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Monday, April 26, 2010

Hebrew Alphabet & Bible Notebook

Last week for Day 36 of MFW 1st Grade, we took a look at the Hebrew and Greek alphabets so that the children could see the languages the Bible was originally written in.  For dinner, we had macaroni and cheese made with these:


I used the recipe on the back of the package (modified the types of cheese, though, to what I had on hand) and it was really good! 



Today, for Day 41, we started our Bible Notebooks.  I felt this was something that Cupcake and Snickerdoodle could do also, so I gave them each one of those 6" x 9" writing tablets (plain pages) and had them decorate the cover similar to Sweet Potato's.  They were all very proud of their work!


Little Monkey plays in the playpen during school

Now that we are back in our school room (after being back at the dining room table temporarily) here is a picture of the big board we use each day.
On here we have our mini white-board for the date and Number of the Day, our Menu for the "Sunshine Cafe" plus receipts, 100 chart, Jewish Calendar (I had to replace the one that came with the curriculum), ABC chart, Days of the Week, Months of the Year, Calendar, Reading Chart, Proverb of the Week (2 weeks' worth), and Books of the Bible chart.  It was really handy when we schooled in the dining room because it can be folded up and stashed behind a cabinet, but now it's propped up on our 4' x 6' white board.  I got this idea from someone else online (sorry, I don't remember who it was or I'd give the credit.)  We will probably do a new one once we start Adventures in the fall.  I am also thinking of getting a second one to use for our timeline.  Anyone have any good ideas for timelines?  The walls in our school room are concrete and it's hard to tape things to them.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Pattern Blocks

Sweet Potato is getting a little burned out on formal schoolwork these days, so today in addition to our regular math, we worked with Pattern Blocks and the book "Pattern Animals".  After he completes his worksheet, he (and the others) is allowed to play with the blocks in any way they want.  They really come up with some creative stuff!

Sweet Potato's worksheet for today

Sweet Potato and Snickerdoodle

Cupcake and some of her creations

Horses

A few weeks ago, Cupcake and her Keepers group visited a horse farm to complete their Horse badge.  They did a modified requirement, so instead of really riding a horse, they learned about the saddle, how to mount and dismount, as well as make the horse go and stop, all while the horse was being led by the trainer.  My other kids and Grandma went along too.  This was especially exciting for the boys who have been really into cowboy stuff lately, and came all decked out in the new cowboy boots Nana bought them for Easter.  Sweet Potato got to "ride" the horse and the littlest boys got to sit on a different horse.  There were lots of dogs and cats at the farm, too, which kept their attention, as well as a large stone pile.  The blacksmith happened to be there that day so the kids got to see the horses getting their hooves trimmed and even brought home some of the horse "toenails", YUCK!  I can't believe how city-fied my kids are.  We really need to move to the country!

Cupcake riding

Snickerdoodle gets to sit on the horse


Sweet Potato's turn

Cupcake and one of the boarded horses

Soapmaking

Our Keepers at Home group made soap Monday night.  I "taught" since I had experience making and selling soap at the homeschool craft show a few years ago.  We did the basic melt and pour method, making 3 different types, as required in the Keepers handbook (Fragranced & Colored, Moisturizing, Body Scrub). There are many good websites out there for beginning soap makers if you're interested.  Here are the 3 "recipes" we used:


Some of the soap we made


Basic Soap with Fragrance and Color  (The frog and turtle-shaped soaps)


4 oz. White glycerin soap base
Green soap dye
Eucalyptus Mint soap fragrance 




Conditioning Soap (The pink soaps)


8 oz Olive Oil glycerin soap base
Wine soap dye
Vanilla Pomegranate Essential Oil


 
Honey Oatmeal Body Scrub  (The square floral soaps)


8 oz. Goats Milk glycerin soap base
2 Tbs. Honey
1/4 C. finely ground Oatmeal
Vanilla soap fragrance
Gold soap dye


In our hour-and-a-half meeting, we had just enough time to do the lesson, make three trays of soap, cool them (quickly in the freezer) and package them.  The girls enjoyed themselves and the soaps came out looking and smelling really nice!  We left one of each soap along with a note as a goodwill gesture to the church where we meet.



With this project finished, the girls completed their Soapmaking badge and will receive those at the awards ceremony in June.  So far, Cupcake has completed the silver level badges for Soapmaking, Horses, and Rubber Stamping.  She is in the process of earning badges for Embroidery, Baking, Cake Decorating, and Cooking. 

Cupcake working on her Embroidery project

Monday, April 19, 2010

Introduction

Welcome to Live, Love, Learn!  My goal is to chronicle our family's journey through homeschooling, and in doing so, I hope to encourage, inspire and entertain other homeschoolers.  I educated my oldest son, now age 19, from 6th through 12th grades and did a lot of learning in the process.  Now I am doing the fun stuff - Kindergarten and 1st grade! 


"Sweet Potato" is my 7-year-old son.  He is smart, sensitive and absolutely LOVES to read.  He is in 1st grade and also his first year of Cub Scouts. 


"Cupcake" is my 5-year-old daughter.  She is Mama's helper, a princess yet still holds her own with her 4 brothers!  She is in Kindergarten and also Keepers at Home


"Snickerdoodle" is my 3-year-old son.  He is a tough guy yet inquisitive, but has no interest in school unless it involves scissors and glue!


"Little Monkey" is our littlest son who just celebrated his 1st birthday!  He is content, delightful and a joy to the whole family. 


We began about 2 years ago with My Father's World Kindergarten with Sweet Potato and Cupcake.  It was sporadic and we never got onto a good schedule (my fault).  Just about the time I decided we needed to "buckle down" and "get serious" about school, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  So that put a wrench into things, natually.  Eventually I abandoned the curriculum and used generic Preschool and Kindy workbooks for awhile.  During this time, Sweet Potato learned to read, mostly on his own.  Once he was up to reading chapter books at age 6, I decided to scrap the Kindy curriculum and just start the 1st grade. 


We are currently using My Father's World 1st Grade as our base curriculum with all recommended extras like art and music.  Cupcake is working through Rod & Staff's ABC Series as well as following along with all the 1st grade topics.  When the ABC Series is finished, I am going to pull out all the unfinished MFW K units and go through the phonics portions with her so she gets that base knowledge of all the letters, sounds, blending, etc.  That should take us to the end of both curriculums around the same time and put us on track to start Adventures in My Father's World, with Cupcake using her own Math and LA.


So that's where we are!  I hope to post weekly about our homeschool adventures as well as Cub Scouts, Keepers at Home and anything else educational we get into!