Our homemade cell

Not sure if this will come out very well but we make a cell with a ziplock baggie, jello, clay and some beans. The baggie represents the cell wall and the jello the cell membrane, clay nucleus and the means the organelles. A great hands on project!!!! Taking microscopic a reality!

New Year 2011

Happy New year a bit late!!!! It has been a great start of 2011 as far as school it has had many starts and stops due to illness and just trying to get back on track after a long Christmas break.

We have finished our study of the first 13 colonies which then became our first 13 states. And now we are slowing down our study to move on the the rest of our great 50 states. We are currently reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. What a great perspective it is giving us on how people used to live on a farm. It has been an inspiration for work ethic in our family.

This week began some fun science experiments we are going to be building a cell model using jello! FUN FUN FUN!!! That will be today and pictures to follow. Tomorrow will be watching bacteria grow with milk in two different locations over 7 days. That aught to smell great!!!! Thankfully they will have lids on. We will report in 7 days.

We also learned about Eli Whitney and his invention of the cotton gin. What a neat invention. We did hands on learning with a cotton ball spread out and us adding green seeds and then making them into a ball again and pulling out all the seeds one by one. This was a great way to see what it must have been like before the cotton gin was invented. What slow hard work. Makes me thankful for all our modern amenities that we have today.

Christmas Break

We have been enjoying Christmas break for a week now and 2 more to go!!!! We have been working on a lot of baking this year. It is fun to do with the kiddos and a great way to get them involved in gift giving that keeps us on track with our budget.

This week will be making homemade Christmas cards for family for Christmas day from the kids. It will be fun to see their creativity.
Overall I hope to get much rest, relaxation and fun in this break before we hit the long stretch of school in the spring.

Starting state studies

We are learning about the founding of our country and the 13 original colonies which became states. Today began the first day of learning highlights about each state. Today was Delaware the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 7, 1787. The found the state on the map, colored it and also worked on a fact sheet about the state.

We are also learning about the music of Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet. Have seen the ballet many many times over the years and the music of Tchaikovsky is timeless and brings you right back to the moments in the ballet each and every time.

Also in these weeks leading up to Christmas and celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ it is a time to think of our Lord and what he came to this earth as a baby to do. It is a beautiful picture and I am thankful to take some extra time to reflect on His saving Grace. We are able to give even more to those in need and think about the needs of others over our own needs and wants. This year has been a year to think about His provision in our tough times and that even in that there is abundance.

It is amazing that in a few weeks 2010 will have passed and 2011 is upon us. Looking for ward to the weeks and the year ahead. Many new and wonderful things to come!!!!

I hope to post our Christmas projects and pictures of fun times soon. :)

Our 9th week of school

This has been a great couple of weeks. We are already in our 9th week of school and my how it is flying by. This week we learned about George Washington, seasons and how the earth rotates around the sun and water colored trees and leaves from our backyard. We also made paper Tricorn hats like the men wore in George Washington's day.

We also were able to teach the kids about voting and a little bit more of how our government works. It was neat to learn about the First President of the United States and also learn about government process in the same week.

For the past few weeks we have also been memorizing verses and learning about them. Each day the kids share their verses and that is my favorite part of the day. :)

This week was Matthew 7:24 Jesus speaking
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man that built his house upon the rock. " This was a great opportunity to examine areas of our life where we may not have been putting His word into practice and prayfully with His help put them into practice.

Scarecrow project

Homeschooling on the Road

The kids at old fashioned school desks

It has been way to long since I have blogged about school and what we have been up to. For the last two weeks of September we went out of town. For the first week we were in Coeur d'Alene Idaho where Keller had some work. We were blessed to stay in a beautiful little cabin on The Twin lakes. That first week we homeschooled from the cabin. It was a nice change of pace . We continued learning about pilgrims and Native Americans in the 1600's. We built wigwams and tepees out of paper and read several books to help us learn more about how the different tribes lived.

Our view from the cabin

On our second week we went to some friends house in Glenwood, WA. They live in a beautiful log home on 60 acres in pasture lands and pine trees. It was beautiful. They live very near Mount Hood. What a sight. We decided to take this week off from school and enjoy our time. Our friends told us about several museums in the area and about a fish hatchery. We thought that would be fun for the kids. Unexpectedly both museums had exhibits on Native Americans and it fit right into what we were learning. The kids then got to see up close many of the things we were learning about. One of the museums also had a huge feature on Lewis and Clark. We also visited the fish hatchery and were able to see a 70year old sturgeon, salmon and trout. It was an amazing time of family fun and learning.

Kids with their sturgeon face ;)

We are now back home and learning about constellations, dutch pilgrims coming to America and working on some fun science experiments. This week experiment we learned about carbon dioxide. We used a root beer glass bottle and put warm water, yeast and sugar in and then put a balloon on top. Then watched it several times over an hour. The carbon dioxide in the bottle blew up the balloon. I think this is the favorite experiment thus far. We are also reading the Courage of Sarah Noble together for the next two weeks.