What is a Friend?

What is a friend? God's word tells us that a friend loves at all times (Proverbs 17:17.) Any of us that have lived any length of time know that true friends are hard to find. However, when they are found, they are forever with you. With that... this is not a good-bye to my dear friend Kelly. This is a thank you for many blessed moments.

Thank you for seeing me and my kids at their worst and loving us anyway. Thank you for a 1000 miles of chatter (literally). No other friend on the planet would train for a marathon with me. Thank you for many days of insane laughter. Thank you for days of joint tears. Thank you for your fabric obsession! Thank you for being that friend that will give you anything need. Thank you for your crazy love for Jesus! And last of all, thank you for about a million cups of coffee!

Watch out the ladies of Texas.. you are getting a great friend in my friend Kelly. I will end with the words of an Alan Jackson song. "Oh how I wish Dallas was in Tennessee. I could move Texas east, and she'd be here with me....."

Love you sis!

Week #9 George Washington, Boston Tea Party, and Paul Revere

We have spent the last two weeks learning about George Washington. I am really glad that we allowed two weeks for George Washington. I feel like all of us learned a lot about a great man in our country's history.

I purchased Amanda Bennett's download-n-go study on George Washington. There were so many activities and web links that we only did about a 1/3 of the study. I hope to do this again when we do American History later in the 5 year cycle.

Here are M's notebook pages.

George Washington was born in Virginia. M marked on a map where he was born and were George Washington was born. He also drew Mount Vernon. I didn't stress that he color it. You know boys... too long of a sit and they can blow! So proud of his drawing:) The instructions came from Draw, Write, Now!

We read the story of George and The Cherry Tree. We talked about being honest and telling the truth. We did a study of Virginia and what jobs George Washington did throughout his life.We also read many of his rules for conduct:)

We talked about George Washington's character and what having good character means. We also incorporated this into our Bible time. M memorized Mark 10:45 "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

M really enjoyed learning about the Boston Tea Party. He thought it was so funny that the people dumped all that tea into the harbor because they didn't agree with the King of England. He is a prankster at heart like his Daddy, so he thought they really got him!

We studied Paul Revere and he memorized this:

These were just for fun! I found many fun fall activity sheets at www.superteacherworksheets.com to have on hand when things get crazy:)

Learning Out of the House:)

With lots of things going on out of the house, we decided to make George Washington week (#9)last for 2 weeks! I will be blogging all of our activities with MFW (week#9) at the end of this week.

Here are some of the highlights from the road!

We were so blessed to have presidential candidate Herman Cain come to our town. What a great way to show the kids the process a candidate goes through in being elected.

Our next trip was to see two replicas of Columbus' ships the Nina and the Pinta. The ships were docked in Memphis this week. We took a morning tour and lunch at a near by park. Great day with friends!

We finished up soccer too!

Thank you to our awesome Daddy who coached a great season this year. We love you!

Marcus' team did not do trophies this season. Greg picked him up football kicking tee as a reward for a great season. This has become his new favorite toy:)

Me and hubs had a great day in Nashville on Saturday. We went to the Georgia/Vanderbilt game ALONE:)

Week #8 Benjamin Franklin

What a cool guy?... This week we learned about Benjamin Franklin. We learned a lot of amazing facts about his life and his accomplishments. I think M liked this week especially because he loves science. We read many of Franklin's experiments. We did a few ourselves this week, and hope to do more this year as time allows.

L colored the one on the right:)

This is a horn book that children used during Franklin's time to learn to read and write.

Great library finds this week.

In Bible, we talked about Jesus being our Rock. What does that mean for us as believers? We can count on him to never change. We can hide in him. He will protect us. Our memory verse was, "Therefore everyone that hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." Matthew 7:24

In Science, we learned about rocks and the different layers of Earth. I would like to do a more extensive rock study later this year. If anyone has any good resources please let me know.

This a layers of the Earth book that I found at www.superteacherworksheets.com.

In Math this week we did not go on to Unit 16 in Alpha (MathUSee.)We worked on our math facts and did some money worksheets.

We finished up The Courage of Sarah Noble this week. I printed some of the activities from the lapbook at www.homeschoolshare.com. We put them on paper and added them to his notebook instead of doing the lapbook. Great read... M loved it!

Here is the summary from the back of the book.

"In 1707, young Sarah Noble and her father traveled through the wilderness to build a new home for their family. "Keep up your courage, Sarah Noble," her mother had said, but Sarah found that it was not always easy to feel brave inside. The dark woods were full of animals and Indians, too, and Sarah was only eight!
The true story of Sarah's journey is inspiring. And as she cares for her father and befriends her Indian neighbors, she learns that to be afraid and to be brave is the greatest courage of all."

That sums it up for this week.

Pioneers in Michigan Week #7

This week was crazy busy with construction workers at our house, soccer, gymnastics, trip to the library, awana, bible study, and a few playdates with friends. Somehow we managed to get it all done.

In Bible we continued studying "Jesus is the Bread of life." We made a napkin holder out of the bottom of a cracker box. We used the bread template in the student sheets for the front. The back and sides were torn pieces of red, orange, yellow, and green construction paper. We wanted it to have a fall look. We used Mod Podge to make the torn pieces stick to the box. Then we put a layer on the outside to seal it together.

In Science we made homemade play dough. We used the recipe in the TG. This was a really fun experience....and everyone decided on the color together!

For history we talked about the pioneers in Michigan. We learned how they used birch bark canoes to carry there belonging from place to place. The canoes were light, could be loaded quickly, and made excellent shelter at night as they would turn them upside down and sleep under them. We found many pictures of canoes on the internet. We also studied how they were made. Pretty neat.
We made canoes out of brown construction paper. When finished they put toy men in them.

M is becoming such a great reader! As his confidence has grown, so has his willingness to read to L and K.

L has been doing great and loves "doing school." He has been working through the preschool series from Rod and Staff. We have been focusing on farming with L over the last few weeks. He is enjoying all the animals and tractors!