Baby Goats

It appears 2010 is not going to be a major blogging year as it is 1/4 over and this is only my what 2nd or 3rd posting. I won't apologize though, i'll just carry on as if nothing happened.

We are studying goats in Olivia's kindergarten homeschool curriculum and so we headed over to our friends the Weipert's who happen to have some baby goats. poor goat right...who feels sorry for the baby goat?






finally a little treat for all that abuse.


Olivia's sweet friend Mckenna


We learned all about the proper care and handling of baby goats. Those goats have to be ready for anything you know. Our words to remember are "Jesus died for my sins" and we reviewed the story in the old testament where the priest would place his hands on two goats heads - one would be killed for the sins of Israelites and one would go free. So cool this story falls on the week before Easter.

Homeschooling Week 16

Homeschooling Week 16

I've gotta catch up with this since I'm using this blog also as our personal records of the school year. We have been having a fun time doing school and are in a pretty good routine. It normally takes us about 2 or 2 1/2 hours a day and we try to get this done in the morning.

Bible We studied the stories about Noah, the Tower of Babel and Abram. Olivia reads the story in her Bible Reader and then illustrates the story in her notebook. Our Bible verse was Proverbs 30:5 "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him." We discussed how Noah and his family were kept safe during the flood because they believed in God. Olivia gets to illustrate the Bible stories in her Bible notebook
Here's her tall tower

And our attempt at making a tall tower...mmm i think we were missing something here.

Reading We learned that "ew" says "oo" as in spoon and short vowel "e" spelled "ea"
The reading from her Bible reader is the main reading that we do. I also have her read other first readers such as Dr. Seuss and Little Bear.

Math We spent the week looking at different types of graphs. We do this every day in our weather graph so this was an easy concept. One of the suggested activities was graphing all the types of animals included in a box of animal crackers. I figured math that included cookies couldn't go wrong.


Science: We studies rainbows to go along with the promise that God made to Noah to never flood the earth again. We learned Roy G. Biv and did this fun little craft.

First, a bunch of little squares of tissue paper



Then glue them on



Ta Da...finshed product.



And one of our little rocker


That was week 16 - And I want to say we might have done this one in two weeks due to few things that were going on - one being Thanksgiving which will be my next post.

Homeschooling Week 14

In Bible we learned Proverbs 14:30 "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." This was a cool verse for us because Olivia's name means "peace." We talked about how God wants us to be content with what we have and not to always be wishing or craving other people's things or talents. A good lesson for everybody.

In Math we finished our unit on subtraction and moved on to place value.

Reading: we are working on memorizing the books of the Bible in order and have made it to I Samuel. Drew and Olivia both amaze me how quickly they memorize things. They rattle it off like they've always known them. Funny!

We are also talking about the days of Creation and working on illustrating our own Bible notebook.



Science: I am a lesson behind, but hope to catch up this week. We did the drawing and projects for our Under the Sea lesson. The first was putting a spoon in a glass of water and looking at how the spoon looks bent because of the light reflected from the spoon bends when it leaves the water to go into the air and to you eye.

The Second project was looking how pressure increases in deeper water.


We have been reallying enjoying the Art part of the curriculum.
Here is Olivia's Leo the Lion rendition.

This was the extent of our week - we did a fun field trip to a pumpkin patch with some friends on Tuesday and a Halloween party on Friday. It was a short week academically speaking, but hey, that's what it's about sometimes especially when you are in kindergarten.

Homeschooling Week 12

Last week was such a fun week for us. We started off going to see a theater production of Winnie-the-Pooh downtown Portland with some friends. We have been enjoying the chapter book Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne so this was perfect! We weren't allowed to take photos inside the theater so here is one of our little group in the lobby.


In Bible we are studying Proverbs 13:1 A wise son heeds his father's instruction, but a mocker does not listen to rebuke. Olivia also started memorizing the books of the Old Testament - Genesis and Exodus.

For Reading Olivia is learning that the letter "y" makes the long i and long e sounds as in fly or baby. She is also really enjoying reading aloud from the Bible Reader.

Science is my area of weakness as far as staying on top of library books and experiments. We studied Beaches, Waves, Sea, Seashore, and Shells. Thankfully we spend a lot of time at the beach as a family so it definitely wasn't a new topic. These were are two favorite books from our library basket.



And here is Olivia creating waves with a rope. We noticed that the rope doesn't move forward when there is a wave only up and down. When waves are near the shore, they drag on the ocean floor and that moves the water forward.


We are slowing meanering through MFW K with Drew as he spends 2 days a week at preschool. We are on Lesson 4 Apple: If I stay in Jesus I will have much fruit. Here are a few of Drew making his own applesauce. He LOVES to help me in the kitchen. If I'm cooking, he definitely wants to help. I really let him do the majority of this project himself.




And that's our week!
I'm participating in Weekly Highlights from my friend Lainie at Mishmash Maggie

Weekly Highlights Oct 5-9

This week in Bible we are learning Proverbs 12:22 "The Lord detests lying lips but he delights in men who are truthful." I think Olivia and Drew both understand what a lie is, but we have also been discussing half-truths, omiting part of the truth and white lies. Thankfully kids are so black and white at this age. We have really been enjoying learning the weekly verses in sign language too. We also started our first timeline which starts with Gen. 1:1 written in Hebrew and ends with a picture of Olivia. Time is really an abstract concept, especially when you count backwards before the birth of Christ. Our hymn for the month is "How Great Thou Art" - some great versions of this on youtube including one by Carrie Underwood.



In Reading Olivia is learning the "wor" sound as in world and worm and the "igh" sound as in bright and fight.

In Science we are finishing up Rivers and made our own water filter up at Snyder Park with our sweet friends Sara and little miss Lauren... It sorta worked...

we started out reading a beautifully illustrated books about where rivers begin

Then Drew and Lauren got the supplies ready.

Here's our muddy water ready to be poured through the filter of rocks and sand

And here's our crispy clean water after the highly effective filtering process. I like that the directions said not to drink the water...mmm good to know.

And here is Miss Miriam - she will be 15 months tomorrow. Such a Silly Spunky Girl



I think Olivia actually secretly likes math...she complains a little, but she finishes her work quickly and is proud to get all the answers right. We have been working on adding.

Our Music curriculum was a field trip to hear members of the Oregon Symphony at an elementary school. We have 4 classes scheduled with them this year and each one has a different theme. This week was strings - Olivia and Drew both loved the violin the best. My personal favorite was the cello -such an elegant instrument. It was even more special going with friends Austin and Kara - thanks Alice for the pics!

Political world globe

Maps and globes are a hallmark of homeschooling homes,
and we just got around to purchasing ours yesterday.
Had I had some forethought and extra cash earlier, I may
have saved money and ordered it online months ago.
But...instead I waited until the curriculum actually said
"look on a globe" and then "find Israel on a world map"
to break down and buy one. The whole lesson is about
becoming familiar with Israel...the place where Jesus lived.
I love it that our curriculum (My Father's World) places
such an emphasis on the Word. I makes ordinary geography
extraordinary.

Here's Israel

here's the Nile River

Bible Times Costume -they are all ready for Halloween

And Miriam...14 months already!