City On A Hill- Day 8 (Vol 1, Unit 1, Chapter 1 Weaver)

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14

Today we had class on our hill behind the house.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

 We bounced around ideas on how to let our lights shine for Jesus in everyday life, even when we're afraid. We should never be ashamed of our Savior. I reminded them what happens to a candle when the light is covered.

Our earth science lesson reviewed plains, valleys, mountains, and hills. 

Inside the house I used clay to show how mountains are formed. (The book pictured below is The Geology Book by John D. Morris.)

Folded mountain.

Domed mountain.

Fault block mountain.

They each made their own.

We further tied in Matthew 5:14 with an electricity demonstration. Over the weekend we covered power plants, and today we learned about conductors, insulators, amps, and circuits. Last night Bill prepared a circuit for the kids. Today they gathered a few items around the house to test whether they were conductors or insulators.

 Recording her method and hypothesis in her science journal.

  

Pretesting.

Closed circuit- exciting!

The cars fooled them. They thought they were metal, not plastic.

Results.

We planned to make clay lamps that Jesus would have used growing up, but we ran out of time. We spent the afternoon gathering more books in the library. The girls read biographies on Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, and their contributions to modern electricity. I read Isaac and Lydia What Do People Do All Day by Richard Scarry to go along with this unit's city theme.

Loving our new routine.

A House Built on the Rock- Day 3 (Vol 1, Unit 1, Chapter 1 Weaver)

We covered a new Bible lesson today from the book of Matthew, the parable of the house built on a rock and the house built on sand. 

Looking up Matthew 7. There are so many reasons why I love this picture.

After reading the parable, I gave them an illustration to better remember and understand the story.  Last night I glued a paper house to a cement block to represent the foundation on rock. We didn't have a bag of play sand, so Brooke scooped up some dirt for me to represent the less firm foundation.

Blowing over the house on "sand".

Trying to blow over the house on a rock. 

We discussed why both physical and spiritual foundations are so important, and then changed the topic over to the layers of the earth. I gave them three different colors of modeling clay, and they shaped each layer. Yellow for the earth's core, red for the mantle, and blue for the crust.

Model earths!

We then sliced each model earth in half with my cake level.

She was in awe. Too cute.

Lydia cut her earth model into about ten different pieces.

Is he handsome or what?

Meticulous.

This is her last day as a six year old. Craziness.

Some of today's notes.

We ended the day with a trip to the local library. We came home with several armloads of books, including two about Martin Luther King Jr. I wanted to honor the 50th anniversary of his great speech, so we read about his life and the legacy he left behind.The girls are in the school room writing about his life and speech in their creative writing journals as I finish up this blog post. 

Another great day under wraps. I'm still working on finding the right schedule. Last night I had a list of assignments for the girls to work on until I was ready to start teaching. Brooke and Madeline have been early birds lately, so they were able to work on their math, spelling, and penmanship while I was busy getting ready for the day. Isaac gets his reading lessons in the evening, because that's when he usually had them before school started. His math gets fit in whenever he's ready to sit still for a few minutes. He's constantly on the move and I'm trying not to be bothered by it. He soaks it all in though- I think he's not listening to me at all, and then all of a sudden he yells out an answer. Funny how that works. I'm really trying to stay flexible. It's all brand new territory- but we must be in a honeymoon period, because I still have the happy feelings nonstop.So far we're taking it in one day at a time.

Babylonian Soil: Day 2 (Vol 1, Unit 1, Chapter 1 Weaver)

Today was science day!

 I like to write out the objectives on the chalkboard so that the kids know the plan, and so that I can be reminded of what we need to accomplish. 

We quickly reviewed the Tower of Babel and Sumerian culture, then learned about the city of Babylon. I'm such a nerd- I'm having way too much fun teaching them ancient history. We learned about Babylonian rulers including Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar. Hammurabi wrote down barbaric laws called the Code of Hammurabi. One of them mandated that a surgeon's hand be cut off if his patient died. Much later in Babylonian history came along King Nebuchadnezzar, the same king in the book of Daniel. He built the beautiful blue Gate of Ishtar, and rebuilt the seven level ziggurat that's believed to be the same temple as in Genesis 11. We watched a YouTube video that showed a recreation of the huge wall and gate.

After history, it was time for our science walk. They each had a bucket and shovel, and we went out to collect soil samples.

Isaac was so proud that he picked out his own outfit. I was proud for him, and also glad we are homeschooling so that I didn't have to make him change.

With our samples in hand, we talked about what soil is made of, and what defines each type of soil. We also discussed the three categories of rock. Last week we went to dinner hosted by friends of ours from church. He's a geologist with a private rock and mineral collection that would take your breath away. It was like being inside of a museum. He gave a little lesson to the kids that night, which made today's lesson so much easier.

Observing the different soil samples with a magnifying glass, and then classifying them.

Writing their observations in their science journals.

Meanwhile in the next room... She is so quiet during homeschool. She's in and out of the school room at her leisure, so who knows what all she's absorbing. I bought her Horizons curriculum for three year olds, but she's not interested in the worksheets, and I'm not pushing it.

His favorite part of the day- being told he has to play with dirt. Ha!

After classifying the types of soil, we made a posterboard.

Tacky glue fun.

She didn't want to stop gluing things.

Finished product.

We conducted an experiment using sediments in a jar of water. The girls each came up with an hypothesis of what types of soil would sink first and last. They then recorded the results after observing the experiment. 

Conclusions: 1. My kids love our new school. 2. I am a nerd who loves history and science, and I am so ready to do it all again tomorrow!