Long Overdue Update 3/31/14

My blogging has been pathetic!  I think the only thing I blogged about lately has been that one field trip to Bloomington,  so I am going to try to make up for it by posting pictures and stories from 2013 - present.  I think part of the reason I'm lazy about blogging is because of the time involved, so  I'm not going to pressure myself to be perfect. The pictures are in random order.

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Justin and Ryan are both  in love with science.  As a matter of fact, Ryan has confiscated one of my house-coats that looks a lot like a science lab coat.

The first picture below was taken March 7th, 2014.  Ryan decided to dig up a lily bulb out of the yard and make it grow.  He said, "I'm going to study botany today."

The second was taken today, March 31, 2014.  He has faithfully watered it every day as far as I know.

When Ryan dug up the bulb, Justin decided he wanted to try it as well.  He has been adding all kinds of weird chemicals into his plant.  He also planted a sun-catcher in there.  

 Speaking of chemicals, that reminds me of a funny story: 

We did the popular celery/food coloring science project not too long ago.  You know, the one where the food coloring goes up into the leaves.  After a few days the celery wilted, so Justin decided to add some pickle juice.  The next day the celery looked new!   He was just experimenting and didn't have a clue that would happen.  So we did some research and I guess some plants love acid!  Of course after a couple of days the salt dried it out, but I think that was a great lesson.

  Jonathan created a bust of his favorite Lego character.  

 I have recently felt encouraged to let the kids have some allotted time for interest-led studies.  I do allow this during the school day and yes, I  write it in my record-keeping notes.  We haven't gone off the deep end and chunked all of our curriculum. We still use textbooks, but for history, especially,  I allow them to read real books instead of textbooks. Though I don't directly buy from this vendor, or use every one of the same books, I love having these guides to give me some ideas for what books are out there that the boys can read:

~Living books~

and

  this.  

This site has amazing book lists using the living books method (and for all subjects for that matter).

 I have come to realize that interest-led learning really sticks.  I have also realized that real books written by people passionate about a topic is exciting and draws children into the story.   It's exciting to realize that children can have the freedom enjoy learning.   

  Especially if you tell a child to narrate to you what he has learned after he reads, and later on, he will easily know how to write an essay since he has been practicing it orally for a long time.

I am so thankful for the freedom to educate this way.  I am currently enjoying Lee Binz' book that explains how to create excellent transcripts. 

 Ryan, enjoying an interest-led study:

I love how kids just naturally pursue their interests if they are given the time.   Without pressure, and even in his free time, Ryan has been reading a lot of science material from the library.  With our screening, supervision, & interpretive help, and moderation, he is learning to spot different worldviews at a young age. 

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It's  so fun to watch the boys grow up and see their interests develop. 

  Jonathan is now interested in learning the guitar.  He says he doesn't want lessons right now.  He just wants to teach himself.  I'm o.k. with that.  We do have a book and a DVD, and we will see how that goes.  He mentioned that he might eventually want one of his favorite people at church to help him out if he gets stuck.   I'm not sure how long his interest will last, but my thoughts are that if I just let him play around with it, that he might discover that he has a talent.  Incidentally, he has already taught himself to play parts of a couple of fun songs using one strings.  

 Jonathan & Ryan being hilarious on a cold, snowy day:  

 I'm told this is who they were pretending to be.  I don't understand the obsession with weird stuff.  This is some character that they totally made up themselves.

 Justin got on an Angry Birds sketching kick.  We checked out a How to Draw Angry Birds art book from the library, and I think he did a great job.

 Justin's latest Lego mansion creation.  He worked on it for several days.

 Ryan has always enjoyed making paper creations.  He made this paper castle is from several months ago:

He made this ship after seeing pictures of the ships in Pearl Harbor:

 Jonathan likes to draw & create weird- looking creatures.  This is a corn starch dough sculpture.  These harden very quickly and last a long time. Yes, more weirdness, but that's just Jonathan.  He said this was his mad scientist lab assistant.  

 Ryan made this one:

I love my young man.  I'm just amazed that I already have a teenager.  I enjoy him so much.  I love being able to have great conversations with him. He is a real blessing to me!

Winter fun!  You can't see her very closely -she is on the sled- but the Lord has really helped us to minister to this young lady.  I have felt a burden to reach out to her. She is a 11 year old neighbor whom I felt that the Lord laid it on my heart to show her hospitality.  The very day I took this picture I had prayed, "Lord, help me reach my neighbors."  The roads were iced-over and the schools were closed, so I was very surprised when not long after praying she called and asked if she could come over and play with the boys in the snow.   She is a sweetheart who lost her dad and now lives with her grandparents.  

 Hiking to Donaldson Cave right after the snow had almost completely melted.

 This is at the nature center at Spring Mill.  Intense game of checkers!

 Jonathan's new panda hamster

  Justin loves to draw these types of things. He has always been fascinated with astronomy.

 This winter = snow, snow, & more snow! 

 Some close-ups at Spring Mill Park.  They are growing up so quickly!

Electives: Art

I had an answer to prayer. I have been feeling a little unsure lately about electives for my boys. Instrument? Carpentry? Art?  Justin and Jonathan had been taking piano, but I had come to a point where I was unsure how to move forward.

One day it dawned on me that the Lord knows what type of future they will have, so of course He knows more than I do what types of things they need to learn. All three of my boys love to draw, and I had noticed last year or so in one of the home-school catalogs that Thomas Kinkade had an art curriculum. I thought it would be great if we used his, but it was just a fleeting "maybe one day" thought. Besides the fact that I didn't want to jump into anything without praying about it. And that stuff is expensive!

I don't like to stress over things, so we started taking it to the Lord each morning during our devotions. A new friend of mine -I met doing Good News Club- called me and asked me if I would be interested in art lessons for my boys. She had bought it for her grand-daughter, but they had changed their mind about using it. She wanted to give it to me, and wouldn't take any money for it. Guess what art curriculum it was? That Thomas Kinkade set I was looking at!

 

 

I'm not saying this replaces music.  We are still praying about that.  It does give us something to which to look forward!

The Tabernacle

While reading The Bible Story books, we have been reading about the life of Moses and the Israelites' journeys through the wilderness, the building of the Tabernacle, and the Ten Commandments. We also watched a short documentary about the Tabernacle that was very helpful.

When I was in the fifth grade at BMCS, Miss Stetler had us build a small model of the Tabernacle.   It was a great idea, and I can still name the "pieces" from the Tabernacle today.

Guess what we decided to do?  After several hours over a period of about 3 weeks (here and there)  of cutting cardboard, gluing popsickle sticks, molding salt dough, and painting with gold and glitter, we have our very own model.  So, what's my purpose for doing this? Making memories!  And well... it counts as art, it is fun, and I hope this will help them remember the facts as well.

Please forgive the random order of the pictures. I had a really hard time getting these pictures uploaded, and I just don't have time to rearrange them.   The pieces turned out much larger than we intended -and because of space- I just outlined the Tabernacle and tents on brown craft paper.

The order should be: 1.  The Brasen Altar 2.  The Laver 3. The Golden Candlestick 4. The Table of Shewbread 5. The Altar of Incense 6. The Ark of the Covenant (included inside the Ark are the Ten Commandments, A pot of manna, & Aaron's rod).

The Golden Candlestick 

The Altar of Incense (see the smoke?)

The Brazen Altar

The Laver

The Table of Shewbread (see the loaf of bread on top?)

Inside the Holy Place

The Ten Commandments, The Pot of Manna, & Aaron's rod (see the green buds on it?)

The Ark of the Covenant (inside the Most Holy Place) with its items lying beside it.

Here it is in the actual order in which the items were placed.

I still need to even out the handles for the pieces that would have been carried.  I ran out of the long popsickle sticks and had to use what I had (which were ones that I had already cut).    

Paper mache instructions

For future use...

Justin's sketch of a composite volcano

click to see it clearly

Justin's sketch of a composite volcano

Space study

We are in the middle of a space study. We started with earth, and then we ventured into space. We have been reviewing facts daily. Today we played a game to help the boys with review. I asked them what type of game they wanted, and they chose a jumping game (of course!).

Ryan was chosen to throw a stuffed animal at Justin and Jonathan to make it harder to jump to the next "level". If they got the question right, they were able to jump.


Here are just a few of the many questions I have been asking them in our morning review time. Facts are taken from Usborne Children's Encyclopedia.

1. The earth measures how many miles around the equator? Answer: 25,000 miles
2. The earth weighs apprx how much? Answer: 6,000 million million million tons (how could they possible KNOW this? :-O
3. Where is the hottest place on earth? Answer: the Sahara Desert
4. Where is the coldest place on earth? Answer: Antartica
5. What is the layer of air surrounding the earth called? Answer: The atmosphere
   
   
   
   I also had questions about what fraction of the earth is covered by land and water, what is the largest mountain, and how much of the earth's surface is covered by ice. Further questions were asked about the planets. We are still reviewing and adding more facts daily.
   
   Jonathan was so fascinated the other day by the fact that a pinhead as hot as the sun could kill you from 90 miles away, that he had to tell Daddy when he got home from work.

I found this picture to use as a model for our project:

I found a tray box lying around. They painted it black for the back-drop of space and then added some stars.

Back to the my favorite cornstarch dough recipe (recipe on the bottom of the post):

The Encyclopedia we are using. The pictures are really nice:

We formed the dough into balls. We looked at the picture I found online to give us an idea of the right size.

Ryan had paint on his face, of course...

The almost finished project (I finished it up by painting the outside of the box too).

This probably will get dropped or broken or smashed, but I hope the memories will stick.

Doing a hands-on project like this had a huge affect even on me. We talked about how just thinking about the size of our earth, trying to compare that with all of the other planets in our galaxy, and knowing that doesn't even touch what is really out there. Our God is really AMAZING!

Cornstarch Clay

• 1 cup cornstarch
• 2 cups salt
• 1 1/3 cups cold water

Put salt and 2/3 cup water in pan and bring to a boil. Mix cornstarch with 2/3 cup water and mix well. Blend 2 mixtures together and knead into clay. The dough has to be heated as it is combined to set. Makes about 3 cups. This clay can be air dried and then painted. Store unused clay in airtight container in the fridge.
Found this recipe here