2nd week of school

The 2nd week of school is over!  This week brought about new challenges and struggles to have good attitudes thanks to having no air the 1st half of the week!  But we made it through and we are better for it!  I can now say that I would make a terrible pioneer-I hate being hot!
So here is what we learned this week:

Music:

This week we continued with Carnival of the Animals and we listed to Cocks and Hens while coloring our coloring sheet.

Notice the giant mattress in the living room?  Well this week the living room
became our make shift bedroom since it had a window unit in it.  Imagine trying to teach
while kid roll around on a bed, or attempt to jump on the bed.  It is very difficult so I am so glad it is in the bedroom again!

Here is Matthew's paper in progress.  You can see at the top we circled if the music was high/low, fast/slow, long/short, loud/soft.

History

This week in history we studied nomads living in the fertile crescent.  We enjoyed listening to chapter 2 in SOTW Vol 1(story of the world).  Then we colored a map of the fertile crescent region.

Often I find that history,art,literature,and science overlap.  So this week in art we created our very own cave drawings just like the earliest people did.

Samantha's cave drawing-when asked what it was of she said, "a creepy ghost".

When asked what her ghost was doing she replied,"It's just pretend it isn't doing anything."

Kaitlyn used her fingers to draw because she told me cave people would not have used paint brushes.  Notice the blob of black and red in the left hand corner.  While painting Kaitlyn told the story of a curious bear who wanted to climb a tree to see what was at the top.  The bear climbed the tree and died.  If you don't get it watch The Croods.  It really is a good movie.

Matthew also told us a story of a curious animal who was killed because of his curiosity.  Again you must watch The Croods!

Matthew's 2nd painting.  This one you can see the shapes of a few animals such as a deer and bears.

This is my favorite cave drawing.  Kaitlyn used her 2nd sheet to document our family on the cave wall.  So sweet!

 Project #2 didn't turn out so well this week.  We were supposed to make game bags sewn with animal print fabric.  Then take our game bags outside and pretend to be nomads gathering nuts and berries and build shelters.  Well that just wasn't to be.

1st    When choosing this project I forgot to consider that I had not used her sewing machine in 9 years.

2nd    When setting sewing machine up the night before I threaded it correctly but the tension was wrong.  So I watched a youtube video fixed the tension! Yay!

3rd     When I fixed the tension I lost the bobbin string.  No biggie just fix it right? Wrong!  It will not be fixed.  After searching google and watching a video I discover it is my needle timing and I need to take apart my machine.

4th    So machine taken apart, needle timing fixed , just put it back together right? No not right.  Wrong again!  I have just been beaten by a 3 piece puzzle.  Insert wall of shame here.

5th    Finally find a blog with pictures of someone putting their sewing machine back together and discover I have been trying to put a piece in backwards the whole time.  Machine gets fixed! Yay!

6th   Nope.  Not fixed because it still won't pick up my bobbin thread!  I give up and go to Walmart to buy some of that iron on stitching.
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7th    Come home with Iron on stitching and not until I walk into the front door do I remember that our iron broke  days ago.  Seriously, why don't I remember this at Walmart?  Why do I wait til  I walk in the front door to remember this important piece of equipment?

8th    I cry!  Seriously it has been a long week with no air.  My project that Kaitlyn was super excited about had just failed.  I know it was a silly bag.  But I was just defeated by my sewing machine!  Who gets defeated by a sewing machine?! Don't worry we have another sewing project planned next week.  At some point the sewing machine will be conquered!

Some books we enjoyed this week:

Little Grunt and the Big Egg was a cute story however not very accurate historically.  It depicts people and dinosaurs living at the same time.  So if you aren't ok with that then don't read it.  I thought it was cute so it was ok.
How People First Lived is a great non-fiction book.  It gave us lots of information along with interesting pictures.  It is out of print so check for it at your library.

We also read from the Usborne Book of World History.

This is a great reference book that we will be using all year to compliment our studies.

Literature

This week we have been reading The Little Prince.  I liked this book as a kid and Kaitlyn seems to be enjoying it a lot.  I think some of the dialogue is going over Matthew's head though.

 
In addition to these books Kaitlyn and Matthew have independent reading time everyday.  Matthew mostly reads easy readers.  Kaitlyn has been reading The Little House on the Prairie chapter books:The Caroline years, a few history books, parts of the animal encyclopedia, and the Bible.

Memorization

Kaitlyn finished her poem this week!

She finished the Old Testament books this week!

Matthew finished his poem this week!

Both kids learned their memory verse too!

I am really glad I choose to push memory work this year.  The kids really seem to enjoy the challenge and I know it is good for them.  Even Samantha is trying to memorize along with them.

This week we used our memory verse from church-Ephesians 2:10.  If there is music or a rhyme to help us memorize I like to try and use it.  I can still say all the names of the states in alphabetical order all because I learned it in a song in grade-school.  I think music is a great learning tool!  Here is the rhyme we used:

Rewards

Here is my reward chart :brownie points!
The kids can earn brownie points for different things in school:
1 point for learning a memory verse
1 point for learning a poem
1 point for learning a list
1 point for completing their morning routine by 8 am

So far these are the only ways to earn points but that may It is also possible to loose brownie points by having a bad attitude or not staying on task.  So far only 1 child has lost a brownie point and he was not happy about it!

What do you get when you fill your pan full of brownies?  A pan of brownies of course!  Or another dessert of choice.  Kaitlyn has already decided that she wants to make homemade ice-cream sandwiches for her reward.  As fast as she is filling up her pan we are going to be making a lot of desserts around here!

As much fun as we had this week I am super looking forward to next week studies:Ancient Egypt!  I mean seriously what is more exciting then mummies and pyramids?