Ohhhhh-Livia!!

Ohhh, those darn Legos


Ohhh, she is tall enough to reach the door handle and let herself outside - in two of my shoes.

Ohhhh, how sweet.

Ohhh, how "all about me" is she?

Greg was soaking his feet - - she had to put hers in as well...

Poor Calvin had to share the foot bath, too...

Josh had to share his bath . . .

She finally got her own foot bath.

Field Trip: World War 2

This was a super fun class.
This is a real war helmet. Nice pose, Calv!

The boys made airplanes - complete with "army men"

Calvin shows us what HE does with army men.
Calvin tried on a WW11-style Navy Uniform! His Great-Grandfather was in the Navy. How cool is that?

They ended the day with play with a parachute - to see what a parachute was like.

How cool are these field trips??



Oh, that WWII was the greatest generation ever - I wish I could have lived back then.

Field Trip: The Great Depression

The boys went on a field trip to learn about the Great Depression.
They made "quilts" (bottom picture), typed on old type writers and ate some yummy cookies.

The Mormon Channel

http://radio.lds.org/mc/eng/
Our church has a new podcast site. You can download podcasts on different topics.
One is for children (highlighting scripture stories as told by children).
One is Stories from Conference talks.
Another is on the Life of Jesus Christ.
You can download them to your iPod, to Google Reader, and other forms of media.
Check it out.
I am very excited about this - anything to help strengthen our families!

Honey Bees

We went to a festival recently and bought several different kinds of honey - Tupelo, Wildflower, Raspberry, Gallberry, Locust . . . and more. They are so yummy!! I decided that we would learn how honey was made. Um...I'll never eat honey the same way again.

Isn't it amazing that the Lord created such a creature?

Carrot Cake Jam

Yes, you read that right.
Carrot Cake Jam.
I bought some today at our "local festival" and it is d-i-v-i-n-e!

I googled the recipe because I don't think that I want to spend another $4 for a jar. I can make my own for that price. :)

For those of you who might be interested in tasting a little bit of heaven, here is the recipe I found. The ingredients are the same ingredients that are on my jar.


CARROT CAKE JAM

1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots( I use my food processor any time I can)
about 3 large 1 1/2 cups peeled chopped pears about 2( I have used canned pears, drained)
1 can crushed pineapple 14oz don't drain
3 TBS lemon juice, bottled is fine
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
6 1/2 cups od sugar
1 pk fruit pectin

combine carrots,pears,and pineapple including juice and lemon juice,cinnamon,nutmeg, and cloves in a large pot. bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and boil gently 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. measure out sugar, set aside atir fruit pectin into carrot mixture, return to boil. add sugar, return to a full rolling boil, boil hard 1 minute, stirring occasionally. ladle into hot 1/2 pint canning jars, leaving 1/4 head space. using a rubble spatula remove air bubbles. readjust head space, if needed. wipe jar rim removing stickiness. place 2pc screw on jar.

Homeschool: Projects

Yes, that is Liv working on learning fractions. lol!

Josh showing his "hornbook". The pilgrim children would put their schoolwork on a wooden board and then cover the paper with a thin layer of a cow's horn (it acted like a plastic). They would tie this hornbook around their necks so they could do their chores while they learned to read.

We talked about how important learning to read is. We compared the Nephites to the Lamanites and their education. There are such stark contrasts to these two civilizations. The Nephites knew the importance of learning to read and write. They knew that they needed to preserve their language. They lived "after the manner of happiness". The Lamanites . . . not so much. We are grateful that we can read. We are grateful that we can read the scriptures in our own homes (the Pilgrims could only read the scriptures in church).

This is our 3-D model of Jamestown


Greg's dad took the boys on a field trip to learn about Native Americans. Our county offers the best homeschool field trips!! Here, Calvin is showing us his clay dish and a cornstalk doll. The boys also made a little game that the Indians used to play. By attending this field trip, Calvin passed off some cub scout electives. Sweet!

Remember our study on simile? I posted our poems and later had Calvin copy some scriptures that used simile. I even found one that mentioned owls! How's that for "coming full circle"?


In science, we studied how sound travels. We made an accordion book about the workings of the ear and then we conducted the most unique experiment. You HAVE to try this! See photos below for a demonstration.
Tie string around a metal hanger.
Wrap the string around your fingers.
Put your fingers into your ears.
Swing the hanger so that it hits a table or some object.
Listen and smile.
It is awesome.
Try it next with a spoon or a spatula.



Calvin read The Call of the Wild (Children's version) and completed a whole project on it. What a fabulous story!! We just fell in love with Buck.
We learned about the geography in the book (California, Washington, Canada, Alaska).
We learned about the Aurora Borealis for science and looked at many, many photos of the beautiful phenomena.
We made our own Aurora Borealis for art using pastels.
Calvin also illustrated some of the pivitol scenes from the story.
We studied the Klondike Gold Rush for history (fabulous story in itself).

My dad came over to help Calv finish it off. My dad used to own a very large Saint Bernard and was able to talk to Calvin about how big dogs are (the main character in the book, Buck, was part Saint Bernard and part Scottish Shepher). My dad also lived in Alaska for a time. I need to ask him just why in the world he decided to live in Alaska. He told us that the Aurora Borealis is jus as beautiful as we see in the photos. I expect to see some photos, Brien!

Calvin had a good time showing Grandpa his "new world".

Now for a new classic . . . what shall we read next??

Oliver Twist? Peter Pan? Arabian Nights? Tom Swayer?

Homeschool: P.E. ... Orange Belts!

The boys have another P.E. . . . Karate! lol.
They just tested from yellow to orange belts!

Nice face, Calv!

Homeschool: P.E....swimming

While most kids were sitting in a classroom, we were swimming! A local indoor swimming park hosted a homeschool day and we were able to go! We had a ton of fun. Chalk one up for P.E.! lol.
My mom was able to go with us (last minute request) and helped out with the kids. It was actually a very relaxing day.

Calvin's poor ears were smooshed in those goggles (don't look, Jan!!).

We are in the fabulous whirlpool!

Josh is floating along in the "lazy river".

We all took turns going down the water slide (even my mom went down). It's nice to have things like this so close!

Spring Fun

We had a stray cat come to visit us for a few days. It turns out that the cat actually lived next door to my mom! It was a "mommy cat" and she really needed to get back to her kittens. What a coincidence! Josh fell in love with the cat and played with it on our front porch.

GO - Kart Time!! Liv had her first time on the Go-Kart. She didn't do too badly!

We let the boys drive for the first time. Before anyone write to tell me what a horrible mom I am to let my boys ride without helmets . . . don't. They barely gained any speed as they rode, though you wouldn't know it looking at the photo below. :)

Liv discovered the faucet as a water fountain. Nice.

Easter Photos

Calvin carried Liv's basket for her. This was his first year to hide the eggs. He did a good job. In fact, he even hid one so well that we lost it for a few weeks. It didn't help that the egg was a camouflage egg.

Mouse House

I thought some of you might enjoy this...
Josh built a "mouse house" out of a cardboard box. He furnished it with legos and cotton balls. As he was giving me the tour of the house, he pointed to a small "room" with some of Liv's plastic food stacked up in neat piles.

He said, "That's the food storage room."
HAHA! Even a mouse needs a food storage room. :)

Score one for indirect teaching!

Homeschool: Passover

I forgot to post about the lessons we learned about Passover and the Plagues of Egypt.
I found a really fun site with "videos" to help teach about these events.
Maybe someone could use these as well?

http://kids4truth.com/chosen/plague.html
http://littlelambsministry.freeservers.com/storytheplagues.htm
http://littlelambsministry.freeservers.com/storythepassover.htm
http://www.jesusandkidz.com/MosesFrees/Page1.htm

Homeschool: The Wizard of Oz Field Trip

A local homeschooling mom told me about a play in our area put on by other homeschooled children. We were "itching" for a field trip, so off we went. At 10:00 today, we sat down to watch a great play of e Wizard of Oz. I was very impressed. Liv sat so well during the whole thing. I think I was most impressed with that part of it. :)
The cast was made up of youth who participate in the Masters of Fine Arts Academy.
How's that for home schooling? :)

Happy Easter!

Homeschool: Owl Moon, Thunder and Tornadoes

I recently bought a book that helps teachers use Caldecott Medal winner books in the curriculum.

We chose to start with Owl Moon.

What a fabulous book.

For art

We talked about the art in the book (of course) and discussed how the artist made each scene look quiet and very still in the winter snow. We felt as though we were really there.

For science/zoology

We learned about different kinds of owls and found that the Eurasian Eagle Owl has a wingspan of 79 inches, while the Elf owl only has a wing span of 15 inches. We used yarn to measure the different wingspans and labeled each string. Then we hung our findings up on the wall to compare them all.

Eurasian Eagle Owl Elf Owl

We listened to owl calls and tried to imitate them.

For Language Arts

We talked about similes and found a few similes in the book.

Then, we each wrote our own poem about climbing tress and used simile (or something close to it).

To add to our study in simile, we decided to describe the super cell thunderstorm we had last night.

Here is what the boys came up with...

• The rain was like tiny hands clapping.



• The thunder was like a bear yelling.



• The lightning was as bright as the stars.



• The rain was like hail hitting the roof.



• The thunder was like a dinosaur stomping.

For more science
and to continue with the flow of the day, we learned what causes thunder and lighting. We checked to see where lightening was striking in the US today.

We learned what causes tornadoes

We watched tornado videos.

As a censor note...I muted this because I did not care for the language used. The video is awesome, though.


This video is much better as far as listening pleasure. lol.


This one shows a Hay Devil (gentle whirlwind)