HoD BLHFHG - Unit 17

A fresh new start in a brand new year!  One of my goals this year is to create a Facebook page where you can follow more of our daily journey.  

Please like and share our new Facebook page:

  Taking Off with Homeschool!

Our memory verse this week was 1 Peter 5:7.  We talked about giving God all of our worries and concerns because He cares for us. 

We picked right up where we left off in the Stories of the Pilgrims book.  We read about two young boys, Isaac & Joseph who were working in the fields. They decided to stop to rest and drink from a nearby stream when they were captured by Indians. The Indians kidnapped the boys and had planned to sell them to the French in Canada! The boys trusted God, were brave and eventually they escaped from the village.

On their journey, Isaac & Joseph noticed a beautiful sunset reflecting on a lake.   Our art project this week was for the kids to paint a sunset with watercolors, cut out silhouettes of the trees, and add an aluminum foil reflection of the water at the bottom.  

The kids both did a wonderful job on their art project and it just so happened that driving in the car one evening the kids pointed out that we were getting to see the real thing!

We talked about how God made fish scales to be reflective to help camoflauge them in their surroundings to keep them safe from their predators. To demonstrate, we cut out an aluminum foil fish and held it up to different items.  The kids loved holding their fish up and seeing their fish change different colors.

My dd princess wanted her fish to be pink and ds wanted a blue fish... so this actually worked out rather well!  

In geography, we talked about rivers and learned about the different parts of a river; source, bank, bed and mouth. We made a clay model, labeled the different parts, and the kids enjoyed pouring in the water. 

We also talked about how things appear bigger when they are close and smaller farther away.  Much like the sun, we know that the size doesn't change but, seems smaller than it is to us because it is so far away.  

***************

We are beginning to learn about the 50 states! This isn't covered in HoD just yet but, my kids were craving something new and this is what we decided to go with.  There is a lot of state info and lap books on Pinterest but, we decided to use these state coloring pages I found free on the Crayola website. They also both enjoyed working on the US floor puzzle together.  We started talking about each state individually using the coloring sheets that show the state flags and other fun fact information about the state. 

You guessed it... I introduced them to the Fifty Nifty song and they loved it! You can listen to it too by clicking here:  Fifty Nifty United States Song


-AR-  Spelling word practice! The kids did great this week with their spelling word lists.

They also are loving this spelling monster app for iPad!  It is a great way to get them playing practicing their words without them realizing it! 

Also, we invested this week in reading rods with a learning phonics activity set.  I think this will be a fun way to get the kids thinking about the parts of sentences and learning to build sentences. We worked on it some and they were challenged at being creative and coming up with sentences on their own.  This is definitely something we will be working on more and I think we will use it often. 

You can find the reading rods here if you are interested in purchasing them or learning more about them:  Reading Rods on Amazon

We finished out the week with a beginner gymnastics class! We found a great one hour weekly homeschool group that is perfect for getting these kiddos moving! They really enjoyed their first class and it will fit in perfect between their other activities. 

It's been an incredible week and getting back into our routine hasn't nearly been as tough as I thought  as long as I had coffee in my cup!  I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year.  Comment below and tell me about your week! 

Be blessed!