Some Unexpected Fun!

 

I am having problems getting all of my pictures to upload this week…..ugh!! I haven’t had the time to fiddle with it like I planned, so I thought I would share a picture of some unexpected fun the kids had last week!

SNOW!!!

We woke up to a blanket of snow and all I heard was can we PLEASE play in the snow?!?!?!  So I decided to let them play before it melted……..we had the rest of the day to squeeze in some school ;0)  And it’s was a good thing they did, because it was gone by lunchtime!

 

 

They even talked me into letting them put Hershey’s syrup on some snow…..eeewww!

 

 

 

 

Did you have any unexpected fun last week?  Link up below to share!

Autumn Landscape Watercolor

In our Creation to the Greeks co-op, the kids are learning about the famous composer Antonio Vivaldi.

Our co-op purchased Homeschool In The Woods Composers lapbook.  The kids will be working on the time period appropriate pieces as we go through the 5 year cycle with My Father’s World.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They listened to “Autumn” from Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, and painted a watercolor autumn landscape.

I chose the the leaf-blowing autumn landscape project from Art Projects for Kids (I love her blog!).

 

The project taught them about perspective, noticing that the closer items are to you, the bigger they appear. 

Here are Kathy’s original directions.  You can click on the link above to go directly to her post.

1. Draw a very simple landscape with a tree, hill, and multiple layers of bushes. Add leaves around the tree, and at least one big and several medium size ones.
2. Trace all the lines with a black Sharpie marker.
3. Add some lines of color with crayons: squiggles for grass, lines in bushes, veins in leaves, etc.
4. Paint all with watercolor paint. I used my favorite Dick Blick brand, especially their Turquoise Blue!

The project was a hit, everyone seemed to enjoy it!

 

 

How did your week go?  Link up to share!

Prehistoric Cave Art

 

I am the art teacher for our Creation to the Greeks Co-op, and the plan this year is to start at the beginning with art as well. 

I am pulling ideas off the internet and Harmony Fine Arts Ancient Art plans.

We started with a prehistoric cave art project. 

     

Items needed

1. Books on cave paintings

2. Brown grocery sack

3. Charcoal pencil

4. Chalk pastels

 

 

We reviewed the cave are books and learned a lot.

• What does prehistoric mean?
• What the art symbolized and the beliefs behind it
• What was drawn and where it was drawn 
• How the colors were made and tools used to paint

 

I made up some notebooking pages for them complete as they went through the study.

 

 

 

Then they got to work creating their own cave art on the brown grocery sack using a charcoal pencil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The drawings were then wadded up into balls to add the look of a cave wall. 

 

Once they unraveled them, they colored them with pastel chalks.

 

 

 

 

They all seemed to enjoy this project too :0)

 

 

 

 

How has your week gone?  Link up below to share!

Dinosaur Study

 

As an extension of us reading about dinosaurs and how they fit into creation, I decided to have some dino-fun with the kids. 

Monica posted last week on the start of the study, pre-baby….and here is the remainder…..post-baby :0)

Each kid picked a dinosaur to study and had to use the library computer to find books and check them out.   I placed a little plastic dino toy in a balloon, blew it up, and they paper mached them.  These are their dino eggs, which they loved painting.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dinosaur eggs were hidden in the yard so the kids could go on a dino-egg hunt!

 

 

 

 

Then they got to hatch their eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we made some fossils to hide in the sandbox for them to excavate. 

 

 

 

 

 

They also had to complete a report on their dinosaur.  Big Ladybug chose the Apatosaurus and here are a couple of her report pages. 

These were printed from The Crafty Classroom. 

 

Link up below to share something fun your family did using My Father’s World!

MFW Highlights: Notebooking

 

We are using My Father’s World Creation to the Greeks this year.  I'm not much into using index cards, I just picture them getting set down everywhere and getting lost.  So for our Greek roots vocabulary we doing it a little different.  

I picked up some simple spiral bound white story notebooks from Miller Pads and Paper at our local homschool convention.  Big Ladybug covers the front with some scrapbooking paper and brads to pretty it up. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then on the inside she gets to illustrate the word and write the meaning.  This may not work for all kids, but she loves to draw so she enjoys this. 

We used this for our geography vocabulary for ECC last year and are also using this for our Bible History Notebook this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have worked great so far and everything is stored in one spot, which makes my life easier. 

Link up below to share your ideas or how your week went using My Father’s World!

Also if you linked up last year and added the button to your blog, that code links to last year’s info and guidelines.  Please grab the new updated code under the button for this year.  Thanks!

Our Learning Area

This year we have been blessed with a separate schooling space!  Everyone has their own desk area, instead of the kitchen table.  Don’t get me wrong, we have many wonderful memories schooling around our table, and we still do at times, but it’s nice they all have their own space when needed too :)

Here is Big Ladybug’s desk…….$15 yard sale find! We use the red hanging pockets on the left as her workboxes.  I purchased them off Amazon.com. 

This is little ladybug’s desk that Big Ladybug out grew.

 

And this is Little Lizard’s area.  I added a letter apple tree for the preschoolers.  I purchased it for $12 from Creative Teaching Press.

I laminated the apples and made the yellow circles and the letters in them with my Cricut.  I attached them to the apples with Velcro, so we could change them in the future as needed.  Every letter Little Ladybug learns gets added to the tree.

I have a desk in the school area too…..but bypassed taking a picture because it was a mess :)

So Many Blessings!

I have always believed that God has a plan for each of us and that life works in His timing, not ours……but sometimes it is easier said than done to remember.  This summer was one of those times that I relearned how true this really is, and just how BIG God is.  

God blessed us with the sale of our home and with the purchase of a new home.  This was not just any home…..it was a home with all the specifications my husband and I wished for……ranch, large back yard, walk-out basement, near my sister and dad, etc.  It was a home that wasn’t even on the market and required A LOT of things to fall into place for it to be even a possibility for our family….but with GOD all things are possible!

God not only blessed us with being near my family…..but right next door to my sister!  Now we get to school our kids together, share meals, bug each other daily, etc.  This has been such a wonderful blessing.  The kids LOVE each other so much and have enjoyed learning together!

 

 

God also blessed us with a beautiful new little girl!  She surprised us with arriving a little bit earlier than expected, but we will keep her!  I also praise God that I been blessed with a speedy recovery after my fourth c-section! 

 

Another blessing has been our co-op.  It has grown to add two more families this year!  We are looking forward to learning and growing together!

I pray that you all have a blessed school year!

My Father’s World, Homeschool Highlight Guidelines: 2012-2013

 

 

 

So What is Homeschool Highlights in My Father's World?? 

Its a weekly link-up hosted alternately by myself and by Monica @ Discover Their Gifts, for families using the My Father's World homeschool curriculum.

It's a way for us to connect and share with other MFW families

Only family-friendly posts, from family-friendly blogs :)

 

• This link-up was created for inspiration and encouragement …... so try to visit a few of the other links, and leave at least one thoughtful, encouraging comment.  If you come across someone's simply amazing idea, please come back here and share it with the rest of us in the comments, so we can all be sure to be inspired!

 

• If, for some reason, you're not able to pull a great post together, may we suggest you at least share something...one tidbit about your week...one picture. Please don't feel like just because you had an 'off' week, you can't participate...seeing that other families actually have 'off' weeks too, may be the most inspirational post from the entire link-up!

 

• Sign up on the Linky. We've gotten the most emails/comments on this one. We realize a lot of homeschool moms have just started blogging, so here are our simple instructions for linking-up:
  1. right click on the title of your post, copy shortcut
  2. click on 'enter link' at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard
  3. paste shortcut in link, add your name, leave your email
  If you don't understand, or if we run into any problems, we'll try to work them out...feel free to email one of us, and we can try to walk you through it.

 

• Please link back to the current Homeschool Highlights in MFW post here at 2 ladybugs and a lizard or at Discover Their Gifts, somewhere in the body of your post so that other MFW readers will know where to go to join in the fun.
  We usually put this at the end of our posts like this:
  " this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "

 

• You can also add the graphic (at the top of the page and in our sidebars) to your post and in your sidebar if you'd like. 

 

• Our plan is to have each new weekly link up by Friday or Saturday.

 

We are excited for the new school year and to get the weekly posts back up and running!!!  We are also in the process of contacting each family that is signed up on A Mama's Story  2012 - 2013 My Father's World Blogroll.  Still, please help spread the word in case there are any other MFW families out there that would like to participate

MFW ECC: Weeks 31-34 Australia and Antarctica

 

Well I couldn’t start blogging this years school fun without finishing my final post from last year! 

 

Big Ladybug made the cover page to the 12x12 lap-n-scrap book she worked on all year.

 

 

Australia

• Marsupial study

 

Antarctica

• Arctic animal study

 

 

• Snowflake Art

Painted snowflakes with watercolors and shook salt on the wet paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This concludes our year of Exploring Countries and Cultures, which we enjoyed very much!