Homeschool Highlights: 2/2/20-2/7/20

This week, Mercie turned 12! She celebrated her birthday by going out to lunch with Nana and Papa (my parents). Then she came back home for caramel cake and ice-cream and presents!

She loves stuffed animals, especially big ones, so I bought her this huge octopus!

She also received some clothes and the Crocs she was asking for.

This week, we "traveled" to Brazil in geography. Here is a bit of what we did:

 

We also began learning about invertebrates starting with insects. We made these model insects. Here is some of our science this week.

Rod and I went to dinner with friends and came back to the house and played Rummikub. It was our first time playing and we loved it so much, I'm ordering it from Amazon!

Zeke went to the doctor and had two ear infections and a sinus infection. He weighed 26 pounds!  He did his school work this week, but I didn't get many pictures. He played with the Magformers almost daily!

We spent a lot of time outside this week because we had some unseasonably warm weather. Zeke loved getting in the mud and water! We have had tons of rain the past few weeks, so everything is quite muddy around our house.

What we're reading:
Mercie is reading Holes, Silas finished Because of Winn-Dixie and Titus read Nate the Great and  Nate the Great Goes Undercover.

 

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Reading Through The Alphabet Link Up: C

I want to thank everyone who linked up last week for the letter B! I love reading about all of the books you have read or are reading. This week, we are on the letter C. I'm going through our bookshelves, finding the books we need. I wonder if I'll be able to find a book for every letter? It will be neat to find out!

The first book we read was "Counting On Calicos" by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes. This book is so cute, and perfect for my cat-loving daughter. It counts from 1 - 20, naming things about cats - like 9 lives, 15 ways to fall asleep. Each page also has interesting facts about cats and beautiful illustrations!

The next book we read was "Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina  - the tale of a peddler, some monkeys, and their monkey business. We actually "rowed" this book several years ago when we were doing Before Five in a Row with my younger sons. It's been a favorite in our house since then! You can check out the activities we did with this book if you are interested!

The last book we read was "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss. I love how simple this book is! A boy plants a carrot seed and everyone keeps telling him it won't grow. He keeps watering it and weeding it, and lo and behold, it grows into a gigantic carrot! The illustrations are done in yellow, brown, white and bit of orange and are adorable. We never "rowed" this book, but it is one of the books in the Before Five in a Row curriculum.

Join me in reading through the alphabet, and link up below! New or old posts are welcome. Please visit some other link ups and leave a comment or two - we all love comments!

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100 Days of Art:Day 9 Model Insects

I wanted to bring back my 100 Days of Art challenge. I only got to 6 out of 100! That's a long way to go. I added our Llama Valentine Box and our Minecraft Valentine Box for 7 and 8. This is number 9!

We just started learning about invertebrates in science. Arthropods are our first group, and insects are our first sub-group. We made model insects today and they turned out very cute. Obviously, they are not 100% anatomically correct, but the kids did their best.

Mercie made a dragonfly.

Silas made a bee.

Titus made a butterfly.

We just used small Styrofoam balls for the body segments. I had a bag of assorted sizes, which is why some of the insects have different sized segments. We painted them and added pipe-cleaner legs and antennae, eyes, and wings. Now the kids have to do a report on their insect!

Check out our other art projects:

Day 1: Learning to Draw

Day 2: Pyramids

Day 3: String Art

Day 4: Optical Illusion Art

Day 5: Kandinsky Concentric Circles

Day 6: Rainbow Paint Chip Mosaics

Day 7: Llama Valentine Box

Day 8: Minecraft Valentine Box

How to Make a Minecraft Creeper Valentine Box

 

My 7 year old son, Titus, wanted to make a Minecraft creeper Valentine box for our homeschool group Valentine party and contest. This box was super easy, but a little time consuming. Titus hung in there, though, and finished it in one evening. He wanted to do everything by himself, and he did. The only thing I did was put the glue on for him one row at a time.

 

You will need:

a nice sized box

yellow, light green, dark green, and black construction paper

a square paper punch (or scissors)

white glue

 

STEP ONE:

Using the square paper punch, punch out lots of squares of the yellow and green paper. You will only need about 7 of the black squares. Titus punched out 80% of these squares. I only punched them out when we realized we needed more and he was busy gluing.

 

 

STEP TWO:

Cut a rectangular shaped hole in the top of the box. We cut the hole where the box flap inserted. This is so your friends can put valentine cards in your box! (I didn't get a picture of the hole before we glued the squares on - oh well!)

 

STEP THREE:

Glue the squares to the box in a pattern - dark green, light green, yellow is the pattern we used. Make sure you alternate each row. I put the glue on one row at a time to simplify it for Titus. He did a great job making sure the squares were pretty straight.

 

 

 

 

STEP FOUR:

After you finish gluing the squares to the sides and top of the box, you will need to make the creeper's face. We used seven squares and glued them in the pattern you see below.

 

STEP FIVE:

Enjoy your Minecraft Creeper Valentine Box!

 

Blogging Through the Alphabet: Q is for Questions

Four years ago when I did a Blogging Through the Alphabet challenge, I did "I for Interviews", and I interviewed my kids. It was fun to do, and I recently read that post again! I decided I would do my "Q for Questions", and basically do the same thing. I also decided to put their answers from December of 2015 side by side with the answers from January of 2020.

Mercie
2015 (2nd grade) vs. 2020 (6th grade)

What is your favorite subject? Why?

2015- Math, because it's fun and you learn a lot."
2020- Language arts because I like writing and science because I like learning about animals.

What is your least favorite subject? Why?

2015- History, because it isn't fun and hard to understand. I don't really like learning about presidents and stuff.
2020- Math, because it can sometimes be confusing.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
2015- Hair-cutter, because it would be fun and you make a lot of money.
2020- Veterinarian because I love helping animals.

What is your favorite thing to do?
2015- Jump on the trampoline.
2020- Play basketball.

What is your favorite food?
2015- Chicken  nuggets!
2020- Pizza and chocolate!

What is your favorite Bible verse?
2015- For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son for whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
2020- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13.

Silas
2015 (Kindergarten) vs. 2020 (4th grade)
 
What is your favorite subject? Why?
2015- The thing where you have to color the numbers. A journal is what I mean. (A Count and Color journal by the Thinking Tree)
2020- Science because I like doing the pages. (worksheets)

What is your least favorite subject? Why?
2015- Flashcards. It's so haaaaaaard.
2020- Math because division is hard.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
2015- This is what I really am going to grow up to be: Rubble on the Double. (a dog from Paw Patrol)
2020- A rancher.

What is your favorite thing to do?
2015- Spend the night with Nana.
2020- Ride horses.

What is your favorite food?
2015- Puppy Chow (Chex Muddy Buddies)
2020- Puppy Chow

What is your favorite Bible story?
2015- Jesus created the earth and the world.
2020- The Parable of the Sower.

Titus
2015 (3 years old, PK) vs. 2020 (2nd grade)
 
What is your favorite thing to do in school?
2015- I don't know.
2020- Math because everything else isn't really that fun.

What is your least favorite thing to do in school?
2015- Um, do homework and that's it.
2020- Science because it's too much.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
2015- Daddy. And Chase on the Case, too. (another dog from Paw Patrol)
2020- A welder.

What is your favorite thing to do?
2015- Um, just Paw Patrol.
2020- Go hunting.

What is your favorite food?
2015- Macaroni and Cheese.
2020- Ice cream.

What is your favorite Bible Story?
2015- (singing) Jesus loves me, yes I know, for the Bible tells me so, Holy, Holy, Holy.
2020- Samson.

It was so interesting to me to see how much their answers had changed over the years! Although Silas's favorite food is still puppy chow! I'd love to do this again in another four or five years.

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