Exploring countries and cultures week 4 - United States

 I found this great site that has done all the work for me for our weekly memory verse, I am having #1&#2 do the coloring page, #1 doese the copy work the next day, then dictates the next. http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/bible_memorization.html

We used out giant floor size usa puzzle from last year, and it went together so much quicker since we have been memorizing the locations of all 50 states.

 This was a fun activity where using only 4 colors she had to color the states without 2 of the same colors touching, she only had one mistake and caught herself and changed it midway.

 for an american craft we did quilting, the non sewing way lol. They had fun making these cardboard quilts.

 In science we got out the national geographic tree guide again and #1 looked up trees and drew their leave.

 learned a little about the flag, really a review from last year, but we will do this for each country we study

 Testing of the 50 States, I gave her a list with all the postal abreviations on it and had her label.  Thanks to our music lesson on geography songs she was able to do this relatively quickly, I did one too, and mixed up 2 of the states but not bad, I am sure I would not have done nearly as well a couple of weeks ago.

one of the books we use for science, Living World Encyclopedia has great issustrations, #1 can pick something intersting and add it to her nature/science journal/notebook

 of course with everything we study there is food, my kids love to bake and EAT lol, since we have been trying to eat a little better around here, we have been sharing our treats - we made Mountain trail mix that #2 took as her snack to MOMS group.

We then made this New England Pumpkin bundt cake YUM!, we made it on our night for dinner with the grandparents, so we could share(I then made it again as pumpkin bars to take on my day to bring treat to MOMS and then gave away many of the leftovers)

Other things we did this week include finishing up the first section of Kingdom Tales, Tales of the Kingdom #1 really likes this and understands it way more than I thought she would.  In bible time we have been reading from Hero Tales , we learned about Moody.  We read a book called  The hundred Dresses and we are still working on Betsy and Tacy go over the hill.  I am sure we did lots more, but since I am catching up I can't keep it all straight.

Exploring Countries and cultures week 3

In Bible we have been learning about religions and beliefs around the world and how that compares to the bible and belief in Jesus Christ using the book Windows on the World and focusing on the fact that Jesus didn't come for some people but for all people.

This week, our 4th week of school, 3rd week of our curriculum we started studying the United States.  We just finished a whole year of this, so I wasn't sure how much we would learn, but since this is a year of geography we are definitely learning new things. We did a lot of locating things on the map and then on the globe.

We also have been spending time memorizing the locations of the states.  We didn't do this last year, we did spend time locating them, but we are actually working on being able to fill in a blank map and again I LOVE the Geography Songs Cd for this and our Geopuzzles.

for art we did sand art suggested in our book  Global Art the good thing was we did this outside so no mess!

we read the book How to make a Cherry Pie and see the United states, then made a pie

Other things this week to keep us busy included the start of AWANA again at church, where #2 started as Cubbie.  She was very shy at first, but warmed up and had a great time.

Ready to go to story time at the library on Wednesday mornings with a dear sweet friend willing take along another tiny tot.

 

The start of Gymnastics at the Y

and then over the weekend

A visit with Grandpapa and tea with Grandma

Finishing up Week 2 of ECC

Last week we finished up the second week in our curriculum Exploring Countries and Cultures, even though it was our 3rd week of school.  This allowed us to take a slower pace and to get back into our grove.  Plus we had the Holiday in there and our Moms group day.

 Here is #2 on her first day of Sunday School, I wasn't sure how she would do, she can be a little shyer than #1 and clingy.  Well she did fine, her buddy was in there.  Later I heard to my embarrassment that she told her teacher at one point " sigh...I'm sooo bored"

and here she is with her project form Moms group, we hung it up as soon as we got home.  I am so thankful for the program for the tots at my Moms bible study, neither of my girls went to preschool, but I feel like this once a week program is the perfect balance.  They learn how to interact with other tots and how to listen and follow directions and Mom is in the same building.

here is #1's neighborhood map she made while studying different types of maps

here is the world cake we made, it's upside down so it really looks distorted, but I think she did a pretty good job making the continents.  We told everyone in order to have a piece they had to name the continents and oceans, #1 and I have them memorized mostly due to listening to the continent song on geography songs.  Love this CD

more geography vocab cards

science notebooking - we went outside found a leaf, identified the tree using the national geographic field guide North American trees, we checked this out from the library, but I might like to purchase well see how much we use these types of books this year

 

and here is our water cycle experiment, we planted grass in a jar and watered it.  Before hand we learned about the water cycle and we have been signing Steve Songs song water cycle and now I can't get it out of my head, but we love it.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but this fog(water vapor)

and here we have condensation

Well it's been a fun couple of weeks, lets see how our week unfolds as we begin the busyness of AWANA  and other outside commitments.