Making moon cookies
Making raisins using natural sunlight & green grapes
Home school is in full swing and Jaden and Morgan have been enjoying it as if they were in Disneyland!!! We are using My Father's World which is a biblical educational program. Since Jaden is in Kindergarten, I have Morgan learning right along with her, so they are both in kindergarten. Of course, I don't expect as much out of Morgan. Some things they can both do equally, other things, Morgan does not participate. At any rate, it is easier to teach them the same thing than to have 2 different curriculums going on at once!!
We started the school year with the 7 days of God creating the Earth.
Then, the next chapter was the letter "s", subject "sun", and the book "Bear Shadow" by Frank Asch.
1. Jaden measured shadows at different times during the day
2. Both girls saw how the sun changed the color of the construction paper when placed outside
3. We went in the dark bathroom to see how the sun (flashlight) shines on one side of the world (globe), but not on all sides of the world at the same time.
4. The letter "s" and the sound it makes + items that start with the letter "s"
The second chapter we went on to was the letter "m", subject "moon", country focus "Mexico", and book "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown.
1. Jaden learned about the different moon phases and drew them on to paper.
2. Jaden made moon cookies (yummy!)- they were actually a Mexican cookie recipe, which tied right in with our country of focus.
3. The letter "m" and the sound it makes + items that start with the letter "m"
4. Our caterpillars arrived, and we discussed the stages that caterpillars go through.
**While some of these ideas came from the "My Father's World" curriculum, I found other ideas by searching the internet for activities regarding "the moon", "the sun", etc. The country study is a combination of things found online, in books, and through "A Trip Around the World" series of activity books. Here is what My Father's World Curriculum is based on:
*Recognizes the Bible, God's truth, to be the foundation of wisdom and education.
*Utilizes hands-on, unit studies with daily lesson plans that are easy-to-teach.
*Enables families and multi-age groups to learn together. Many of our programs may be taught to a range of ages simultaneously.
*Combines the best of Charlotte Mason's ideas and classical education with a Biblical worldview, an international focus and our own observations of how children learn.
*Uses a comprehensive, sequenced learning program beginning with preschool learning toys to develop readiness skills.
*Our complete unit-based curriculum includes a phonics-based learning-to-read program and focuses on God's amazing creation (kindergarten), the world of the Bible (first grade), and U.S. history (second or third grade). Then a year of geography sets the foundation for four years of chronological world and U.S. history (through eighth grade). Our high school curriculum provides a Biblical framework for English, history, and other subjects.
*Provides easy-to-teach, integrated curriculum that is enjoyable, academically strong, and focused on character development.
This is me- I have never had an avatar before. I was setting up an Etsy shop, and I noticed that several people used avatars for their profile picture. Since I am selling bead necklaces, and some of them remind me of hippie-wear, I decided to dress like that. I wish I was as cool as this avatar surely is :o) Now Jaden and Morgan want me to make them an avatar. Stay tuned for that, if I ever figure out how to make more than one.
We have THOUSANDS of books for sale, so if you are looking for something... feel free to stop by and take a gander. This weekend, we will be putting some (not all... because that would be totally exhausting) of the books out. There are hardcover & paperback and all kinds of genres. Every single book is going for 5 cents a piece!! If you miss out on the sale this weekend, I am sure we will still have thousands of books left to look through!! If you have a few hours to sort through buckets of books looking for treasures, just let me know and we can get together on a time.
Random objects were placed on black construction paper & put in the noon sun for a few hours.
The end result of our sun pictures
Jaden has fixed up our "Ant Hill" in preparation of the arrival of our 25 harvester ants.
Our caterpillars will move to their "Butterfly habitat" as soon as they form the chrysalis.
Making moon cookies
Making raisins using natural sunlight & green grapes
Friday was a big day of running errands. We had to buy a few more things for the party and catch up on some of the things that I haven't had time to do in the last few weeks. After 3 hours of errands, and with another 2 hours of errands looming ahead of us, I let the girls sit down to eat a hotdog at Target. I don't usually give in to stopping somewhere to get something, BUT we still had more errands to run. The hot dogs were only $1!!! Not bad for eating out!
Have you ever noticed how down town looks the same in almost every town? I don't spend any amount of time in any cities down town, but I decided to give the girls a look at what one looks like. We parked the car, and we went inside some of the stores. It was actually pretty cool, even though we didn't buy anything :0)
Crayola has some new colored pencils. There are 64 colors in a box! They are smaller than the original colored pencils, but they are perfect for little hands. The girls did their latest Africa assignments with these colored pencils. Amazon has them for $13: http://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Colored-Pencils-Choice-Colors/dp/B00125NZWC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1247450117&sr=8-3 You will never believe how much I bought them for, though... $1!!!! The whole box was $1 at Office Depot! Talk about a great deal!
Sitting on a blanket in the grass watching the fireworks
Morgan got scared of the loud noises and stayed in my lap for the rest of the show- she kept asking if we could go home yet.
Jaden loved sitting on the trunk of the car.
Yes. that is a yellow streak in Morgan's hair~ only hair gel
I think I finally figured out my cell phone, so I took some pictures of the girls playing with the train set at the book store. The pictures turned out pretty good, considering they were taken with the phone camera. At least, now I will know that if I forget my camera, I always have my phone as a back up. 
No, this is not one of those SCAM/SPAM e-mails. This is real :0) We are able to eat out about twice a month (sometimes more, depending on which assignments we feel like taking) for free. This is how it works, there are hundreds, possibly thousands of companies that are set up to evaluate customer service. These "mystery shopping" companies each have their various clients. You can find a list of 112 mystery shopping companies here: http://www.ratracerebellion.com/jobs-mysteryshopping.htm What you do is you sign up for the companies that you want to work with. If you like On the Border, you would pick the company that has them as a client. If you like Furr's, Golden Corral, Buffalo Wild Wings, etc you just find the company that has them as a client and you watch out for shops as they come available. They even have "Three Forks" as a client, so you can go to upscale places, too. Now, you have to follow their guidelines EXACTLY. If they reimburse $46 (like our dinner did last night), make sure to stay at or below that amount. You have to pay for your meal upfront, but some of these companies repay pretty quickly. We'll get our $46 back from last night in 2 weeks. 
Three great books to teach children about how people all around the world live. Children only know what they see and what they are told. It is so easy to see how they would think that everyone is just like them. Morgan and Jaden love these books! They are packed with information, so they are not books that you read through in a 30 minute reading session. Every time we pick up one of the books, we see something new. 
These are the latest items added to my Ebay store. Jaden saw these in the house, and she had been looking at them every hour or so. Finally, she said, "Mom, when are you going to gve Morgan and me our babies?" I said, "Jaden, those are ones that I am selling." To which she said, "Mommy, you have just made me very sad!" OK, so I am going to give in and let her have one, but not right away. I have already bought their Christmas presents, and I think they will like what I bought... But, she just sees these dolls and thinks that's what she wants because that is what is there. She really doesn't need any more dolls. Between her and Morgan, they probably have AT LEAST 20 dolls! Anyway, if you know of anyone in need of a doll for Christmas, please direct them to my Ebay store. I will be selling these until the week before Christmas. 