Favorite Resource This Week

This week, we studied Egypt. Well, we attempted it. The boys were totally NOT into it. AT ALL. The only we did that they enjoyed was making their own pyramid. I even let them loose on a couple of kids' websites just for Egypt. Nothing about it seemed to spark their interest.

Anthony, in fact, was kind of offended about the whole Egyptian concept of multiple gods. I'm thrilled that he is so dedicated to God, but I also want to balance that with the understanding that different people believe different things. We don't have to agree with them, but we do have to keep an open mind and learn what we can from it. I don't know. This is a new thing for me. Any advice?

One thing I especially enjoyed was studying Exodus with the boys. Exodus is one of my favorite books. I read it repeatedly, even before becoming a Christian. I love the story aspect of it: the drama, the power. It's wonderful. Of course, now it means even more to me, knowing that the God of the Hebrews is my God too!

To study Exodus, we used some worksheets and listened to the NIV version of Exodus via Youversion. My mentor Debbie Green introduced me to this website. It has literally hundreds of versions and translations of the Bible. Many of them can be listened to as well. Youversion also has reading plans, and if you already have Glo, you can sync the two. Another great feature is that you can download it to your smartphone, and any progress you make on your phone is synced to your Youversion account as well.



Adding Bookmarks is a great feature as well. I know it's not a great picture, but I wanted you to see how great this resource is. We are working to include more Bible study into our schooling, and Youversion is a great resource for that!

Linking up with learning ALL the time!!

Math Curse!!

Yesterday, for math, we took a break from the usual and read Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. It was a fun way to look at everyday scenarios and solve them mathematically. There is plenty of random silliness also!

The boys enjoyed solving the "problems" on their whiteboards. They followed along really well. By then end though, they had had enough! To quote Jerimiah, "My brain hurts!"

Linking up today with love2learn2day:

Thankful season

It's that time of year. We start to think about turkeys, falling leaves, Pilgrims, and pumpkin pie. Especially pumpkin pie.

But where is the thankfulness? Where is the gratitude for everything God has given us? Sure, we remember to thank God for our blessings, but when do we deliberately set out to display our gratitude?

This year, we are working to change that. While we are still focusing a little bit on pumpkin pie, we are really emphasizing our God, the Creator of all.

We traced a few leaves to make a pattern and cut several leaves out. Now whenever we feel a moment of gratitude, we can write it on one of our leaves. My family is visiting for Thanksgiving this year, so we are leaving a few leaves blank so they can participate too. I would love to save these up and make a scrapbook or reuse the leaves each year.

How are you incorporating gratitude to your homeschool/life?

Mission U.S.

This week, I'm joining with learning ALL the time!! to bring my Favorite Resource This Week.

You may have heard a rumor that we are studying the Revolutionary War. Well, we are done with it! At last, we are moving on to something else in Social Studies.

Our favorite resource this week is an amazing learning tool. Mission U.S. has an incredible way to interactively teach kids about history.

Jerimiah, who is 10, LOVED this game. Anthony, who is 7, was interested, but not nearly as much as Jerimiah.

Check out a preview: Mission U.S. promo video

You do need to register in order to play, but I've not gotten any email from them at all, nor has my spam level increased.

Enjoy!

Math Candy

The kids had a fantastic time Trick or Treating last night. We were out for about two hours, walking to and fro and hither and yon. We met up with some friends for the last hour, and a great time was had by all.

Aren't they handsome?

A note on the weapons: This was the first year I even considered letting the boys use a gun for any reason. What made me change my mind? My kids are now old enough to understand that a gun will really, forever, without a doubt, never coming back, kill someone. It can kill anyone- a friend, a cousin, a stranger, a Mom or Dad...anyone. Now that I know they understand that, I'm ok with them pretending to be a gangster. I've already shared that my kids want to be ninjas when they grow up. Imagine my surprise when Anthony decided to be a ninja for Halloween.

Our two hours of begging trick or treating resulted in a ridiculous amount of loot. It's really embarrassing to admit this. I want to point out that we will not eat all this candy in a week. Or even a month. Possibly even this year.

On to the math!!!

I wanted to introduce the concept of percentages to the boys. Neither of them have really covered them before, so it was only a basics introduction for the kids.

 

The pile o' loot.

 



 

Sorting out the candy.

 

 

First, we sorted our loot into categories. We chose eight categories for our candy.

 

Then we tallied each type of candy, taking time to estimate the amount of chocolate.

 



Then we prepared our pie chart. First, we drew a circle, and then we figured the percentages for each type of candy. Anthony kind of checked out on this part, but Jerimiah seems to have a basic understanding of what we did.

Finally, we had a quick lesson on Word, and I showed the boys how to insert and create a pie chart.

We wrote down some facts about what we learned from our pie chart as well.

Or final activity with our candy was to estimate and then weigh.

What's your estimate? Jerimiah estimated 5 lbs, and Anthony estimated 8.4 lbs. The actual weight (in a paper bag) was 7.4 lbs. Crazy, right?

Hope you all had a great Halloween!