Math U See

This is a math program that our dear friend, Meredith, loaned to us. We are using the 1st grade lessons as a review and to get used to the program before moving on to more on-level material. So far I really like it. The video explains math in a new and refreshing way. For hands-on learners like Gita and I this is a great program!

Sea World Adventure

Sea Lion and Otter Show

Coral Reef with Giant Clams!

Flying Dolphins

Beluga Whale Show

The kids

PJ, Gita, and Mommy enjoyed the day at Sea World. Brigitta did get to ask one of the trainers what she had to do to become a dolphin trainer. He said work hard in school, go to college, and study biology. Her other two questions were: How long is Shamu and how much does he weigh. And, how cold does the ice and water have to be for the penguins. I guess we'll be finding out those answers for ourselves!

Brigitta's diary entry from the Oregon Trail

On October 14 was  my  birthday  and  we  were  going  to California to pan for Gold. The sun was sihing and the birds wher singing but thin the sun whas cuverd whit clods adn the birds stoped singing. I started to rain. The whind then the whind started to pas by. We started to the pas by the desrt desrt and it was dry rilly dry. it took 6 months to Get ther.

(I kept all of her punctuation and spelling. We will use this writing passage for future lessons on spelling. We have also attached pictures of the covered wagon she made this week. She did is all by herself. The only thing I did was give her the supplies! Turned out pretty good if you ask me!)

Land predators at the homeschool coop

My science class

Learned about the dog family.

My new friend Jillian

A whale of a time with Mrs. DeeAnn!

The whale lapbook created by Brigitta (with help from DeeAnn). Math, science, reading, and spelling all in one little file folder!

What I learned about whales: They eat using teeth (toothed whale) and one eats with baleen (it brings the water in and the water goes back out and the food stays in). The biggest whale is the blue whale. The smallest whale was the beluga whale. The toothed whale only has one blow hole and the baleen whale has 2 blow holes.

Okra Painting Project

Busy hands hard at work

Brigitta painting

Piper painting

Brigitta's sunflower (her idea)

Here is an art project idea I got of of pinnit. Our dear friend Mr. Gerjes always blesses us with fresh vegetables from his garden. This week he brought an abundance of okra which we have enjoyed eating! The girls and I cut up 8 pieces and used them to create gift tags and cards. Take a peek at this fun and easy project.

How to pan for gold like they did during the California gold rush!

The muddy "river"

Panning for gold.

A gold nugget!

Separating the light weight from the heavy to find the gold.

More gold! I think these girls are ready to go on their first gold panning trip with Bop Bop!

Piper had to join in the fun

These are the things I learned from chapters 1-6: You can find gold where there is blue dirt, the dirt floats to the top of the water and the gold sinks, and that people used to write their names on the walls of their homes before they left to let the next people know who they were and when they left.

Week Sept. 12 - 16

This week we are continuing our lesson on westward expansion and the Oregon Trail. The independent reader for the week is "The Secret Valley" by Clyde Robert Bulla. We are also going to read "Iva Dunnit and the Big Wind". We will be working on suffixes (-ly, -ness, -ing, -ful, -est, and -able) as well as making words plural by adding /s/. Our spelling words are: feeling, eating, thankful, sickness, tallest, illness, readable, loading, badly, and saying. In addition, we are going to talk about how to write using descriptive and expressive words. In math we are continuing to strengthen addition and subtraction skills using Math-U-See with manipulatives.

On Monday and Tuesday Brigitta will be working on science lessons with DeeAnn. She will be creating two lapbooks on Monday (sharks and whales) and talking about land predators on Tuesday. Her predator for the week is the Tasmanian Devil of Australia.

We're still here...

Sorry it's been a few days since we last posted. Will has the camera and until we get it back can't upload any pics. We are finishing up our Pony Express lesson this week. We are also still working through Genesis. Today Brigitta asked, "If God didn't want them to eat the fruit off the tree then why didn't He just put one of those plastic covers over it or something?" She also said, "If Adam was made out of dust and when we die and go in the ground we turn into dust...that is cool." And, "If they (Adam and Eve) didn't eat the fruit there wouldn't be bad dreams?" Ohhhh, the questions that one short chapter brings. Believe me, this wasn't all of them.

We are also working on locating and remembering the names of the 7 continents and 5 oceans (for those of you who aren't in "the know", the Southern Ocean has been added to the list. It's the ocean that surrounds Antarctica). She's doing pretty well. Even Piper is going around saying, "South America, South America" in a sing-songy voice. Last night we read a book called Enoch Emu. At the end of the book it talked about several male birds that care for the eggs/chicks. It told what country each bird was from. She had to look at a map, find the country, figure out which continent it was on, and then write the name of the bird on her continent map. Her question (about the similarity of an ostrich and and emu), "Are they related?" We are going to find out...and how, if they are, they ended up on totally different continents! (emu = Australia, ostrich = Africa).

Well, until I get the camera, so long!