Bigger Hearts for His Glory- Unit 12

This week we learned about  the character trait - self control.

Our verse was Proverbs 21:23.

"Those who guard their mouths and tongues keep themselves from calamity."

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We read about a man named John Stark. We learned that he was kidnapped by the Indians.  He was a brave man and had great self control to out smart the Indians and eventually was freed. He later became a General in the Revolution. 

We read about George Washington and even wrote a poem about his adventure hacking down a cherry tree.  We learned his father died at an early age and he was raised by his mother.  He worked hard and surveyed land. 

We learned that he was a strong man and his experiences as a youth helped make him become the great man and leader in a time when we needed the most.  

We read about Sampson and his great strength.  We learned the secret to his strength from reading the story from the Bible and also that he did not have very good self control and as a result he died.  

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In math, we have been doing daily speed drills... Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, & Division.  Graphing our results has really helped bring attention to the areas we need to work on and the ones we are good at too. 

A busy week in math with Christian Light Education. My 2nd grader took her first quiz and did great! 

My older 4th grader got to skip to the next workbook when he passed the test 3 weeks ahead of schedule.  He told me he knew everything already and so when he made a 98 on the test I allowed him to move forward. One of the joys of homeschooling is the freedom to go at the child's pace... Fast or slow.  He sure was proud and thankful! 

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We continued reading our book, Audubon. This week we learned more about bird nests and that their nests can be made of many different materials such as animal hair, snake skin, yarn, leaves, string, aluminum foil, and others. 

 

We made our own nests.... With chow mein noodles, chocolate chips, peanut butter, and marshmallows. Of course, the kids really enjoyed this project! :) 

 Even outside play turned into making a bird nest!  

In our book Audubon, we talked about the food chain of an owl as our main character discovered an owl in the barn.  

We talked about and even took a closer look at the inside of an egg. 

The kids enjoyed learning about the parts of an egg and even liked touching it!  YUCK!

             

We hope everyone is having a great fall and a safe Halloween this coming week!

If you'd like to take a closer look following our homeschooling journey, please like us on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/takingoffwithhomeschool

See you next week! 

Be Blessed! 

Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 11

Character Trait of the Week

This week we learned about perseverance. Our verse was Proverbs 20:22. 

Unit 11 Vocabulary

Our vocabulary words this week were Declaration of Independence, gentleman, and tavern.  Love the sentences!  Guess we talked a bit about Thomas Jefferson this week too!!  :)

We learned about the French man,  Anthony Benezet.  He fled France with his family at a young age in search of religious freedom in North America.    He became a Quaker. He later was an advocate in Philadelphia for equal rights and an end to slavery. He was a wonderful teacher. He instructed his students like no other in his time with love and kindness.  We watched a great YouTube video about his life to learn more about him and I had the children take notes. You can watch the video here too:  Anthony Benezet Video

In geography, we talked about people in America and how they originated from all different parts of the world. We wrote a letter to our great grandparents to see if we could find out where our family came from.  The kids are sure anxious for a response! 

My ds handwriting has improved so much and is a joy to read!

We read about slavery and how slaves were purchased and used for slave trade. This was a sensitive subject  that opened my eyes to children's innocence & naivety.  They asked a lot of questions and I answered the best I could.  The children were all very compassionate as we read about the 6 yo, Venture Smith, who was bought 3 times and made to come to the new land.   Venture Smith was persevered and eventually did become a free man. We all agreed that it was an unfair time in our history and are thankful for the progression of equal rights.

Declaration of Independence

We continued learning about Thomas Jefferson had a lot to do with the movement to abolish slavery and we learned that he was an intelligent man and avid reader. He desired to know as much as he could. He wrote the Declaration of Independence and believed that all men were equal. 

In poetry, we read and copied a poem called, Hold On! The kids drew pictures after we interpreted.  

Wood Thrush Bird

We continued reading our book, Audubon. The kids are enjoying all the new information about birds.  

We used our Science journal note booking pages to draw the different types of feathers that we learned... flight feather, body feather, & down feather.  There is somehow a random crazy pic of a huge acorn. I don't know where that came from.  LOL...  

We learned about the Wood Thrush bird and listened to its calls that sound like a flute song. 

We took a trip to Birds Unlimited and a peek in their bird book to get more information. We got some seed to make a feeder in the backyard and bird butter to rub on the trees. 

I found this coloring sheet on the web and the kids enjoyed coloring a picture of their wood thrush bird.  I thought they turned out great! Here is a link for the quick printable coloring page freebie:  http://www.supercoloring.com/pages/wood-thrush-bird/

In Science, we learned about the climate zones on our globe. Temperate zones have the 4 seasons, polar zones are cold all the time, and tropical zones are hot all the time. We moved our "Daniel Boone Man" around the globe to different locations and the kids identified the zone he was located. 

We have officially converted fully to Christian Light Education for math. This has been such a better fit for us and we love the workbook style lessons. All 3 kids are excelling in math. Amazing difference! 

This week we also had some friends from a Kentucky elementary school mail us their flat Stanley. The kids think this is so neat and we will be sending ours back soon! 

It's been another great week homeschooling!

See you next week!! 

Be blessed! 

Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 10

This week our character trait was wisdom. Our verse was Proverbs 2:6.

'For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.'

Our vocabulary words this week were sloop, shock, & squall.  

We talked about how Ben Franklin was very wise and how even though he dropped out of school at young age, he desired to be intelligent and spent much of his time reading.  He did many experiments to find out just how things worked.  We talked about several of these and then the kids drew their own inventions.  So cute!

My Machine Invention

The little one drew a machine that gets you dressed and makes your bed! Who wouldn't want one of those!! Lol!

Migration Flow Map

In Science, we started reading Audubon this week about a young boy who was a nature enthusiast.  We learned about migration and drew the different migration routes of birds/butterflies.  I think the oldest did a great job on his mapping of the migration.  We learned that birds don't just flap their wings.  They flap, soar, hover, flutter, & glide.  The kids had fun with the motions and unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of their silliness.

We read about the sandpiper bird and learned about the stork. Our Science experiment was to learn why storks stand on one leg.  We learned storks do it to preserve body heat. 

We read about the Franklin Almanac and learned that he printed his wise sayings and published them as Poor Richard.  We read several of the sayings. The kids chose their favorite two. They copied and illustrated them.  I love the "No gains without pains!" with a picture of my little girl doing the splits! CUTE!

Ben Franklin was a famous American and his influence on our country was well known. He helped write the Declaration of Independence and spoke with the French people in seek of support during the war. 

We made a kite and wrote down key information about our famous friend, Benjamin Franklin. This was an awesome FREEBIE to do with the kiddos. Check it out here:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/98938523039569268/

What is homeschool Friday without a little Spelling Bingo before lunch?!?!  

Hope you had a great week too! 

Be blessed!

Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 9

This week we learned about the character trait 'thriftiness'.  We talked about the importance of being careful with our money and that we don't always need to buy expensive things. 

Our verse was 'Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.'  Proverbs 15:16-17

We learned that Benjamin Franklin was a young boy when he quit going to school to help his family in a candle business. He was inquisitive and loved to read and discover knew things. He was thrifty and would save his money to buy books to read. He was intelligent and loved discovering new things. We read about several of his experiments and the kids were able to draw pictures of them. 

We learned that Ben was soon apprenticed with his brother at his printing press.  We learned about a special pamphlet that Ben Franklin printed explaining his ideas of electricity. 

The kids had fun using potatoes that I had cut shapes and letters out of to demonstrate how printing was done. The kids had fun stamping and the little one questioned that she didn't realize Ben Franklin used his cooking potatoes for stamps for his pamphlet.  LOL...  

We talked about Ben creating a make shift pier out of stones that he took from others to keep his feet from being in the mud while he fished.  He learned that if a job isn't done honestly then it isn't worth doing at all. The kids made a pier from stones. 

We learned that Ben did many experiments to learn more.  He grew tired of waiting for a chapel to finish the steeple so he decided to send a kite up into the clouds during a storm.  He tied a key near the bottom and the string became charged from the static in the clouds. 

Our vocabulary words this week were lathe, molasses, and scour. 

We tried the science experiment with the 2 balloons several times but, did not see sparks. We did however also try rubbing a balloon  and holding it near a stream of water and we watched the water bend to avoid the static electricity. The kids were impressed with this. 

This year we switched to CLE for math and we are all really enjoying the change. Love the unit tests at the end of the workbooks. 

These 2 decided to enjoy a snack and their spelling work out on the trampoline. Love this time of year to enjoy the outdoors. 

Hope you had a great week! 

Be blessed!