Taking Off with Homeschool!: Bigger Hearts for His Glory

Unit 2 - Character Trait is Humility

This week we learned about humility. I sure love these character traits each week! We learned that we should not take all the praise for ourselves.

Our verse was Proverbs 11:2.

History Timeline

We added a little more to our timelines as we learned more in history.

We learned more about Christopher Columbus' journey from Haiti back to Spain. Columbus was once mocked and considered crazy and he soon was being held at the highest honor in Spain because of his new found land. He wasn't humble and over time found himself in misery and even chains as he tricked and frightened the Indians with his knowledge about the earths rotation. He predicted a lunar eclipse and declared it to be from the gods to get whatever he wanted from the Indians.

We talked about lunar and solar eclipses and referenced these videos a sample on YouTube. This one I found the kids thought the music was a bit creepy and we imagined how the Indians must have been frightened as Columbus tricked them.

You can watch it with your kids too here: Time Lapsed Lunar Eclipse Youtube Video

The children then were able to draw a picture showing just what happens.

Lunar Eclipse by 7 yo

Solar Eclipse by 9 yo

We also used our globe, a ball and a flashlight to demonstrate exactly how the shadows of the earth and moon differ with a lunar and solar eclipse. The kids thought this was so neat!

We also learned that John Cabot was another explorer in about the same timeframe that seeked fame and fortune from voyages from the King of England by setting sail across the oceans once he heard of Columbus travels. He too was short on humility upon his return.

We learned that John Cabot thought he had reached Japan but, instead found North & South America. He discovered seas filled with codfish but, he was more interested in finding gold and spices. The king grew tired of Cabot after he realized he had only seen Indians, a small amount of copper, and not fine riches.

Codfish Watercolor Art Project

In art, we made an outline on wax paper and then watercolored. On the long pic on the right, you can see if you look closely the vertical outline of the codfish. We tried wax paper first and didn't have great results... we redid this with a white crayon outline and it worked much better but, still very light. We placed Saran Wrap on top of the wet watercolor picture and when we removed the saran wrap it made it look like an underwater picture.

Unit 2 Vocabulary

Our vocabulary word sheets are going well and I really like this addition to Bigger.

In poetry, we read a poem titled 'The Ship that Sails'. I only had the children copy the first stanza. They also circled the new vocabulary words and drew a picture.

I used a highlighter to write the first line in cursive as a guideline of size.

In geography, we learned about the equator. We also learned that along the equator is the hottest temperatures, as it is closest to the sun. We located the north and south poles and used our little boat to navigate to and from different continents above and below the equator around the globe.

CLE LightUnit 401

In Math, Christian Light Educations Light Units are going great. We love the workbooks and it has been a nice change up and good fit for my son. I anticipate changing to this for the little one next year also.

Our Science note booking sheets are a fun recap of the reading material.

In Science, we read more about the seashore. The kids drew pictures of animals in the shore and animals between the tides. I thought her art was pretty cute.

We also talked about different birds and how they use their different shaped beaks to find their food in the wet sand.

We used tweezers, clothes pins, and pliers to find different foods like birds would.

With all the seashore talk, we decided to take our first field trip and a day off of school to go to the beach with some friends!

Fieldtrip to Buckroe Beach

We discovered early morning jelly fish washed upon the shore, horseshoe crabs, birds with long beaks feeding in the wet sand, crab legs and other shells under a pier nearby and kept the kiddos exploring all day. The sun was hot and the waves were peaceful. A beautiful day reinforcing what we have learned in our Seashore Science Book.

I love this drawing from my 7yo. She was inspired by the birds on the shore as they swooped down to eat grapes, strawberries, and bread from our lunches.

We talked about the differences between fresh water and sea saltwater. Our science experiment revealed that an egg floats in saltwater and sinks in fresh water because the saltwater is more dense.