Eggs-tacular Easter!!

I am egged out, if that is even a word!  We have eaten, dyed, hunted, and hidden a ton of eggs today!  Hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter!  We may take a day off from school tomorrow and visit with family.  I may even find a little time to plan the rest of our week! 

Carrot Cake:  Cream Cheese Frosting! Yumm!

Dyeing eggs!  My kids love doing this every year!

They are Beautiful!

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Casts & Molds

I've been combining Thumper and Bambi in Science lately.....expecting more lab writing from Bambi.  It has been so much easier than doing science separately.  This activity is one of the first activities in our Earth Science course.  They really enjoyed getting their hands sticky with this one!  We were discussing fossils, how they form, and the three kinds of fossils. (imprints, molds, and casts)

We formed a flattened piece of clay thick enough that they wouldn't press through it with their shells.  The kids picked out their own shell and starting rubbing them with vaseline so it would easily come out of the mold.  I told them that we were going to make plaster of paris pancakes so we needed to mix plaster of paris with water until we had our batter consistency.  Then I let them each scoop their batter into their molds.  No fighting who was going first, either!  I was impressed!!   

 

The Molds are ready! 

Making goofy faces is a requirement in our experiments.

Filling their molds.

The casts came out nicely!  You can see a lot of detail, too! 



Essentials In Writing 4

Bambi has always loved telling tales and stories, but writing it down?....pffff!  That's a whole other jar of beans!  Since starting Essentials in Writing grade 4, she has blossomed!  She actually doesn't whine or complain about starting a writing lesson.  The videos are short and sweet (5-10 minutes maybe).  Then she works on her worksheet or writing assignment.  Though we do a separate grammar program, there is grammar with EIW.  Bambi is nearly finished with this years writing course.....She had to complete a research project that took her step by step.  She choose her favorite love, horses!  I'm so proud of her hard work.  She wanted to type her paragraphs which made it pop! 

Sewing Nightgowns

Our Nana made nightgowns for Flower and Bambi.....they are made from flannel material and are oh so soft.  The girls just love them and we intend to make some more, or keep Nana busy with it!  Flower wanted to make one for her Molly doll to match her gown.  It turned out so adorable.  It was a tedious job that she accomplished on her own.  She struggled at times but didn't give up!  She is hoping to keep making doll dresses, gowns, and accessories in hopes to sell them!  You can check out her blog to see what she has been creating!

SOTW Activity

Flower is still listening/reading her SOTW vol.2 Middle Ages!  She hasn't been working on many projects from the Activity Guide lately due to being so busy in science.  She did manage to squeak out a marshmellow puff castle!  I have to say, it was delicious! She made it from cocoa puffs & kix cereal and marshmellows.  She then formed it into a castle like shape!  Flower is working on Chapters 19-20 this week in SOTW and is reading Famous Legends (a Calvert book).

 

We have added these wonderful books to her history reading......

Science

                                              

Bambi and Thumper have enjoyed studying Earth Science lately and have learned a lot.  It's been quite a bit of planning on my part because I choose not to purchase a science curriculum.  We are working with the resources that we have and it's turning out to be a great science year with the two of them.  I started out separating their Science, but it was just too much to flip flop back and forth.  So they do it mostly together.  Bambi will read harder selections and Thumper will join in with his own younger version book about whatever topic we are studying.  I've posted some pictures of what they have been doing for science class.  Thumper is always doing some sort of science and it would be nearly impossible for me to capture it all! 

Julie (Bambi's American Girl doll) joined us for Science today!

 What is soil?  How do you make soil?  What is in soil and how are they different?  We compost, so this was nothing quite new for them, but it still gave them a chance to observe and make conclusions. 

 I've been trying hard to remind Bambi to show neat work and take pride in her work.  She has been showing improvements in those areas lately and I'm proud of her!

 Science is Thumper's favorite lesson!  He has really beefed up his writing lately and has stretched out of his comfort zone at times!  Love it!

We've been discussing how rocks can crack due to extreme change in temperatures.  We took a glass marble and held it over a candle flame for a couple minutes.  Then the kids immediately dropped it in an ice cold glass of water.  There we watched it crack inside.  Pretty cool experiment!



 

   

 We have been learning about Earthquakes.  We've watched videos from Netflix and Discovery Education .....We read about vibrations and seismic waves.....we are reading quite a bit about earthquakes.  Everywhere we go lately they notice a book or movie about earthquakes and I watch their little wheels turn!
 

Wrapping up 7th grade....

Flower has worked hard and has had a great year full of adventures!  She has been working so independently and showing that she is ready for any challenge that comes her way!  Here is the run down of what she has completed so far:

Analytical Grammar:  She has completed Season 1.  She started Season 2 a couple weeks ago but since she started up with Writing With Skill, we are going to put a hold on Season 2.  She may just complete that next year for 8th grade along with Season 3.  We will have to see. 

Essentials in Writing 7:    Flower has enjoyed using EIW this year, our first year using it, but I'm not sure if she will be using it for 8th grade.  She is finished with it for the year and has moved into Writing With Skill.  This may take her into September.  We will assess where she is then to determine if she continues with the next level: Writing With Style.  I've been eyeballing Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) for her.  I'm pretty sure I want her to use some of their curriculum for High School so I might want to introduce her to it for 8th grade.  I feel that Flower is a natural writer so I'm not sure how this structure will be for her.  She definitely has that aspect down pat. 

This year Flower was using Megawords a bit.  It is a wonderful program for someone that struggles with spelling or needs a refresher but I felt that it was busy work not needed for her.  She stopped using it and we just corrected her spelling in her writing assignments.  Then her sister started using Phonetic Zoo (by IEW).  I found set A and B at our homeschool store, used, but in perfect shape.  Flower was curious and so we took the placement test online and she placed in level B.  She and Bambi love the program!  It only takes about 15 minutes a day.  They do it 5 days a week.

Elemental Science Update!

Well it was a busy, busy month for Flower in Science this month.  She was experimenting with her science fair project scheduled in Elemental Earth Science.  It took her 4 weeks to complete and she worked extremely hard!  Here is a picture of her finished project but there are more pictures on the Elemental Science Page!  Check it out! You will have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see it.

SOTW & Sonlight

Story of the World & Sonlight G

Flower has loved her week of history. Our History days in our house are Tuesdays & Thursdays & sometimes Fridays. We mainly leave Fridays for activities/crafts/projects. She got through Chapters 1-2 this week. She loves the audio of SOTW! She has added the mapping, timeline, notebooking pages, & review cards to her History Binder. We bought those baseball trading card plastic sheets that are 3 holed punch to add to a binder. Here she is adding her review cards to keep events & peoples fresh in her mind. I know some think that SOTW is just not fit for the logic stage, but I beg the differ. I feel with discussion, activites, and everything else we are including, that SOTW is going to be a BIG eye opener for my middler. I couldn't picture Flower using Sonlight G as is, though the literature is right up her alley and awesome, there just wasn't enough hands on learning and writing to make the history come to life!

Week 1

 

Week 2

Here is the link that I used to print out the pieces on cardstock! She had loads of fun doing this!

On the back of this sheet is her outline using the Usborne Encyclopedia that coordinate with the SOTW chapters 3-4.

Week 4

To go along with SOTW chapter 11 about Ancient Africa, Flower made paper beads and made a necklace with them. She used paper from colorful magazines, cut them into a triangular shape, and then rolled it up with glue holding it together. It looks beautiful!

 

Week 7

Flower is learning about Early Greeks.....and the Olympics! She watched a clip on Early Greeks today!

Here are her no sew "Greek" Clothes! She looks so Greek! Well done Flower! She used a pillow case and one of Dad's old t-shirts.

Week 8

Made Phoenician bread.....Mmmmmm! It was so good! She followed the instructions in the SOTW AG...pg. 57 for Chapter 15...I scheduled this a few weeks ago and we were unable to get it done. So we added this as our activity this week. She used yeast and water with flour, salt, and honey. Here she is kneading it.

This is what is looks like after it sat for 2hrs to rise.

She is punching it down....

She formed 10 balls to sit for 15 minutes.....then.....

She flattened them to about 6-7" in diameter....then baked!

She spread hers with butter and honey! They were delicious!

We are in Week 15 and it has just flown by.....

I know I've been neglecting the learning pages, which is what I thought would happen. Flower is nearing the end of SOTW Ancients book. She has really enjoyed listening and following along in the book with it. She loves picking and choosing from the Activity Guide, too! She has been reading Augustus Caesar's World along side of it, too, which adds more history! She continues to outline with the Encyclopedia and narrates her readings. Her favorite reader books so far for history are the Winterfeld books, Mystery of the Roman Ransom and Detective in Togas. She has started turning in a current event each week.....She uses a current event site online for kids.

With Lightning Literature 7 she has just finished up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which drove her inspiration of being the Queen of Hearts for Halloween. (You can check out her costume on the home page) We watched the movie to help get in character!

 

Flower has finished her first season of Analytical Grammar.... She has done really well with it..... I think it's tougher for me than her! She started her R & R book last week and I have it scheduled each week instead of every other week. She breaks the 2 page Activity into 2 days.....it is a lot to do in one sitting! That is working so far...the diagramming has been the most difficult part on where to place what part of speech. It can get tricky!

Flower finished up SOTW Ancients before Christmas break and started SOTW vol. 2 Middle Ages in January. She is enjoying the audio stories and all the added resources with it! We are still using SL Readers with it but not all of them.

SOTW Chapter 2 Project: The Early Days of Britain

Make a Celtic Brooch and Cloak