Yellow Star

This book was very well done.
Yellow Star is a 2006 biographical children's novel by Jennifer Roy. Written in free verse, it depicts life through the eyes of a young Jewish girl whose family was forced into the Łódź Ghetto in 1939 during World War II. Roy tells the story of her aunt Syvia, who shared her childhood memories with Roy more than 50 years after the ghetto's liberation. Roy added fictionalized dialogue, but did not otherwise alter the story. The book covers Syvia's life as she grows from four and a half to ten years old in the ghetto. Syvia, her older sister Dora, and her younger cousin Isaac were three of only twelve children who survived.  After the war, Syvia moved to the United States, married, and only much later told her story to Roy. Since its publication in 2006, the book has received multiple awards, starred reviews, and other accolades, and has been made into a likewise well-received audiobook.



Blubber Challenge

Notice I didn't write "BUCKET CHALLENGE", although this is very close (and some of us have done it).  Micah and Lilly did the "BLUBBER CHALLENGE" today.  This was an experiment to feel how the blubber works for sea creatures who live in the cold waters.


Lilly's results:
Just gloves - 1.21 minutes
Vaseline between gloves - 4.54 minutes

Micah's results:
Just gloves - 1.24 minutes
Vaseline between gloves - 5.14 minutes

Doggie Playdate



The kids and I decided not to do school on my birthday.  However, we didn't want to wait another day to learn about pennipeds or hear more of our story on audio.  So, we did our Bible study, science, and decided to listen to our story during lunch in the front room fort.

When walking to the mailbox, we chose to stop by the Dible's house to see if Maggie could come over for a playdate.  Peter and Della got Maggie about 9 months ago and she has A LOT of energy.  So, she and Della came over and Maggie ran around and around and around.  The kids chased her, threw the tennis ball, and laughed.  Della told us later that their afternoon was more restful than usual. 

Dolphin Song - Coconut

 

We recently finished an audio book entitled Dolphin Song by Lauren St. John.  It's a fiction novel about a girl named Martine and five of her classmates who are thrown overboard while on a school trip to South Africa and are brought to shore by a pod of helpful dolphins, the castaways must learn how to survive.

One of their survival methods is collecting coconuts, opening them, drinking the milk, and eating the pulp.  At the grocery store this week, Lilly asked if we could get a coconut and do the same.  They only had a knife, we were able to add a hammer and nail to our tools.

 

Step 1:   hammer the nail into the weak areas of the coconut (the 3 "holes")

Step 2:   tip the coconut over for the milk to drip/pour out (use a cup or Tupperware for it to drip into)

Step 3:   wrap the coconut in a towel and strike it with the hammer until it begins breaking into smaller pieces

Step 4:   use a knife to pry the pulp away from the shell

Step 5:   eat and drink ---- enjoy!



Far away friends

Our great friends, and family we 'nurture', were able to fly in for the conference and visit.  We were able to get together with them a lot!  We did everything from swimming to ice skating together.  It was the first time we'd gotten to meet Trinidad, their 3 year old daughter.  Timo had just turned 9 years old.

Commissioned-the Global Summit

Every 3 years our church hosts a conference for our missionaries.  This year 40 out of 52 missionary families/individuals were able to attend from their various locations around the world.  SBC had some great opportunities, over the long-weekend, for us to interact with them.

Science - Apologia Zoology 2

Our science curriculum this year is Apologia Zoology 2 - Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.  Micah & Lilly have their own notebook journal, but we study the text and do experiments together.
Throughout the year the kids will be adding sea creatures to their "ocean boxes" that they've just made.

Dolphin Tale 2

Veterinarians

We're going to be studying sea creatures this year for science, but this week we found a week-long study preparing us for the Dolphin Tale 2 movie.  Homeschoolmovieclub.com provided a fun curriculum for us.  The most fun day was pretending to be veterinarians.  The kids found all their 'sea creature' stuffed animals, categorized them, and then gave them check-ups.  Tomorrow we see the movie!

Grouping the 'fish' together with our 'melons'.

Learning about different 'marine' careers.

We're growing cotton

A couple of mystery plants started growing by the firepit.  I didn't recognize them, so I let them grow for a bit.  They started flowering, so I let them continue to grow.  The flowers changed colors, then turned into these hard ball-type things.
One day Lilly says "we're growing cotton".  Sure enough those ball-type things were opening and showing cotton.  We looked up the stages of a cotton plant and they look the same as these - which are from our plants.
Micah remembers us going to Schnepf Farms last year and picking some of the cotton that's in the field across the street.  The kids pulled out some of those seeds and planted them - for fun.  That must be how they got here.  Lilly loves to go out and "pick cotton".  She really wants to go through the steps (which we learned about last year) to make clothes from it.

Cleaning Lessons

The kids each have areas of cleaning that they are in charge of.  Micah gets the floors.  Lilly has an interest in doing the floors and will many times offer to help him.  This particular weekend I enjoyed stepping back and watching him give her "pointers" and give her areas to do.  He'd say "oh this is a good area, there are always some good spots here."

Ice Den - Homeschool Public Skate Days

Over the summer we attended a few of the Homeschool Public Skate days.  For $5. each we get free skate rental for 2 hours.  It's awesome!  We all liked it so much we've decided to attend as many dates as we can during the school year.
It's 2 times a month - first and third Friday from 11:45-1:45pm.  We noticed a huge different in attendance during the school year.  We practically have the entire rink to ourselves.  The kids are starting to do "tricks" and get quite comfortable on the ice.

Lilly's laptop

Our friend, Kelli, was done with her Samsung Netbook and passed it along to Lilly.  Lilly is enjoying it for some of her educational computer discs and a few online sites.

Dave's Wiffle-Ball Cannon

Dave saw this online and looked around to see if he had the items.  He was so excited to have us come over and test it out.  We used wiffle balls, tennis balls, and water balloons.  We shot them out, caught them, and adjusted the angle to get better distance.  It was fun!

More 1st graders

Lilly likes to bring some of her stuffed animals to school.  She REALLY likes the BIG EYES and got several new ones for kindergarten graduation and through the summer.  They joined us for the first day of school.

1st Day of School

Today was our official first day of school.

5th Grade

1st Grade