Carnival of Notebooking

Here is a wonderful new carnival that just started up. It is all about Notebooking! Head on over to read how other homeschoolers use the notebooking approach with their children.

Make sure you sign up for the weekly newsletter so you can see when the next carnival will take place. You might want to submit your blog post to share in the next Carnival of Notebooking!

Wordless Wednesday: Something is a Little Odd...

Weekly Report: It's been a while...

The title should say 2 week report, but that just wouldn't be the same now would it... *Ü*

We have been pretty busy around here (nothing unusual, seems like we are always busy). Here is a re-cap of the past 2 weeks:

Jessica:

Can I tell you all how much I LOVE Lightning Literature 7? I just LOVE IT! She is really enjoying reading these wonderful books, short stories, and poems. We (yes, even me) learned how to analyze a poem as well. When I first saw the activity page I was so lost, but when I began to read the teacher manual, it all feel into place easily. They really laid it out nicely with examples so I was able to explain it easily to Jessica so she would be able to understand it.

She is enjoying her Home2Teach class and is working on a narrative report on someones life. 3 more weeks and her report will be completed.

Timmy:

My favorite subject for Timmy is writing. We use Writing Tales and really enjoy it. Both Timmy and I enjoy this. Here is a creative writing activity he did recently based on the fable Androcles:

Bob
One day a scuba diver named Bob was out scuba diving and he saw a whale shark. Afraid of the shark he started to swim back to the shore. Surprised that the shark did not chase him, he swam back to the shark. The shark showed Bob his back fin. Bob saw that there was a big cut on sharks back fin making it unable far the shark to swim. Bob took the shark to the shark doctor. The doctor bandaged up the cut and the shark’s fin healed in two weeks. From that time on the shark guarded Bob from sea monsters while he swam in the sea.

In Art class he has been doing using water colors along with other mediums to create these wonderful paintings. The top one is one where we used water color paintings and created the effect of depth by creating an horizon line and adding color in a certain way. The bottom one is where they used different effects of water colors (blotting, running, splashing, etc) and then they added details to the pictures making a Magical Circus painting. Timmy's is of a clown that is juggling some planets. Above the clown's head is an exploding cake... Oh boys...

Timmy's Teaching Textbook 6 has arrived. It looks really nice. He wants to get started right now, but we need to finish up his other book first.

He has been reading lots of Tin Tin and Nate the Great books. He didn't really start reading independently until 4th grade. He was a slow reader and I didn't push the issue of reading. If I did, he cried. He now reads a ton! He loves reading! Timmy and his dad read together almost every night and Timmy enjoy this time with his father.

Holly:

In Art class the kids have been creating clay family plaques for the past 2 weeks. Here is her finished project (Dad, Mom, Holly, and her cat):

At her art class she also worked on a Sea Horse project. It tured out lovely!


I asked her what she enjoyed doing in school over the last 2 weeks and she said, "A little math". I think that translates into her only enjoying a little aspects of what she does with math. She is still struggling with division, so this is still her least favorite subject to do.

Jake:

In Art class, Jake did the same thing as Holly. Here is his finished project (Daddy and Me):


I asked Jake what he has enjoyed about school lately and he said, "I LOVE math!" and hopped away... That about sums it up for Jake.

ME:

In my co-op class there are times I want to do the project too, but I am busy with helping the kids that I wouldn't be able to do the project. So I went to a friends house (she also happens to be may facilitator in my art class), last week and we did one of the Atelier Project together, just us mom's. Below are the 2 pictures I did using water color crayons. They are inspired by the artist Georgia O'Keeffe.


I am also busy coming up with co-op class idea's for the fall. I have been having so much fun coming up with class idea's. I think I will teach a All American History Class Vol 1. Not sure on the grade level yet as it will depend on what is needed at the co-op. I have LOTS of other idea's too (I always do each year), but I need to narrow it down to 2.

Zoology:

I am really enjoying this class (Zoology 1). I am (and so are the kids) learning so much about birds. For example, I love breast meat... I never knew it was one of the muscles they used for flying. There has been so many other GREAT things we have learned in this class.

The kids have been doing bird notebooking pages, lapbooking, playing a game called Quizzical (a review card game using a tri fold board), taking quizzes, and doing fun experiments.



EXTRA:

We went on a nature walk to a Bonsai Garden with the folks from Sticks and Stones. I will post highlights of this trip in our long overdue Green Hour Report 8/9.

For our Russia study we watched a video from Reading Rainbow that shared the book: Rechenka's Eggs . Oh my I loved this video! It touched on so many aspects of Russia. It brought a lot that we have learned about to life. I followed up this video by doing (still working on it) a lapbook based on the book, Rechenka's Eggs, with Holly and Jake. We will share once we are done with it.

I didn't get to our art appreciation studies like I wanted too. I wanted to finish up our Russia study as well. We only have 2 more days on our Russia Study and they we will be done. Except for doing the lapbook I created for our study. Then we will be learning about China.

Here are some extra pictures I took throughout the past 2 weeks:

Remember to check out our Green Hour Challenge Weeks 8/9 as well. This is a recap of our nature studies.

Green Hour Challenge 6 and 7

We did these challenges during separate weeks, but I am just getting around to posting about them. I am excited about this weeks challenge: Up Close and Personal. With this challenge #8, we will be looking at different things with a magnifying glass. How cool is that!

We have been seeing so many things from nature our eyes weren't tuned into as before. A different shaped leaf, an unusual shaped rock, an unknown flower, an animal, and more... We have been blessed to see many different types of animal in our yard lately. Here are some highlights:

We have seen a Opossum (not dead in the middle of the road, but a real live one!) and Raccoons on our deck late at night.

The kids found two Long-Toed salamanders and they made a little habitat for him for a couple hours.

A bird is building a nest in our newspaper box. We don't get the paper, so it is fine by us. It is at a perfect height so we can see the nest building process and hopefully see some eggs and baby birdies. We saw the mom with a twig in her beak one day and we now that this bird is a Mountain Chickadee (great site with eggs in the nest). The next day after we took the picture below, it looked like someone reached their hand in and destroyed the nest. We thought this oppertunity was all over now. But a few days later it was built up again (see pictres for challenge 7). We will be sharing more pictures each weeks as we watch this birds nest.

Challenge 6: Starting a Collection

I asked the kids what things they would like to collect. I can't say we have gotten to far with this.

Holly: She has been collecting sea shells and wants to add to her collection.

Question: Would it be ok to purchase a pack of sea shells from a craft store and help her to identify them? Or would that be cheating? Or does she need to find them on her own at the beach?

Jessica wants to start a insect collection. UM... I haven't been to keen on encouraging this. Bad mommy. But I don't care much for bugs. But she does... I need to have her start gathering the bugs she would like to "kill" and get this project started. I will do better at encouraging this... I will, I will, I will...

Timmy: He doesn't know... Don't think his is interested in collecting anything. And know what... That is ok.

Jake: Pressed flowers... Now this one I like. We have already pressed a couple flowers he has plucked from the ground.

We did a Mini-Study on the salamander as well as our Green Hour Notebooking Page.

I drew a picture of a Alstroemeria in my sketch book.

Challenge 7: Your Own Field Guide

We don't have a color printer and I don't think I am up to creating our own field guide yet. Love the idea though. We do keep track of birds we see in our yard and add them to our list. Recently we added a Black-Capped Chickadee to our list.

While Jessica and Timmy were out dirt bike riding, Timmy saw a black tailed deer next to the path. He stopped his bike and the deer ran about 5 feet in front of him, crossing his path. He thought that was AMAZING! (see Weekly Report for pictures)

Holly did a sketch entry of the opossum in her nature journal.

We did a Mini-Study on the opossum and also did our Green Hour Notebooking Page.

As a extra bonus, we watched Kristen's Fairy House (this site has some neat coloring pages and other activities to do). It was a cute movie that really touched on nature studies. It was neat watching the aunt sketch in her notebook (of a tree) while her niece built a fairy house. I saw it as a wonderful example of how to sketch in our journals. These sketches were used for the aunts books. We checked out the video from our local library.

The next day Holly set off into the woods and made her own Fairy House. She had a lot of fun making it. I was really impressed at what she choose to use. She even used some shells from her sea shell collection.

Holly also was happy to find a bee with pollen on it and she wanted to keep it until dad got home so he could see the pollen on its legs.




We have had some really bazaar weather around her lately. As we were driving home one evening, the clouds above the Olympic Mountains looked amazing. There was a little light showing between 2 peeks and dark clouds all round it. When we got home, Jessica went to her nature journal and sketch what she saw.


And here is a picture of what the nest looks like as of 2 days ago:



We also went on a nature walk with the folks from Koinonia Academy and another family. What an experience this was. We got hailed on! And not just a little either. When we arrived it was nice and sunny. I took a few pictures of the clouds in the skies because I thought they looked neat. Little did I know what they were really holding in them. I should have known. LOL Enjoy some of the pictures from our walk in the slide show below. To read captions, just click on slide and scroll over the picture.

And that concludes our 2 weeks in review of our Green Hour Challenges!

~*~Have A Wonderful Week~*~

Weekly Report: Spring Break

Ok, we didn't take a full break during Spring Break. I needed to keep up with math (especially since Holly has been struggling with division) and we also did some of our Russia Study. Here is a break down of our week:

Monday:

Went on a nature walk at Clear Creek Trail with some friends. We got hailed on... What an experience. Check out our Green Hour Challenge 6/7 report for more details.

Worked on Russia Study. We read 2 Russian Folk Tales (Tales From Russia), read about the Russian People(in Russia the People), and about a young girl that lived in Soviet Times that was persecuted for not wearing the "Komsomol" (red scarf), because it went against her Christian beliefs. We also filled out our notebook journal page.

We also watched a wonderful video called: Kristen's Fairy House . It touched a lot on our nature studies. For more details, check out our Green Hour Challenge 6/7.

Jessica also made homemade pizza pockets using a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens "New Junior Cook Book".

Tuesday:

Worked on Russia Study. We learned more about the Mongol people and how a community would work. Read a story about a christian wife that wanted to be baptised, but her husband and his family were against it and did everything possible not to let this happen... But our God is a mighty God and she was able to make this public acknowledgement despite the odds. They also filled out their notebook journal page.

(for our Russian stories, we are using the book called: They Would Not Be Moved by Harvey Yoder)

Holly made a Fairy House in the woods.

Jessica and Timmy went dirt bike riding with their dad.

Wednesday:

Jessica and Timmy went dirt bike riding with their dad.

Thursday:

We were supposed to go to Wilcox Farms for a field trip, but Jake was sick for 2 days and I didn't want to take the chance of infecting the family that was driving there with us, or anyone else once we got there. We stayed home.

We worked on our Russia Study. Jessica and Timmy finished up learning about the Mongols and they made Mongol hats. Timmy's hat was a little big at first(see picture), but we quickly fixed it and it fits perfectly now. Jessica had me take a picture of her before she completed her hat and we all think it looks like a Court Jesters hat. Timmy wants to make some that look just like these.

We read about Russian Religion in "Window on the World". Loved this. It was great reading it as it was written from the perspective after the fall of Soviet Rule. Our stories have been about life during Soviet Times, so it was nice to see how Russian's feel after the ending of the Soviet Rule.

We read a little about Marc Chagall. It was interesting to see what his life was like in younger years. And to show the kids how people of different religious beliefs were treated so differently. He was Jewish and all Jew's had to stay in what they called, "The Pale of Settlement". They couldn't leave this area with out permission. Jews were hated and persecuted for many centuries (still are in some areas).

Friday:

Play Day at our friend's house!

Last in the evening, Jessica pulled out her long overdue sewing project and began working on it again. She finished it up on Sat. morning. She did a fantastic job! Now she wants to purchase a kit and make one for her little niece.

I wish we would have did some sort of art study this week, but after all this was supposed to be Spring Break...

And that is our week in review at Jetihoja Academy. If you want to see pictures of our week, just view the slide show below. *Ü*

~*~ Have a wonderful weekend!~*~

Wordless Wednesday

Auntie Jess and Niece Hailey (notice their facial expressions)

Here Kitty Kitty Kitty

A New Website: WEBLINK EDUCATION

What is Weblink Education you ask? It is a website that will achieve favorite web links that were/are shared on WebLink Wednesdays . All of the links are ones that Mom's have visited first hand, use and or like.

Here is a sample what you'll find on the website:

* Arts and Craft Links
* Bible and Study Links
* Grammar Links
* History Links
* Language Arts Links
* Lapbooking Links
* Math Links

and so much more!

No more guessing if a site is for teachers only

No more wondering what a particular website offers

No more guessing if the material you're viewing is free or not

And no more jumping around from site to site to find something you need...

It's all done for YOU - by Homeschool Moms, like YOU.

All Weblinks are Mom tested and Mom approved!

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

For those that don't know about this wonderful event, I just had to share with you all.

Head on over to Jimmies' blog One Child Policy to see the current Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival held on April 1, 2008.

There is a wide variety of information shared in the Carnival: Nature Studies, Art, Narrations, Children's behavior, Information on Charlotte Mason's idea's, & More.

Head on over with a cup of tea (or coffee) and settle down for some WONDERFULLY inspiring blog posts.

If you would like to view past carnival's, just click on the image above and it will direct you to the carnival's home page where past carnivals are held and future carnivals will be located.

Enjoy! *Ü*

It's Alive!!!

Jessica and Holly both did a sketch Tuesday project this week.

Jessica drew our bird Coconut. She (our bird) is a Black Headed Africian Caique Parrot, using colored pencils. The bird is sitting in her pink bed. She sleeps in here and just loves her bed.

Holly drew a unicorn using water color crayons. Holly LOVES to draw horses.

If you would like to join Sketch Tuesday (4-15 is the next show: turn in sketch on 4-14) and/or see more wonderful sketches, please visit Barb at The Heart of Harmony for more information. Anyone can join! Next time the assignment is: Draw a Leaf!