Field Trip - Colonial Times

Today Luke, Nathan, and I met a huge group of homeschoolers (some from our COOP and a bunch of others - YAY for homeschoool networking) at an awesome camp that takes everyone back to Colonial Times. A homeschool family owns and operates it and does a fantastic job. The man that ran it (seen in the sweet pinkish pants) said he started this so kids could have a hands-on field trip (not just listen and see). This is totally our kind of field trip. Enjoy the pictures!

Here is the drum and fife demonstration.


Here is Luke with his friend, Ayla, and her mom. They were enthralled.


Here is the musket demonstration. He even fired it twice.




Here is Luke making a leather bound homemade journal. They hammered nails in to make holes and then sewed it with sinew to bind it.


The guy demonstrating how to do it.


Luke hammering in the nails.


Luke after he sewed it.


Luke with his journal.


Nathan - sucking his thumb and chilling. Thank God! It was a long day.


Luke throwing tomahawks.



Luke with his Indian bead and bone necklace.


Luke doing Colonial dancing.






Luke playing Colonial games.



Luke in Colonial dress.

As you can see it was a super fun day. These are things that make me love homeschooling even more - getting to experience things instead of just reading about them in textbooks.

Expedition Earth - Europe - Russia

This week Luke and I made our 5th stop on our trek across the globe. We went to Russia. It was a great country to visit and we learned so many interesting things.

The first day we stamped our passports and found Russia on our map. Luke colored the map of Russia and we wrote down some key things about Russia.

Each week we look up words in each language. The language of Russia is Russian. In Russian, "Luke" is "Luka Lukey (last name)", "Hello" is "Privet", and "Thank You" is "Spasibo."

Luke colored the flag of Russia. It has three equal stripes - red, blue, and white.

He made a lapbook for Russia and put his favorite thing about Russia, that it is the largest country in the world.

We made nesting boxes, a popular thing in Russia. Here are pictures:









The most important thing we do each week is pray for the people of the country each day. We specifically prayed for missionaries, lost people, and for Christian growth.

This weekend we plan to make Russian apple pie and watch some of The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky, a famous Russian composer.

Next Stop: United Kingdom

Kindergarten - What We Did This Week - Week 5

BIBLE
This week we studied about God's Friend, Abraham, and how faithful, obedient, and trusting Abraham was. We studied how God called him to go to Canaan and he completely obeyed taking his family and everything and traveling a far way. We learned how he let Lot pick his land and how unselfish he was (which turned out to work to his advantage as the place Lot picked was captured). We started talking about God's plan for Abraham's family and future descendants. I look forward to finishing Abraham next week as we talk about Isaac. We are memorizing Proverbs 3:5-6 (one of my favorites): Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path.

READING
This week we did the short vowel sounds of i and o. We read lots of words that end with -ib, -id, -ig, -im, -in, -ip, -is, -it, -ix, -ob, -od, - og, -on, -op, -ot, and -ox. He read some short-i and short -o phonetical books.

SPELLING
This week we did the short vowel sounds of i and o. We spelled lots of words that end with -ib, -id, -ig, -im, -in, -ip, -is, -it, -ix, -ob, -od, - og, -on, -op, -ot, and -ox.

HANDWRITING
After seeing that Luke was struggling with writing so many different letters at one time, I decided to do a review. This week we did Cc, Oo, and Aa. I was very pleased with how much better he did and the confidence he had working on each letter and the review we did on Friday went really well.

MATH
This week we started on subtraction. For some reason it is easier for him than addition. It was a nice math week. :)

SCIENCE
This week we did the 2nd day of creation, the creation of the firmament (AKA sky). It was great. We talked about water in all three stages (liquid, solid, and gas). We looked at water in various cups, made ice cubes, and made water vapor by boiling water. We also studied clouds and used cotton balls to make a bunch of different kinds of clouds. We studied rain and snow and made our own snowflakes. It was a fun hands-on science week. He loved all of the projects.

HISTORY
This week we studied about Noah and the tower of Babel. Luke was excited because we had studied Noah in our Bible lesson the previous week of school. I love how much we get to reinforce Biblical truths over and over in our curriculum. He loves knowing the stories and telling me. I love hearing him tell me Bible stories.

GEOGRAPHY
This week we went to Russia. We located Russia on the map, colored the map, colored and learned about the flag, learned fascinating facts about Russia, learned "Hello" and "Thank You" in Russian, made a lapbook entry, and made nesting boxes (a popular thing in Russia). We plan to make a Russian apple pie and watch some of The Nutcracker on YouTube this weekend.

ELECTIVES

SPANISH
We focused on classroom objects (book - libro, eraser - borrador, chair - silla, table - mesa, scissors - tijeras, pencil - lapiz).

PIANO
We didn't have a piano lesson this week.

MUSIC
We studied Tchaikovsky, a composer native to Russia.

ART
We didn't study an artist this week because we didn't have an artist for Russia.

PE
We stayed in a lot this week because of the yucky weather and sickness. :(

CO-OP
Luke learned about Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse Code. He loved it. They learned how to use light to make the code. Very fun. He is really enjoying his CO-OP.

Expedition Earth - Asia - Israel

This week Luke and I made our 4th stop on our trek across the globe. We went to Israel. It was a great country to visit and we learned so many interesting things.

The first day we stamped our passports and found Israel on our map. Luke colored the map of Israel and we wrote down some key things about Israel.

Each week we look up words in each language. The language of Israel is Hebrew. In Hebrew, "Luke" is "Luke", "Hello" is "Shalom", and "Thank You" is "Toda."

Luke colored the flag of Israel. It has blue and white stripes (middle white stripe bigger) and a blue star (the Star of David).

He made a lapbook for Israel and put his favorite thing about Israel, playing dreidel.

We made a dreidel and played dreidel and adras (sort of like tic-tac-toe). It was so much fun. We are taking the games to the beach to play more.

We made Regulach pastries to eat.

The most important thing we do each week is pray for the people of the country each day. We specifically prayed for missionaries, lost people, and for Christian growth. We prayed for God's people, the Israelites. We prayed for countries that support Israel and for those who don't.

Israel was our last stop in Asia. Next continent: Europe.

Kindergarten - What We Did This Week - Week 4

BIBLE
This week we studied about God's Love and how He had a plan of redemption for sin, Jesus Christ. We talked about Adam and Eve and the first sin as well as Cain and Abel's sin. We talked about how all have sinned (our Bible verse we memorized was Romans 3:23). But most importantly, we talked about Jesus, God's Son who saved us from our sins. It was a great week. We also talked about Noah and the ark.

READING
This week we did the short vowel sound of e. We read lots of words that end with -ed, -en, -es, and -et. He read some short-e phonetical books.

SPELLING
This week we did the short vowel sound of e. We spelled lots of words that end with -ed, -en, -es, and -et. He used tiles to spell out the words. On Friday he had a spelling test and got all of the words right. :)

HANDWRITING
We worked on our Bible verse.

MATH
This week we worked on addition some more.

SCIENCE
This week we continued working on the 1st day of creation. We are working on memorizing Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

HISTORY
This week we studied the days of creation as well as the fall of Adam and Eve and God's ultimate plan for salvation as shown in Genesis 3:16. We memorized Gen 1:1 (as seen above).

GEOGRAPHY
This week we went to Israel. We located Israel on the map, colored the map, colored and learned about the flag, learned fascinating facts about Israel, learned "Hello" and "Thank You" in Hebrew, made a lapbook entry, and played dreidel and adras. We read some books about Passover and Hannukah.

ELECTIVES

SPANISH
We focused on greetings ("Hola," "Como te llamas?," "Me llamo _________," "Como estas?," "Estoy __________," and "Adios."

PIANO
We didn't have a piano lesson this week.

MUSIC
We didn't study a composer this week because we didn't have a composer for Israel.

ART
We didn't study an artist this week because we didn't have an artist for Israel.

PE
We went to the park a bunch of times.

CO-OP
Luke learned about the inventors of trains.

All in all it was a great short week.

Expedition Earth - Asia - India

This week Luke and I made our 3rd stop on our trek across the globe. We went to India. It was a great country to visit and we learned so many interesting things.

The first day we stamped our passports and found India on our map. Luke colored the map of India and we wrote down some key things about India.

Each week we look up words in each language. The language of India is Hindi. In Hindi, "Luke" is "Luke", "Hello" is "Namaste", and "Thank You" is "Dhan ya vada".

Luke colored the flag of India. It had orange, white, and green stripes with a blue wheel in the middle.

He made a lapbook for India and put his favorite thing about India, doing the stone mosaic.

Here are pictures of us Luke making the stone mosaic:

We bought a kit - I am not that artistically advanced.



Luke stirring the cement - it said to not breathe it in. He took me literally.

Luke and the mold filled with cement.

Outline of our butterfly. I bet you are shocked that we did a butterfly.

The finished product - well it still had to dry.

Luke and his tile. He is a ham.

It actually turned out great and we put it on our front porch.

The most important thing we do each week is pray for the people of the country each day. We specifically prayed for missionaries, lost people, and for Christian growth.

Next stop: Israel

Kindergarten - What We Did This Week - Week 3

BIBLE
This week we studied about God's World and how He created everything. We focused on the last 3 days and the day He rested. We also focused on what we do at church on our day of rest. We continued memorizing the verse Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

READING
This week we did the short vowel sound of a. We read lots of words that end with -ab, -ad, -ag, -am, -an, -ap, -as, and -at. He read some short-a phonetical books.

SPELLING
This week we did the short vowel sound of a. We spelled lots of words that end with -ab, -ad, -ag, -am, -an, -ap, -as, and -at. He used tiles to spell out the words. On Friday he had a spelling test and got all of the words right. :)

HANDWRITING
This week we started writing out Bible verses. Each week he will write a Bible verse.

MATH
This week we started on addition.

SCIENCE
This week we continued working on the 1st day of creation. We are working on memorizing Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

HISTORY
This week we studied the days of creation as well as the fall of Adam and Eve and God's ultimate plan for salvation as shown in Genesis 3:16. We memorized Gen 1:1 (as seen above).

GEOGRAPHY
This week we went to India. We located India on the map, colored the map, colored and learned about the flag, learned fascinating facts about India, learned "Hello" and "Thank You" in Hindi, made a lapbook entry, and made a stone mosaic. We read some books that took place in India like The Road to Mumbai and The Monsoon.

ELECTIVES

SPANISH
We focused on greetings ("Hola," "Como te llamas?," "Me llamo _________," "Como estas?," "Estoy __________," and "Adios."

PIANO
We worked on how to sit properly at the piano.

MUSIC
We didn't study a composer this week because we didn't have a composer for India.

ART
We didn't study an artist this week because we didn't have an artist for India.

PE
We went to the park a bunch of times.

CO-OP
Luke learned about Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. They manually took seeds out of cotton, made an ornament out of cotton, and learned how to take pens apart and put them back together.

All in all it was a great week.