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!

Family Photo Shoot

Well, we had to do a few traditionally Christmas events after Christmas this year because of our travel schedule. So, we enjoyed our Christmas baking after Christmas and our family shot in front of the tree after-after Christmas....but that's OK! And now we are ready to start back to school full force!

Vacation Wrap-Up

We had a wonderful week last week with Steve's family. The kids have 3 cute cousins to dote over and keep entertained. As always, pictures are worth 1,000 words!

Ultimate Nerf Guns for Zeke and daddy....
complete with an all-out Nerf Gun war against the uncles!

Loads of baby cuteness!


Game time every night: Dominion, Ticket to Ride, Blockus...

Toddler gym time!

Making slime with uncle Dave

Josefina is ready for the slopes now!
Micah's newest best friend
Watching the Nerf War from a distance...

Manicures by Abby!
And a nice Nature walk through the Dahlem Center...might as well enjoy this spring-like weather!

We had such a great time with everyone! Already looking forward to our week in the summer together and seeing how big all the cousins are by then! And then.....

Christmas 2012: Seattle, here we come!!!

Merry Christmas

Jesus didn't come to brighten our Decembers, but to transform our lives. ~Rich Mullins

We have had fabulous Christmas celebrations with family and friends and the celebrating will continue well past the New Year as we welcome 2012 with the Gray side family visit. But here are some of our highlights of Christmas 2011.

Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village

Em and Zeke enjoy the skating rink
A break from the freezing cold.

Em and Marilyn

Eli and Abby help out the carolers

Santa sighting!
Watching the model trains
And a free carousel ride!

Christmas Morning:

We had to wake Eli up!
Cinnamon Rolls

Micah's own sled!

And LEGOs!

Favorite game from Great-Grandma

The Andrews girls!
Things like this is why she may have a broken arm! (Yes, she is sliding down the stairs with Micah's new sled!)

Getting ready to play Apples to Apples, Jr., another favorite game from grandma!

Cousin Julian visiting for the holidays from New York

Eli's new best friend!

Christmas in New Hampshire

We have taken an extra week off of school this year to spend time with Emily's family out in New Hampshire...We had an awesome time skiing in Jay, Vermont and then at Loon Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, drinking hot chocolate, hanging out with cousin Skyler, getting feathers in our hair, getting spoiled by grandma, playing with Razzle (grandma and grandpa's Cairn Terrier), and making ornaments.

And we thought we'd really end this vacation with a bang....I mean...a fracture...buckle fracture to be exact.

The first broken bone in the Gray family. No one was very surprised that it was with Abby! Note to self: sending kids out to play in tree house during freezing rain is NOT a good idea!

We had a wonderful visit and will miss everyone so much! Thanks for all the great times! Love you all! Merry Christmas!