Autumn!

Autumn is here!  

You can not begin the new season with anything less than autumn activities, right?  For Gabriel and Ollie we are focusing on The Farm unit.  A field trip to a popular working farm in Salinas, CA is on the schedule this month including pumpkin patch picking, hay rides and a tour of a real farm.  The kids are also exploring with leaves and learning about leaves.  The little's read a book called Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.

This is such a fun book!  The story is about leaves blowing around...and everywhere that they land, some form of an animal or man or sea creature is formed.  It inspires kids to collect colorful leaves in the fall and create their own version of leaf man!

For Zachary the lesson only gets more challenging.  Zachary called his Grandpa who lives in Missouri and asked for samples of leaves to be sent from Grandpas home state.  You could extend this lesson into asking your child to get as many leaves from various states across the country!  We however only asked 1 person.  He also collected leaves from California.  His project was to observe the leaves and determine arrangement, whether they are simple or compound leaves, what kind of margin they have and look at their vennatation.  He used the leaves and observations to create a notebook of the various leaves. 

Step 1: Collect and organize your leaves.  Grandpa did a great job of labeling the bags for Zach which was a huge help!

Step 2:  Observe and record your analysis of the leaves.  

Step 3:  For the observation sheet you will need to prepare the leaves.  Pressing the leaves help keep them preserved.  First, tear out a notebook paper size sheet of wax paper out.  

 Step 4:  Hold the leaves flat, cover them with another piece of wax paper. 

Step 5:  Place a towel on top and with a hot iron, slowly iron over the cloth.  The heat from the iron causes the wax from the paper to adhere to the leaves.  this protects the leaves from wrinkling up and falling apart.

Step 6:  Slowly pull apart the sheets of wax paper and remove the leaves.  Place the leaves in your observation book and add your notes about the leaves!

Sorting Colors

I love using this on a weekly basis in math.  It's a lesson that has legs and can be made into so many different lessons!  Kids love the fact that they get to eat the product after their hard work!  Simply buy a bag of skittles, m&m's, colorful fishy crackers or whatever kind of food you would like to use that allows for a variety of colors  Draw columns on a paper with the suggested color to be sorted along the bottom {I was in a hurry and used markers}.  Encourage the child to sort the colors.  For added math lessons:

• Counting
• Sorting
• Color recognition
• Concepts of least and most
• Create groups to work on addition or subtraction
• Create patterns 
• Complete patterns
• Heaviest and lightest {a food scale is great for these activities}
• Estimation

The possibilities are endless really!

I just ran 7 miles.  It's the furthest I think I have ever run.  My legs feel abused and sore.  I feel 37.  But I'll push through, I know I will be able to do this.  I've grown, birthed and raised 4 kids.  I've lived through a tornado, 3 deployments and Ranger School.  I can run 13.1 miles.

Letter E

Even a child is know by his dEEds....Proverbs 20:11

This week we are talking about good deeds.  We emphasized our previous science lesson about how we ask God to help our hands do the right thing.  I encouraged Gabriel to tell me some good deeds he can do with his hands to help others.  He came up with helping mommy by picking up my toys, being nice to the dog by using gentle touches only, helping daddy work in the garage, watering our new garden, helping mom cook dinner.  Every time I catch him doing a good deed this week he will get a star sticker on his bible verse card that we will hang on the fridge!

Here are some great books we read for letter Ee week:

Ewe!  This month we are learning about animals on the farm.  Ewe is a fancy name for sheep!  We explored with glue, cotton balls and paper plates to create Ewe's!

He explores with Ewes while we glue things!  I promise he's not being left out! = )

You can see that our gluing skills are coming nicely along! = )

E is for Elephant

Simply make a hand print and add ears, eye, and a cute tail and you have a fun elephant craft!

I Am Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

I praise you Lord, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made~ Psalm 139:14

This month we have been learning All About Me.  How fitting that our science book this week {from Abeka} is discussing "Discovering Myself."  Within this unit, our children are learning about who they are in Christ.  We all are individuals.  We all are different.  Out of millions of boys and girls in this world, not one of us is the exact same.  God made us this way....a wonderful way.  He gave each of us talents and gifts to use for Him.  Not only did He create us, He cares for us and is concerned for us.  He is concerned when we are sick.  He is concerned about us when we are sad or happy.  He is concerned about us when we obey Him and when we disobey Him.

Within this study we examined our hands.  Our hands have bones that help us to do things.  Our hands have muscles and blood that help us to do things.  God intelligently formed our bodies so that we could actively serve him and others.  Sometimes we need to ask God to help our hands do the correct thing.  Not only our hands, but our feet, our eyes, our ears.  All these parts of our body were created by God, for God.  The world offers so many temptations and distractions that we can choose to do with our bodies that will not glorify God.  How important it is for us to teach our children early on that our bodies are not our own.  They were bought and are owned by our God who fearfully and wonderfully made us!

Letter Dd

Devote yourself to prayer, be watchful and thankful~ Colossians 4:2

The bible story of the week is Daniel and the Lions Den to reinforce God's loving protection along with the letter Dd.

This is the color page we used this week for Daniel:  D is for Daniel color page.  So many people have wonderful free color sheets available to you through their blog!

Here are some fun and easy activities to reinforce letter Dd:

This is so easy!  Write the letter Dd on a piece of paper and encourage the child to use playdough to trace the it letter Dd.  Not only does it reinforce your letter of the week, but you secretly are working on those motor skills by rolling dough!

I don't want anyone to think that he is being left out!  He is exploring with monkeys and play-dough today!

Encourage your child to replicate the letter you are working on next to the letter instead of tracing.  This works those memory banks of your little one!

D is for Dalmatian!  As well as Dog!  Read a story about Dalmatians in a fire house before this craft.  Explore with circles, glue and the letter D shaped paper to create a Dalmatian.

Explore with Dot markers on the letter Dd.

Oh The Places We Will Go....{Field Trips in Monterey, CA}

One perk of the many perks in home schooling is being able to take a plethora of field trips!  Instead of the measly 2-3 trips a school may allow a year due to financial situations with the school~ you can take as many as you want and do it on your own time!  It really is one of my favorite parts about home school.  My kids are able to visit more places with me and my husband, plus it allows for a much wider range of places to choose from.  We are blessed this year to be in Monterey, Ca.  There are a ton of places to take children.  Here are my top 10 field trip destinations for children in Monterey, Ca {and beyond}:

1.  Monterey Bay Acquariam  Need I say more?

2.  Museum of Art

3.  Cannery Row: Cannery Row (located right outside the aquarium) is a historic waterfront district full of shops, restaurants, and pretty sites.This spot is the most popular vacation spot on Cali's Central Coast.  The historic waterfront Monterey Bay was made famous by the writer John Steinbeck who used Cannery Row in his stories.   

4.  Dennis the Menace Playground  Hands down the BEST park we have ever been to!  We go here once a week at least.  They have the best snow cone stand in the parking lot...so bring cash!!  

5.  Skate Park:  So I know this is not a field trip place really...but right next to Dennis the Menace Playground is a gnarly skate park {so if you have a tween like me who might have little interest in the kiddie park~ there is a skate park for them to have fun in}

6.  My Museum  This is a kid size museum that has tons of interactive play areas for your kids to explore and play in.  

7.  Mystery Spot, Santa Cruz, CA  Ok, so this place is a little outside of Monterey~ but it well worth the short drive.  Fun for the whole family.  The Mystery Spot is a gravitational anomaly located in the redwoods outside of Santa Cruz.  

8.  Alcatraz!  We have not gone here yet, but believe me we will!  Alcatraz is great place to tour for a history lesson.  It is most famously known for housing some of America's most dangerous criminals!  It was open from 1934-1963.  Some famous inmates you may have heard of:  Al "Scarface" Capone, and the "Birdman" Robert Stroud.

9.  The Boardwalk, Santa Cruz  Amusement park with a beach!  It's a lot of fun.  Again, it's about an hour drive outside Monterey, but well worth it!

10.  The Farm.  Monterey is surrounded by farms!  It smells like a salad actually, haha!  Many of the farms allow tours for children.  This one looks fabulous and has all kinds of special days to visit!  They have story time every Tuesday at 10:30 am.  They also allow home school tours with concentrations for each age group including pre k and junior high!  During pumpkin season, students can pick their very own pumpkin for only $6!  We haven't visited yet, but I'll let you know how it goes!