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Saturday, February 29, 2020

Watercolor Peruvian Llamas: 100 Days of Art Day 13


While studying Peru in geography, we discovered that llamas are very important to Peruvians. They are used for carrying loads, for meat, and fur. My 12 year old daughter loves llamas, so I decided to make our art project this week about llamas! I saw a project we liked on Pinterest and decided to recreate it.
First we drew a llama"s head and part of the neck. The kids traced it with Sharpies and then filled it in with watercolors.


While that was drying, they used crayons to design the background on a separate sheet of paper. I had them draw a pattern that would look like Peruvian fabrics. They then painted with watercolors over the crayons for a crayon-resist effect.

When those were dry, they cut out their llamas and glued them to the paper! They were super impressed with how this project turned out, and I was super impressed with how well they free-handed the llamas! I love the way Sharpie and watercolors look!
Titus, 7 years old

Silas, 9 years old

Mercie, 12 years old

Check out our other projects in my 100 Days of Art Challenge!




Thursday, February 27, 2020

Homeschool Highlights 2/24/20 - 2/28/20



This week was a pretty busy week for us. We had several doctor's appointments because Titus, Silas, Mikaela, and Zeke have been sick. Titus has been the sickest, but I think he's on the mend. If I haven't commented on your blog yet from last week's linkup, I am sorry! We had a really busy few days taking care of sick kids.

Eli had a baseball scrimmage on Sunday, and Mikaela had three softball games this week. Eli also has play-off basketball game tonight!

Zeke got his first haircut last Friday! I hated to cut the curls, but it needed some shaping up. Rod's aunt comes to our house to give us haircuts.

We learned about Peru in geography. We stamped our passports, filled out the country fact sheet, colored the flag sheet, and read some interesting facts about Peru.
(7 year old)

We made these really pretty watercolor llamas. I'll post about how we did these in a few days. The kids were very impressed with how well they turned out!

We also made Peruvian panpipes using straws, tape, and cardstock. This was a fun project to do! And the panpipes actually work!

A couple in our church were missionaries to Peru for years. They loaned us a bag full of items from Peru! The kids had a blast examining all of the authentic Peruvian items! It was super nice of them to loan us all of this cool stuff.





Here are the only books our library had on Peru, but they had some good information in them.


In science we explored the world of ants this week! The first thing we did was make an ant farm. We had some really large ant beds in our yard, so this was super easy to do. I took a big glass jar and placed  smaller plastic jar inside. The kids ran outside with a plastic cup and dumped several cups of the ant bed in the jar, then they shut the lid. We put a slice of apple in the jar, and the ants have been eating it. It's fun to see how the ants make tunnels!
We also drew pictures of ant tunnels and of the different members of an ant colony. We read about their lifecycles and drew them. They also made an acronym for "ants" using information they've learned.
(12 year old)
 
(12 year old)
 
(9 year old)
 
(7 year old)
 
 
(9 year old)


Here are the books we read about ants.


We read the rest of Genesis and began in Exodus. We are still working on memorizing Psalm 23. The kids are plowing through math and language arts! Mercie had a fun project in math this week. She had to make a store with several items and price them. Then she made coupons for the kids and they had to buy things and decide which coupons would be the better bargain. She said it was much more fun than she thought it would be!

She is still reading "Island of the Blue Dolphins" and completing the novel study. Silas is reading "A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning" and working on a novel study. I found these studies on novelstudies.org and I really like them! They are pretty long but have so many great components to them. I let the kids read the chapter(s) and then take two days to work on the accompanying worksheets. It's taking a little while to finish the books, and I won't do this for every book they read, but it's something that would be good to do a few times a school year.


Random shots from the week:


Mercie made Puppy Chow for us this week. It's super easy to make and the kids love having it for a snack.

Zeke wants to do everything the big kids do.

Silas wrote and illustrated this book. It is so cute!

Mercie read aloud to the boys while I put Zeke down for a nap.

Titus's handwriting is getting better!

Mercie pushing Zeke at the park.

He loved the swing!



Titus had to get a new baseball glove this year. He's moving up to a new league!
 
I also wanted to say thanks to Kym for allowing me to take over the link-up!! This is the last week of co-hosting, so next week come back here to link up.
 
Link up your homeschool posts from this week! Anything homeschool-related is welcome. Please visit some other links and give some comment love! And please add my button to your post linking back here. Thanks!


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Reading Through the Alphabet: F

 
This week we read books that begin with letter F! Our first book is "Frog in the Bog" by Karma Wilson and Joan Rankin. This is a really cute rhyming and counting book about a frog in a bog and the insects he eats. At the end, though, does he get eaten himself?

Board book A Frog in the Bog Book
 

The second book we read is "Frog and Toad are Friends". We love Frog and Toad here. They are really great book for beginning readers. Frog and Toad are hilarious friends! This book has five stories that can stand alone or can be read as chapters. These are very well known books and favorites in our house.
 
Frog And Toad Are Friends By Arnold Lobel - Used (Good, Ex-library) - 0060239573 By HarperCollins Publishers | Thriftbooks.com
 
 
And lastly, the book we read is "The Firekeeper's Son" by Linda Sue Park. I bought this book when we were studying South Korea in geography. This story takes place in the 1800s in Korea. Fires were set on mountaintops in chain by different villages. If the king could not see a fire lit, he would know there was trouble and send out his army. One night, Sang-hee, the son of the village's firekeeper, had to take his father's place because his father hurt his ankle and could not walk up the mountain. Sang-hee debates whether or not to light the fire because he really wants to see soldiers. In the end, he sets the fire and is glad he did. It's a really great story with beautiful illustrations.
 
Image result for the firekeepers son
 
I'm looking forward to seeing which books you read! Link up any posts, old or new, and please visit everyone's links!
 


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Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Titus and the No Good Very Bad Morning

We have had a long weekend and week so far! Titus, my 7 year old, started off Friday by going to doctor and receiving a diagnosis of bronchitis. He started an antibiotic, an oral steroid, and breathing treatments.
He was taking a breathing treatment.
 
His bronchitis has not gotten any better. He was awake most of the night last night with a terrible earache. He was crying and rolling around the bed in pain. I gave him so Tylenol, but it didn't help his pain much at all. I called the doctor first thing this morning and they got him in at 9:45. He has a horrible ear infection. The doctor was a bit perplexed because he has been on a strong antibiotic since Friday and hasn't missed a dose, which makes it strange that he got an ear infection. When she checked his ears Friday, they looked fine. So he had a fun morning with a finger prick which showed elevated white blood cell count of 11.2, a fun flu test which was negative, a Rocephin shot to hopefully help his ear infection quickly, and a chest X-ray at the hospital to make sure he doesn't have pneumonia. He absolutely hated the shot as Rocephin shots are pretty painful. He was exhausted by the time we left the hospital and is now sleeping on the couch. I sure hope he gets to feel better soon!
When he found out he had to have a shot...
 
He fell asleep on the way home.
 
On a side note, Silas went to the doctor Monday and was diagnosed with bronchitis as well, and Zeke went in because he was running 103 fever, but they said it was a viral infection. Zeke has started coughing the past day or two, so I really hope he doesn't catch the bronchitis from his brothers.



Silly selfies in the doctor's office Friday

I was thankful my mom came and sat with Zeke, Silas and Mercie this morning so I didn't have to bring them to the germ-infested doctor and hospital. She also made sure they finished their math, language arts, and novel studies this morning. It's always nice to make sure we don't get behind in the core subjects. We can make up geography and science much easier!

Linking up with https://momquesttoteach.blogspot.com/2020/02/t-is-for-tactics-in-american-civil-war.html.