Africa weeks 18, 19, & 20

We had a ton of fun on our Africa adventures. We read about missionary David Livingstone and all the slaves he saved while in Africa in the book Hero Tales. Then we read Escape from the Slave Traders written from the view of two of these slaves, Chuma and Wikitani. Great stories! I'm not sure who learned more, the kids or myself. I love homeschooling! Here is a picture of some of  the other books we read.

We got to do a number of projects while visiting Africa, but our most memorable time was when a real live African missionary came to our home to share her experience with us. Thanks Aunt Carol for the visit! We really enjoyed our time with her. What an amazing person she is and what an amazing story she has to tell! Wish I had gotten some pics of her and the kids.

We also got to have pineapple tapioca. Here are some pics.

Here is what Pollywog was doing while Doodlebug and I were making the tapioca. Since she started reading chapter books we can't pull her nose out a book.

Here the kids are making their African Safari murals.

Pollywog acting out a safari scene with her "paper doll" animals. She wanted to leave them free and not glue them so she could do this.

Doodlebug glued his animals down and hung his on his bedroom wall.

We painted our faces (well the kids did anyways) and made beaded jeweled Masai necklaces. Here is the two older kiddos pointing to Africa.

Inchworm wanted to be part of the party, but then wasn't too thrilled when he looked in the mirror afterwards. :)

Here are some pictures of some of Doodlebug's Friday Fun Day activities. Daddy has been working on putting up some wainscoating behind the dining table and there are measurements written on the wall. So we decided to take the opportunity to do some math. Here Doodlebug is changing mixed numbers into improper fractions and then dividing to find the decimal equivalent.

He thought it was super fun to write on the walls!

Here he is writing his name in cursive. We are just about finished with his cursive writing book and I have to say his handwriting has improved drastically since starting this.

Here we are putting subjects and predicates together to make nonsense sentences. We had so much fun with this. Our favorite sentence was " The man with the oily mustache has bitten many people in Europe." We laughed so hard over this one. This is a game taken from my favorite phonics program. The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. Found here http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/the-ordinary-parent-s-guide-to-teaching-reading-paperback.html

Here are some random pictures from the last three weeks. Doodlebug with a letter he wrote to our friend Dorothy. He worked very hard on this and as you can see he was so pleased with the results.

Pollywog and Inchworm looking out the window of their "house" they made from the box Daddy brought home from work.

Holding Rex.

My handsome oldest!

Inchworm doing science ;) He LOVES this science book from our MFW ECC package.

That wraps up our adventures in Africa. According to the kids this came in first even above Europe in our best continent to study race so far. Up next Asia. Here we come Saudi Arabia, India, China, and Japan!

Wrap up of Europe ITALY!!!

To finish off our travels in Europe we chose to go to Italy. This was two free weeks to study a country of choice in the curriculum Exploring Countries and Cultures in My Fathers World. We have been using this curriculum for three years now and have no plans of going elsewhere. We love it! Here are some pictures of our travels.

Here is Pollywog doing her Horizons math. She is building castles and such out of solid shaped items around the house.

Here Doodlebug is on Friday Fun Day practicing his multiplication using Timez Attack.

Here are some of the books we read. Doodlebug's reader was "Monday with a Mad Genious" and "Leonardo da Vinci research guide" He enjoyed learning about Leonardo so much that he ended up writing a report of all he learned. I asked him to write a paragraph about what he remembered and he came back in the living room with a full page report. We edited and proofread it together and then he made his final copy. In this picture is also a movie we watched on Leonardo by Nest family entertainment.

We made personal pan pizza's (the whole family got their own) and had gelato for Friday Fun Day. For lunch on this day we made our own pasta sauce and made pasta with different varieties of noodles. Then with the leftover noodles we made necklaces. Sorry there are no pictures. When you are lost in the beauty and culture of Italy it's hard to find a good photographer to take pictures. ;)

And this is what Inchworm was caught doing while we were touring Italy.

Weeks 16-17 Germany

Here Pollywog is reading her My Fathers World Bible Story Reader.

Here she is showing her narration page from her story she read. She read about Joseph's coat of many colors. She said she wanted to give Joseph some style, hence the sun glasses ;)

Here Doodlebug is playing Wacky Web Tales on Friday Fun Day. He is picking up his grammar so fast.

These are some of the books we read. Our favorites were "Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot" ( I cried, although that could be the pregnancy hormones) and "The Falling Stars"

And here are our science books we read.

Here we are at our weekly Friday Fun Day library trip. We all enjoy this, but Inchworm has the most fun I think.

We made Castles out of cereal boxes after reading "

Here is what Inchworm could be found doing while we were busy schooling ;) He thinks Granny's old glasses look swell on him.

We had a really fun couple of weeks studying Germany, but I don't think I took enough pictures :( We also had German Pancakes for dinner on Friday Fun Day.