Homeschool Highlights 2/17/20 - 2/21/20

We started our week off with our Valentine Banquet at church on Sunday night. We were going to have it last Wednesday, but flash flooding in our area caused us to postpone it. It went very well! Our youth served the dinner - ham, loaded mashed potatoes, baked beans, and rolls - and earned $435 in tips to go toward summer camp. We had three couples play the "Not-So-Newlywed Game" and we had a big dessert bar! The "TeamKID kids" (as I call the kids who participate in our Wednesday night TeamKID service) performed a few songs for us.

older group grades 4-6

younger group grades K - 3

I let the kids have the day off from schoolwork on Monday since Mikaela and Eli were out for President's Day. We did have our 4H meeting that afternoon, though. Titus led the pledge to the American flag.

We took the week off from "Expedition Earth" this week, too. Our homeschool group's presentation topic this month was a geography fair, so we took this week to make our posters and write our presentations. Silas chose Texas, Mercie chose Australia and Titus chose Spain.

In science, we made our butterfly feeder and concluded our study of butterflies and moths. We learned about dragonflies and damselflies this week (didn't even know what a damselfly was!). I even learn new things with the kids. I had no idea that a "mosquito hawk" is actually a dragonfly! I've called them mosquito hawks my entire life and never knew they were anything else. We also made a "compound eye" using straws we taped together to help us understand how the many different lenses work together to form one picture. We learned about the dragonfly's life cycle and read several books on dragonflies. The kids made a few pages for their science notebooks.

We also made this fun dragonfly craft.

The kids have been playing on a new app that we are reviewing for the Crew from Math Galaxy. The Times Tales Balloon Pop has been a hit here, and it keeps them practicing their multiplication facts.

Mercie is reading "Island of the Blue Dolphin" and completing a novel study. Silas finished reading "The Chocolate Touch" by , and Titus has been reading some early readers. I really need to start him on beginner chapter books. He is a great reader but he tires easily.

We are still right where we need to be or ahead in math and language arts. Titus has just a few worksheets left in his workbook. I really need to find him something else to do for the rest of the year.

We read several chapters in Genesis and made a few notebook pages about Joseph. We are working on memorizing Psalm 23. Mercie just about has it, but the boys are taking a bit longer since they weren't as familiar with it as she was.

Pharaoh's dreams done by my 12 year old

Joseph and His Brothers done by my 7 year old

Joseph and His Brothers done by my 12 year old

Today is our homeschool group's presentation, and I'll be sure to post about that this weekend.

Eli also has his last regular season JV basketball game tonight. It's been fun watching him play as the starting point guard for his team. Mikaela had her first softball scrimmage Sunday afternoon and got three good hits. Softball (and baseball) is about to hit us full-force, as all five of the older ones will be playing. Eli and Mikaela will be playing for the school, and Mercie, Silas and Titus will be playing for our parish's Dixie Youth. We will have games every night and practices interspersed between games for a few months. It's my favorite time of year, but it's also exhausting. I can't imagine how it is going to be with a one year old this year. Zeke was around 5 months old when the season started last year and it was difficult enough. Now that he's mobile....yikes!

Zeke enjoyed playing with his 2-part puzzles, Magformers and his Fisher-Price barn this week. He is also getting pretty good at his shape sorter. He can put the squares, circles and triangles in right where they go, but I have to point to where to put the stars and x's.

How was your week? Link up with Kym and I at Homeschool Highlights. Remember, I will be taking over this link-up beginning March 6! Be sure to visit some other posts in the link-up and leave a comment or two.

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Dragonfly Magnets (100 Days of Art Day 12)

We are studying dragonflies in science this week and have learned so many interesting things about them! Did you know that a dragonfly can fly up to 35 miles an hour? I saw a really cute dragonfly craft on Pinterest and decided to recreate it my own way.

All you need for this project is:

craft sticks

packing tape

Sharpies

googly eyes

plastic gems

white glue

magnets

The first thing to do is tear off a piece of packing tape about 8 or 9 inches long and then fold it in half, sticky side in. These will the wings for the dragonfly since their wings are mostly transparent.

Next we drew the outline of a dragonflies wing on one of them. We then put the others on top of that one and traced it so they would all be about the same size.

 

 

Then we used Sharpies to draw the veins of the dragonfly's wings. (These veins provide support for the dragonfly's wings so they can fly so fast and perform many mid-air tricks, like hovering and flying backwards and even upside down!)

 

The kids colored a few portions of the wings in different colors and then cut out and glued the wings to the craft stick.

We added jewels and big googly eyes to complete the dragonfly! Dragonflies have the largest eyes of any insect, which is why we used big googly eyes! Of course, they have compound eyes with thousands of lenses, but the googly eyes will have to do for this craft.

We added magnets to the back so we can hang these on the refrigerator!

(Titus age 7)

(Silas age 9)

(Mercie age 12)

 

They look beautiful held up to the light! It is a rainy, cloudy day here which is why our lighting is terrible.

 

Here are two books we read about dragonflies!

 

 

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

 

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

Day 9: Model Insects

Day 10: Symmetrical Butterflies

Day 11: Butterfly Feeder

Reading Through the Alphabet: E

This week we are reading the letter E!

The first book we read this week was "Elephant Families". This is in the Read-and-Find-Out Science book series that we love! This living book talks about how elephants work as a family unit. It is written in an easy-to-read format that keeps your child's attention. The illustrations are beautiful and there is a ton of information about elephants in this book written like a story! Definitely one you would want to read if you're learning about elephants, and even if you're not.

"Eating the Alphabet" by Lois Ehlert is the next book that we read. I purchased this book when my now 7 year old was doing My Father's World Kindergarten, I think for the "V is for Vegetables" unit. It's so pretty and lists different fruits and vegetables that begin with the letters of the alphabet! There are some unusual ones in here, like the jicama and the ugli fruit as well as some of our favorites like the yam and banana. This is a really colorful and fun book!

Of course, we have to include the hilarious "Elephant and Piggie" books by Mo Williams! We read "There is a Bird on Your Head!", but we have around 10 of these books. They are like graphic novels or comic books for your beginning readers! There is minimal text on each page, simple drawings, and a funny storyline.

I'm excited to see what books you read that start with E! Link up any posts, old or new! Please visit and comment on the other link-ups. Thank you for participating!

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How to Make a Butterfly Feeder (100 Days of Art Day 11)

To conclude our study of butterflies and moths, we made a butterfly feeder to hang in our yard! It was a pretty easy activity to do and looks really nice hanging from a tree.

 

The supplies you will need for your butterfly are:

an empty clear plastic 2-liter bottle

fake flowers

twine or yarn

hot glue gun

hole punch

cotton balls

thumb tack

 

For the food:

sugar

water

 

The first thing we did was cut the top of the bottle.

Next, we took a thumb tack and poked a hole in the bottom side of the bottle.

Then we took the plastic flowers off of the stems.

We poked one of the flower stems through the hole we made with the thumb tack. I hot glued the petals to the bottle to hold it on.

The kids took turns hot gluing the flowers around the bottom of the bottle.

 

 

Next I took a cotton ball and hot glued it to the center of the flower that I had poked through the hole. I also hot glued a cotton ball inside the bottle around the same hole.

 

 

We used a hole punch to make holes in the top of the bottle and threaded some twine through the holes so we could hang it up in a tree.

 

We mixed up about 1/8 cup of sugar with some water in the bottle for the butterfly food and hung it in a tree!

 

(Unfortunately it started raining so we haven't seen any butterflies at our feeder yet.)

 

The kids had fun making this butterfly feeder! Hopefully we will see some butterflies soon.

 

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

 

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

Day 9: Model Insects

Day 10: Symmetrical Butterflies