Animals

We did a short, simple unit on animals recently.  We just spent one day on each of the different types of animals.  We read a book, talked about the characteristics of that group and made a craft. 

Mammals--Faythe made a bear and the others made bat hats.

Amphibians--They all made frogs of different sorts.

 Birds--Braedi and Corbin made origami birds while Dyllan and Faythe made robins. 

Fish--We all worked together to make a fish mobile.

Reptiles--Dyllan and Faythe made alligators, Ephram made a snake, Braedi drew a chameleon and Corbin made his own version of a frilled lizard.

Insects--Corbin colored in his insect coloring book, I made a beetle, Dyllan, Ephram and Faythe made butterflies and Braedi made dragonflies.

 

Then each of the kids picked an animal that they wanted to learn more about.  We got some books at the library and did some research on-line.  The four older kids picked out 3-5 interesting facts then wrote a simple report.  I read Faythe a book about her chosen animal and she told me her facts and helped write her report.  Then they all presented.  Actually all of them except Corbin.  At the last minute he couldn't find his report.  Hopefully he'll find it in the next day or two and I'll add him.  I hope you can hear them--I don't have a video camera, just the video function on my digital. 


"Alligators are Dangerous.  The older they get the longer they are.  The biggest found was 19 feet long.  They usually get to be 10 fee long.  They live in swamps and lakes near the Gulf of Mexico.  Alligators have webbed feet like a duck.  They have a strong tail to help them swim.  Alligators are cool."

"King Cobras are my favorite animal.  They are the longest venomous sane growing to 18 feet.  They lay 20 to 50 eggs.  King Cobras attack when they are surprised.  They eat other snakes, eggs, small mammals and lizards.  I like King Cobras." 

Parrots are fun birds.  They sleep with their wing over their head.  They have 4 toes, 2 in the back and 2 in the front.  Their toes made them good climbers.  parrots like to eat carrots and broccoli and seeds.  They use their sharp beak to eat.  I  like parrots. 

Chameleons are interesting looking animals.  Their feet look very cool--V-shaped so they can grab onto the tree branches and they have 3 toes on one side of their food and 2 toes on the other side.  A Chameleon's tongue is 2 times the length of their body.  Without their tongue they would die of starvation because they are really slow.  Chameleons need warmth to move.  The side of them that is facing the sun is black, but the other side is it's normal color.  Chameleons have rally bad smelling and almost no hearing, but their eyesight makes up for that.  Their eyes can look in 2 separate directions at 1 time.  Because of their bad hearing chameleons us their colors to speak.  I think chameleons are really cool looking reptiles.  (I can't get Braedi's video to upload.)

 



A Month of Gratitude

I got this idea from face book.  Everyday people have been posting things they are grateful for.  I didn't want to post everyday, but I thought the idea was good.  I took it to a family level and got the kids involved.  Everyday of November we wrote on an index card 1 thing we were grateful then hung the cards on our bedroom doors.  It was neat to see the lists and I loved hearing the things that they were thankful for.  We decided to carry on the tradition and have "Thankful Thursdays" as part of our morning devotional.

I'd like to share my list.

1. Jonathan--The only one who truly "gets" me.  He appreciates me and supports me.  He helps me grow and is there for me.  He listens to me.  He loves our kids and is a great dad.
2. Homeschool--I love that I can homeschool, that I can be with my kids all day long and teach them whatever I want.  I love that we can learn TOGETHER.

3. Braedi--She is growing up.  I love seeing her setting goals and working hard to achieve them.

4. Corbin--He loves to help cook meals.  It is a joy to see him light up when he has done something good. 
5. Dyllan--She is a great helper and is a peacemaker. 
6. Ephram--My little ball of energy, but he loves to lay next to me and listen to me read a story. 
7. Faythe--She makes me smile everyday.
8. Books--What would I do without a good book to read?  Books play a big role in my life.  I'm always reading or listening to 2 or 3.  The kids and I listen to 1 in the car and I will read aloud 1 or 2. 
9. Guidance from the Spirit--Most of my decisions are carefully guided from little promptings.
10. Health--Not just mine, but my kids' and my husbands'. 
11.  Freedom--I live in a free country thanks to the people who came before me and fought for my rights.  The kids and I have been memorizing the Declaration of Independence--what a strong message!
12. Missionaries--I recently participated in a 30 fast with my ward where members took turns fasting for 1 day for 30 days.  My experience made me grateful for missionaries and all they do to prepare.
13.  Clothes--I love new clothes. 

14.Piano Tuners--We had our piano worked on this week and the piano tuner was so patient with the kids, teaching them and talking to them about what he was doing.

15. The Scriptures--For the past 6 months I have been studying for upwards of 30 minutes in my scriptures.  I'm learning about myself.  I've learned that I need to KNOW the stories and principles found in those books.  I've learned of their importance.




this is an old picture,
but it's all I have of the 2 of us

16. My sister--I love that my sister is only 30 minutes away (though I wish it was only 2).  We have fun times together.
17. My family--I have a great family.  My mom and dad and siblings and my in laws.  Such a great support system.
18. The Atonement--I'm grateful that I can turn to Jesus Christ for EVERYTHING!  He can take away my pain and sadness and frustration.
19. Flowers--so beautiful.
20. Me Time--I usually spend my "me time" running, but every once in awhile I go shopping.  I also love being able to take weekends away with my sister-in-law. 
21.My home--it may be small, but I love it.  It is a place of refuge and the place I feel comfortable and where I most want to be.
22.  Peanut Butter--actually I love all food, but peanut butter is really good.  Food is one of the reasons that Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  


Just for fun here are the kids' lists.  I love how they came up with all the things on their own--no prompting from siblings--it's fun to see what they are grateful for. 
Braedi: My family, the atonement, the gospel, my talents, good books, my primary class, activity days, the church, the temple, love, friends, my grandparents, the scriptures, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, that I'm homeschooled, prayers, the swing set, the armor of God, music and art, and family home evening. 
Corbin: Animals, nature, mom and dad, biology, chemistry, scouts, books, food, free time, grandparents, candy, watermelon, and scriptures. 
Dyllan: My family, my parents, the world, books, clothes, tongue, games, grandma, grandpa, plants, school, animals, the gospel, and friends
Ephram: Dad, Heavenly Father and Jesus, mom, games, bags, cars, swing set, notebooks, pencils, teachers, great-grandparents, church, earth, brothers, library, school, birthdays, tithing, sisters, missionaries, my body, friends, grandparents, and food. 
Faythe: My dad, my  mom, my sisters, flowers, my brothers, computer time, my body, my eyes, church, stuffed animals, grandma and grandpa, my blanket, horses, cousins, chocolate chips, gum, turkeys, friends, my kitty costume, bananas, temples, and the swing set. 

We took the week of from school that week and did a few Thanksgiving activities.  One was a to make a turkey.  The kids marble painted a white piece of paper then traced and cut out their hand.  The hand print was the feathers.  Then they made a turkey body and added the feathers.  They were super cute. 

Biz Day

Our homeschool group had it's annual Free Enterprise Day.  The name was different this year, but it was still the same idea--make and sell and buy.  I debated for a long time if I wanted to participate this year and as a result we got started a little late.  The kids found some ideas on pinterest using supplies that we had at home, so there was no outside cost.  They didn't have time to earn money so I searched every possible spot and found $1 in change for each of them.  They paid me back half the amount at the end of the day.  The kids love this activity and I love that this year they didn't most of it on their own, and they each had their own item to sell.

Braedi made bookmarks.  This was actually her own idea, not one she found on-line.  She designed, colored and cut 15 bookmarks and sold all but 2. 

Corbin originally wanted to make snow globes, but the day before the event he still hadn't finished one, so he decided to make candy cane cookies.  He sold all of them.

 Dyllan found a recipe for edible finger paint.  She made lots of different colors and sold out.

Ephram made these cute clothespin airplanes.  He sold all but 1.

Faythe and I didn't make anything, but we bought some things.  We both bought a cloth ring and some food. 

United States--Wisconsin and Wyoming

The last of the 50 states!  My goals at the beginning of this unit were to follow Braedi's desire, to build familiarity with each state and learn something interesting, to learn the states and their capitals and location on the map, and to have fun.  I think we accomplished all of them.  It's been a fun year and the kids and I are excited to move on to world geography next. 

Wisconsin was home to many pioneers so we made a log cabin.  The logs were made from rolled up newspaper and the frame was a shoe box that I cut to size. 

And because Wisconsin is the known for it's dairy cows, we also made a yummy malted milk shake.

I lived in Wyoming for about 5 years of my childhood and that made the kids a little more excited about this state.  I was able to share some random things I remembered--like the "Rawlins wind Monster", living in the sames city as the state penitentiary, and raising tadpoles.  We learned a little bit about Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful and made our own geyser using Diet Coke and Mentos. 

Fun Time!

United States--Washington and West Virginia

Washington has a mountain range that runs right down the middle blocking the winds from pushing rain clouds across the state.  This makes the west side of the state wet and the east side dry.  The kids got a kick out of Mount St. Helens exploding and have been talking about volcanoes for days.  We've done so many volcano experiments that I didn't want to do another so we made a yummy apple dessert instead--because apples are what I think of when I think of Washington.

We took the recipe from the side of a cinnamon graham cracker box. 
6 granny smith apples, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
2 Tbl. brown sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
10 cinnamon grahams, coarsely chopped

--Heat oven to 350 degrees.
--Combine apples and cinnamon in 9 inch baking dish.  (I added a little lemon juice.)
--Mix flour and sugar in bowl.  Cut in margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in chopped grahams; sprinkle over apple mixture.  Cover loosely with foil.
--Bake 40 minutes or until apples are tender.  Cool slightly. 

West Virginia is a coal mining state.  And it is so mountainous that in order to build the airport, workers had to chop off tops of mountains and fill in the surrounding valleys with dirt to make a flat space for airplanes to land.  Virginia makes a lot of glass and glass marbles.  We decided to make our own marbles.  We used oven drying clay instead of glass.  We rolled the clay into balls and after baking them we painted them and plan on playing a game of marbles tomorrow. 

United States--Vermont and Virginia

Vermont has lots of green forests and beautiful mountains.  Vermont also makes more maple syrup than any other state.  Did you know it takes 4 trees to make just one gallon of maple syrup?  Kids in Vermont will make a kind of maple syrup taffy using maple syrup and snow.  Since we don't have snow (thank goodness!) we tried to make snow with ice in our blender.  It wasn't quite the same consistency, but it worked for our needs.  Then we heated real maple syrup to 235 degrees, poured it over the "snow", let it cool a little and then attempted to eat the taffy--it was chewy and sticky, but tasted good. 

Virginia is called the the "mother of presidents" because 8 presidents were born there and it's called "father of states" because 8 other states were made from it.  Virginia was the home of many of the first colonists.  I had a few ideas for activities, but when the kids learned that wild ponies roam free on Assateague Island and that no one knows for sure where they came from, (the most popular belief is that they swam to the island from a wrecked ship) they decided that they wanted to ride wild ponies.  They grabbed their bikes and scooters and went for a short ride. 

Faythe and her Letters

Faythe and I continue to work on her letter recognition during school time.  On Monday I will introduce a new letter and do an activity then during the rest of the week the other kids take turns working with her.  Sometimes they will do something that goes along with the letter of the week and sometimes they will come up with their own fun activity.  I love that they are willing to help Faythe learn and it is a great opportunity for them.  Over the past few weeks Faythe has been introduced to the letters Kk, Pp, Cc and Hh. 

We made a kangaroo that I thought was pretty ugly, but Faythe loved. 

We mixed red and white to make pink and painted a plate, then Braedi helped Faythe make a face for her pig.

Faythe took this paper cat to bed with her for a few nights. 

I love the humming bird we made.  We used cardboard, coffee filters, tin foil and markers. 

I love seeing my kids learn new things.

Corbin Turns 9!

Today we celebrated Corbin's 9th birthday!  Corbin has been excited for weeks and has been counting down the days.  He got some money and the game Stratego (thanks to his cousin for introducing him to it--it's one I remember from my childhood). 

Yesterday, while looking through a cookbook for dinner ideas, he found a birthday cake idea.  It was so easy.  Cut a pre-made pound cake into pieces and put them in a pan, cover them with whipped cream and add berries on top.  It was yummy.

For our family activity he chose dinner and a movie at home.  We watched Star Wars--Return of the Jedi and ate pizza. 

Corbin is growing up fast.  He is now counting down the days/years until he turns 12 and gets the priesthood. 

Neon Splash Dash

A few months ago I had a friend ask me to join her team for a 5K.  I thought it would be fun.  Turns out it was unlike any 5K that I've run.  First off there were rules about what to wear.  Another thing is that it was mostly for fun and it wasn't timed.  And another thing is that the race was at night.  We had to wear white shirts and there were several stations on the path where we got sprayed/splashed with glow-in-the-dark paint.  It was my slowest time (we timed ourselves), but it was also the easiest 3.1 miles I have ever run.  I ran with some girls from the team and we chit-chatted the whole time.  My friend and I even made tu-tu's.  Talk about going out of my comfort zone!  I'm not sure if I'll ever do it again, but it was fun and now I can say that I've done it.  Next up, someone needs to invite me to do a half marathon. 

before the race

after the race

part of the team

 

can you see the color in my hair?

United States--Texas and Utah

"Don't mess with Texas!" and "Remember the Alamo" are favorite sayings about this state.  Texas is a big state with all kinds of different climates, but the thing I think of when I think of Texas is cowboys.  I took this idea and we made mini-cowboys. 

The kids felt like they knew about Utah already because it is a place we've visited so many times.  Over the summer we visited the Great Salt Lake and just got our feet wet, but we didn't get to float in it.  We attempted to make a Mini Salt Lake and see what we could get to float in our salt water.  Nothing un-normal floated because the kids wouldn't let me put more salt in--they didn't want me to waste it. 

United States--South Dakota and Tennessee

A few interesting things about South Dakota:

• home of Mount Rushmore--a giant stone carving of 4 American presidents
• many dinosaur bones can be found there
• an area of steep cliffs and spooky rock formations called the  Badlands is a place I would like to see.

The kids colored and labeled a picture of Mount Rushmore for our activity. 

Our favorite thing about Tennessee was that it was the state where Davy Crockett lived.  The kids weren't too impressed with Graceland or "Music City, USA".  We made a Davy Crockett coon skin cap. 

Happy Halloween!

After a conversation with my friend yesterday, I was inspired to do some Halloween activities today.  I got on Pinterest and found a couple of fun writing activities here and here.  At first Corbin said that he didn't want to write, but when we started rolling the die and getting key words he thought it would be fun and wrote a cute story.  We also attempted to make pumpkin cookies, but weren't successful--we at the dough instead and got tummy aches. 

Our ward had a combination trunk-or-treat and ward camp out last weekend at the White Tank Mountains.  4 kids and I went for dinner and candy then left.  Jonathan was at work and Corbin had a special birthday weekend with his grandparents.  Faythe is a cat, Braedi is her own creation--a Jedi ninja, Dyllan is a clown and Ephram is a power ranger. 

Ashlee, Teaching, and Love

I don’t remember where I learned this truth, but it is a powerful principle:

One of the surest ways to become attracted to or fall in love with a woman is to observe her doing something she does well. 

Today I was able to teach a class at church with my wife.  The flame has been stoked.

Ashlee is amazing.  She is a natural teacher.  It is a joy to watch her teach, because she brings a wonderful balance of preparation and mastery of the information, awareness of the needs of the audience, and an ability to connect with them.

She works well with what the students bring to the table – seamlessly melding it with her prepared material.  She seems to have a sixth sense about when to push a student just enough to help them grow.  And she never misses a beat when her personal experience enhances the principles being taught.

I could go on and on, but long story short:  I am more madly in love with my wife than I have ever been.  I want her by my side forever.  I relish at the thought that she will continue teaching me and our kids.  She is wonderful!

United States--Rhode Island and South Carolina

Rhode Island is so small that you can fit 425 of them inside of Alaska!  It was the 13th state to ratify the constitution.  We made Rhode Island Johnny Cakes for our activity.  It was such an easy recipe and the kids ate them with jam or honey or syrup. 

The kids loved the fact that venus flytraps are only grown in North and South Carolina.  The civil war began in South Carolina and several battles of the Revolutionary War were fought there.  One fort they fought from was built from the logs of palmetto trees.  When the British shot their canon balls at the fort, the balls sank right into the spongy palmetto wood.  The flag of South Carolina has a picture of the palmetto tree.  We made a painting of their flag.  The kids made a stencil of the tree and a crescent moon and glued it to a piece of paper.  Then they painted the paper blue and removed the stencils when the paint was dry.  A white image was left. 

United States--Oregon and Pennsylvania

The neatest thing about Oregon, I thought, was Crater Lake.  It is the deepest lake in America and looks so pretty.  We learned about the Oregon Trail for our activity.  We read some books and then wrote a "round robin" story about traveling on the Trail. 

September 14, 1846



My family traveled the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon.  We traveled by covered wagon.  We took turns walking and riding.  We saw Indians.  They traded furs for blankets.  We also saw bison and prairie dogs.  We had to cross many rivers.  It was hard.  Luckily we made it to Oregon before the snow fell.  Oregon is beautiful. 

 

Pennsylvania had the nation's first library, hospital, art museum and fire department.  It is also the home of the Hershey factory and the Liberty Bell.  We ate Hersey kisses and then learned about the Liberty Bell and made our own version of the bell. 



Lots of Letters--Dd, Oo, Ww, Ii

For the letter Dd, Faythe made a dinosaur pillow.  She colored 2 pictures of a dinosaur, stapled them together leaving a small opening, cut paper into small pieces, stuffed the paper into the opening and stapled it shut. 

For the letter Oo she made an octopus.  She counted and cut 8 legs and attached them to a body, then curled the legs.

The activity for letter Ww is a favorite.  Faythe got to play in the water.  She experimented with things that float, she measured the water in different containers, and she made a wet mess. 

She also made a pair of walruses getting married.  She named them Auntie Kosette and Uncle Matt.

For the letter Ii, Faythe learned about insects.  She read books, counted legs, made a bee and a ladybug and made a counting book.  These are pictures of her book.

It sure is fun teaching Faythe her letters.  Pretty soon she will be reading!