Home School Weeks 21 and 22

Although we did read about the early Russians and complete a notebook page on the Scythians our curriculum has taken a break from the study of ancient civilizations the last two weeks to concentrate on the Biblical story of David.  Along with that we have been reading and then singing the corresponding Psalms that fit with where we are in the life of David.  We also began memorizing Psalm 1.  The kids insisted on listening to Odyssey's Darien's Rise as it is basically just a retelling of the story of David.  We also are continuing with Children's Homer as our read-aloud.

The girls are almost finished with the Lightning Thief unit.  I just assigned a final project to them and to Nicolas, too (he read the entire series while the girls have been working through just the first book).  They have had small projects throughout the unit like making a poster of all the characters and finding pictures in magazines of what they think the characters look like, or designing character trading cards and things like that.   This project will take more time, but they seem excited about it so we'll see how it turns out.

We finished up day 5 in science--birds and fish.  We completed a few more experiments demonstrating  how a fish bladder works and also one on friction.  Now we will begin Day 6.  We are a little behind, but the first activity was to go outside and collect insects.  I think we may need to skip that one for now, and possibly return to it this summer if it has value.

We also finished up our study on Bach.  We had a little "quiz" where I played a piece on the CD and they had to identify the major instrument (harpsichord, organ, flute, violin, or clavichord).  Not too difficult, but honed their listening skills.  This week we move into our study on Handel. 

Our God and the History of Art lessons included drawing a portrait of me as we studied Durer's portrait of his mother.  We also learned a little bit about drawing dragons and are working on our own version of St. Michael Slaying the Dragon. 

Seth had "R" for rock week and "J" for jewels week.  Since these were closely related we were able to get books that covered both rocks and gems from the library.  Fun activities included making a volcano, making a rock friend, growing crystals, and making rock candy (still in process).  Seth also found several rocks outside and we worked on sorting activities: size, color, kind, etc.   Rock week fell on the same week as our trip to the museum with Grandpa and Grandma and it was interesting to see the different fossils and types of rocks that were on display.    We learned the songs, "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock" and "Lord, You are More Precious than Silver."  I was surprised that Seth didn't know the wise and foolish man song.  Maybe I just sang those songs more to the other kids, or the other kids picked them up as I sang them to the babies.  If that is the case, I have lots of songs to teach him!  The words for "R" were "I listen and obey; I build my life on the Rock."  The words for "J" were "Jesus is more valuable than anything else."

Crystals growing on the rocks

More crystals

Finished product.  The crystals connected all the stones/rocks that were on the bottom of the plastic container.  It is really neat.

Just another view

Very basic volcano (mom was busy that week:)

Basic, but Seth still loved it.  We all know the baking soda/vinegar trick.  He had no idea what would happen.  Of course, I had to do it over and over again!

Caleb was home Friday and Monday for a mid-winter break this last weekend.  Friday afternoon I took him shopping for new jeans.  I thought I could just pick up some inexpensive ones at Old Navy since the kids jeans were only $10 this last weekend.  No such luck.  The boy is now in men's sizes and they just don't sell those for $10!

Friday night was the Bleeker get-together.  As I mentioned on a previous post it was nice to see everyone again since we missed the one in December.  They are always so kind to remember our kids' birthdays.  Anna now has a "Knot a Quilt" blanket to put together.  She loves that sort of thing and is excited to get started on it.  

Saturday night the Woollin's (family from England) invited us over for pizza.   I learned that they call supper "tea" and "supper" is a piece of toast or so before bedtime.  I think I already knew that from books/movies, but it still surprised me when after the pizza arrived they called their kids down for "tea".  We enjoyed our evening, but did not stay too late as I had an early morning with BSF and several of the kids were also up early which was surprising since they went to bed so late the night before.

The real excitement of the weekend started around 1:30AM Saturday night.  Both Seth and Russ were violently ill with the stomach flu.  Seth still had the dry heaves at noon on Sunday.  His stomach hurt so bad and he was just miserable.  Since he has not been sick since we have been here, except for maybe an ear infection, he has no recollection of ever having the stomach flu.  So I was slightly amused when his dramatic side came out as he tried to talk between dry heaves.  "Help me!  Somebody please help me!"  Or, "My poor tummy can't take any more of this!"  Or, "Mommy, do people die of this disease?"  When he started running a temp around noon he was feeling especially bad.  Thankfully, at that time he was able to keep some ibuprofen and a little Gatorade down.  Russ slept until 4:00, got up and showered, and headed off to preach at the church in Dorr.  Evidently, he was feeling somewhat better.  Anna took her turn late afternoon and was still going strong at bedtime.  Needless to say, we didn't make it to church on Sunday.  The Free Reformed Church does have a live video feed so we were able to watch both of Dr. Murray's sermons.

Unfortunately, the stomach flu got Caleb at bedtime tonight.  He may extend his mid-winter break by one more day. He did attend rehearsal at St. Cecilia tonight, but didn't feel the best when he came home.   I'm just waiting for Nicolas and Lydia to take a turn--both went to bed with buckets.    I had to lead opening assembly, give the Bible lesson and lead discussion questions tonight at BSF so I am glad the bug didn't get to me!

The rest of this week doesn't look as busy as last week.  Russ has been having trouble with his eyes and will be going in to have them checked tomorrow.  I plan to enjoy fellowship with the FRC home school mom's on Wednesday night.   A pretty quiet week up ahead.  Just how I like it...