Learning about Outer Space

Today we read a book called I Wonder Why Stars Twinkle (and Other Questions about Space).

I got this book from the library so it has evolutionary point of views, but I think it is necessary to address these issues instead of avoiding them. I think it is important to know what other people believe, to look at it from a Biblical perspective, and then to conclude why we believe what we do and why others reject Intelligent Design/Creationism.

While reading the library book, we also looked at the book of Genesis to find out what the Bible says.

For example, why do the Sun and Moon exist? An evolutionist can say, "to give us light and darkness" but if they answer this question they must admit Intelligent Design. Random chance offers no reason for order.

But the Bible has all of the answers we need!

Genesis 1:16-18
16And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

We also enjoyed reading about all of the questions people ask about space and how it is for an astronaut who visits space.

We immensely enjoyed this YouTube video about eating in space. This was a real treat for the boys since they have never seen anything like this!

NASA DestinationTomorrow - DT17 - Eating In Space (2005)

Multiplication songs

I found this when I googled for multiplication songs:

One way of doing it although I am laughing at myself singing it.

Multiplication Songs

2’s

Sung to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

14, 16, 18, 20.

How I wonder what you are.

3’s

Sung to “This Land is Your Land”

3, 6, 9, 12,

This land is your land.

15, 18,

This land is my land.

21, 24,

From California,

27, 30.

To the New York Island.

4’s

Sung to “Old MacDonald”

4, 8, 12, 16,

Old MacDonald had a farm,

20, 24,

E, I, E, I, O.

28, 32,

And on his farm he had a dog,

36, 40.

E, I, E, I, O.

6’s

Sung to “Jingle Bells”

6, 12,

Jingle bells,

18,

Jingle bells,

24, 30,

Jingle all the way.

36, 42,

Oh what fun it is to ride,

48, 54,

In a one horse open sleigh...

60!

Hey!

7’s

Sung to “Happy Birthday”

7, 14, 21,

Happy birthday, to you.

28, 35,

Happy birthday, to you.

42, 49,

Happy birthday, Mom and Dad.

56, 63,

Happy birthday, to you!

and 70!

(And many more!)

8’s

Sung to “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain”

8, 16, 24, 32,

She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes,

40, 48, 56,

She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes,

64, 72,

She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain,

80 now we are done!

She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain,

(la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la)

(She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes!)

Update

We have been really busy so I have been a little slow updating over here. Routine seems to settle in and I have a hard time pulling myself away.

This update is basically a run down of what we have been doing.

Daily morning routine:

• Prayer - looking at prayer list from church and any others we want to add
  
• Bible story from Arthur Maxwell's The Bible Story
• Verse (We just learned Isaiah 55:3)
• Review Character poem "Attentiveness"
  
• Read Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends (The other day we were in the library and Jonathan randomly told the librarian "I love my brothers". This fact, to me, is a big deal. It is something we are praying for openly with the boys) .
• Read excerpts from a Childcraft encyclopedia I got from the thrift store. Right now we are studying about doors and how different doors work. Jonathan said his favorite door would be a bed door. I can imagine them locking each other in one of those!
• If I remember, we exercise.
  

Then we separate. Justin goes to the table for seat-work (writing, spelling words, worksheets) while Jonathan comes with me to my bedroom. We prop up on a bunch of pillows and cuddle on my bed while going over his assignments, math & phonics drills, and reader (Jonathan especially loves this, and complains if I suggest sitting anywhere else or doing it any differently).

After that we switch. Jonathan goes to the kitchen table to do seat-work/papers while Justin comes to my bed to cuddle and go over his assignments, read, & do math and phonics drills.

For Justin we are doing a lot of drills for multiplication. I am also going through a really neat book I got for him from the library called Marvelous Multiplication: Games & Activities That Make Math Easy & Fun. He is thrilled with it.

Here are a few games we made have played to learn Math:

From the book :

*With "Can You Eat Just One?" & "Pair It Up" we used grouping(and eating) raisins
and pairing socks to learn times tables.

*Using Flashcards:
One day we played "golf". I used the flashcards and pretended they were "Rook" cards. He had to recite/answer them correctly to get points.

Yesterday while saying his drills, he used a car with batman sitting in it to go to the next level each time he said a number family. Frankly, he would never get very far if he were just sitting and drilling. He wiggles and jumps the whole time he drills and I think it actually helps him to concentrate (wiggling). It's amazing how much better he learns if he is allowed to move!

During all of this Ryan either joins us in the bed, plays with puzzles, colors, or builds blocks. If he wants (it's entirely up to him), I also invite him to the bed to read just to him or learn some type of preschool thing. Some days he is for that; other days he just wants to play.

Hopefully if there is time, the boys do their chores. This is something I am working to get better at. Some days we do this and other days I end up trying (the key word being trying) to do everything myself.

Justin does a lot of free-time reading after seat-work. My goal has been reached, in that he picks up larger (100-150 page) books and reads them without being told. His current choice is a biography about Abraham Lincoln. He told us last night that... back then, people got "milk fever". He went on to explain to us what milk fever was.

Thursdays look completely different than other days of the week. Since we are way ahead in Language arts (we do 2 lessons a day), we use that day to study extra electives (science, history, physical education, ministry, etc). We do study science & history during the week, but Thursdays we take more time for it and our historical time-line.

I hoping to start a music study in KONOS soon for Thursdays. It is very intense and you actually make instruments while you learn them, learn orchestral position, etc. I could learn a lot myself from this!

Well it has taken me forever to write this post in an organized way, so I will end for now.

Cheddar or Cheater

Yesterday the boys sneaked into the candy dish sometime during the day. I usually work with them one at a time while the other does chores, and then they switch up. I think the sneaking must have occurred by each while I was concentrating on schoolwork with the other.
I noticed very quickly during Jonathan's seatwork time that he was not concentrating and was being very hyper. So I checked the candy jar and it had an obvious "dent" in it! Yes, they both admitted. "I had five" Justin said. "I had 3", said Jonathan.

It always affects Jonathan the most.

I was telling Michael about it when he got home and during suppertime we had "Mexican meat cups". The bag of shredded cheese was sitting on the table and Jonathan was trying to read what the bag said. He said "chee-dar" (instead of cheddar). He then said, "What if God is making that bag point at me and say "cheater" since I didn't try to do my schoolwork today?".
After I composed myself and stopped laughing I assured him that it said "cheddar" and that "no, God isn't calling you a cheater because you were hyper".

Safety

Today we read a book called Safe at Home. It discusses fire safety in one section and general home safety in the other section. It is more interesting than just a regular text book because it is in story form. It is story about a family who made their apartment complex safer.

We also had a fire drill (which the boys enjoyed immensely!). The boys pretended to be in bed and then I pushed the smoke alarm. The first test was really funny because they ran through the house, but I made them do it again. I explained to them that we do not panic or run but that we walk quickly. We discussed our meeting place in the back yard.

We also reviewed different things you should do in different situations (Crawling on the floor, feeling the door to see if it is hot, breaking windows to get out if the door is jammed(or hot), fire prevention techniques, etc.)

Overall our fire safety study went well and the boys enjoyed it much more than I imagined that they would. We will continue to discuss more safety issues in the future and review what we have learned regularly to make sure they remember what to do.

Homeschool P.E.

How in the world, do we as home-schoolers do Physical education?

Well, one thing we are teaching our children is how to live in the real world. Do most grown-ups play sports outside everyday? Well, no... of course not.

Do most grown ups have an early morning fitness routine? Probably not.

So, how do I teach my kiddos to have a good fitness routine?

By having an early morning fitness routine!!!

Get up. Eat & Groom. Devotions.

Exercise that includes the following:

1.Stretching
2.Sit ups
3.Push ups
4.Jumping Jacks
5.Leg lifts
6.Jogging, hopping, & skipping around the house. :-) This is great fun!


On sunny days, there is a back yard and a great park nearby.


On rainy days, sniffly-runny nose days (like today), or days when it is freezing:

How about a great game of Tupperware lid hockey???

This is where you take all the round Tupperware lids you can find (in my case some that do not go with anything) and try to hit them with a floor scrubber or broom.

The Tupperware lids must past under the chair legs.

Jonathan & Ryan , the goalies, are fearless when it comes to protecting their goal.

Justin is learning that a floor scrubber or broom makes a great hockey stick!

Update:

We took 2 days off school this week just to have some breather time. I needed to catch up on some housework, and the boys enjoyed just playing and relaxing. SCCA is having their fall break this week too, except they are starting with half a day Wednesday and taking Thursday & Friday off. But I felt like we needed it at the beginning of the week, so we took it then.

Believe it or not, that little "break" was just what I needed. I woke up today ready for school to start back again! One of my favorite things about "doing school" is taking each child aside and cuddling him while we study "facts" together. I love seeing that light of understanding dawn on his face after I explain something. I love watching his profile as he reads. It is hard to explain, but it's something I wouldn't want to trade.

We are still studying the character trait "attentiveness" in the morning before we start seat-work and the 3 R's.
I know I am spending a lot of time on it, but I think it's important!

The other day, I did google search on the word "attentiveness", and I found a lot of interesting things. One website, called "Character First" had a definition page, a story page, an analogy page and then a poem. Interestingly, they used a deer for the analogy. I think it's pretty funny because Michael picked up on the deer analogy and we used it a long time ago. They also had a story about Abraham Lincoln (my boys love reading about him).
I liked following the poem well enough to print out, and I am teaching it to the boys:

Attentiveness:

I will look at someone speaking
And I'll listen all I can.
I will sit or stand up straight
Like a soldier on command.
I will not draw attention;
I will guard against distraction.
I will learn to ask the questions
That will help me understand.

There is more to the poem, but I thought the rest of the poem was silly/unnecessary so I am just
teaching the part above.

I bought a book awhile back called Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. I copied this picture and the one of the other book from Amazon.com so that's why it says "click to look inside". If you really want to look inside you will have to go to Amazon.com and click their picture. :-)



I believe I mentioned it in a post before.
I had started reading it in the mornings to the boys, but laid it aside for awhile. I started it again today. It's cute since it is written by siblings for siblings. There are all types of cute cartoons through the book. The first cartoon is of a cat and dog fighting over dinner. The boys really like it so far. From the reviews I have read it tackles the subject in the light of having a servants' heart. That is what I hope to accomplish through the reading it to them.

Sneaking History into little minds

Do you think I am being sneaky? Here is a coloring page Ryan did today. :-)
I love his eye for color and attention to detail. I think he just might be a little perfectionist.

Library Reading fun

I am very excited about our afternoon library book reading (mentioned in a post below)! Mondays are usually our days to visit the library in the afternoon. We enjoyed it even more today because Michael was able to go with us, and because Justin was able to use his very own brand new library card and book bag.

Today I was able to consult a very helpful binder in the children's section listing the readers & chapter books written by Christian authors!

Some books we found that were on the right level for my boys:
Adventures in Odyssey Readers
Readers for children by Beverly Lewis - I love her books for adults!
Boxcar children
Henry & Mudge
Various science readers about Volcanoes, Rocks & Minerals, and Meat-eating plants (Justin loves these!)
Jonathan is enjoying whole books now (instead of 2 or 3 word sentences) on his level. It's exciting to hear him read and understand entire books.

Getting Organized

I spent a lot of time the other day trying to decide a better way to present the boys with their workbooks. I had originally planned to leave their worksheets in the original binding because I thought it would be good for record keeping. However it has not taken me very long to decide to go ahead and tear out those pages! The books are bulky and in the way!

I realized how much time we were wasting waiting for them to say "Mom, I'm done. What's next?"

To make things go more smoothly, I made an excel spreadsheet list similar to the one below for them to use to guide them each day. It goes in front of all completed worksheets and into a 3 ring binder at the end of the day. This is so helpful with my record-keeping!

It looks similar to this (beside "pages assigned" is a box for them to check when work in each subject is complete):
_____________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan's daily assignments

Today's date: ______________________________

Subject/Name of Book used Pages assigned ck box
1 Reading:Fun with Pets (read orally to Mom) ______ ______
2 Italic Writing ______ ______
3 Arithmetic I ______ ______
4 Phonics Letters and Sounds I ______ ______
5 Language I ______ ______
6 Spelling I List # (write or orally spell to Mom) _____ ______

Notes, Other subjects, Extra books read, or Learning activities: ___________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________


I found some nice folders for them to keep their daily assignment sheets. In the first pocket is the assignment and worksheets for the day, and the next pocket is the place where they transfer their completed work. When it gets on that side, it is ready for me to check for errors.

On their daily assignments, I do not mark them wrong with a big red "x". I circle the number they missed in pencil, and then they correct their errors. When the work is corrected and I have checked to make sure it is right, they are allowed to erase the circle. I have found this to be very effective in helping them to understand the lesson, and it shows me how they are doing. I have actually taken several days to re-iterate a point. For example, one of the boys was having a hard time understanding a certain mathematical issue. I was able to have him do supplemental pages (ABeka has lots of these in the very back of the workbooks),read extra books about the subject, and watch the appropriate DVDs from the library. It has really helped! He seems to truly understand now. This is a definite plus with home-schooling. You can make sure your child understands something before you move on. "No child left behind" takes on a different meaning!

When the boys complete their papers, they have a large selection of stickers to choose from to place at the top of the page. :-) This is so important! hee hee (I love stickers!)

Bible & Bible Memory, Character, Manners, Science, History, Art, Music, and anything else we study are all listed separately in my journal. We do those subjects as a unit instead of individually.

We have been using the new, more-organized method for a couple of days, and it has made a huge difference!