Granola

We recently started the next book in our God's Design for Life science curriculum: The Human Body. We really LIKE this curriculum! Here are a few photos of our week studying bones:



Here we took some chicken bones and tried to guess how to put them back together. There is a neat blog post on Wired where a father and son actually glued an entire chicken skeleton back together.



One afternoon we doned our swim suits and wrote out the names of the bones on ourselves. The General was a most willing model! I usually catch him coloring on himself so he was thrilled to have Mom color on him!



I got in on the action.

I guess I don't have any pictures but I cut a few paper dolls out of black construction paper and the boys drew a skeleton on them. I got that idea and a printable toddler size skeleton puzzle from Spell Out Loud. I also printed off some neat X-ray samples for the kids to study from a blog called Chasing Marcus but when I went back to get a link it looks like her blog is invitation only now.


Agent H is putting the finishing touches on our bone model "Sandy".

The boys (esp Agent E) liked the Dem Bones movie on YouTube. "The head bone is connected to the neckbone, the neck bone is connected to the shoulder bone . . .". Yep, that one. :)

Here is my Pinterest board for our bone and muscle study. Muscles are coming up this week. We are putting all our little paper bits into a lapbook or notebook for review later. One thing I want to say about Pinterest, yes I love how it helps me to organize my school ideas, but I also very much like how you can watch Youtube videos directly on their site, thus missing out on all the suggested videos on the side when you watch directly from Youtube's website. Less screening to be done . . . Bonus!

Here we come Mexico! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

Hola!







I love it when I catch my kids reading. :)

We studied Tenochtitlan, Chicken Itza, sipped Mexican hot chocolate (just add a dash or two of cinnamon to your regular hot chocolate).

Here is my Pinterest board for Mexico. It's a little sparse. I think I was feeling burnt out from all the birthday celebrations that we have in January.

Here we come United States! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

The Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Old Faithful, the Washington Monument and my favorite site to visit . . . The Grand Canyon (though I've never been there). Have you seen the sky walk there? I don't know that I'd have the guts to actually walk out on it!

We listened to an old Wyatt Earp radio show from Western Wednesdays on iTunes. I think the noise the kids were making while building forts compaired to the noise of the gun shooting in the story! Here the kids are working on their Navajo sand paintings.





Remember to think twice before leaving your three year old alone with glue and any amount of colored sand!! You would think that's common sense but some days I think common sense illudes me.

Here is a link to my Pinterest board for the United States.

The General came down with a case of pink eye. He spent the good part of 4 days in our room keeping to himself. He quite enjoyed the "royal treatment"!

Here we come Canada! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

I'm going to do some Geography catch up here. I hope I can remember all the neat stuff we've been doing! I also hope it doesn't sound too cut and pasted but I've got 5 places to catch up on here. :)

First off here are our attempts at making ice hotels out of colored ice cubes. Our inspiration came from: Hotel de Glace. Agent H did get dressed that day he just pulled his robe on over his clothes to warm up - all day long.








Our best attempt at an igloo (it's been a warm and mostly snowless winter)




Trying out our monster show shoes as seen here. Note: I tried to go the easy route and use cereal boxes - don't do that if you want them to actually work. I'd go for a corrigated box next time.


Homemade ice cream topped with maple syrup. MY few favorite!


Here is my Pinterest board for Canada. It includes links to some Youtube clips of the singing of the national anthem, mounties on parade, inuit throat singing, a super cool igloo made out of plastic milk jugs that almost makes me wish we drank regular milk just for the jug!

Shortcake in a red velvet Christmas outfit. Studying something outside the window.

In 2011 I did a Facebook challange to send something handmade to whoever commented on my post about the challange. Of course it took me till December to really get the ball rolling but I did manage to complete the challange. This is what I made:

For another homeschooling friend: Hand sewn felt fraction manipulatives

For some other friends: Hand sewn felt initial ornaments

We took the month of December off from geography and found lots of other fun things to do. The boys each got a clip board with a few activies clipped to it. A few math pages that we had left to complete, some Mind Benders, Book 1 & 2, etc.


We set aside our usual Bible study and picked up Hind's Feet on High Places (the kid's version). This book was so beautiful! I have memories of my mom reading this to my brother and I when we were kids - good memories!

One day I set up math stations. The boys saw bits and pieces of what I was doing and were anxiously waiting for them to be set up and ready to go. It took forever to get them all set up the first time so when we were done I put everything in a box for a faster set-up next time. This is what they looked like:

Station 1: Egg Carton Place Value (or counting practice if you were The General)


Station 2: Roll the Dice (still trying to find my source for this one)


Station 3: Popsicle Place Value by Sunny Days in Second Grade.


Station 4: Discovery Toys Think It Through Tiles


Station 5: Read a living math book


Station 6: Snake by Sunny Days in Second Grade.
It looks like I didn't get any shots of this one. I remember Agent H "going easy" on Agent E so he wouldn't get frustrated.

Station 7: Practice counting to 100 on the abacus


Station 8: Domino War By Sunny Days in Second Grade. They played this one forever - loving it all the while!


Station 9: Multiplication/Shape Lacing Paddles


Station 10: Place Value File Folders
Opps, looks like I missed getting a photo of this but if you click on the link above you can see hers. :)

Station 11: Balance scale


Station 12: Cash Register - it has addition/subtraction/money games on it


When they completed each station they earned a ticket. The tickets were spent buying toys out of the "You left it laying around so it goes in Momma's bin" bin. They were very happy to see some of their old toys!

Here is a link to my Pinterst board with many of the math games above and more that I'd like to put together: Homeschool-Math

That week we also watched an oldie DVD from Netflix called: Look & Learn, It's A Plus: Learn to Add.

Weehew (is that even a word?) Two continents down! Agent H was so excited for KS's jeopordy game - he'd been asking about it for weeks! The game is the highlight of our review get-together. We also picniced in the living room, watched our favorite Christmas movie (The First Noel), and ate European cookies (thank you S family!), and we made paper luminaries.



Good-bye Europe, hello North America!