Sound and Language Unit Wrap up: Weaver Volume One, Unit Two

So we've been living and tweaking this homeschooling lifestyle for several more weeks now. It is hard, and time consuming, and sometimes messy. And yet, I have zero regrets of pulling my children out of the public system. Homeschooling has been incredibly rewarding, and our unity as a family has soared. I am more patient- not perfect - but God in His grace has equipped me to work this life for our family. There are times I forget, and freeze in a panic over the sheer responsibility of it all- but when I go to Him in prayer and ask for His peace, He always delivers. 

In my last homeschooling post, we had just completed our first week in Unit Two of Weaver's Volume One. For the remainder of our Sound and Language unit, one of the science topics I taught was the anatomy and physiology of the ear. Considering my former career as a Physician Assistant, I was tucked inside my cozy element. My five year old can recite to you the anatomy of the outer, middle, and inner ear, and my heart just melts in joy. My kids are in for a blast when we get to the human body unit! I'm a tiny bit nerd obsessed with all things medical.

We also covered how sound works, and took a crazy fun field trip to the Clay Center in Charleston, WV. Their children's museum has an entire exhibit on light and sound, and we were able to expand so much of our unit in just a couple hours. The pictures would have been amazing from that trip. However- I left my camera at home, and my phone with all my pictures was killed in coffee. Still in mourning, as you can tell.

We took another field trip during this unit to the Pittsburgh Zoo. It was perfect weather with no crowds at all. We had learned about animals with ultrasonic and infrasonic hearing, so I was able to tie it all in during the trip.

I can't remember what animal Lydia was so excited about. Three year olds inside zoos are the most fun ever.

She was telling me how small, cute, and tiny those baby lions were. Yes, those grown, male African lions over there. Every giant, ferocious animal we saw was so tiny and cute to her.

Madeline hugging the statue boy, pretending he was her prince. 

Lydia finally braved the big slide this time. "I did it!"

 Our verse of the week was from James- "Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!" James 3:5 Our Bible lessons also covered how our words are to bring praise to God, and we are to let our lights shine for Him in the darkness. We learned how feelings can be communicated without any words, and played a game to illustrate. 

 Isaac demonstrating anger. Can't you tell?

Brooke demonstrating happy. I was really trying to hold it together during this game. 

And this is Madeline communicating anger. 

Lydia was just happy to be there.

Isaac yelling out his guesses of the crystal clear emotions written on his sisters' faces. 

Lydia loves doing her schoolwork now. Her material is Horizons Preschool for Threes Workbook. It's completely voluntary on her part. I encourage her when she wants to participate, and I put it away when she doesn't want to.  

I sold Discovery Toys several years ago, and this is a math game I bought back then.They love playing it.

Bill's recent birthday celebration. Love this man.

I have so many friends and family tell me what an awesome thing it is we are doing, but they could never do it- usually saying they lack the needed patience. If only they could peek inside my imperfect, often fear-stricken brain! If God's calling your family to homeschooling, and you say to yourself that you can't do it, just look at who God called in His Word. He didn't call those who had all the answers and a plan from the beginning. He raised up a scrawny shepherd kid to become King of Israel, a scared man with a speech impediment to lead His children out of captivity, a young girl of no significance by world's standards to mother the Son of God. He equips those He calls. I'm telling you- when God calls you, it is so safe to follow where He leads. Steps of faith bring huge reward. Whatever He is calling you to do, say yes to Him! 

                                                                                    

Speech is a Gift from God

Our new unit for the next two weeks is Speech and Language. I'm remembering again why I love Weaver, which is good timing. The last few days of unit one involved some burnout and second guessing of whether we chose the right material. I'm learning that this homeschooling thing- it's hard work. It's one thing to anticipate and talk about it for months on end, and a whole other thing to dig in and do it. So I guess it's safe to say that the honeymoon stage of homeschooling is over. There are problems that need worked out and frustrations being aired out. But, just like a good marriage, I'm realizing it's most definitely one of the best parenting decisions we've ever made. For one thing, there's no "one size fits all" education model I must follow. I can teach each child according to their own needs-  needs that I am figuring out more and more each school day. Brooke is awesome at science, a natural artist with perfect penmanship and beautiful cursive writing, and is working on reading comprehension. Madeline is a whiz at math and reading, moving along at lightening speed, but is easily frustrated when I challenge her because she's not used to making mistakes. Isaac is crazy good at math, and is becoming a reader before my eyes (so fun!), but he doesn't like buckling down and doing his worksheets, because "school is boring, playing is fun." Some of it is just part of life that he'll get used to soon enough.We do enough fun projects and experiments that half the time he doesn't even realize that he's learning. 

This Monday we learned that speech is a gift of God. The curriculum called for study of a foreign language in another country, and I chose Ghana. Our Compassion child is from Ghana, and I want them to learn more about his home. I had to laugh when I started researching and realized that English is their official language. There are several tribal languages though, so it all worked out for the curriculum correlation. We studied Ghana's political history, geography, economy, and wildlife. We talked about the day in the life of a Ghanian child, and practiced speaking a tribal language. They painted pictures of the Ghana flag, explaining what each color represented, and designed their own Kente cloth on cardstock. They then wrote letters and drew pictures for Japhate, our Compassion child. 

 Lydia coloring her African lion.

 Pretty girl. 

 Painting their flags.

 Red for the blood shed for their independence, yellow for their minerals including gold, green for their forests, and black star for freedom.

 Puppy begging for playtime.

 He's jealous of the kids and the attention I give them. It's kinda crazy.

 Designing Kente cloth.

 The princess playing on the computer before naptime.

 Isaac's lion.

 He's learning patterns in math this week.

On Tuesday we covered the anatomy and physiology of the ear, as well as sound waves. (They made a tin can phone but I forgot to take pictures.) We learned what absorbs and reflects sound, so of course they had to test it out in the foyer.

Today we looked at how immigration affects languages spoken in different regions of the US. We then learned about the deaf community and sign language. They wrote biographies on Helen Keller and practiced some sign language. By chance (or divine timing) this past Saturday, Brooke was able to meet and sign with an elderly couple who happened to be deaf. She hasn't stopped talking about meeting them, and how much fun it was to sign with them.

 Afternoon reading today.

 Have I mentioned homeschooling rocks?