Christmas Around the World

This week we took a break from Heart of Dakota studies to spend time learning about different customs and traditions around the world. We gathered around our lighted Christmas tree in the living room, made crafts, and learned about many different countries. 

I pinned a lot of ideas on my pinterest page.  You can take a look at them here:   http://www.pinterest.com/lovemynavypilot/christmas-around-the-world/

We all know you can't go anywhere without a passport! With each place we visited, the children drew the flag or something special about that country as their stamp.

We packed our suitcases and away we went!  We used the bottom portion of a brown paper bag. These were awesome with all the supplies we used all week. The kids were able to keep their projects & things together nicely. 

Our first stop was Israel! 

We read a book by Michelle Edwards called Papa's Latkes. We learned Latkes are a special food made of potatoes and onions.  

We watched a short YouTube video here to understand more about the lighting of the Menorah:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tws_uMAEOs    

The kids liked this youtube Driedel song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKreDYVWark    We made a driedel, the kids followed the rules, and actually played for quite awhile! 

The kids used play money as they played for fun. 

Next, we traveled to Italy! 

We went to Italy and learned about La Befana. The kids were actually scared of this old lady who comes into the house on a broom. She sweeps up the soot and takes all the bad from the year and leaves the good children treats and the bad children coal. 

We visited Mexico on Day 2. 

 We read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola and learned that the flowers that look like a bunch of green weeds bloomed into beautiful red poinsettia flowers that were laid at the manger of Baby Jesus in the Mexican procession. 

 The kids followed a step by step tutorial for drawing a poinsettia. I love how they are each unique.  

We also cut snowflakes out of large flour tortillas. A special Mexican treat!  I held them closed while they cut shapes out of them. 

The kids spread the butter and then sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. I've heard that you can also use popcorn cheddar or garlic and salt as well.

We baked at 400 degrees for 5-6 minutes or until crisp light brown. 

Mmmm...  The kids loved making & eating these yummy Mexican treats! 

We read about Argentina and read a cute story about Tamales. We learned that traditions are similar to Mexico.  

We read this book about Saint Nicholas in England. The kids enjoyed the story and talking about the special English traditions.  They begged to make a plum pudding.

Next, we traveled to Austrailia and read about The Christmas Wombat!

 We learned that it is very HOT in Austrailia at Christmas time! Picnics are popular at the beaches as Santa rides in on a surfboard. 

With all this traveling, our living room was starting to turn into a big disaster! Lol! It didn't stop us... We headed on over to Sweden.   We watched this great youtube video showing Sweden at Christmas.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLA4uNm6c7A

The kids cut out & colored shapes and we made a Lucia wreath with candles on it for our youngest girl & pointed star hats for the boys.

Don't mind the karate tops that we used as our white robe for our mini procession. We watched a quick YouTube video that explained this tradition. 

I'm looking forward to the early morning breakfast buns served to us in bed! 

We learned that a Christmas gnome - Tomte lives under the floorboards of the house. He dresses in red, has a long white beard, rides a straw goat, and understands the barn animals talking.   We watched a youtube book called The Tomten. You can read it here too:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANgulkJBJVM

We traveled to Russia and loved their nesting dolls or matryoshka. The children even decorated their own! 

I love the way these turned out! So cute! 

One didn't want to color his but, I still think it turned out great!

This one took his time and made them look much like the ones we have here at home.  He copied them on the colored copier and put them on top of gifts to give to family.  He was very proud of them!

This Russian dancing doll ornament was fun for the kids to make also. We learned that Noel means Christmas! 

On our visit over to Germany, we learned about the traditional Christmas pickel ornament! 

The kids couldn't wait to try this out! Lol!

 We hid it on the tree and the first one to find it on Christmas got to open the first present. It hid pretty well! I think we will continue this tradition in our home! 

We learned of the many nutcrackers in Germany and the Christkind who brings the children gifts in their shoes.  We listened to O' Tannenbaum and learned that it means O' Christmas Tree. 

We made gingerbread men and ladies as their traditional Christmas cookies.  The kids enjoyed cutting out the shapes and of course decorating them too.

They did a great job and they turned out really cute!

 We also delivered some to our special friends. 

We certainly learned a lot this busy week. Including many customs and traditions around the world from other countries. We thought some were weird, strange, and some very interesting and exciting. In the United States, we have traditions that other people may think are different & odd also. Besides we didn't read anywhere about any other place that sprinkles 'reindeer glitter food' on the lawn on Christmas Eve.  

We talked about the similarities and differences of the customs and the traditions of our own. 

Every year we like to make Christmas gingerbread houses. Grammy helps! 

This year I let our Facebook friends vote on their favorite! The kids had fun with this! 

We also bake Christmas cookies and decorate them each year! 

Great grandmother reads 'Twas the Night before Christmas' and the Christmas story from the Bible. 

Lastly, Grammy has passed down a yummy tradition of making cinnamon & sugar Buttons & Bowknots on Christmas morning. A yummy start to Christmas! 

We hope you've enjoyed our week. 

We wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! 

Be blessed! 

See you in 2015! 

Bigger Hearts for His Glory - Unit 17

Christmas is coming!! This week we took a trip to Christmas town at Busch Gardens to see all the lights! There was brisk air, crowds, bright lights, and a beautiful Christmas message sung by Carolers and other performers. Hats off to Busch Gardens for keeping the reason for the season known in their music and displays. 

Character Trait Wall

Started out the week adding a new character trait to our wall; endurance. We learned that we should push ourself to finish what we start and not to look for shortcuts.

Our verse was Proverbs 16:9. 'In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.'

In our bible study this week, we read from Matthew 3:13-4:11.  We learned that Satan tempted Jesus.  As we endure hardships we can depend on Him. 

In history, the boys were excited about the Daniel Boone stories this week and especially reading about his adventures. They have watched the old Daniel Boone shows The children were impressed by his braveness even at such a young age. 

We learned that Daniel Boone loved to explore and was a pioneer in traveling west. We learned that Indians captured him and he was able to escape. They followed his foot tracks but, Boone outsmarted them and found a vine to swing on. The Indians loss track of him. 

They loved their art project of the swinging Daniel Boone!  I enjoyed seeing how each of them are unique even in their art. 

We also learned that Daniel Boone moved his family west to Kentucky. It was a wild and dangerous place to live. His daughter and her friend were also captured by the Indians. They were brave and were smart to tear pieces of their dresses off to leave as a trail. They knew their dad would be searching for them.  He chased the Indians over 40 miles to save the girls. The weather was harsh. Freezing in winter and burning hot in summer. Daniel Boone lived a long life enduring many hardships which helped developed his strong character. 

Our timeline is filling up! The kids really love keeping up with the people we read about by placing them on the timeline. It makes it so simple to reference back to them when needed. 

Unit 17 Science

We talked about the importance of roots in Science this week. We learned that roots anchor trees into the earth and help keep soil from eroding. The kids drew a picture of the end roots and labeled. 

We also talked about microorganisms and their purpose.  We learned that they help to breakdown and decompose and are an important part of the animal life cycle. Our experiment was to find out what mold is! We put a wet paper towel in a ziplock bag with a piece of food. We put it in a dark area for a few days. Yuck! **Then we stuck in back in the fridge and forgot about it over the Christmas holiday! Whoa! This was amazing! This thing looked alive, felt soft, and had little smell. The kids said it looked like a chia pet! **

The kids are each excelling in math. The CLE light unit workbooks are an amazing fit for our family.  The boys are in the 404 booklet and the 7yo is rocking it in 207.  I love the lessons each day, 2 quizzes per book, and a final test. It isn't overwhelming with colors and pictures or kinky spiral math but, simple with clear instructions for the kids to follow. 

Our poetry copywork was the poem, Under the Trees by Richard Henry Stoddard. 

Next week, we will be taking a HOD break and be traveling around the world learning about different Christmas customs & traditions. We plan to visit 8 countries in 5 days with recipes & crafts!  I can't wait!! Our passports are ready!!

If you would like to follow along our daily activities and crafts, you can like our Facebook page here:  

https://www.facebook.com/takingoffwithhomeschool

See you then! 

Be blessed! 

Bigger Hearts for His Glory- Unit 16

We took a 2 week break for Thanksgiving. The time with family and friends was fantastic and the food was incredible.  I sure enjoy this time of year and especially the time with my mother and grandmother. These 2 ladies are both very special to me and the time I have with them both is very cherished.   

It was nice for the family to fly high over all the holiday traffic at Thanksgiving. Have I mentioned 'I love my navy pilot!'  Our trip was shortened by 10 hours because we were able to fly! The kids enjoy it and it was sure nice to get to our stretched out family in only a couple hours.  

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Back at it this week and we learned about integrity.  Doing what is right even when no one is watching.  We read Proverbs 27:19.  'As water reflects the face, so ones life reflects the heart.'

We read in history about George Washingtons final battles. He knew he couldn't beat the British in New York.  He outsmarted the British and outnumbered them in Yorktown. After 7 years, the British Leader, Cornwallis surrendered, he was defeated, and the Revolutionary war was over. 

We played a game of WAR with playing cards to see what happens when one person ends up with more cards on their side. Just like Washington, they defeat their enemy. The kids enjoyed the card game for sure. 

We took a leaf break to rake the yards.  

And do some tricks!! :)  The kids each had a great time in the backyard this week raking, jumping, and bagging the leaves! 

In Science, we talked about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. We studied these heavily last year even observing  their cycle .... so we briefly touched on it for a reminder this week. We reviewed that animals and insects often have coloring to camouflage into their surroundings. 

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We learned that shortly after the Revolutionary War the 13 colonies returned for a conventional meeting, elected George Washington as the first United States president, and drafted the Constitution to show the rights of the people and the powers of the government. A great clip from School House Rock to help!  Here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzAJyK0ovo8

We talked about the 3 branches of the government. 

The kids used the history pages and completed this worksheet.  We also watched a quick School House Rock about the 3 branches. It was a great demonstration linking a circus to the branches.  My kids all thought it was fun & helpful.  Here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5M50xBz1cU

Our vocabulary words this week were: Constitution, barge, and oath. 

The kids made index flash cards with the 13 original colonies and their state abbreviations. 

The older ds also wrote the capitals on the back of his cards and we colored and labeled them on our map. 

We also read about a boy that was named after President Washington. His name was Washington Irving. He desired to be a sailor when he grew up but, instead became an author.  He later wrote a biography of George Washington. We painted watercolor art with cool ocean colors and warm sky colors. The kids did great on these. 

Orthodontics!

Orthodontic appointments give the kids a fun game time with mounted iPads while we wait for our turn. The kids love this place and it's so nice to have this game room for a break from our homeschool morning! 

A fabulous week for our little dancer who was able to spread some Christmas cheer at a nearby nursing home with her dance studio. Such a great opportunity for the dancers. 

We hope you had a great week too! This season is going so quickly. We have our last unit next week and then a week of 'Christmas Around the World' before our 2 weeks off for Christmas break. 

See you next week! 

Be blessed!