Day #65/175 Days - AWANA Grand Prix

The boys have participated in AWANA since Conductor was a Cubbie (age 4). It was hit or miss there for a year or so but now they all go regularly. Happy has been a Cubbie (preschool - ages 3 & 4) & is now in Sparks (grades K-2). While Conductor is now in T&T (grades 3-6) & Lego-Man helps out with the Cubbie group since our AWANA group does not continue past sixth grade.

AWANA is a great program and we average about 45 kids each week. I know all of our boys really enjoy it and hubby & I enjoy helping out as well. I am a secretary and he is the games director.

The children meet weekly & memorize Bible verses to earn awards for their uniforms. There are also some fun activities that occur each year. One that is highly anticipated every year is the AWANA Grand Prix. It's very similar in nature to the Boy Scout Pinewood Derby. The children buy a car kit (a block of wood with four tires and axles) and then go to town creating their fastest and most creative design.

My boys were bummed this year that none of them won design or speed trophies but they still had fun. Children are encouraged to create as much of the car on their own as they can. We really encourage that here. My FIL cut the rough shape of the cars for the boys but Lego-Man and Conductor did all the work for their cars plus helped Happy with his. I did some minor painting for Happy. Other than that these cars were all of their own design and creation.

Lego-Man's car crossing the finish line.

Happy's Car is #33, Conductor's car is #50, and Lego-Man's car is #98.

Day #64/175 Days

Just a laid back day today.

The boys worked on:

First Facts
Math Score
BBC Typing Mat
Free reading
Wii Fit

And finished up their cars for the AWANA Grand Prix on Saturday.

Day #63/175 Days

Together School

• Popcorn Prayer
• Pledge of Allegiance
• National Anthem
• Read Aloud (On the Banks of Plum Creek)
• Psalm 1
• Proverbs 25
• Poem ("The Swing")
• Calendar Discussion question 
• STOW
• Listened to a podcast about Clara Schumann
• Boys created thumb print snowman

Lego-Man

• Private Devotions
• Math Score
• MUS
• BBC Typing
• Writing Journal
• First Facts
• AWANA
• Take 5 Photos
• Assigned Reading
• Wii Fit

Conductor

• Private Devotions
• MUS
• Math Score
• Writing Journal
• BBC Typing
• AWANA
• First Facts
• Take 5 Photos
• Assigned Reading
• Wii Fit

I had Worship Team practice today so I didn't have time to work with Happy. The younger boys also listened to Tchaikovsky Discovers America while we were driving home from town.

Day #62/175 Days - Field Trip

I had an appointment in the "big city" today. Since I didn't want to loose out on a full day of school, we headed over to one of my favorite places for a field trip - The Maine State Museum. Why is it my favorite?
* It's educational.
* It's free for all educators including homeschoolers!
* It's inside so no matter the weather it works.
* During weekdays, it's very quiet so we generally have the place to ourselves.

Unfortunately, my boys don't always share my enthusiasm for all things free and fun. In order to make things seem new on this trip, all the boys did a scavenger hunt.

Lego-Man did one I made up on the spot. It was a photographic hunt. I originally wanted him to find photos of each letter of the alphabet. He wanted something with a bit more of a challenge. Instead he had to find objects that represented each letter of the alphabet. Here are some of my favorite finds of his photos:

He did end up merging the two techniques but I'm still happy with the results. It kept him engaged just about the entire time and he appeared to have a good time. That's hard to do with a 13 year old at times.

Conductor and Happy completed scavenger hunts that the museum itself has for school groups. One is for younger children so Happy did that one. It had drawn photos of some of the items in the museum. Once he found them he checked them off. My favorite was the stone knife he needed to find. He kept calling it the "cookie cutter." He managed to find just about all of the items in his list.

Conductor's hunt was a bit more challenging. It required him to read about the different displays to find answers to questions on his paper. He did okay with this but his interest started to flag near the end.

The two newest exhibits - "At Home in Maine" and "Uncommon Threads" were not included in the scavenger hunts so we let the boys just check those out and enjoy them.

I think the boys did have a good time and I know we'll be going again at some point.

Day #61/175 Days

Together School

• Popcorn Prayer
• Pledge of Allegiance
• National Anthem
• Read Aloud (On the Banks of Plum Creek)
• Psalm 1
• Proverbs 25
• Poem ("The Swing")
• Calendar Discussion question 
• Grapevine Studies
• STOW
• Finished Robert Schumann and His Mascot Ziff
• Madsen Method

Lego-Man

• Private Devotions
• Math Score
• MUS
• BBC Typing
• Writing Journal
• First Facts
• AWANA
• Take 5 Photos
• Assigned Reading
• Wii Fit

Conductor

• Private Devotions
• MUS
• Math Score
• Writing Journal
• BBC Typing
• AWANA
• First Facts
• Take 5 Photos
• Assigned Reading
• Kinderbach - Week 5
• Wii Fit

Happy

• Math Mammoth
• First Facts
• AAS Beehive Reader
• AWANA
• Thomas Workbook
• Big Book of Math

Day #60/175 Days

We spent the day at a local church listening to the "Dino Pastor." We planned to just go to the 10am talk (which lasted about an hour) but we had so much fun and learned so much, we stayed for the 1pm talk to (which lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes). If you'd like to read all the details of the day and see more photos, click over to my family blog.

Day #59/175 Days

Lego-Man:

• Math Score
• Math-U-See
• First Facts
• Writing Journal
• Assigned Reading
• BBC Typing Mat
• Take 5 Photos
• Wii Fit
• Private Devotions
• AWANA verses
• Bible Study (PE for kids)

Conductor:

• Math Score
• First Facts
• BBC Typing Mat
• Take 5 Photos
• Wii Fit
• Bible Study (PE for kids)
• Conductor went on a play date today & spent a lot of time outside.

Day #58/175 Days

I tried something different today. I'm not sure I like it but the boys seemed to. I made up a weekly schedule although I only had "to do" items on Thursday and Friday. They were able to do them in any order they wanted and had to just cross them off when done. On Saturday I'm finding that Conductor didn't cross of anything and it's been difficult to recreate his week. We'll most likely be going back to work boxes on Monday. I may use the schedules just to help me keep things straight.

Lego-Man:

• Math Score
• Math-U-See
• First Facts
• Writing Journal
• Assigned Reading
• "All About Me" poem template
• BBC Typing Mat
• Take 5 Photos
• Wii Fit
• Private Devotions
• AWANA verses
• AWANA club

Conductor:

• Math Score
• Math-U-See
• First Facts
• Writing Journal
• Assigned Reading
• BBC Typing Mat
• Take 5 Photos
• Wii Fit
• Private Devotions
• AWANA verses
• AWANA club

Day #57/175 Days

Lego-Man work boxes:

1. Private Devotions
2. Math Score
3. MUS
4. BBC Typing Mat
5. Writing Journal
6. First Facts
7. AWANA
8. Take 5 photos
9. 2010 Winter Olympics comprehension unit  - continued as he didn't finish it from yesterday (from abcteach but it is members only)
10. Assigned Reading (still working through the Lord of the Rings trilogy)
11. Wii Fit

Conductor's work boxes:

1. Private Devotions
2. MUS
3. Math Score
4. Writing Journal
5. BBC Typing Mat
6. AWANA
7. First Facts
8. Take 5 photos
9. Assigned Reading 
10. Wii Fit

Happy's work:

1. AWANA verse
2. First Facts
3. Rod & Staff workbook
4. ABC Book - building letters (see photos below)
5. Weather lapbook
6. Read to him: Bird's New Shoes by Chris Riddell and The Boy, the Rat, and the Butterfly by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
7. Wii Fit

If you look beyond Happy's hands, you will see the 'A' he had just built.

and here is 'B.' This was a fun activity but probably a bit young for him.

Day #56/175 Days

Lego-Man work boxes:

1. Private Devotions
2. Math Score
3. MUS
4. BBC Typing Mat
5. Writing Journal
6. First Facts
7. AWANA
8. Take 5 photos
9. Write a story (using a word bank) - free at abcteach
10. 2010 Winter Olympics comprehension unit (from abcteach but it is members only)
11. Assigned Reading (still working through the Lord of the Rings trilogy)
12. Wii Fit

Conductor's work boxes:

1. Private Devotions
2. MUS
3. Math Score
4. Writing Journal
5. BBC Typing Mat
6. AWANA
7. First Facts
8. Write a story (using a word bank) - abcteach - members only
9. Take 5 photos
10. Create snow booklet (abcteach - members only)
11. Assigned Reading 
12. Wii Fit

Day #55/175 Days

Together School

• Popcorn Prayer
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Sing National Anthem (I love hearing my boys sing with me.)
• Read Psalm 121
• Read Proverbs 18
• Did a discussion about who Martin Luther King, Jr. was...
• Read a one page biography I printed from abcteach
• Watched a video of his "I Had a Dream" speech on YouTube (started at about minute 12)
• Used this prompt to have the boys each write a "Peace Poem" (They were getting silly though so not exactly what I was hoping for.) Here is Conductor's though...

Peace is like a calm someone.

Peace looks like no one fighting.

It sounds quiet, and

it can be very quiet, but

peace is always around us somewhere.

• Story of the World (getting close to finishing volume 2 - yeah!)
• Read half of Chapter 6 (the last chapter) in Robert Schumann and His Mascot Ziff
• Wii Fit
• Happy & Conductor spent the afternoon at a bowling alley for a friend's birthday so they had PE there as well.

Conductor helping his little brother bowl.

Day #54/175 Days

Together School

• Popcorn Prayer
• Pledge of Allegiance
• National Anthem
• Poetry - "Singing" (Lego-Man & Conductor were both able to recite it without looking.)
• Read Aloud - On the Banks of Plum Creek
• Psalm 120
• Proverbs 14
• Calendar - discussed how the Revolutionary War ended today in the year 1784. We talked about what would have happened if America had lost that war.
• Story of the World
• Read more in Robert Schumann and His Mascot Ziff

Lego-Man workboxes:

• Private Devotions
• Math Score (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• MUS
• Typing Lesson - BBC Typing Dance Mat
• Writing Journal
• First Facts online math drill (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• AWANA verses
• Take 5 photos
• Assigned Reading
• Wii Fit Plus

Conductor's workboxes:

• Private Devotions
• MUS
• Math Score (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• Writing Journal
• Typing Lesson - BBC Typing Dance Mat
• AWANA
• Take 5 photos
• First Facts (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• Diagram Camera (When correcting work the night before, I realized Conductor did not do this the day before. He started it today & will finish it Monday. This is for our Photography co-op class.)
• Assigned Reading
• Wii Fit

Happy's Work

• First Facts (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• AWANA verses
• Read three books to him: Arthur's Honey Bear by Lillian Hoban, Time for Timbuctoo by Margaret Wise Brown, and Fish Head by Jean Fritz (three of my favorite authors)
• Began working on a weather lapbook with him from Hearts and Trees
• Wii Fit

All the boys also attended their AWANA club meeting tonight. Tomorrow is a holiday at our house. Happy will be turning six.

Day #53/175 Days

Just together school today.

• Popcorn Prayer
• Pledge of Allegiance
• National Anthem
• Poetry - "Singing"
• Read Aloud - On the Banks of Plum Creek
• Psalm 117
• Proverbs 13
• Calendar - talk about what you would do if the electricity went out. That happens a lot around here.
• Grapevine - studied Job
• Story of the World
• Read more in Robert Schumann and His Mascot Ziff
• Wii Fit Plus and Mario & Sonic at the Summer Olympics (they always finish that last one red-cheeked)

Day #52/175 Days

Together School

• Popcorn Prayer
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Sing National Anthem
• Read aloud (On the Banks of Plum Creek)
• Poetry ("Singing")
• Psalm 112/Proverbs 12
• Discussed who John Hancock was & took out a replica of the Declaration of Independence to look over. Discussed quill & ink and how things were done then. 
• Grapevine Bible Study
• Read Chapter 3 in Robert Schumann and His Mascot Ziff (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• Read in Story of the World Volume 2 - still attempting to finish this one up from last year.
• The Madsen Method for English - completed Lesson 2 (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)

Lego-Man workboxes:

• Private Devotions
• Math Score 
• MUS
• Typing Lesson - BBC Typing Dance Mat
• Writing Journal
• First Facts online math drill (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• AWANA verses
• Take 5 photos
• Diagram a camera
• Assigned Reading
• Wii Fit Plus
• Play Game with Mom

Chocolate Scrabble - all the letter tiles were chocolate pieces. The winner gets a large chocolate coin. That was Lego-Man btw.  I split up all the letter tiles so we all had some after we played the game. Conductor received Chocolate Monopoly. I look forward to playing that soon!

Conductor's workboxes:

• Private Devotions
• MUS
• Math Score (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• Writing Journal
• Type up story from yesterday (included below)
• AWANA
• Take 5 photos
• First Facts (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• Diagram Camera
• Assigned Reading
• Play Mancala with Mom (only game I won today!)
• Wii Fit

Happy's Work:

• First Facts (TOS Homeschool Crew review item)
• Rod & Staff workbook
• Played Chutes & Ladders (yes, he won)
• Wii Fit

Conductor's Story:

THE SQUIRREL

A SQUIRREL WAS ON A TRAIN. A GIRL WAS ON THE TRAIN TOO. THE SQUIRREL WAS HIBERNATING. WHEN THE SQUIRREL GOT UP IT WAS RIGHT BY THE GIRL .THE GIRL WAS FREAKED WHEN THE SQUIRREL GOT UP. THE GIRL NEVER RODE ON THE TRAIN AGAIN.  THEN THE SQUIRREL WENT TO THE BEACH. THE SQUIRREL FOUND A COCNUT & A LADDER. THE SQUIRREL CLIMBED THE LADDER. THEN HE WAS ON A CRATE. HE WAS IN A TOWN. HE WENT TO MAINE AND HE FOUND A SNOWBALL. THEN HE HIBERNATED AGAIN.