Blessings in Disguise: Catching Up

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Catching Up - Fall

I know it has been a while since I last posted. This fall has brought a busy season and I simply have not taken the time to sit down and type all that we have been doing. I will try to add a little in several posts until I get caught up.

We started school and are having a great time! I am constantly amazed how quickly all my children learn new concepts. Spidey is flying through math and is reading simple books on his own. They are all great students. I have an awesome class. Here are a few pictures of some of the things we have been doing during our first month of school.

My dad, we'll call him Poppy (that's what my kids call him), made a new table for our "school' room. They all prefer the new table even though it is a match to another one in the school room. Thanks Poppy!

Spidey likes to work on a few fun websites that help teach reading. He loves the interactive stories.

We are studying Astronomy in science. Here are BluePony and Elefly burning holes in a leaf using a magnifying glass. If you have never tried this, you should. It is a lot of fun. The point was not to teach my kids how to start a fire, but how powerful the sun's energy is especially when concentrated in one spot.

Since we live in such a great area, I decided that we would learn about American History this year. our first unit was on American Indians. The three older kids each did an oral report on one or two different tribes. Then, the whole family took a trip to the American Indian museum where they got to see many artifacts, dress, and videos about both ancient customs and modern day ways of life. This picture was taken outside the museum.

When we studied Christopher Columbus, the kids built boats and we floated them in a baby pool to see which one would hold the most "cargo" (coins), and which was the fastest.