Nature study: Trees

Today we spent some time outside looking at the oak tree in our front yard. The kids each drew a picture of it and picked a leaf to go in their Creation notebooks. Jacob did a "Tree Detective" worksheet, noting the trunk texture, leaf shape, type of nut/seed of the tree, etc. It was very windy and the kids had to weight their papers down with rocks!

A Story

Wordless Wednesday: Picking out flowers

Scientific progress

Just an update on our experiments. Our bean seed has sprouted nicely. Tomorrow the kids will draw one more picture showing the progress. Then we're going to plant it in some soil.

You can see how the bean part opened up at the top now and leaves are emerging.

The carnation drinking the yellow water has turned a dull, yellowish color.

And the carnation drinking the red water has at least one flower that has turned a pretty pinkish hue.

I'm not completely sure about the rock candy. The water level is going down some, showing evaporation is happening, but the string doesn't seem to have any crystals on it yet. We'll keep waiting.

And this is why we switched

This is Joshua's writing on regular notebook paper.

And this is his writing on the Handwriting Without Tears paper.

I am so glad that we made this switch. The paper alone is a much better fit for him, but also he's relearning how to form all the letters and numbers.

Making Progress

Our flowers are slowly beginning to slightly turn colors. If you look very closely, you can see a bit of green in the first and red in the second. If you click the pictures, they will show up larger.

Our bean has also sprouted! It has a tiny root coming out the bottom and a stem coming out the top. Very exciting!

Wordless Wednesday

Rock Candy and a Seed

As part of our study of rocks and crystals, we are experimenting with making our own rock candy. Each child got their own jar, picked a color, and is making a string of candy. I sure hope it turns out!

We're also sprouting a bean seed in a jar with a wet paper towel.

Writing

Jacob's copywork for today. Please ignore the fact that he forgot his name and used his brother's instead.





















Joshua started Handwriting Without Tears last week. He is doing the first grade book which reviews capitals, numbers and then works on lowercase letters. I already think that it's going to be an excellent choice to correct the bad writing habits he has.

















Leanna started the Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten book. She will learn each of the capitals, numbers and then some lowercase letters. She is thrilled to have her own book and is doing quite well with it so far. She can write most of the capitals already, but I believe this will help to ensure she doesn't develop any bad writing habits and help her transition smoothly into lowercase writing.

Wordless Wednesday

Back to work!

Yesterday we started back to school after our Christmas break. I must say that I haven't encountered any of the attitude problems that typically prevail after any kind of break we have. There has been a little resistance here and there, but none of the stubbornness that is usual. Maybe my eldest child is maturing? One can hope.

We started back full swing in hopes of getting back into a regular school routine. The last few months have been difficult with me being sick and now that I'm feeling better, we need to make up for lost time. We're doubling up on history lessons for a few weeks in an attempt to finish up the first unit of our curriculum. I am anxious to get through it because the second unit begins our study on Ancient Egypt and I have so many fun, hands-on activities planned. I'm looking forward to it and I think the kids will really have fun.

Science is going well. We just started Day Three of creation and are learning about rocks and the rock cycle. We're going to grow rock candy and possibly some salt crystals. After that, we get to start studying about plants, sprouting a bean seed, growing a bean plant in a box showing how it will grow towards the light, and the typical "memorize the parts of a plant" stuff. It's so fun doing this with all the kids and seeing each of them gain something from it at their own level. The best part is seeing them excited about learning. They were thrilled tonight when I returned from the library with a bunch of books of the different types of rocks we talked about.

I discovered a fun new way to practice math facts. With Jacob, I use 3 dice. Each roll, he adds two dice and then multiplies the sum by the third die. He loves this game and it's great practice for his times tables. Joshua uses two dice and adds them together to practice his addition facts. Both boys are somewhat lacking in their math facts so I'm excited to have found something that they love doing.

Joshua and Leanna will both be starting new handwriting curriculum Handwriting Without Tears tomorrow. I'm hoping it lives up to its name. Leanna was excitedly looking through her new workbook today while Joshua was just glad we didn't have to start it today. But I think it will be a wonderful addition to our schedule and give them both the writing foundation that they need. I struggle with Joshua's writing ability and I'm hoping this will be the answer.

This week, Jacob started dictation. We started with a short poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. I was very impressed with how well he did and he was quick to point out that he only misspelled one word on "my very first time ever!"

Dictation is the method Charlotte Mason used to teach spelling and reinforce grammar and composition skills to her students. For a dictation exercise, give the child a copy of a selected passage and instruct the child to study the passage until he is sure of the spelling of all the words and knows of all the capitalization and punctuation. When the child is ready, dictate the passage one line or sentence at a time, saying each line or sentence only once and pausing while the child writes it. Be on the alert to catch any misspelling and correct it immediately. Start with short passages for younger children and progress to paragraphs and pages for older children. Charlotte started using dictation exercises with children around the third or fourth grades.

Jacob is in the next to last unit of his Pippi Longstocking grammer study. We're going to finish up reading the book this week and all three kids have asked about watching the movie. I'm excited about their enthusiasm. Jacob has done extremely well with the grammar study despite the fact that it may be above his grade level. I'm proud of the work that he's done on it. I do admit, I'll be glad when we're through. At that point, we're going to take things slower in grammar and focus on really solidifying parts of speech and sentence structure. In place of the study, he'll be working on a Florida scrapbook. So yes, I'm excited to get started with something new.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how well things are going. I will try and get some pictures put up of what we're working on very soon.

Smashed Potato Soup

Smashed Potato Soup

3-1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-in. cubes
1/2 cup chopped yellow and/or red sweet pepper
1-1/2 tsp. bottled roasted garlic
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
4-1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup whipping cream, half-and-half or light cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
Sour cream (optional)
Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
Crisp-cooked bacon, crumbed (optional)
Sliced green onion (optional)

In a 4 to 5 quart slow cooker combine potatoes, swet pepper, garlic and black pepper. Pour broth over all. Cover and cook on low heat for 8 to 10 hours or on high heat for 4 to 5 hours.

Mash potatoes slightly with a potato masher. Stir in whipping cream, 1 cup cheddar cheese and the 1/2 cup green onions.

If desired, top servings with sour cream, additional cheese, bacon and additional onions. Makes 6 main-dish servings.