Explorers are done (weekly review)

We have finished the 24 explorers from the Time Traveler cd....whew!, what an information overload. There were some I knew and some I never heard of. For Emma I just read the highlights of each explorer and the main thing they were noted for. The information TT gave was just too much for her. But with that said, I think it was a great way of getting her to understand how Spain, Portugal, and England had a big hand in the exploration of the newly found half of the world and what some of the impact of their exploring did...both good and bad. Next week we move onto Pirates and then we will be done the first Time Traveler cd. I will post a picture of the finished lapbook next week. I think it is coming out quite nice.

Another thing we finished up this week was the book Walk the Worlds Rim. It has been an enjoyable read but glad it is over. I was getting tired of the internal battle Chakoh was having with slaves, his idea of them versus what he was seeing with Esteban. Oh and the constant eating of food or thinking of food, always made me hungry. Emma was very sad how it ended but not enough that it was a problem. She will be watching National Treasure 2 just for fun as a reward for us finishing this book. We also started the next Sonlight book, The Sign of the Beaver. Emma was very disapproving of the dad leaving a 12yr old home alone in the wilderness, mumbling her disapproval several times, even after I tried to explain a 12yr old boy back then was more mature then now...she still things it was wrong.

The Native American study is going strong and will continue for a few more weeks. I am only reading 4 pages from the Welcome to Kaya's World a day so it will take a while to finish the book. This week we read about children and what they did for fun. One of the things we read was how the children made a hoop and would shoot arrows through it as it rolled around. We modified the game some and used a tire swing and sticks. Just as we started to play, the neighborhood kids came over and after hearing about the game they all took turns. I left them to play but heard plans on making different levels they had to try...swinging the tire slowly, spinning it, standing at different spots....each time you made it you moved up a level. I heard them laughing and squealing for a while. Later at dinner Emma was telling me how much fun they had and how they were making up new rules. Apparently you could go up to 20 levels. No one made it past level 6....standing with your back against the tree and throwing the stick with your left hand white the tire swung fast past you.

The library did not have a good selection of Native American craft books but I did find one we were able to get the directions for making a Dream Catcher. I knew they were believed to catch bad dreams (Thanks to one of the Twilight movies) but not the actual legend. The book told about how the Lakota Indians and the Iktome (spider) who was tricked into revealing how to spin a web. The Lakota use Willow branches to make their dream catchers but we did not have a willow tree near by, instead I found a supple branch that was straight...good enough for us. I showed Emma how to carefully bend the branch, slowly so it does not crease, and form a circle. We used tape to hold it in circle form while she took yarn and wound it over the tape.

The next day she took yarn and wove the web. She added beads and a feather from our stash of feathers. As she worked on the dream catcher I read to her from Meet Kaya.

Finished and hanging over her bed.

In science this week we started Chapter 2 in Apologia's Flying Creatures. I have been debating starting chapter 2 or skipping ahead to ch 9, insects. I want to be sure to hit this chapter when the bugs are still out and not when it gets too cold. I also want to get the bird study in when we have more birds at our feeder. I figured to go ahead with the order of the book but if it looks like we will not read the insect chapters in time I will just skip ahead then and come back to birds. So...chapter 2. One of the things I wanted for her notebook was a feather she finds. Sadly the birds are not dropping them yet. But, on one morning when I sent her out to look she came running back in all excited, I was to drop everything and come at once. there under the bushes was a baby bird, dead. We moved to to the deck to get a better look at it. Poor thing must have been attacked (hole in it's side and no nest above where it was found). We were able to look at it real good, seeing the different parts, and the tiny wings with pin feathers just forming. Very interesting and the pictures will be a great addition to her notebook when we get to baby birds.

Afterward  we put it back where we found it. At first Emma did not want it under the bushes. But I explained the alternative was either throwing it away or burying it (which might get dug up). This way we let nature take care of it. She has peeked on it several times and found the ants have taken care of it quite well.
For the feather, we just pulled one from our stash, which is getting low now that we have used 2 this week.

For art Emma worked on her mushroom house picture. It is finally finished and I promised her we would frame. Hopefully we will be able to speed up the art some. Doing 1 lesson over 2 weeks is longer then I figured. Maybe once we move from summer mode(3 days a week school) to school mode (5 days a week) she will be more willing to speed up. She does not want to do anything school related on Tuesdays and Thursdays...and who can blame her.

The Perfect Knit

How many times do you see a pattern you would love to knit but your stash does not have the right yarn or you need don't have the right needle size. No matter how many needles I have, they are never the right size. But I encountered something a few months back that defied the odds...a knitting pattern with the exact yarn I had in my stash, in the right quantity, AND the right needle size, AND to make it even more magical....the pattern was cute. It was THE PERFECT KNIT .

The pattern was from a book of children's pattern More Knitting in the Sun, which actually has knitting pattern for children that don't look tacky. knitting pattern that actual, normal children will wear. Madeline is a short sleeve t-shirt with a lace panel down the front. Not super fancy but cute and simple. I thought it would look good without the sleeves and that is how I made it.

It did take me a while to knit even though it was a simple design but that is because I knit slow and had numerous interruptions. I used  a bamboo blend yarn in lilac.

This yarn was super soft and cool to the touch, perfect for a summer top. Sadly it is has too much drape which made the finished piece appear stretched. Another thing was the lace pattern had hole too big for my taste allowing too much skin to show, but a simple undershirt took care of that (and they are in style too) Emma loves it though so that is all that matters.

Our week continued (part 2)

Monday we had scheduled a reading evaluation for Emma. Not that I feel there are problems, but I thought it would be good to have in her file. Since Em woke up with a sore throat (which means she will not talk AT ALL) I am rescheduling it. I am curious how it will go and will talk more on it once we get her evaluated.

Once Emma was feeling better we were able to catch up with most of the work.We finished up the BJU Math curriculum and won't start the next book until July or August but we are using the  week by week math essentials I have mentioned before. Emma enjoyed the more relaxed math as well as the game we played. I thought it was a great way to review time. Each player gets a clock set to 8:00 and then you take turns spinning the paperclip to see how much time to add to your clock. The first player to get to 12:00 wins.

 Each week there is a different game to play. Last last the game was adding doubles on a tic tac toe board. This week the focus was on place values and time. One of the fun place value review activities was to find 10 numbers in the newspaper that had 3 digits, cut them out and put them in order from least to greatest. At first Emma thought she needed to find numbers that were hundreds but I explained that any number with 3 digits could be used, such as money ($1.99) and time (9:30), even area codes. After that she found more then enough.

We finally started the Artistic Pursuit book ...

K-3 book 2

I was a little disappointed with the fact it is similar to the layout as book 1. Learn an artist and then draw/paint something. I thought it was more like the older books which will teach you about an artist and then focus in on a specific art technique or term. Another thing was the artist and his work had nothing to do with the actual project (unlike the books for the older student). After learning about the start of guilds and art guilds we learned about how they would make pictures on a base board covered with different types of cloth, the project was to draw where you live. I didn't see the connection. Emma didn't care, she just wanted to know if she had to draw the actual place she lived. I told her to draw what she wanted as long as it was a dwelling of some kind...past, present, future, or even fantasy type. She choose to draw a mushroom house. The drawing is quite nice with a setting sun sitting behind the mushroom house. She is painting it in stages and I will post a picture of the finished work later.

We are almost finished explorers and with great excitement on Emma's part, we have started Native Americans and the AG books.

The Welcome book is our spine since we are not using the Landmark book SL uses. I am very impressed with these books.  I am covering 2 two page spreads each school day. This particular book is talking about the Nez Perce people so not all Native Americans are being covered but it gives a very detailed account of life for them back in 1764. For info on other groups we are getting library books on NI and skimming them, talking about similar and differences, and seeing where they were located. I am still trying to find a good craft idea book for Indian crafts and also on the Maya, Inca, and Aztec people. This weekend I hope to find a good source at the library.
Meet Kaya is the first of 6 books about Kaya and I am hoping to get to each of them. There is so much information in these books, I am very impressed. Emma was so absorbed with the reading of the Whip Woman and how all the children get whipped if one does wrong that she did not want it to end.
I had originally wanted some sort of lapbook or notebook type of out put for our study on Native Americans, but with all the other lapbooks Emma is working on I figured to just let her enjoy this. Some of the AG dolls will cover periods that the Time Traveler CDs covers so we will have overlap there as well as actual physical output and that will be good enough.
Now for the highlight of our week, at least in Emma's eyes....she got her first mini AG doll. Please meet Kaya...

After reading about the Houses the Nez Perse build and how the little girls build play ones for their dolls, Emma decided to build one (with a little help)...

I think we are going to have to improve the design as well as make it bigger if she plans on using it during our Indian study.

Friday evening Emma was telling her dad all she did in school and then she let me know just how much she is loving this year. Makes my heart swell.

Our week in two parts, part 1

So much has happened this week that I feel it needs to be separated into family time and school time. The first part will be family time adventures since it started on the weekend. Since our first letterbox adventure Emma and I are hooked and felt it was something the rest of our crew needed to be a part of. We headed out on a windy Saturday to find the next box. Ryerson's Woods was our next location for the box. Best of all I was geared up with my day early Mother's Day gift, binoculars, and my new camera (birthday gift). I made sure everyone knew we were to be looking for wildflowers along the way and lest them know which ones I had already. One section of the trail had a stairway consisting of 81 wooden steps that the young'uns took at a jog while us older folk took it more slowly.

 Once we took a wrong turn and during our rereading of the map a strong wind whooshed by and knocked a branch from the trees, aiming straight for Glenn. A small injury of a scraped knuckle was the result, but like a trooper he said lets move on.
The directions for this letterbox had a more treasure hunt feel then the first one we did, with things like look for the stray step in the middle of the path, if it has an upturned stump take the right path. Go seven steps and you will find a pile of moss covered logs, in one of the crooks you will find the box.

This was a neat box, it had camouflage tape on it and was well hidden from the path. A stamp with an archer was inside and we added it to collection (a stamp of the stamp that is).
After returning the box we ventured on. Emma's science (Apologia's Flying Creatures) had a scavenger hunt page for us to use when we go on our nature walks, and we decided it was a good day to mark some off. Some of the things we were able to check off were birds flying, nest in a tree, and a hole in a tree. My new binoculars came into play when we spotted a nest high in the trees.

The wildflower hunt yielded only one new wildflower. The woods had many but be had recorded those. The new one we found was located on the side of a slope that was carpeted by them. It was the only spot we saw them .

Mother's day turned out nice. Daniel treated me to a movie, Iron Man 3, and I treated him to snacks. On the way home I noticed how nice the day was...not too cold, not too hot...perfect day to teach Emma to ride a bike. The whole family got involved with the running along side her, taking turns. We started out in the grass, but she soon had the hang of it and we moved to a gravel path. By the time we left the park she had the riding pretty much down. It was the starting off that gave her trouble.
Monday Emma woke with a sore throat but she was determined to get the bike riding under her belt. We took off to the park and after a few practice runs, she had the starting conquered too. So in two days she learned to ride a bike....this is an accomplishment she can hold over her brothers, who all took days and days to figure it out.

Grumpy face because I made her stop and let me take a picture.

I will be adding part 2 of our week, the school week, later in the day. The farmer's market is open and I have been wanting to go and I have a meeting with the event's coordinator at the museum. They are offering summer camps and Emma wants to go, but I need to know a few things before I can send her. The lady was gracious to see me this morning. I figure a nice walk into town to talk with her and then a stop at the Farmer's Market on the way home would be a good way to spend the morning.

We become explorers

Our study of explorers continued this week with the addition of Pounce de Leon, Balboa, Pizarro, Magellan, Varrazano, and Cortez which lead us on our own exploration. We went in search of the legendary letterbox of Hickory Hill. With information gathered from Atlas Quest we were able to obtain the treasure map. I had Emma pack a notepad, stamp (of a flower), ink pad, and a compass and then we were off.

*Note: In case you are unfamiliar with the term letterbox I will briefly explain. All over the country people have placed water tight boxes in cities, buildings, and nature trails. These boxes usually contain a rubber stamp and a note pad. They place the box in a hidden spot and post directions on a site for letterboxing, The directions can be straight forward or in riddles. When you find a letterbox, you use their stamp to stamp your notepad and your stamp to stamp theirs. Then return the box so others can find it. Another form of this is geocaching which you use a GPS to find the treasure.

Once at the park...we had to return home first because I forgot my camera....I had Emma practice her compass reading skills to tell us the direction we were heading in. Every few turns in the trail she took a new reading and I recorded it.

We followed the directions across an open prairie where the wild flowers were starting to come up. I took pictures and Em and I are going to make a small booklet of all the wild flowers we find and name then too. I might have her write the Latin name since we are learning about that in science.

We crossed the prairie land and entered back into the wooded area where we were told to cross a wooden bridge with wooden rails....unfortunately this bridge was about a meter away from the path, washed out by recent heavy rains and flooding. We had a choice, turn back or try thr bridge (it was still intact but just moved down stream). We went for it. It was kind of scary crossing but Emma thought it added to the adventure and was glad it got washed out. After we crossed safely, we were to find an old wooden bench overlooking the stream....sit and contemplate where a troll would hide his treasure. Just ahead was a bend in the trail and a iron bridge, where we found the treasure under it.

Emma ventured down the rocky slope to retrieve it not even minding the briar tendrils that kept catching her legs. The box was in great shape and we got to work making the stamp exchange.

Emma stamped her note pad and I stamped the directions (to add to my SMASH book).

The stamp was homemade and is of a Hickory Tree.

Emma returned the box to it's location when we finished being more careful this time knowing there were briars down there. She lost her shoe in the process, which almost tumbled down to the stream but got hung up on a root. Back on the trail (with both shoes on) Emma wanted to know if we could hunt for another box soon. I think we have found a new hobby.

A quick note about our school week:
We took a break from SL English so Emma could write in her Sea Log, but Friday I tried to add it back in. I am sorry to say SL English is just not a good fit for us. I have tried it in the past (4x) and each time sent it back. I thought maybe with this child (an excellent writer) and with it being included in the IG I would give it another go. I read the IG for it and I pretty much ask myself "What did it say?" just not written well or presented in a fashion I like. So for this year I will get another English Workbook from Barnes and Nobles for $7 and let her work 2 pages a day. I think she has had enough English to take it light this year. Next year she will work through Wordsmith Apprentice which I think is excellent and I know she will love.

Next week we start using the American Girl books, which Emma has been waiting (not to patiently) for. I am excited too, the little girl in me think these are just so neat to use for school. And thanks to Tonya on the SL forums I ordered Emma the 6' mini doll Kaya instead of buying a Kaya outfit. It saved me about $10 and
Emma will be getting one doll for each era we study. She liked this better because she will have "friends" to play with each other. Another bonus with this idea is they offer mini dolls for the retired big AG dolls, so no hunting on Ebay for a used Felicity outfit.

We finished up our grade 3 BJU math book on Monday and I was not sure if I wanted to start grade 4 BJU math yet. After much back and forth I decided to review during the summer. Emma is not a strong math student so some review will be good for her. I am using the weekly review pages from grade 3 week by week essentials. I used these in the past when we did the year of playing math and they were great. They cover all types of learning, have a game to play each week, mental math, and over all review section. There is even a list of picture books dealing with the math being reviewed.

Gulp..I did say a quick note on the week....well it is what it is.
Next week I hope to start the Artistic Pursuit book, we will see.

Summer school week 2

Technically this is week 3 but last week, with our camping trip, we only did school 2 days and those days were not 100%. But for a title I figured week 2 would do.

We are continuing with our explorer study using the Time Traveler lessons as our main guide. This is proving to be a great success, not just the lessons but the activities too. Our main activity this week was the Sea Log. We aged paper by crinkling it up several times, tearing the edges, and soaking it over night in tea. The next day we dried it and ironed it. While it was drying we worked on the cover, covering cardboard with material both the front and back side. I found a burlap type print piece of cloth that looks real good...gives it a more realistic look. After everything was dried I let Emma use my sewing machine....this was a big step for me....and she sewed a seam down the middle of the book. The sea journal (she calls it a Sea Log) is a story about a Captain (her) and her crew the journey they have going to rescue stuffed animals on Plush Island. Not only is she writing very neatly in script but she is making drawings for the story.

Another lesson we covered this week was navigational equipment. We made a lap page but also made an actual quadrant. Sadly the directions just tell us how to make and use the thing but do not give you information on the readings you make...what exactly do the numbers mean? Frustrating. However Emma was excited about it and included it in her Sea Log entry.

We finished Pedro's Journal this week and Emma said she enjoyed it. She is curious what the next book is going to be but i want to wait till we sit down to read it next week. SHE is the type to go get it and read it secretly before I am ready for it.

We have past the classification system for both sciences and Emma has moved onto Cells in Biology and Flight in Apologia's science. We made 2 different gliders to demonstrate the perfect design wings are. After much discussion I think she finally understands air pressure and lift and how it helps flight.

Emma told me today she is really enjoying 3rd grade. I am so glad.