Week Nine in American History with Heart of Dakota

It was a fun filled week learning about Benjamin Franklin. We learned that he worked as an apprentice at his brother's printing press. So we used these foam stamps from Wal-mart to stamp one of his maxims. The kids found out how hard it was to stamp each individual letter and also how important it is to get the letters the right way. We had a backwards letter or two :) This was a super fun project.

 

 

 

In NOEO we are learning about how a light bulb works. Here the kids are examining the filament in one.

For HOD's science we learned how complex programming robots can be. The kids each got a chance to be the programmer and the robot and had to lead the other through an obstacle course.

For Friday fun day goody bag, the kids made bookmarks at quiet time. They cut out family members names from magazine letters and things that person would like and used yarn to tie at the top. This was a great quiet time activity.

Here is a picture of Doodlebug's kickoff project for Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. He had to draw a picture of a time period in history and then add some things in the picture that didn't fit into that time period. I then guessed what the "wrong" period things were. He really enjoys historical fiction books so this is a genre we have really been looking forward to doing.

Here is the kids science pages from our spark experiment. We  had to go in a dark closet and rub a balloon on our sleeves to see a spark. They learned that the friction causes the molecules to bump together causing the spark. This is how lightning is caused in clouds...well the basic of it that is. Trying to type this as fast as my hands will allow since baby is not sleeping these days. :)

This is the science Bible verse we had this week and the kids drawings of one of Ben's experiments.

These are the books they are reading this week for their reading lessons. Doodlebugs is part of DITHOR. Polly wog's is just one that Granny got her that she is reading. Super cute story by the way.

 

Here are some photo's from our Thanksgiving day. Here is one of three cousins. Our baby America is in the middle and on either side is his cousins. Jagg 8 months and Lilah 4 months. Miss Lilah bug was born a week before America.

Here is Polly wog and Lilah bug.

Here is Inchworm giving Jagg some love. This is my sister Sarah and her baby.

That was a short review of our week. We will be taking some time off school here soon so the blog posts will be coming to an end. The month of December we are going to focus on our little family and some fun things we have planned. Will update when I can.

Week eight in American history.

This week was super fun! We learned about the solar system and how David Rittenhouse used his God given smarts in math and science to help the colonists. We also learned about how King Phillip turned against the settlers after the passing of his father, Chief Massasoit. This was a very brutal time period to study and the kids learned a lot about the wars between the Natives and the new Americans.

The kids got to make up their own "safe houses" out of Lego's ( I love HOD) and then play with them. They had wars between the natives and colonists.

They learned the order of the planets orbits around the sun and did these projects to reinforce it. We had a ton of fun with the chalk ones! We also watched Bill Nye the Science Guy DVD (Planets). They really enjoyed his humor of course. 

Bible time fun! Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be kept safe. Proverbs 29:25. Their legs are supposed to be in a snare in this pic.

This picture cracks me up!

Cuddles on the couch. Doodlebug was upset... can't remember why now though. They have been playing some secret detective game lately and that is the reason for the beanies... I promise we have heat ;)

Star student!!! The kids stayed on task well this week and even did extra work to be ahead. So the teacher awarded them with a star student scratch it. I can't remember where I got this idea now... a blog I used to read.... anyhow, the kids love this.

Inchworm likes to get in on our push ups :)

Sorry about the sideways pic.. too lazy to fix it right now. Or in too much of a hurry I suppose. This is when the kids were practicing following directions like Captain Church and other colonists had to be very accurate in doing.

We watched  "boz" about a gillion times this week. :) Inchworm is obsessed with this movie for some reason. He can't say his O's so it comes out "boz".

Pumpkin seeds!!! YUM! After Doodlebug and Polly wog beat our pumpkin to a pulp with a baseball bat. With Mom's permission of course!

We made wampum belts with rice when we learned about King Philip and how he wore one to show his importance. The natives and colonists used wampum as money. Wampum was parts of clam shells with holes bored into them.

On Friday fun day the kids got to play doctor and using their scalpels and bandages performed surgery on contractions.

This about sums up our week. Have a great weekend!!!

Week 7 in American History with Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts for His Glory!

We just finished week eight and I still haven't blogged about week seven. We had fun with week seven but it was a busy week and we had some other issues going on this week that had to be dealt with ( a very whiny toddler *sigh*). All in all it was a good week though. Here are some pics from week seven.

We did most of our school work on the couch this week because "broder" wasn't feeling well still. Here the kids are enjoying a cup of tea while watching this video on wigwams. We also watched this one. I think the kids liked the second one better.

Here the kids are making wigwams with salt dough and bark. They didn't hold up too well. I think our dough was too moist but they still had fun.

Here Doodlebug is working on his Alpha Omega Horizons math. So far it is still review from last year.

 

 

 

Halloween day school. Shortly after Doodlebug had to take his hood off :)

We learned how fossil molds are formed by making our own "fossils" with salt dough. The kids wanted to bake them so they would last. So we did this and then painted them. They were a little disappointed when they came out of the oven and had bubbles but they still put them in their rooms for decoration.

 

Inchworm has been "helping" much more in the kitchen these days ;) He will say "elp, yeah" while shaking his head for yes and then point at the stool, his way of asking permission. Of course I am unable to deny the request on most occasions :)

Look at me Mom! I am a big brother too!!!

 

 

Week six in American History

This week in American History we learned about the Pennsylvania colony and William Penn of course :) We learned how the early colonists used plants for medicine and how some of these worked while others did not. The kids drew pictures of ones that worked, such as using the willow tree for headaches. The willow tree is how we get aspirin. They also drew pics of ones that didn't work such as children wearing wolves teeth around their necks for courage.

Then we had a "treasure hunt" of sorts and the kids searched our yard for plants that can be used for medicinal remedies and ones that they used in the colonial period.

Queen Anne's Lace: Named this because of it's lace like appearance and it was said to have one small flower in the middle that was a drop of Queen Anne's blood. Really God put it there to help bee's and other insects find it. Used for birth control and to get rid of intestinal gas and worms.

Doodlebug searching for Rosemary  (please use your imagination glasses while looking at our sad herb garden). Rosemary can be used for digestion, circulation of blood, as a disinfectant, and as perfume or ointment.

Here is our basket after coming in from the "Folk Medicine Treasure Hunt" :)

 We learned how the immune system works to fight a virus and how Cotton Mathers came up with the inoculation process. The kids watched a video on the immune system online and then played this game.

 Learning how the virus enters the body. In short...the T-cells then yell for backup. Followed by the B-cells which bring the K-cells to kill the virus and the antibodies are left behind to prevent the virus from making your body sick again.

 

Benjamin West was an artist and used the juice of various plants to add color to his artwork. We used lemon, orange, lime, strawberry, blueberry, and coffee for our pictures.                                   

The finished projects. Inchworm's, Pollywog's, and Doodlebug's.

The

Benjamin West notebooking pages.  

 Doodlebug has been reading James and the Giant Peach and loving it. 

Pollywog has been reading Pocahontas and the Strangers and loving it.  

 

We went on a leaf hunt after learning about leaf classification. The kiddos made leaf rubbings and them labeled the leaves as either compound or simple and then smooth, toothed, or lobed.

 

Nothing very exciting in NOEO this week. We have been reading about the scientific method and the kids illustrated their narration after one of our readings. The next step is to find something we want to ask a question about and then test with the method. Any ideas????

I thought this was funny since I have a picture of the same thing when he was about four months old :) So far our only thumb sucker and hopefully the last ;)

Doodlebug made a track for Inchworm to play with while we were schooling. They both enjoyed playing with it during their one on one time with each other. I'm so glad to have that time scheduled into our days.

This is how Inchworm chooses to do housework ... and from the picture you can tell it really needs it!

Pollywog took this picture of baby America because she thought he was just too cute for words. That is what she said anyways :)

 It was a full week and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves despite the sickness we are still fighting.