Highlights from the past weeks....

I took a little break from writing, so will mention just a few highlights from the past couple weeks.
In Geography we traveled to Canada where we learned to speak some words in French, watched Anne of Green Gables, read a magazine article about the Northern Lights, wrote to our Canadian pen pals, and made a blueberry dessert and enjoyed tea and cookies. Now we are back home in the United States and are learning lots about our own country.
Faith started playing soccer Tuesday afternoons with other home schooled children. We went for our monthly pizza and swimming day on Seth’s fifth birthday.
In addition to reading the Daily Devotions and Happy Times magazine we started using 100 Bible Stories, 100 Bible Songs each morning. The kids really like to sing and dance to the songs; some we already know and some are new.
Faith finished reading her last chapter book in the Hooked on Phonics first grade orange level and is moving on to new sound combinations and stories in the red level.
We did a neat science experiment of placing green beans in a jar with a wet paper towel and then recording what happened each day as the beans begin to sprout. Now we are reading some books from the library about how plants grow.
For Earth Day we did an activity book I printed from the Internet and cleaned up the road ditches by our house.
I purchased some new computer games and so far the whole family has enjoyed playing Oregon Trail together and Faith and Seth have tried a science program where they learn about weather, seasons, sorting different plants and animals, etc.
For arts and crafts the kids used contact paper with a rainbow pattern traced on it to stick crumpled up tissue paper on to make a puffy rainbow. Then we made sugar cookies, frosted them white and used red shoestring licorice and gel icing to make them look like baseballs.
For creative writing the kids were given this writing prompt, “Imagine you had a hundred dollars, but you couldn't’t keep it. You had to give it away to a person or charity. Who would you give it to? What would you want them to do with it?” I was proud of their answers:
Seth: “I would give it to God (church). I would put it in the offering plate and use it to fix the church’s swing set or buy a new one.”
Faith: “I would give half of it to the poor and half of it to fix the swing set at church. I would spend some money to help people in need, like people with cancer and the elderly. I would get new parts for the swing set or buy a new one. I would get medicine for the sick people, a walker for the elderly and new clothes, shoes, a house and food for the poor.”