Week 14 of Homeschool: We added ornaments to our Jesse Tree, studied DNA (Daddy got a kit), read a poem about Bethlehem’s Christmas Mouse (thanks for sharing your talents Linda Nelson!) & wrote our own Christmas poem, learned about the Norsemen, worked on vertical addition, read Charlotte’s Web & watched the classic cartoon, studied hemispheres, made Truth in the Tinsel ornaments, rehearsed for the CHDA winter dance recital and made an Ephesians 6 gingerbread man!
Week 13 of Homeschool: We wrote in our gratitude journal and made a Thankfulness Tree, listened to “Kling Glochen” and translated the lyrics, read My Father’s Dragon, practiced composite shapes, learned about Bach and made german rye bread like he would have eaten, started our Jesse Tree for Advent, saw A Charlie Brown Christmas at the Roseville Theatre Arts Academy, made Truth in the Tinsel ornaments, rehearsed dances for the upcoming CHDA Winter Recital, practiced our Circle of 5ths, and made Christmas cards and goodies to send to family and friends!
Week 12 of Homeschool: We cooked a Moorish meal, launched bottle rockets 50 feet in the air, inflated balloons with vinegar and baking soda, wrote out the melody to Field’s original song “Mossview Way,” did CC review and cut out leaves for our thankfulness tree while eating gingerbread men, performed an evaporation experiment, wrote Bach’s minuet in G from memory (pitch’s all correct – no help from Mom!), learned about chameleons and their sticky tongues, completed the entire Doctor Mozart music theory workbook, and saw a Supermoon!
Week 11 of Homeschool: We made a Family Tree and created a map of our family dynasty, recorded a bean pod growing on our bean plant, created a collage-style still life from our reading of Henri Matisse, experimented with items in water to see if they float, decorated our bottle rocket for next week’s science project, and started writing a story based on a picture!
Week 10 of Homeschool: We learned our liquid equivalents, wrote note names for Bach’s Minuet in G and learned the right hand part, made a weather vane, did a presentation of our friends working as missionaries in Costa Rica, learned about George Washington Carver, made a model of the earth moving around the sun, learned about demonstrative pronouns, studied the culture of Spain, and learned about pointillism and the art of Roy Lichtenstein!
A few weeks ago my toddler got ahold of our classroom American flag, and of course, broke it. I had been planning to make my 1st grader a nifty tin whistle case anyway, and then I had the bright idea: make the flag into the whistle case! I held the flag up to the whistle, and it was the perfect size fabric 🙂
I realized that the flag fabric alone wouldn’t be sturdy enough to make a proper case. Since my sewing skills leave much to be desired, I went for the most basic method: I got a piece of felt from the craft store, which happened to be almost exactly the same size as the flag – yay!
I pinned the flag onto the felt, then sewed the two pieces of fabric together freehand (honestly, I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of getting my sewing machine out). I then cut the one long side of the fabric that I had left unpinned, so that it lined up with the flag.
Once that was done, I literally just placed the whistle in the rectangle so that the length of the whistle and the length of the fabric almost perfectly lined up. I then folded the fabric over it, to create a pocket for the whistle to slip into. Then, with the whistle still inserted, I rolled the fabric up and pinned down the previously-sewn seam where the fabric ended. I freehand-stitched the seam to the rolled up fabric, and when I got to the bottom of the case, I simply sewed the end shut.
Whala! A cute tin whistle case for about $1.50 – and patriotic too!
Week 9 of Homeschool: We made a Japanese collage kimono, learned how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on our tin whistle, wrote haikus, made more pop-ups, observed flowers on our bean plant and transplanted it to the yard, had fun playing with color, mirrors and light, sang on our first recording session for mommy’s song “Days,” made a Japanese kite, and wrote out the right hand to Fur Elise!
Week 8 of homeschool: we made a Tang Dynasty pop-up palace, checked the progress of our bean plant, made block print wrapping paper like the ancient Chinese, drew impossible squares, made Van Gogh pop-up art, created an impressionistic landscape from last week’s thumbnail study, made a rainbow with water, sunlight and a mirror, wrote poems about our Solar System… and then made some more pop ups!
Week 7 of homeschool: we took a tour of our solar system, posted Martin Luther’s 95 theses of the Protestant Reformation, read (& wrote) Robert Frost poetry, experimented with litmus paper to find acids & bases, did thumbnail studies of impressionistic landscapes, looked at hail up close, and assembled a puzzle of a Monet painting!
Homespun Dance
I love the fact that learning thrives in community. We are fortunate enough to be surrounded by some amazing families, who are in this crazy endeavor with us. One of those families run the Citrus Heights Dance Academy. So it was a no-brainer to put my son in dance classes there. I am looking forward to the Christmas show, where I will be right up there on stage with my son, making music, while he dances and shines. I love that he is getting to experience the arts in this way. And I love this picture!
