In this post: Memorial Day lesson, end of the year party, squirrels, finishing The Hobbit, summer fun begins, & planning for next year. Also Crafts about controlling the tongue.
Hello dear ones! I hope you’re having a great day. We began last week with Memorial Day. In America it is a time to honor the soldiers who have passed. Chris had off of work and had no class. Michael just did his devotions and spelling and had the rest of the day off. My husband is a veteran and he deployed twice to Iraq before he was disabled. I wanted to honor the memory of Chris’ friend Daniel that died in Iraq. So we took a trip to the Veteran’s cemetery and laid yellow flowers on the graves.
I guess you can say it was a Memorial day lesson in Homeschool. I had Michael read the markers to see where the people served and what branch they were in. You can also tell their religion by the symbols on top. After that we said a prayer for soldiers and for Daniel’s family. We talked about how the soldiers died to keep our country free and also how Jesus died to keep us free. On the way home I mentioned that we are soldiers in God’s army. We don’t fight men but rather dark forces. We are to be a light in this world.
Here are our crafts from the week before. We continued our character study and focused on controlling the tongue.
This tongue craft is adorable: http://www.biblesongsandmore.com/2012/07/20/the-tongue/
The happy face has nice things on it’s tongue and the mean face has bad stuff. The tongues can be pulled out and put back into the mouth.
“Like golden apples in silver settings so is a word spoken at the right time.” ~Proverbs 25:11
Here are our golden apples with nice words written on them.
Idea from: http://www.tutusteaparties.com/2012/10/tot-school-fall-apples.html
So this one was just thrown in there. We didn’t even get to the story but Michael has heard it before. This is the fiery furnace with Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego in it. I probably just mutilated their names. There’s also the fourth person in the fire, one like the son of man (Jesus shows up in the old testament too!). If you haven’t heard the story, the 3 guys get thrown in the furnace because they won’t bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. The furnace is so hot it burns the people who open it but when the King looks the 3 guys are unsinged and doing fine. Then he sees a fourth man with them. The context points to this fourth man being God the Son protecting them.
http://bibleschoolteachers.blogspot.com/2010/10/fiery-furnace-craft.html
Math~ So we’ve been learning a bit of multiplication. Michael got really excited when he learned the trick to the 10 times table. He’s started calling himself the multiplication master lol! He even wrote the tables on his own to show off.
Michael finished reading The Hobbit! Go lil buddy! We never got to more Hobbit crafts but Michael did draw this great picture of Smaug.
As a reward for reading the whole book, I got Michael a Hobbit Lego set.
Squirrels…
We’ve got many squirrels in our yard. They invaded Michael’s closet one year and left empty acorns everywhere. So far we haven’t had that this year. Anywho, so lil man wanted to learn about squirrels.
I got this squirrel fact book on Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008G39V12/
We also read Beatrix Potter’s Timmy Tiptoes:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085G922I/
We watched a squirrel family one day (another fun thing about homeschooling). You can see the critter on Michael’s play set.
Hannah had an extra squirrel craft from Fall. So Michael put it together.
I got a good picture of our little bird, whom I haven’t heard lately :(. He was singing on the boat near our homeschool room window and then we’d see him out the kitchen window when we were at the table. I think I got too spoiled by his music. (Edit: I actually saw him yesterday after I wrote this. I was soooo excited.)
This post is a combo of two weeks. Last week, we didn’t do any crafts. It was a very laid back week. We enjoyed a few free/cheap summer activities.
So this slip n’ slide was just 5 bucks at Family Dollar and it will last at least all Summer. It’s great for floating toy boats but not a good guinea pig bath. We never tried the mouse on this (she’s anxious enough) but the cat, dog, and guinea pig didn’t like it. I was surprised Tessa (our dog) didn’t like it since she wades in ponds.
So there’s this great Summer bowling program. Two free games a day for kids. We just had to pay for shoe rental. I’m thinking we should buy our own shoes. If you’re in the states you ought to check it out:
https://freebowling.amf.com/
Other bowling companies may be doing this as well.
Our park has a splash pad. It’s all the fun of a water park (almost), for free.
Michael and I homeschool year round but we take breaks here and there. I’m planning on taking a longer break this Summer but learning will be happening without official school. Learning opportunities are everywhere not just in workbooks.
Our homeschool group takes a break for Summer but we still meet sometimes just to hang out. We had our End of the Year party when my sister was here. Jenn and my mom came. I was so happy my sister finally met my buddies.
Hannah and Rachel had the place super snazzy with Summery decor. We all brought BBQ potluck food.
I made my peach cobbler:
Southern Peach Cobbler
From the Odum Community Cookbook (Note: this is not my hometown but not far from it)
by Jeanette Bass (actually it belongs to this lady but I’ve adopted it as my own lol)
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup self-rising flour
1 stick butter
1 can peaches (sliced with juice)
3/4 cup of milk
Melt butter in baking dish. Add sugar, milk, and peaches, mix well. Add flour and mix until well blended. Bake in 350 degree oven until top is golden brown. Serve with or without whipped cream; you can also sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
A few of us brought old curriculum etc to exchange. I picked up several neat items.
Hannah read a couple Summery books and an extra story that the kiddos begged her to read.
Our group is much bigger than this but not all Mom’s want their kids’ pics online. We did take a big group photo though. Here’s a pic of Hannah’s kiddos (Olivia and Liam) with Michael.
I’m thinking this will be a yearbook picture if I can get my butt out of a rut and actually make one!
Olivia and Maggie (Rachel’s daughter)
So now the time has come to get all of that curriculum together. I’m also planning Summer activities. June is going to be busy with swimming lessons and VBS. So school is going to be very light and will stay that way through mid July. Then Lord willing mid July through the first part of August school will be officially out. Though we will sit on our bums some we will also have some crafty fun so stay tuned!
Pic: Getting ready to organize and plan. You can tell I’m ready by the Dove chocolate on the bed.
Yes, so after many hours and too many chocolates I did get my materials organized and I formulated a plan f0r next year. But still it’s bare bones. I haven’t got to the meat yet. My buddies have there stuff altogether in one (mostly) with Five in a Row curriculum. I looked at Beyond Five in a Row but we already spent a lot of money on what we have. So I think I’m going to take the Five in a Row concept of tying the subjects in together and reading books that go along with it. I’ll let you know what I decided when I get it together. That will be a post within itself. It’ll be a fun challenge and I’ll get to choose what books I want him to read. I’ve got several in mind :).
God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
PS: When do you start planning your year, homeschoolers? Do you have a particular snack or ritual that goes along with planning?
amberdover 