Week two of our study included lots of bugs - bees in particular! The kids learned that some insects are good for your garden and some are not. Adeline has always been interested in bees, so we made it a point to study them a little more in-depth.
Here are two of our "good reads" from the past week:
Our BJU curriculum had a garden theme this week, too! We learned about all the different parts of a plant we can eat. It was fun sampling! I gave the kids a bite of our basil plant - they didn't care for that.
Adeline continued working on her journal each day copying a daily verse and our word wall words. On this day she wrote, "Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade. Rudyard Kipling" I asked her what she thought that meant. She told me, "Your garden needs sunlight to grow." haha Very true, Adeline!
More work from our main curriculum.
Remember the dandelion seeds Adeline brought inside to plant? Nathan rolled his eyes at me, just as I expected - but look! They're growing!
One day after learning about bees, we wandered outside and found our salvia bushes alive with butterflies, moths and BEES! It was wild with insects. The kids would run past the bushes and dozens of pretty insects would go flying. Very neat! Can you spot the butterfly and bumblebee in this picture?
Another fun bug book!
The kids finished their Awana year this week. In Cubbies, Braxton received his first book award (for completing his first book) and apple tree award (for completing the extra credit assignments). He was so proud of himself! Good work, Bubba!
Adeline was a touch excited, too - can you tell? :) In Sparks, she received her first book award, extra credit pin and attendance jewel.
She hung her ribbon above her bed. Too cute!
Sadie needed her picture taken, too.
Later in the week, we did the classic celery in water experiment to show how water moves through a plant. Adeline informed me that "we did this last year, Mom." Ok, fine. But it's still neat!
Our word wall is filling up with lots of gardening words!
This was an excellent book about bees! As an added bonus, I don't think there was any mention of bees being around for "millions of years." Already science is occasionally proving challenging in presenting a "God as Creator" view. The lies of evolution are everywhere.
Another fun book. Adeline has asked to read this one several times.
We practiced choosing punctuation this week.
And reviewed the life cycle of a plant.
Then we made a trip to the zoo!! It's not very often that I agree to pay for pony rides, but I let them trade a train ride for the pony on this day.
Sadie learned that it's more fun to let mom drag you behind the stroller than to sit in it correctly. Silly kid!
When did this little monkey get big enough to climb the spider web?!
Of course we visited the bees! They've been very busy since we last saw them. This time we even spotted the queen! If you visit our zoo, the queen is marked with a blue dot on her back.
Adeline pointed out that her shirt made good camouflage in the roses.
Home again, home again! I went to an amazing homeschool conference this weekend. After 12 hours Friday and 8 hours Saturday, my head was spinning with information and ideas! The conference was very encouraging and helpful, but also a little overwhelming. The 4 large rooms + 2 hallways of curriculum vendors was enough to make your eyes cross. So many choices! Thankfully, I already had an idea of what I wanted for next year, so that made the decision a "little" easier. In the end, I only made one small change to my original plan. I left with half of next year's curriculum ordered and a plan to order the second half in the near future.
I brought home some new activities for Braxton and Sadie to help them feel involved in our school day. Most of the activities will wait until the next school year begins, but I let them have 2 games today.
Sadie loved putting the pegs in the holes, then placing the shapes on the pegs. I was a bit surprised at how easily she completed this activity AND how long it held her attention!
The second game had a board and stackable pegs. Such concentration! There are lots of activities that go with this board, but for today I just let the kids play. They came up with fun ideas on their own! They each made a tower, then compared heights. Adeline's tower was 5 pegs taller than Braxton's. They made a picture on the board with the pegs, then stacked the pegs clear to the ceiling and measured their own height. Adeline was 19 pegs tall, Braxton 15. Adeline quickly told us that she was 4 pegs taller than Braxton!
This made me laugh. What do you do when you love trains AND tractors? You use your tractors to build your railroad! Genius! :)
One more good book, Flower Garden by Eve Bunting. The family lives in a tall apartment building. They plant their flower garden in a window box. It was neat for the kids to think about gardens coming in all shapes and sizes.
We also read about the importance of the Pilgrims gardens.
Finally - a little late, but in honor of Earth Day we watched a video that showed the process of paper recycling.
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/content/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.lp_recycle/#content/4dd2fa00add2c73bce0052d5
Throw in lots of practice reading, spelling, adding and subtracting and that wraps up week 2!
