_edited.png)
We made it through the first month of school and are flying into the heat of August! We travelled down to see my dad and step-mom this week and went swimming for probably the last time this summer. It is starting to feel like Fall quickly approaching!
We continued to discuss “Jesus is the Light of the World” in our Bible Studies this week. Using red, yellow, and orange crayons, we made a Light of the World sun catcher.
I have not mentioned our family devotion time much, but we attempt to have a family Bible Study during breakfast before Dad leaves for work. This year we are working our way through Picture Smart Bible. Each book of the Bible has a coloring sheet and a memory verse. During each session, Dad reads from the teacher’s manual while the kids and I color in a section of our coloring sheet. There are approximately 8-10 lessons for each sheet. We finished Leviticus this week.
Our history focus this week was the Pilgrims. We finished the book Pilgrim Adventures and have been reading countless books about the Mayflower. Big Brother read through all three Clyde Robert Bulla Books in his Book Basket within three days. Squanto: Friend of Pilgrims was his favorite and although I believe it is out of print, I highly recommend searching it out if you can.
We made an “oiled window” and talked about how the pilgrims would use oiled paper instead of glass because it was more readily available.
After the oiled papers dried, we tested them against a plain piece of paper for durability and waterproofing. The oiled paper repelled water better and took longer to tear.
We also planted corn and talked about how Squanto taught the pilgrims to plant corn. The kids colored three fish (simple paper cutouts) and planted them in little pots with a few corn kernels.
Our pots were knocked over the next day by a curious toddler. They are still on our porch and have been watered regularly but have never sprouted.
This week we talked about stars. We learned about the star Betelgeuse and its size relative to the Earth and the sun. Using chalk, we drew a dot for the Earth, a 1” circle for the sun, and a 16 2/3 yard line for Betelgeuse.
There were two constellation lacing cards in each of our Craft2Learn Adventures bundles to go along with our star theme this week. While everyone enjoyed these, Little Sister LOVED playing with them while we read about stars.
Big Brother went to an outdoor Bible Study with Dad one night during the week and got home after 9 p.m. Although it was cloudy, the three of us stood out in the driveway when they got home to observe the night sky. Dad has a cool app that allows you to point it in any direction and identify any celestial bodies in that direction. He pulled it out and we “stargazed” through the clouds.
Math was a continuation of the past few weeks work on adding and subtracting with renaming. We are using Singapore 2A and I am starting to realize that it requires a lot of mental math. Big Brother is having to subtract three-digit numbers with regrouping in his head.
Middle Man also started working through a Go Math Kindergarten book this week. He is not in Kindergarten, yet. We just pull this out a few times each week at his request.
Little Sister spent a lot of time playing with our Math U See blocks while we worked on math.
We never got a chance to go on a nature walk this week. But the kids did get lots of exercise playing in the driveway. They have also been helping Dad out with a push-up challenge every night this week.
They even found a really cool bug!
We brought it inside and discovered that it is a Carolina Leaf Roller. It was pretty intense looking and reminded us of a Pokemon. See that curved “stinger?” It is actually an ovipositor used to deposit eggs!
After the fun adventure, Little Sister wanted to dress like the “outside bug.”
