Roman Feast

Welcome (back) to Rome...

We held our Roman Feast tonight and had a very fun time. Technically, it was supposed to be at the end of last week, but it worked out just fine fitting it in today. It was great to show daddy all that we have been learning about Rome, the Romans verses we memorized, piano songs the kids have been practicing

Here we are in our Togas...

Hailing Caesar

Welcome to the Triclinium...
Lounging in the Triclinium...


And entertaining...
Another view of the Triclinium :)
Abby sips some wine (aka sparking grape juice)
Dessert Platter...

Extra Roman Notebooking project....

No, I did not allow bones to be thrown on our living room floor, but we decorated the floor to be in the spirit :)

If you are curious, here was our menu, and I was able to get everything together in 45 minutes after school, before feast time began, at 4. I made the hard-boiled eggs in the morning and threw the chicken in the oven at 2, salad was already made the day before too.

First Course:

Salad

Hard-Boiled eggs

Grapes

Artichokes and Hearts of Palm, assorted Olives

Main Course:

Whole Roasted chicken

Green Beans

Crescent Rolls (just comfort food for the kids)

Dessert:

Fig Newtons

Fruit tray (grapes, strawberries, kiwi, mango, pineapple, pomegranate)

From Founding to the Fall ... of Rome

Since I did not do much blogging at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, I thought I would lump a whole lot of review of Rome to the Reformation all together! I know I always appreciate seeing the work other homeschooling families are doing--knowing that I'm not alone, that there ARE others out there doing the same thing I am, especially with the same curriculum! It is so re-assuring for me; I hope these pictures and homeschooling posts are helpful to others as well!

NOTEBOOKS:

Sometimes, I completely forget about the notebook component of My Father's World curricula! Luckily, they provide some sheets for us to include in our notebooks, but I often find myself wishing after the fact that I had had the kids draw a picture of a certain topic for their notebooks, or feeling like we need to write an extra summary of a topic for it to really sink in...This year, I'm trying to remember their notebooks more often and grab the random times an idea for a notebook page flits through my mind. These are a few samples from our notebooks. They include history pages, map work, Bible time pages...the sample pages are produced by either a 5th grader, 3rd grader, or 1st grader...

ART: sample lesson pages from God and the History of Art

SCIENCE:

My 3rd and 1st grader are going through the Body Book and the Human Body for Every Kid while my 5th grader is doing the Apologia Human Anatomy textbook and notebook (he had done the Body Book in a co-op class last year)

These are our digestive models we designed this week:

And of course, we all have the totally random things we through in, like this trip to see the Animal Guy, where we got to see and touch a 3-banded armadillo, a 300+ lb python, a fruit bat, a chinchilla, a baby female king vulture, scorpions, and a kinkachu :)

And of course, we are plugging along with English and Math for everyone! I'm thinking about a big change for next year: seperate curriculum for everyone! I've never done this, but I feel like my youngest really needs his own thing and I need it all laid out for me so I can just pick up the TM and go....I already know that my 4th and 2nd grader will be doing Adventures in my Father's World while I continue on the 5 year cycle with my 6th grader, maybe overlapping a little for my 4th grader....looking forward to planning for that already!

Week 18, CtG

In Bible time the past couple of weeks, we have been memorizing Psalm 23. When I saw this verse in our curriculum, I was so glad because Abby had been memorizing it as her personal Scripture this year. Every day that we add a verse to our handwriting, she is inspired to draw a picture of the verse. I loved this picture of the table being prepared for us before our enemies. I love Abby's beautiful heart!

Another source of inspiration for everyone this week was the end of Treasures of the Snow. Because the kids were so into the story, we finished it a week ahead even while starting it behind in the curriculum. The day we finished the story, everyone drew a picture of their most memorable point of the story. Very cute! That night at bedtime, Eli said, " I wonder what the Hittite Warrior will be like." The Hittite Warrior was suggested in the back of the curriculum for these weeks and I'm going to try to squeeze it in as a read-aloud. I see there is quite a bit of reading coming up, though, so we'll see how it goes! I think I'm reading it for as much my interest and benefit as theirs!



And here is a sample of what Micah does while we are doing all of our reading:

We had to skip all of our art lessons this week because we were supposed to go outside and draw a flower...not possible! I was going to buy some flowers so they could look at one and draw it, but kept forgetting and now the week is done.

Other than that, everything else was run of the mill. Zeke got to start up his Spanish lessons again today, which he was excited for.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our cousin across the country!

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Long Overdue Review--Weeks 16 & 17

What is this picture? Only part of the project that I've been waiting all year (or maybe longer...) to do!!!!! Read on to see the final product!

Among all the other craziness happening (boxes scattered ALL over the house, the basement becoming crowded with actual packed boxes, snow storms, bruised tailbones, to name a few!), we are plugging away in school. I've just loved the Creation to the Greeks Bible and history this year. I don't think I ever studied world history in school, so I am learning as much as the kids!

Last week we read about Moses and the Bronze Serpent and the end of his life leading the Israelites. This week, it was Joshua and his campaigns to claim the promised land. I have been using some coloring sheets and extra projects from DLTK-kids.com and this site. This helps the younger kids stay involved. Zeke doesn't touch them though, but he can hang in there with the content much better. As I was packing up yet another bookshelf, I found a Bible Hero book I had from a few years back and can use it for some projects with Gideon and Samson next week. Here are the kids with their models of bronze serpents on poles, and Zeke and Abby playing a game of Senet!

The kids are really soaring through math this year. Nothing seems to challenge Eli, but he is faithful in "doing the basics". He is already half way through Alpha in Math U See and going through Singapore 1A at the same time. Abby has almost finished her Beta Matu U See book, so I will be starting her with the Singapore 2A book soon as well. Zeke just finished up an area and perimeter section in Singapore 4A and has started decimals. He is finding the first decimal lessons very "easy". But I've been trying to keep him challenged by reviewing fractions and doing drill work on the Math Shark. Steve picked out some test books from Border's a few months ago and we have been using those on homework nights to add some critical thinking work for all the kids. Eli loves doing these books, and it is a good challenge for Zeke and Abby.

English is still proving a challenge for one particular student :) I'm not sure how many years you must go over common vs. proper nouns, possessives, and other seemingly basic things before they "stick" with the student. Abby just wrote her first book report and it was very cute (see following picture)! Zeke wrote a book review rather than a book report this year. We butted heads one day on it, but other than that, he did well (or I got regained composure and laid off of him ???) :) Eli loves reading his little stories from Sing, Spell, Read and Write, but can't get enough of them. He can read at such a higher level than he can write. I started him on the spelling tests and sentence work this week and he seemed very excited to have the added challenge.

All the kids are loving the read aloud Treasures of Snow. I usually read 2 chapters a day because they are begging for more by the end of one. They totally get engrossed in the story and with the characters. They really did not like Annette for quite a while!

Micah continues to be very LOUD. Somedays I just can't stand the noise and end up putting him down for his nap all in a huff...sigh...I wish I was more of a natural "leader". I know if I just pulled out an activity and got him going on it, he would be OK while I get the reading done for the older kids, but I cannot even get to that place mentally sometimes! And I'm not sure when he will remember any of his letters. But he does like to do his "school work". This week, he started getting out his little activity bags that he brings home from his co-op preschool class. I've been meaning to put them all in a container and bring them out at certain times for him to use, but I haven't gotten that far yet...they are all just jammed in his desk. I'm glad he was self-motivated this week! Last week, he also made a couple really cute pictures! This is a painting of him and Zeke jumping on the trampoline!

And, here it is! We have been waiting to do this project for quite some time. We actually started it in October, with the first layer of paper maiche. Added a few more layers last week, and completed it this week! The kids have had fun playing some kind of "King Tut" game all week.


Paper Maiche:

Gold Spray Paint:

Acrylic Paint:

Even Micah participates:

The final product...Yeah!!!