Artsy Asia

The last few weeks we have been studying India and China, finishing up just before spring break.  We had a lovely chicken mango curry meal when we finished up India and cheated on our Chinese meal a little bit by ordering from Panda Express last weekend.  The kids' homeschool track coach founded a non-profit organization to assist young adults phasing out of the foster system, and Panda Express was giving 20% of Saturday's profits to the organization so thought it was a win-win arrangement.

A few weeks ago I realized we had not done that much with painting/drawing, etc this year so ramped it up a little bit for this unit.  What I found is that if I initiate, buy the correct materials, find pictures to draw from, and offer a bunch of excitement they will "do" art!  

We did rangoli art last time we did India five years ago, but we enjoyed coloring rice, finding pictures to print out and creating our own masterpieces again this year.  

I gave each of the kids a small canvas and new acrylic paints and told them they had to paint something that reminded them of India.  

India's national bird--peacock, Taj Mahal, and the snow leopard:

We studied the grassland and mountain biomes during this time.  I went to Wal-mart to purchase some grass seed and found these cute little critters instead.  They were much cheaper and it was a whole lot more fun to cut the grass and give them new "hairdos".

We learned that a mountain actually contains many biomes depending on the height due to temperature and level of oxygen:  grasslands, deciduous forest, coniferous forest, alpine meadow, and snow line.

We also studied ecology and conservation and did a little acid rain experiment with two identical plants.  The kids were so distressed that the plant was dying that we had to cut the experiment short.  

China wasn't quite as artsy as India, but the kids (mostly Anna) did put together a model of the Great Wall.  

They carried their renewed interest in drawing outside one nice day and beautifully decorated our sidewalk/patio area in the back.

After spring break we will finish up in Asia with Japan and Russia and then head to Australia to finish out the year!

Some Favorite Books

I don't usually write about the books I've been reading either on my own or with the kids because I don't think that what I have to say about a book is really that important.  Also, books are personal.  What someone loves about a book, another person may not.  What speaks to someone or touches their heart may not make the same impact on another person.  But sometimes you read a book that you just want to share regardless if the individuals on the other end are even interested.  

The book Give Them Truth by Starr Meade was one of those books for me.  As a family we have pretty much read every book written by this author and have come to love the truths that they contain whether they are teaching catechism or sharing truths from stories in the Bible.  Our all time favorite is still Grandpa's Box.  

This book, however, is not for kids but for parents and teachers who instruct and train children.   The book is set up to explain why teaching our children the truths of God and his Word are important, what truths our children need to know, and then how to help our children know these truths.   Even though I appreciated all aspects of this book, the parts that have stayed with me are the two chapters on  God and His attributes and the practical illustrations and activities used throughout the book to explain to children "difficult" doctrinal truths.  

Here are a few favorite quotes:

"Christianity based on experience or emotion or good behavior will crumble in the face of life's trials."

"Learning theology is like studying for exams--when we're tested we want to be ready"

"Suffering is often the path (God) chooses for his children, wanting their holiness more than their happiness"

"The 'downside' to the sovereignty of God, from the perspective of sinful human beings, is that if God rules, we don't."

"(People of our day) want to imagine something a little more powerful than they are, as eager to serve them as they are to serve themselves, and call that God"

Starr Meade has provided us with many resources to instruct our children.  I already mentioned Grandpa's Box, but she has also written Mighty Acts of God and Wondrous Works of God which are Bible story books.  Training Hearts, Teaching Minds and Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds are devotionals to help instruct children in the truths contained in the catechisms.  She has also written smaller devotionals entitled God's Mighty Acts in Creation and God's Mighty Acts in Salvation.  

I can also recommend two other resources we have recently enjoyed or are enjoying.  We are currently reading The Ology at our evening family worship time.  I like the book because you can expand the teaching by reading all the Bible passages or keep it shorter by just reading the key verses depending on how much time you have.

Since Russ is preaching a sermon series on the book of Mark, we bought a case of Mark's Marvellous Book to give to the families in our church that have children eight and under.  Prior to a short retelling of a Bible story from the Gospel the author has a quirky short story that explains the main key word in the Bible story such as "pleased," "amazing," or "growing."  We don't have anyone under eight, but we all still enjoyed the book!

Dordt Indoor Track

Caleb is running indoor track for Dordt, usually the 600m or 800m and often as one of legs on one of the 4x400 teams.   His faithful fans sent me a few pictures to post.   We really wish we could watch him run.  We love the boy and we love track meets!

Post-race analysis with Uncle Marlon and cousins Rachel and Andrew.

Squirrels, Samosas, and other Stuff

We did manage to finish studying France in homeschool before Christmas and then moved on to Germany before spending three awesome weeks in Kenya, Africa.   I think one of the favorite parts of the school day is read-aloud time.  I highly recommend the book Walking Home by Eric Walters.  It gives a good introductory political, social, and economic picture of Kenya especially if used with the accompanying website.   

We found Caleb's 3-D Eiffel Tower puzzle and put together instead of constructing one out of popsicle sticks as was recommended.

Root beer, brats, and sauerkraut to finish out our "travels" in Germany.

Samosas were a tasty way to end our Kenyan travels.  I forgot to take a picture so borrowed this one from the internet.  They are filled with spiced meat.  

 The kids all worked together to make this awesome diorama of Kenya.

In his free time (which he has in abundance) Seth likes to play around in the kitchen.  To make his dabbling more meaningful, we bought him the book Kitchen Science Lab for Kids for Christmas.  Of course, he was immediately drawn to making rock candy!

While visiting a second hand shop downtown, Seth found the cutest cast iron skillet pan that is only about 3-4 inches in diameter.  He has loved cooking veggies on the stove and adding his own spices for us to try.  Without fail, they are quite tasty.

After a year of diligently working on her latch hook, Anna finally finished!  Now, we just need Grandma's sewing machine to finish it off into something special:  pillow, wall hanging, (any ideas Grandma?)  Lydia was working on crocheting a scarf and hat from a kit she received from Hobby Lobby.  Unfortunately, as she was finishing up the scarf she realized the kit did not contain enough yarn to finish the project.  We contacted Hobby Lobby and they sent her a $10 gift certificate to purchase some new yarn.  In the meantime, I am teaching the girls how to embroider and they are each working on a pair of pillowcases.

Seth is back at the zoo once a month for a homeschool zoo science morning.  The last time he was there Russ and the girls and I decided to walk in Julia Davis park and along the river for a bit.  We noticed that the squirrels seemed pretty tame so I grabbed a peanut off some snack bars that I had along and they ate right out of Anna's hand!

2015-2016 Winter Activites

1.  I think we only had one snow fall in the Valley so far this winter that dropped enough snow to actually play in or make a snowman.  The kids took advantage of the wet sticky snow and built a huge snowman in the park across the street. They needed Caleb to help lift the midsection and head onto the bottom.  

2.  Seth and Lydia took ski lessons at the Bogus Basin ski slopes for three weeks in January.  The lessons were on Tuesday mornings and open to homeschoolers.  Anna had absolutely no interest in riding on a ski lift or skiing down a steep mountain slope so opted out of this activity.

Dad even came up on the last day to see what these two had learned.

3.  Last weekend we drove to the Winter Carnival in McCall, ID to see the snow sculptures.    It was a fun birthday outing for Anna again and just an awesome way to spend a Saturday...other than having to get up early to be on the road by 7:00.

The Jetsons won first prize.

Although they did throw out a good share of candy at the Mardi Gras parade in McCall they also gave away a ton of  Mardi Gras beads!