SOTW Ch. 15 - The Phoenicians

We started back to school yesterday and covered Ch. 15 of SOTW about the Phoenicians. The first part of the story talked about how the Phoenicians invented glass blowing. We watched a video of a glass blower at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4079871377202668373&q=glass+blowing&hl=en


I'd also bought a "glass art" kit from Scholastic recently and we played with it. It's more like stained glass then glass blowing. I made a Hello Kitty face and Alexandra made a balloon, a bear, and a bluebird.

I also thought I had some plastic bubbles, but we couldn't find them. With plastic bubbles, you place some of the bubble-material on the end of a small "pipe" and blow a bubble. We weren't able to do it, but she remembered them so it was a great way to explain glass blowing.

Today, we read about Princess Dido (pronounced "Dee Dough") of Tyre and the ox skin. She fled from her brother and went to Carthage. She wanted to purchase some land and the local ruler told her she could purchase as much land as she could enclose with an ox skin. She cut the skin into hundreds of tiny strips and was able to purchase a large piece of land.

For a demonstration, I cut out a "skin" from a piece of paper & we acted out the story. I'm so glad we did as I found out my daughter had misunderstood the story! As I cut out the strips, she laid them side by side instead of end to end. Anyway, we were able to show how one small "skin" could cover a large area! It was a neat, spur-of-the-moment idea!

Christmas Eve Photos

Alexandra and her aunt's now one-eyed dog, Sunny. She sure loves dogs! We also played a game of family football while we were outside. I almost knocked over our 86-year-old great grandfather! It wasn't exactly my fault...

Our dog, Pandy, checking out her Christmas gift.

Alexandra opening one of her many gifts. She mainly got books & movies from us. We only gave her 2 toys - a little electronic game which turned out to not be very much fun and a ball that you sit on to jump which we haven't blown up yet.

The toy that she got that have been used the most today: PlayStation 2 from Santa! She got The Twelve Dancing Princesses which she's played quite a bit and now her and Daddy are playing the Tiger Woods golf game that Daddy got from Santa.

She's also been enjoying: her metal detector (found the property line marker outside), a Pogo ball to jump on, and a nerf-type rocket (it works really well).

2 Days Until Christmas

(Photo above: I've been playing around with my in-law's camera which is almost the same camera I'm planning on buying - this was one of my favorite pictures I took yesterday of their decorations.)

Today, the rest of the family arrived here in Kansas for Christmas, so we are ready for Christmas. In my husband's family, they open the gifts on Christmas Eve after dinner, so we'll be opening them tomorrow. Then, since Santa comes during the night, we get to open some more on Christmas morning!

Alexandra and her Nana made some peanut butter kiss cookies this morning.

Lots and lots of goodies... for just 9 people! (This is just a "sampling" - and sample I did!)

This dog is Pandy's cousin - Alexandra has really been loving on her. She had surgery a few days ago to remove her diseased eye. I was so glad that although it was pretty cold, it was very sunny and perfect for playing outside for awhile. (I miss our Texas weather!)

Prairie Dogs & The Polar Express

Yesterday, we drove to Kansas to spend Christmas with my in-laws. Today, us "girls" (me, Alexandra, and her Nana) drove to go see an IMAX film of The Polar Express. Alexandra & I actually saw it for the first time on our TV a few days ago. I wasn't very excited to see it - it didn't look very interesting to me, but I loved it! So, when I saw it was at the IMAX theatre near here, we had to go and see it!

Near the theatre, out in some fields near Lowe's, are lots and lots of prairie dogs! I had seen them years ago, but Alexandra has never seen them. We watched these cute little guys that act so much like meerkats. And, when I got out of the car, one of them sounded a high-pitched warning that sent the others scrambling towards their holes. They were so cute!

More Goodies...

Today, my SUV is in the shop so we were "stuck" at home. We spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and making more goodies - yum! Tonight, I need to finish up my gift-wrapping.

By the way, we've been having unusually warm weather here - it's been in the 70's and low 80's for the past week - short weather!!! I know it doesn't get people in the Christmas mood, but I love being able to play outside!

Icing the sugar cookies

A table full of sugar cookies - Alexandra wanted lots and lots of candy cane cookies

Using the blender to break up peppermints for peppermint bark - I'm the only one in my family that likes it, but I've gotta make some!

Christmas Preparations

I thought I'd just share a few photos of how we've been getting ready for Christmas:

Pinecone Christmas Tree made at Keepers

Gingerbread House made at Keepers

Foam Gingerbread Man made at Michael's using foam paint (pretty neat - we'd never seen it before)

Cutting out sugar cookies

Spring Schedule

I have really been doing a lot of research, thinking, and praying about our spring schedule. I am really getting excited about the changes we'll be making! Here's m planned schedule:

• Math - continuing with RightStart C (we're about 3/5ths through)
• Language Arts - switching to Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Yellow Book -Alexandra's spelling has improveds a LOT from Saxon Phonics 2 this year, but I'm ready for a change
• Handwriting - we'll be using a workbook by Evan Moor - we have been just creating our own materials - she'll also be learning cursive from LLATL! (this actually might be too much writing for Alexandra... I had just bought the Evan Moor workbook and then decided on LLATL a few days later, which also includes lots of writing - I'll have to watch Alexandra and see if it is too much)
• History - continuing with SOTW but I will be adding my own activities - 2 times a week
• Science - we'll be using Living Learning Books to study the human body - I'm excited because this curriculum is laid out just how I like! It lists both fiction & non-fiction books to read, a few activities, and some internet sites - 2 times a week
• Bible - continuing Romans with BSF (Bible Study Fellowship)

I'd like to do more (especially art), but I think this system seems very doable. If it goes well, we can add some more later if I think it would work. And, I'm going to put everything else away so I don't feel like I have so much to do! :-)

Advent Reading

This Advent season, we are reading a wonderful book called The Handel's Messiah Family Advent Reader by Donna W. Payne & Fran Lenzo. Alexandra and I both are enjoying it.

Each day you read about 3 pages and then listen to a track from the CD of Handel's Messiah which is included. I've learned so much from the readings! For example, the 1st day explained why gentlemen were not allowed to wear their swords to The Messiah. The 2nd day explained how the Dead Sea scrolls were found & what they contain. And, the 3rd day talked about O. Henry's story, The Gift of the Magi.

Every story hasn't been incredible, but a lot of them have been. I got chills tonight as I read about Anna & Simeon who had both received the promise that they would see the Messiah before they died, and both saw baby Jesus at the church when they were very old.

This advent reader doesn't have any activities other than listening to the CD, but I think I might create some activities next year if we read this again. I'm just very happy with this book, especially as I was so disappointed in the book we tried to use last year.

SOTW Ch. 14 - 10 Plagues and the Exodus

In SOTW, we've been studying Moses this week. We continued the past 2 days by reading about God's 10 plagues on Egypt and the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt.

For the 10 plagues, we colored cartoon pages from the following website: http://www.aish.com/passfamily/passfamilydefault/Ten_Plagues_Coloring_Pages.asp

For the Exodus, we read a great book called Exodus from Egypt by Mary Auld. We also created a scene of the Red Sea parting that I found at this site:
http://www.aish.com/passfamily/passfamilydefault/Ten_Plagues_Coloring_Pages.asp . (They also have a Joseph's "coat of many colors" we could have used earlier.) We love these Making Friends dolls and we used these to act out the story.

Jumping Rope

Alexandra learned to jump rope this week - she went from 2 jumps without a miss to 22!!! Way to go, Sweetie! (She also got her first bloody knee from jump roping...)