Happy Solar Eclipse Day~

We have looked forward to this day for such a long time, and we had a party~

 We bought all kinds of treats and I made Solar Sandwiches~

 We were out by 1 watching the sky and waiting by the pool~

 It was truly amazing to be in the path of totality and not even have to leave our house to watch.
Seriously we swam until the moment it would happen completely speculating what would happen.
It was beyond our wildest thoughts!!!~

 Not pitch dark but at least 9pm dark, quiet with loud cicadas, significantly cooler, and complete eclipse to observe~

We were beyond amazed~

SO cool to witness how creative and genius God is!!!

Playful Pioneer Study Week 3~

I saw The Action Bible on IG and ordered it for the boys along with the Audible recording~

 And everyone has loved it!!!

Science continues to go very well and we learned about sound waves this week~

One of our chapters in Farmer Boy described planting potatoes~

 So we watched a YouTube video and sketched a potato page in our journals~

 And stamped a potato print on our pages too~

The Tin Peddler came calling to Almanzo's family and it reminded us of Caps for Sale too~

 Everyone copied a passage from the book and sketched the peddler's wagon~

Tuesday was Poetry and Popcorn (with a little Shakespeare thrown in)~

Another chapter in Farmer Boy was A Strange Dog so we read a poem called Animal Story~

 Then drew pets they wished they had along with written descriptions~

to play a guessing game!

 They loved it!!!

A Tree Frog~

EK's wish came true this morning as she rescued a tree frog from the skimmer~

It became our focus of the day and now we can't wait to hear them sing tonight!!!

Science in the Backyard~

While we were at the pool today, two big snakes wriggled out of the bushes
(mating as EK announced)~

 leaving their skins behind for the kids to pick up and bag~

They have not been spotted since but am sure eggs will be deposited and there will be more.
The good news is they are helpful snakes so we don't mind them
IF they stay in the bushes!!!

Science and Nature~

Most likely you can find us reading lots of Science and nature on Wednesday and Thursday~

 Our spine for Science has continued to be interesting and then springing from there with the books to the right!

This week we printed a crab to label parts, watched A House for Hermit Crab~

I keep all our Science books in a tray on the hearth for reading whenever they choose~

I like keeping a record of their Friday Free Writes so here they are~

A New Year~

We had the most restful holiday enjoying each other and celebrating Christmas.
Book work went out the window but we read books, did handicrafts, baked, and read more books.
We even got some really cool things for Christmas we could learn from: microscope, circuits, legos, and lots of games!
Once we were ready to get back to learning, we eased in with science, sketching, and handicrafts~

 We had shoved our Apologia aside but because EK got a huge Ocean Encyclopedia for Christmas, we brought it back~

 Everyone did an awesome job finding something interesting to sketch and paint~

We also picked up our Beautiful Feet Geography study: Minn on the Mississippi~

And with all this water study, we chose Swiss Family Robinson for our read aloud.
Actually our Listen aloud.
We love choosing a story we can listen to while drawing, working, or eating~

Today after listening to the first chapter, we watched the movie and compared what we already knew so far.
Watching the movie definitely gives them a point of reference and a way to visualize the story.
We will watch it again when we finish the story.

EK and SJ also LOVE reading along with the text via book or kindle.
I can totally promise LISTENING to a story while following along is just as good as reading it alone!
They choose to listen to stories over and over too!
I let them turn on a story every day during their room time.

I have witnessed the vocabulary explosion as well as story play over the last year.
Believe me, it's not cheating... it's smart!!!

Frog Day~

This TMI but this a.m. I stood up to flush and saw a little frog sitting on the back of the toilet.
I thought 'that's funny EK tried to scare me with this little fake frog' so I took a closer look...
AND IT JUMPED!!! I almost had fainted!

I yelled for EK, and she came running.
"Oh mom! That's just a little gray tree frog."
Okay but I don't want it hopping around in the house!!!

She asked for a jar and went out to create a beautiful home for her new little pet~

 The beauty of a child's soul spills forth when they hold something they love near.

As soon as the terrarium was all set up, EK came in to gather all her nature books
and began to read us everything she could find about gray tree frogs~
{EK named him Banquet, and he is our pet for the next week}

 I searched through the pantry and brought out some ingredients to make edible frogs on a log~

 We made frog life cycle spinners for our notebooks~

 We also read lots of frog stories and poems~

 We laminated our science project~

 And set up a little science table with our little nature pets~

It was a super fun day learning exactly what the kids were interested in!!! Frogs!

A Twist on Science~

We have finally come to an end of the Apologia Science book
and needed another idea without spending money on more curriculum SO~

 I pulled out our copy of The Burgess Animal Book for Children
and read the first story about a wren and rabbit.
My children LOVE any about animals so they were all in!
As we read the story, we learned new things we didn't know about the animals.
I was looking for a passage we could use for copy work as I read to them.
I found a quick YouTube video to watch then went to work~

 The bigger girls were on their own copying and illustrating their passage.
The little kids had a little drawing lesson and copied the main characters in their journals~

I think this is going to be a fun way to learn about animals and check off the science box as well!

A Tree Frog~ {Nature Study}

Of course just when I get our routine nailed down on paper

I realize it doesn't exactly gel with my kiddos so I made some changes again.

{Science}

EK always takes care of the pets after breakfast and loves to check the skimmer.

Today she found a tiny little tree frog, named him Tubby, and created him a home~

 She immediately went into research mode and decided Tubby was a Gray Treefrog.

Her spelling assignment was writing a story so I had her record some of the things she had learned~

 The research continued into her reading time and then~

 EK really wanted to go back to our previous Science curriculum so we did~

and our place left off was frogs... I think it was meant to be!!!

Nature study and Science curriculum colliding perfectly!

ROYGBIV~ {Fun Friday}

Our Science lesson this week taught us all about light and the color spectrum.

We spent our Fun Friday reading the story of Noah

and a sweet story about a chameleon~

 We learned about the color wheel and mixed colors~

 It would be a cute shirt for the cute ROY G BIV man~

 I found this cute idea on Pinterest and EC added her own style with curly hair~

It was a super colorful Fun Friday

and pretty sure they will always remember the color order

as well as the two new colors we learned: indigo and violet!

What's On Your Plate?~

Today we read The Dutchess Bakes a Cake again and the kids noticed how big

the people in the story became when they ate too much cake.

It got us thinking about the plates we eat on and what goes on those plates.

I showed them the two sized plates we use for everyday

and asked why we ALL use the smaller of the two~

We talked portion size and cut a circle to represent our plates to glue in our journals.

We talked about choosing foods of all colors for our plates representing four food groups:

grains, proteins, dairy, and veg/fruits.

They cut and drew foods for all 4 areas and we recorded in our journals.

Evie asked where we would put our cookie or ice cream...

The boys spoke up to say- We never put our dessert on our plate. haha

Good answer. :)

Fun Friday~ {It's A ZOO Around Here!}

Earlier this week EK and SJ took one little section in our Apologia Science book

and went ZOO wild with it.

They immediately began making zoo keepers and visitors.

Their dad took them to Walmart for supplies and found a board to build on

and Today they created All! Day! Long!

They collected all the animals they could find in their room,

built all the exhibits, copied info about all the animals~

 and BOOM... their own Zoo~

 A few closeup photos of each area complete with signs and info boards~

I had them give me a tour while I videoed and think they did amazingly well~

The other kiddos ran back and forth checking out the progress

then back to their Fun Friday activities...

Listening to stories, making amazing Art projects~

 Playing with the Kinetic Sand which we LOVE!!!~

Turned out to be one of the best Fun Fridays ever!!!