Detectives

We had a change of pace this week and did a fun unit on detectives.  There were many hands on experiments.  This one was easy preparation for me, because I wrote the unit.  :)  We didn't get to do all the components that I wanted to include because we ran out of time, but the boys and I had fun!

We used 3 file folders glued together.  This first folder talks about a detective's job and what a criminal is.

The footprint book was easy this week, because we got about 9-10 inches of snow this week. 

The second folder has a hair analysis book and focuses on fingerprints. 

We learned about the 3 main types of fingerprints - arch,loop and whorl.  They each fingerprinted themselves and labeld what they thought each print was.  These are Nicolas's prints.

We also did a neat experiment to explain how detectives dust for prints.  Rub your fingers on your face to get the oils, put a print on a mirror (we used a hand mirror so it could lay flat).  Then take some cocoa powder and a paintbrush and gently rub over the print.   You could see the print pretty good.  Then take some scotch tape and lift the print and put it on a piece of paper.  This part didn't work the best.  We still have the print in the lapbook, but it's hard to tell what it is.

The last folder focuses on handwriting and pictures.

This is Nicolas's sketch.  Below is Alex's

The back of folder 3 has a pocket for a Bible verse and a certificate for Jr. Detective.  We also made badges, but they didn't want it in their lapbooks.

Next week, we are off to the rainforest of S. America.

So you want to learn "patience", do you???

I don't think it's coincidental that I chose the word "patience" to study for 2009.  I think God knew that this year is the year I would need more patience. 

We are trying to sell our house.  Does that tell you something?  This is not the right time to be selling a house.  Most people are just trying to survive - they aren't looking to invest. 

We have been remodeling the house we are moving into.  The bathroom has been a challenge to modernize.  In the midst of the plumbing work, the pipes froze and it took us over a week to thaw them out and fix the leak that resulted from that.  That put our bathroom work behind a tad.  We still have no sink or toilet in and the new floor needs laid.

We are also moving (next week) - even though our house is not sold and the new house remodel is not done.  We have had several inches of snow fall and more is supposed to be coming next week.  In the country, the roads are drifting because of the wind.  We are going to try to move despite the snow.

Patience - Psalm 37:34 "Wait for the Lord and keep His way."  Proverbs 19:11 "A man's wisdomg gives him patience..."  As I gain wisdom, I will learn patience.

Star Wars

Can you learn anything from Star Wars?  We found out last week - YES you can.  The boys wanted to make a Star Wars lapbook and thanks to some "html friends", we pulled it off.  It didn't end up being what I had expected, but they had fun.

The animal resemblance books ended up being the best.  Here are Nicolas's.

And Alex's:

Alex drew a picture of a lightsaber and labeled it:

Then we talked about the similarities between how a Jedi is trained vs. how a child of God is trained.

And a quote from Yoda:

"Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering."  Wise words of Yoda.

Making fossils

For Zoology, we read a chapter on Pterasaurs.  We talked about how scientists have to use fossils to make a guess about what the pterasaurs' lives were like and how they lived.  At the end of the chapter, we were to make our own fossil.  We were supposed to crack a boiled egg and imprint it into clay or playdoh.  Our clay was very hard and the egg was too fragile to make an imprint, so we used shells.  Here is the result:

Then we gave them a tea stain:

Doing schoolwork

My friend put out a challenge to get ordinary pictures that I wouldn't normally think to take.  Here are a couple of the boys doing their schoolwork.

Vote for my blog!

My blog has been nominated to win a Homeschool Blog-N-Tell award. Please click here http://apathwithpromise.blogspot.com/2009/01/vote-for-your-favorite-lapbooking-blog.html to vote for me. Look on the right hand side and fill the circle with My 2 Small Boys. Thanks for your votes!

Inauguration

I'm not much into politics, but peer pressure and curiousity sent me to the TV this afternoon to watch President Obama take the Oath of Office.  We missed all the preliminaries, but started watching right before the actual "swearing in".  We continued to watch through the speech - Nicolas lost interest first.  After the speech, I got up to begin lunch, Alex stayed watching.   I walked back through the living room during the benediction, and this is what I saw:

 

 

I had to take the picture, even though I knew he would stop praying when he saw the flash.  I wanted to capture this moment  - for him as much as for me - so he has a lasting memory of this date.

Sledding

We were finally able to get out and enjoy the snow that fell last week.  Last week was too cold to go play in it.  Here are pictures of our day:

Haven't posted for awhile...

Okay.  Here is what we have been up to lately.  BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!

School - The boys continue with their regular studies, we continue with co-op activities.  After coming back from break, we eased into school slowly.  Monday, the 12th, we had our first co-op meeting since the beginning of December.  We read a book called My Rows and Piles of Coins which takes place in Africa.  I decided to not focus on Africa with this book, but rather to focus on money.  My boys LOVE money.  We discussed saving money, read a book on the history of money, and I brought out some old money that Ryan and I have been collecting.  We talked about savings bonds, savings accounts, how a checking account works, difference between debit and credit cards, etc.  We are taking a field trip to the local credit union on Wednesday.  (Hopefully I will have some pictures for you then.)  This week the boys are doing their own lapbooks on Star Wars.  It will be interesting what they come up with.

Home - We are in the process of remodeling Ryan's grandfather's old house to move into it.  We are taking every spare moment we have to get things done there.  Right now the bathroom is priority and it is taking longer than expected.  I need to be packing things in the house - there's laundry and dishes to do.  The Wii is calling my name.  (HA)  I am planning some things for next school year.  (I know it's early, but I have to plan early so I can decide what I need to buy when we go to convention and how much money to save up for that.)

I will try to get some neat pictures of the things we are doing this week up later in the week.

Christmas picture

Thought you would like to see a 'family' picture of the Small's from this past Christmas.

I am holding our 13 1/2 year old cat - "Kitty" and Alex is holding our new cat (9 months old) - "Sable".  This is the last Christmas picture that will be taken in this house.

Monet pictures

We have been studying the artist - Claude Monet.  We have looked at some of his paintings and talked about impressionism.  Now it is time for the boys to try their hand at an impressionistic painting.  Here are their examples:

Nicolas's painting - Can you see the rainbow?

Alex's example - Look at all the flowers!

They used sponges clipped inside a clothespin for the painting.

A Semi-Typical Day at the Small House

Some people think it's interesting to read what other families do during the day.  So, I am posting our play-by-play of our first day back to school for this semester.  I labeled this "semi-typical" because next week we will begin unit studies again.  This week is just a "get-back-into-the-routine" week. 

6:00  Ryan's up

6:30 Ryan leaves to workout before work

8:20 Jodi and boys are up

8:25 I check e-mail, homeschool forum and facebook while the boys get dressed and play in their rooms

9:00  Boys get their cereal

9:05  I make myself scrambled eggs and eat breakfast

9:15  I shower/get dressed/make my bed/brush my teeth and put on make-up while the boys play some more

9:35  I am ready for school

9:40 The boys are ready for school.  We do our Bible lesson.  We started a new book by Kay Arthur - How to Study the Bible for Kids .  The boys enjoy it because it is written as if they are detectives.  (We will be studying detectives later this month.)

10:00 Nicolas does his math and Alex reads.  He is starting a biography of Babe Ruth.  While they are working, I empty and reload the dishwasher, start the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen.

10:20  Alex is done reading.

10:25 Nicolas is done with math.  They are both on a short break.  I begin this blog entry and check e-mail again.

10:45 Start Alex in his math.  Takes a lot of review for him to remember multiplication and division.   

11:00 Listen to Nicolas read aloud from Aesop's Fables (A Beka book)

11:15  Nicolas finishes reading and I head back in to a complaining "I can't do this" Alex and his math work.  Get Nicolas started in his phonics book.

11:30  Alex finishes his math and begins his spelling.  I sit down to post on my blog while I listen to Nicolas asking/whining "Why do I have to do two pages?"  Thinking about what we could have for lunch.

12:00 Warm up leftovers for lunch. 

12:15 Boys finish lunch and go to their rooms to play.

12:20 I finish lunch/clean up and fold towels from yesterday's laundry. 

 12:30 On computer - AGAIN! 

12:50 Artist study - Monet.  School is finished for today.

 1:15  Boys are painting an impressionistic painting like Monet with sponges.  (Will try to post pictures later).

 1:40  When they were done, they wanted to paint another picture.  I visited with Ryan while he was home for lunch.  Also, I looked at my lesson plans for co-op on Monday to make sure I don't have to buy anything while I'm at the store.

2:20  Heading out to the grocery store.  (with the kids - which I H-A-T-E to do - They hate to have to go, also.)

 4:00 FINALLY home!!  Put groceries away and chill out for a little while.

 4:30  Started some laundry/decided what was for supper - spaghetti

4:45  Turned off all appliances in the house while we had some sort of power surge.  SCARY!  I thought it was just us and only 1/2 the appliances and lights were going off and the other 1/2 stayed on.  I was scared that we had an electrical shortage in the attic and we would be having a fire - so I called Ryan and told him he needed to come home NOW and why.  He said the same thing happened there at work (on the other side of town.)  That's a relief, but I had to restart several things.

4:55 Took the boys to the neighbor friend's church.  Their kid's program runs 5-6pm and they serve them supper.  That gives me some quiet time.

5:10 Heading off to make supper

 5:30  Ryan is home and we eat supper (without the boys!!)

5:50  Ryan leaves to put gas in my van and get bread

5:55  I go pick the boys up from church

6:15  I go to our ladies Bible study at our church - Finding God's Path Through Your Trials while the "guys" stay home.  They will be finishing the laundry (it's all the boys' anyway), and Ryan will make sure they both have showers.

 9:00 I return home.  Nicolas still needs his shower.  We will get them to bed about 9:30.  Then we will play a game of golf on the Wii and head to bed ourselves.  We will probably both read for awhile, since we always do, and get our lights out about 10:30, more or less.

Hope you haven't been too bored with this account.  This is pretty typical for us