian Pudding, Mayflower Snack and Fingerprint Turkeys

We have been having fun with our Thanksgiving Study.  So far we’ve read the following books:

Along with these books we read each day from our main Thanksgiving Study Guide, Give Thanks, and we’ve been learning the words to the song Thanks to Our Father.  We have all had fun reading, studying and cooking together the last couple weeks.  First, we made Indian Pudding.  It turned out very good, and we ate ours warm over ice cream.  My kitchen helper for this recipe was Jack. This was his first time helping me in the kitchen and he LOVED it!  He was so excited and proud to help. During the middle of our cooking he looked up and told me he loved me, so sweet.

For our Indian Pudding we used:

• 4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp each ginger and nutmeg
• 2 medium sized apples chopped into small pieces

Directions:

1. In a large pot bring to a boil milk, cornmeal and salt.  After coming to a complete boil, continue to boil for about 5 minutes, or until mixture thickens to the consistency of soupy grits.
2. Cover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
3. In a large bowl stir together eggs, syrup, apples and spices.
4. After removing cornmeal mixture from heat, stir into egg/syrup mixture.  Mix well.
5. Pour into a greased crockpot and cook on low 6-8 hours. 
6. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

I also made the kids a Mayflower Ship snack. 

I made this using a cucumber cut in half length wise for the ship.  I hollowed out one half with a small melon baller.  I filled the hollow half with veggie dip.  I used carrot sticks for oars and craisins for our crew.  I cut slices of swiss cheese into a sail shape, attached them to wooden skewers and stuck these down into the ship.  I served it with cucumber slices and carrot sticks.  I thought it turned out cute and so did the kids. 

So far we’ve made two of the four crafts I’d hoped to complete this month.  We made handprint turkeys on paper plates…

…and fingerprint turkeys.  The kids made these turkeys on a sheet of paper and signed it for my grandma—their great-grandma who has been in the hospital and will be for quite some time, bless her heart.

We have really been having fun and learning a lot about Thanksgiving.  I look forward to learning and doing even more over the next couple weeks.

I am linking this post to:

• stART 
• What My Child Is Reading
• Read.Explore.Learn
• Kids Get Crafty
• Feed Me Books Friday

Homeschool Week 21

We got a good bit done this past as far as school goes.  Jack continues to play so well as he listens to me read aloud each morning during history or science.  This week he really enjoyed playing with his Thanksgiving sensory bin and homemade pumpkin pie play doh while I read to Hanna and Joe.  As always there were trucks involved.

 

Joe learned 5 new sounds in reading/phonics—er, ear, ir, or and ar.  We played a new game from Happy Phonics to go along with these new sounds, and also reviewed all sounds and games learned up to this point.   Our new game involved matching words on cards to their proper sound after reading them. 

 

  

In math, Joe continued to plug away in the last part of his Abeka 5K workbook.  I actually cancelled my Horizons 2nd grade math order for Joe.  After a lot of thinking, I’ve decided to have him continue with Dreambox, work in a 1st grade math workbook I purchased, and go from there upon completion of these.  I just don’t feel good overall about skipping concepts in 1st grade math that he may need to build a good foundation.  For now, I feel comfortable about this decision.

 

In history we completed chapters 9 and 10 in SOTW Volume Two.  No major projects again this week.  We worked on Thanksgiving projects instead.  The kids did complete mapping (Hanna & Joe), timeline (Hanna), lapbook pieces (Hanna) and coloring pages (Joe) for both chapters. 

Hanna made a tangram type puzzle for Joe after reading the book, The Warlord’s Puzzle. 

This is a great book to read when studying Ancient China.  We enjoyed it, and Hanna did a great job on her puzzle.  Their is a guide for making one in the back of this book.  We all took turns, including Jamie, putting it together.  Everyone did super and got it quickly except me:-).

In Science we finished reading Lesson Two on whales and Hanna made a dolphin from air dry clay for her ocean box.  She finished painting it yesterday, so you can see how it turned out in my next wrap-up post.

In Winston Grammar Hanna completed lesson 2.  It was an extension of nouns from the first lesson.  It went very well—still no complaints there.  She also moved right along in TT Math 6.

Another week come and gone, and this was a very good one!

I am linking this post to:

• Preschool Corner and 5K too @  Homeschool Creations
• Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Paper Plate Handprint Turkeys

Each year we make handprint turkeys.  This year I wanted to do something a little different and I chose to make our turkeys on painted paper plates with multi-colored fringed, felt frames.  One of our most favorite turkey books is Setting the Turkeys Free—this book is all about handprint turkeys and Joe and Jack both love it—so do I!

The kids had fun making their turkeys.  Especially Jack, he can’t get enough of painting or having his hands painted, and fingerpainting.  He smiles so big when he gets to paint with his hands and he was very excited to make his turkey.

Here are all three of the kids’ finished handprint turkey crafts.  They turned out great!  I guess I should have tried Jesse’s too, but he was napping.  I’ll definitely do something with his handprint or footprint for Christmas though.

For this craft we used paper plates painted with yellow acrylic paint, felt cut into small rectangles, Elmer’s glue, googly eyes and markers.  After the turkey has been painted in the middle of the plate add an eye, beak and legs.  Next, glue felt rectangles around the outside of the plate to make a frame.

I am linking this post to:

• stART
• Read.Explore.Learn
• Kids Get Crafty