After the storm: What we're studying

We made it through Ike and survived! It was a bit scary for a while, but thankfully our home was damaged minimally. We have eased back into school slowly, trying to take it at a minimal pace. This week we're studying the divided Kingdom of Solomon and the Assyrians. We learned about Ashurbanipal, king of the Assyrians. He was a lover of books and apparently a very cruel King. The kids built Assyrian siege towers out of legos and blocks. The Assyrians used these portable towers on wheels to attack their enemies. We had a fun time putting them together although they are not exact replicas because we ran out of the appropriate lego pieces. Our good friends the Baumann's came to visit us this week as well, which was a special treat. The kids always enjoy their company and I definitely enjoy spending time with their mom!

What we're studying this week

We're focusing on the life of Solomon. In History and Geography, we're reading about the life of Solomon and we're studying maps and charting the regions that he ruled. We have also learned some interesting facts about Queen Makeda better known as the Queen of Sheba. It's really interesting to read the Bible and then look at the maps of the land of that time. The boys and I have enjoyed it so far. They are writing a play about Solomon together as well and we'll record it and play it for our guests during our end of unit celebration in January. We're looking forward to it and will begin making preparations for the celebration soon! This is where we will highlight all of the work that the kids have done during the semester and allow the children to shine.

Astronomy Project

Today we had some friends come over, so they were able to participate in our experiment. The boys are studying Astronomy and are currently focusing on Mars. They had a great time making a salt dough "volcano" modeled after after the Olympus Mon on Mars. It was so fun! I didn't pour enough vinegar in initially, so our volcano was a bit slow acting, but in the end it turned out great and we had a lot of fun. (The kids want to make another one and do it again, and I have to admit that I want to as well!) If you've never used Apologia Science for elementary, I highly recommend it! I uploaded the video of the experiment as well, check it out if you want to see kids having a great time learning!

Bags of Smiles

If you're like me, when you were a kid you loved the first day of school. New clothes, a shiny new lunch box, and best of all, school supplies! I know that my kids are no different, so in addition to the new backpacks and other new things they received for school, I decided to surprise them with gift bags full of school supplies. I presented them to the kids after our lavish and fun celebration breakfast on the first day of school. I knew the little ones would love them, but i was unsure of how the two older ones would react. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were all very happy to get the bags full of pencils, pens, erasers, note cards, dividers, paper, markers, highlighters, and of course, some fun candy. I think this will be a new tradition. It really warmed my heart to see their smiles and to start our first day out with them excited about using their new "stuff"!

A new beginning

We started school this year after Labor day. I wanted ds#1 to have a chance to being acclimated to being back home. Otherwise, we would have started in early August. It's been a slow start, trying to ease the kids back into things, but it's been fun. We had a bit of a shock when we discovered that I was pregnant about a week into school. That would explain my moodiness! We're happy, and the kids are ecstatic. So far we have three votes for a girl and the little one has requested a little brother. Mom and Dad just pray for a healthy baby. It has been fun going online each week and letting the kids see how their sibling is growing and maturing. So far they keep saying the baby looks like an alien, my reply? "Well, you used to look like that, and look at how cute you turned out!" I think this year will prove to be a very exciting and interesting school year!