Primeval Reptiles

Our science chapter for these past 2 weeks were about Primeval Reptiles. It was very interesting full of things I've never learned before. I read the chapter aloud to the children as I do each time. Boy were those names tongue twisters! The Biblical view of Apologia is refreshing. Our children are learning about the glory of our Creator in every lesson.

Elvis' drawing of a Mosasaur.

Nothosaur under the ocean.

Boo Bear's Drawings

More of Boo Bear's drawings

Boo's Nothosaurus

Plesiosaur

Ichthyosaur

Mossasaur

I was impressed with their drawings & how much of the chapter they remembered. I admit it was really fascinating learning about these animals from long ago & how much scientists still don't know about them.

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**Some of the spellings were different online than in the book. I used both in this post

Binders

I, for one LOVE seeing photos of what my homeschool friends are doing. I am a visual person and they give me such fantastic ideas. One friend, Rhonda from the 'There's No Place Like Home' group was very inspiring! I loved her teacher's planner and fashioned mine after hers. Thanks, girl!
Here are some pics of Boo's middle school binder & the boy's elementary binders. I will be posting Sweet Pea's binder & my teacher's binder next.
(Click on the individual photos if you want a larger view.)

These are the three middle kids binders. They each have a pencil bag that holds their daily tools inside. They each have a 2010 & 2011 calendar.

The rest of their calendar & our 'Daily Schedule' page.

A side view of their checklists.

I made a list of their subjects & days of the week. They check them off as they are completed. This is to promote self responsibility. Plus I don't know about you but I get a little thrill every time I can check a task off my list. =)

A close up look at Boo's checklist.

(You'll see I covered up their real names for privacy on each of the pages shown.)

These are their daily schedule sheets. This is where they write down what they have done in more detail. For instance page numbers, assignments, projects, etc.

This is a 'Yearly Overview By Child'.

This will be completed at the end of the year.

This is one for me, the teacher to complete.

A closer look.

These are the course of study grade level lists from World Book.

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I also included a reading list sheet, field trip sheet & media sheet in each. There is room for completed papers too.

AWANA Games 2010

Every Wednesday night our 3 middle children attend AWANA. I think it's a wonderful program and even participated (and graduated) from it when I was a child. Last year Boo participated in the annual AWANA Games. This year Elvis joined the Sparks team and participated as well. The games were held in Nashville and many churches participated. The crowds were enthusiastic and the sportsmanship was edifying. Dave & I were a little nervous about Elvis as he is often the life of the party clowning around and entertaining. But he obeyed every rule and made us so proud. I guess my boy is growing up more than I thought. Boo did fantastic again this year showing her great sportsmanship, skills and teamwork.

Waiting for the competition to begin.

He was super excited and had been talking about it for days!

The first event! The Sparky Crawl!

Her cheeks turned rosy from the hot gym.

The Bean Bag Balance. He didn't drop it once!

Daddy watches from the sidelines.

This was like a group dodge ball. The team with the most people left in the center won. That was our team!

Ready for the "train".

They raced 3 other teams around the circle. You weren't allowed to let go at all.

Big sister cheers them on!

They won first place scoring 39 points!

He was off the wall proud! He kept saying, "I can't believe it!"

Now it was time for Boo's age division.

Go, Boo! Go!

The Balloon Relay

Last year they came in 1st but this year they struggled a little and placed 3rd. Boo was only in 3 events where last year she was in more than 1/2. I'm not sure why. But she had fun,excelled in her events & is looking forward to next year. So it's all good. =0)

Boo was happy & received a ribbon & a patch for her AWANA shirt.

They both made us VERY proud!

(P.S. Sorry for the jumbled pics. It did not look this way when I set it up. I tried to fix it but only made it worse so I put it back. )

Loving That Biology!

We finally have our wheels chugging along in Biology. The kids were hesitant at first asking, "What's Biology, Mommy?" & "Do we have to study that?" but now that they have been introduced they are having a grand time. I decided to skip the cell lesson for now and start with something fun & hands on. I chose birds. So far we have categorized them and talked about the different traits. Presently Boo & Elvis are cutting pics out of magazines, coloring them from print-outs & looking them up in our bird fact books. They are making their own bird book. The first thing they do is get the picture. Then they label it with the name of the bird and their category. Next they are to find facts and write those down too. Elvis only has to write 1 fact while Boo writes 3. The neat thing is even though they are only writing down 1 or 3 facts they are learning more b/c they are reading the information in the bird books to find these facts. They can hardly wait for Biology each day. Wow! Next after our fact books are completed we will move onto bird watching & journaling. I hope the excitement continues on!

Boo & Elvis color & label a print-out from the Internet.

Reading facts together from one of our books.

Looking up specific birds.

He was proud that he found the cardinal all on his own.

Pictures cut from magazines and ready to be glued.

Another book we are using.....

And yet another of our reference books.

These belong to us but this past Saturday we checked out some from the library.

This is my favorite of ours.

See the concentration?

Working hard!

We'll add some pics of their finished work soon. I know they are anxious to share. =)

Little Painters

In June we had a big yard sale & sold many of our bookshelves. Since our books need to have a home new shelves were a priority. We looked around in stores but couldn't find any that suited our needs and style. Dave & I decided that he would make some shelves so we could get exactly what we wanted & what would fit the house. As you many remember he built quite a few sets of shelves in the old house too. Dave built 3 sets to fit under the eave upstairs in the Family Room. Then they needed to be painted. Elvis & Boo were eager to help with the painting. One beautiful Saturday Dave set them to work outdoors in the backyard. Here are the results.

Ack! He's a Mime!


Hamming it up

Boo Bear

Hanging Out