Preparing and Res to Ref- Unit 18

Preparing Hearts for His Glory

This week we resumed with our reading of Grandpa's Box.  The time was here for Jesus to be born!  The long awaited savior arrived on earth.  

We learned that the magi asked King Herod where the King of the Jews was to be born and he became worried. God warned the magi not to return to Herod and he warned Mary and Joseph to seek safety in Egypt. 

The kids history project was to draw and paint the Star of Bethlehem.  There wasn't specific instructions on what kind of star so, we chose one I was familiar with. 

Next, they were to erase the center lines of the star in the center, add a border, and draw shapes inside the star. We painted the outside border with blue. 

We slowly added more white into our blue color to paint the shapes. They gradually became lighter.  

I love how each of the kids stars are unique. 

 The kids cut the stars out and we hung them in our school room!  They really enjoyed this project.  Mixing the paint was a hit! 

Jesus' birth was announced with this special star! It led the magi from the east to worship Jesus in Bethlehem. 

Satan wanted Jesus to sin and he tempted Jesus three times. Jesus quoted God's word and did not fall for Satans schemes.

We learned God did many miracles as signs that he was indeed God's son. People had a hard time believing God had come to earth in human form through Jesus. It is pretty amazing that Satan tried to have Jesus killed more than once, but it wasn't the right time. 

This week we added constellations to our star books. We learned that Polaris stays north while the constellations seem to go around in circles because of the earth spinning on its axis. 

Our experiment was to pretend to be the earth slowly rotating on its axis. We looked up to see the Polaris staying in the north and the constellation seem to move. 

Resurrection to Reformation

This week we learned how the Renaissance spread through Europe.

Michelangelo was a talented sculptor, painter, and architect.  He sculpted the Pieta, David, and Moses. We learned that Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to repaint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  The ceiling contained more than 300 figures and it took him 4 years to complete.  

The Sistine Chapel is part of the Pope's residence in Vatican City.

This week the history art project was to sketch and paint one of the most famous images painted in the Sistine Chapel of God giving life to mankind through Adam.  We thought it looked a little bit like ET but I am so glad he (my non art child) put forth effort to get this completed.  He got the chance to see that it would be very difficult to paint upside down.

Jan van Eyck was a flemish artist who lived in Flanders.  He used great detail and perspective in his art.

We did have time to enjoy the snow this week!
Stay warm!

See you next week! 

Preparing and Res to Ref- Unit 17

Preparing Hearts for His Glory

This week we learned that Rome rose as Greece fell.  Hannibal crossed the Alps to take the Romans by surprise but, the Romans attacked Carthage while they were away.

The Romans beat the Carthaginians in the 2nd and 3rd Punic Wars. 

The Romans made a coin called the denarius that was used to buy and sell.  We learned that Julius Caesar was powerful and took a census of the people in the land so he could tax them!  As there were talks of him becoming King, some of Caesars friends and enemies stabbed him in the back.  

Our history experiment this week was to make denarius using a messy bread and glue mixture.  As I read the directions,  I immediately had a "glitter/play dough" feeling. Ugh... Lol! So I admit that we, printed a color sheet!   You can find the link here:  http://www.oncoloring.com/coin-roman-empire-coloring-page_1251.html

 It sounded like a bit much mess to get the point across of a denarius coin, so we opted for a less dramatic project. 

The kids colored and cut out their coin and then glued it onto a colored piece of construction paper. 

We learned that the phrase, "All roads lead to Rome" is likely due to Rome leading the way with paved roads across the empire.  The Romans built strong cities and made the people of the places they conquered become slaves.   The city of Rome built sewers to carry dirty water and aqueducts to help carry the fresh water.

We also learned that after the death of Caesar that Antony and Octavius fought for control of Rome.

This week in Science, we learned that there are 15 brightest stars in the sky that each have a special name.  These stars are 1st magnitude stars and are apart of various constellations.   We added several new constellations to our star book.

Our experiment this week was to determine why constellations only show up in the night sky? 

We punched holes in an index card and placed it into an envelope. 

We couldn't see the stars showing through the envelope with the lights on. 

But, as soon as we turned the lights off and shown a flashlight onto it the constellation shined brightly! 

The kids took turns making constellations to shine! We learned that the constellations shine even in the day but, because of the sun's bright light we cannot see the others stars. As soon as the earth turns away from the sun, we can see the other stars! 

Resurrection to Reformation

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa.

Our history art project was to create an african mud cloth.  I think he did a great job of making his look like the one in the guide!  :)

He learned that mud cloths, or bogolonfini are hand dyed cloth still made in Mali today.  Africa was an important empire in ancient history and medieval history.


It was a fun week!
See you next time!

Preparing and Res to Ref- Unit 16

Preparing Hearts for His Glory

This week we learned about the ending of the Golden Age of Greece. 

We learned that the 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the birth of Christ were known as the 400 years of silence.

During this time, Athens was known for its beautiful buildings, culture, and education... and its fleet.  Sparta did not care for the fine things but, they were jealous about the fleet.  Athens and Sparta fought a long war. Neither side won.

We learned that King Philip of Macedonia thought of a plan to become the King of Greece too.  When he was killed, his young son, Alexander became the new king of Greece at age 20.  Alexander studied with the famous Greek teacher Aristotle. 

The kids drew a piece of Greek pottery called an amphora.  They added an ornamental design in brown crayon and then painted it in black water color.  The only thing I would change was to do this project on water color paper.  We did not and our paper was wrinkly! 

We learned that the Greek amphoras show pictures of Greek heroes and  Greek stories. The black background of the vases makes the brown design stand out.

Our vase told the story of how Alexander the Great trained the stallion who was afraid of his shadow.

We learned that Alexander the Great had studied with Aristotle and became a great military commander. 

He conquered all of the known world and wept when there was nothing left to conquer.  On the return home he was feasting and drinking in Babylon and died.  He was only 33. He left his generals to fight over  his empires.

Alexander the Great was a great thinker and we copied some of his famous quotes. 

Another great cursive sample from a 5th grader. He is doing well as he has only been writing in cursive for a little over 6 months. 

Our narration was about Carthage and Rome in the Punic War.  We learned that jealousy stirred the controversy as each were jealous of the other.

This week the kids began working on the constellation books used to record the constellations that they learn.  They copied Psalm 147:4-5 on the front (I wish they would have done it a little bigger so it was more legible.) and then they drew the constellations on the inside.  

I had them use dots for the small stars and big stars for the brighter stars.  

The experiment was to discover why stars look like they twinkle.  We shined a flashlight into the jar with crumpled aluminum foil underneath. When we touched the water the reflection on the ceiling flickered. We learned that stars appear to twinkle as their light rays are bent when the rays move through the Earth's atmosphere.

••••••••••

Resurrection to Reformation 

This week he learned about the early explorers. Trade routes had flourished in the east.  The West needed a sea route.  

When Constantinople fell to the Turks, the trade routes from Asia to Europe closed. Sailors began seeking a way around Africa to reach India for spices, silks, and gems.

Lorenzo de' Medici also known as Lotenzo the Magnificent helped usher in the Italian Renaissance. 

The painter of the Mystical Nativity, Sandra Botticelli, lived and painted in Florence, Italy. 

Columbus sailed for India in the other direction, hoping to sail west to meet the east. He landed near the Americas. 

We made sea biscuits/hard tack. 

 It was a sticky mixture so we used lots of flour to roll out. 

After rolling out the dough, we used a pizza cutter to cut into 2" strips and then he poked holes into the tops with a fork.   

The kids tried to soak the sea biscuits in broth but, weren't really fond of them. They thought it tasted like a thick tortilla. Columbus and his voyagers ate hard tack sea biscuits on their long journey across the ocean.

We did learn many interesting facts about Columbus in this unit and also that Leif Ericson discovered America hundreds of years before Columbus.


•••••••••  JuSt FoR FuN!

We did add this fancy "get along jar" to our homeschool room this week.  It has been amazing! The two who are not getting along  - or tattling - get to draw sticks. These are tasks to do together, extra chores, silly games, sincere apologies, and a few grace sticks included. So far this has been amazing. The kids giggle and it is so funny watching them completely forget why they were even fighting in the first place!  This will be easy to recreate by writing on popsicle sticks.  Of course you can make age appropriate ideas or here are some of the ones we have in ours for our 8, 10,11,14 yo:

• Dust the furniture together.
• Prepare a snack to share together.
• Unload and load the dishwasher together.
• Jump on the trampoline for 5 minutes together. 
• Sit together quietly for 5 minutes.
• Pick up the playroom together.
• Say 5 nice things to the other person.
• Gather and take out trash together.
• Set the table together.
• Make/draw and apology card for each other.
• Tell each other you are sorry and HUG!
• Make the other person's bed.
• Take turns saying 5 things nice about each other
• Play a game together.
• Mommy's Choice 
• Pick up dog poop in the backyard together.
• Play legos for 10 minutes together.
• Do the Hokey Pokey!
• Go outside to ride bikes together.
• Put on your swimsuits and clean the tub together.
• Do the others persons chore.
• Tell each other a joke.
• Clean the door windows together.
• Make a snack to share with the other person

Hope you have a great week!
See you next time!