This Week in Homeschool Life - Week 11

 

We have had a very engaging week with our curriculum, books, and play. We read the book, "Caps for Sale," for our Before Five in a Row Curriculum for the main meat of our week. This brought many opportunities for math play, handicrafts, baking, and field tripping. I wrote about it all here for those using this curriculum of just interested in ways to play with your child while reading great stories. Here are some photos of that time spent together playing and learning with the story.

Our service project for the month was to make lunch for the children at the Ba-aire Ministry in Greenville. This place is special. My dear friend who died several years ago while hiking and reading his bible atop a local waterfall was in love with this ministry. When I reached out to friends in May for opportunities of service this coming year, another dear friend reminded me of this place. Of course we added it to the list and we will serve them again in the future. We simply cooked a meal and dropped it off at the ministry before the children arrived after school. Here is a link to their Facebook page. I so encourage all to get involved, it doesn't take much! You can sign up to bring a meal or even a craft for them to do. I love seeing children served and loved on!

We also made pumpkin muffins this week with chocolate chips. Here is the recipe! These have been so delicious. We have enjoyed them thoroughly all week. I love baking with my girl. Kitchen time is such good learning and bonding! 

We continued our term study on Vincent Van Gogh. We re-read all the same books on him this week. We chose to try and replicate his "Sunflowers" painting. We noted his use of a lot of paint, small, quick brush strokes, use of lines, and color. 

Of course we are still studying the musical composer Pytor Tchaikovsky. As we have already decorated for Christmas, we have really taken a deep dive into The Nutcracker. Normally, I would plan a field trip to go see the ballet in town with a nice lunch date as well. However, this year has made me have to be a lot more creative. There are no live performances this year posted thus far which is disappointing but we can make it wonderful still. I had such wonderful luck while out shopping last week at Marshall's to come across a nutcracker which was actually Clara (from the story)...like Clara was the nutcracker, and she was holding her small nutcracker. Oh I had to buy it for Ellie. I wrapped this up as a gift. I also purchased "The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker" book and wrapped it up as a present too. I also purchased the ballet on dvd and wrapped it up as well to give her. We had our own special Nutcracker performance! I gave Ellie her gifts, then once she had opened the ballet performance, I gifted her with a ticket (home-made) to "The Nutcracker Ballet" in her own living room. She wore her nutcracker dress for all of this. I escorted her to the dining room table which we had set and displayed as a candle light dinner, something special for her! She enjoyed her fancy dinner (a date at home!) and then presented her with her gifts and ticket as she entered the living room and took her seat for the show! She was so tickled! And, as this is a "sweet" ballet with sugarplum fairies, there was a special snack tray for Ellie to enjoy during the performance. Now she has seen Swan Lake and The Nutcracker! I just have to get her to "Sleeping Beauty" one day.

Ellie enjoyed music and movement and exploration at Kindermusik of Greenville as usual this week. I snapped a few photos because the fun is always just so cute!

For Veteran's Day this week, we really wanted to honor the people we know in our neighborhood and a friend of ours with special recognition and thanksgiving. We had the joy of visiting our friend who is retired from the Navy after 30+ years of service! His precious wife showed us his beautiful wooden chest full of medals and cords. He had so many beautiful and interesting things to discover! I got to learn more about my friend and that is priceless. We brought him cherry pie and Ellie made him a card! In our neighborhood, Ellie and I made and decorated cookies to deliver to two households. Ellie drove her pink jeep around in her most patriotic attire, with patriotic music playing and hand delivered her gifts of thanks to these precious families. It was really fun and happy! Back at home I taught Ellie the pledge of allegiance and how to place her right hand on her heart. She liked this!

We did some other art this week in which Ellie dipped yarn in paint and dragged and swirled it across her paper. 

We read so many, many, many books this week. She loves to read and even after an hour doesn't want to stop! It makes her laugh and makes her so happy! She loves discussing the stories we read. 

In forest school this week we began learning about Mosses and will continue this study throughout the next week. We are in the process of creating our own terrarium with our moss. We read the poem by Emily Dickinson, "All Overgrown by Cunning Moss." We also viewed and observed the painting, "Barn with Moss," by Vincent Van Gogh. Which was awesome because of our current artist study. We went on our nature walk with our friends, collected mosses, so many kinds, and played in the creek. The kids asked questions, we read facts, and stories about moss. Ellie later used her collected moss to paint in her nature journal. What a great sponge painting, and if you have club moss, that of a fan shape! 

Above is our mushroom spore prints! So cool!!