Ugh, I have gotten so far behind! Here's a quick recap of what we've been doing and then I'll start fresh!
We completed out studies of Ancient Egypt. How fascinating and fun that was! We ended with an Egyptian feast complete with costumes!
We spent many weeks studying the life of Moses, the plagues, the Exodus, the building of the tabernacle, and the wilderness. We made lapbooks to help the girls remember some of the most important details. We also did some fun things like acting out the plagues and building our own tabernacles and letting lego people serve as priests.
This is my example lapbook, they each made their own. Each of those little things you see opens up so they could summarize what we learned about it in their own words.
They illustrated each of the plagues to include in their lapbooks.
They LOVED acting out the plagues everyday! I made their water turn into "blood" by putting a drop of red food coloring in the bottom of the glass before pouring the water.
I hid frogs all over the house. I just found another one the other day that we missed - months later!
I made them walk through gnats (black hole punch circles stuck between layers of packing tape). This was not an easy one to prepare, lol!
I threw flies at them while they worked. (Tiny pieces of black paper - the dog loved that!)
They woke up one morning to find that all their livestock (stuffed animals) had died. Of course, the area of Goshen was unharmed!
I made them work with "boils" all over their faces and hands one morning. They thought it was funny at first but then they got pretty itchy!
We went outside one afternoon and they experienced a hail storm. What fun to throw ice at them! Gently, of course!
Then we saw what happened when you try to collect too much manna! Eewww! Worms!
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I think learning about the tabernacle has been one of our favorite things so far. It was so fascinating. And then we got to build our own! When the girls realized it was the perfect size for their lego people, there was no stopping them! They acted out tabernacle scenes for the rest of the day!
Ark of the Covenant and its contents
Kaylin and Annlee with their finished tabernacles
The coverings of the tabernacle
Altar of burnt offering
"Priests" carrying the ark. Yes, we had to use women priests. That's what comes from having 4 girls in the house!
The high priest in the Holy of Holies. Notice the rope around him leading back outside. They were so proud of that!
We've talked about the early people of North and South America, Joshua, Gideon and Samson and the other judges, the Canaanites, Hittites, and Philistines, Ruth, Samuel, Early Greeks and Greek Mythology, Troy and the Trojan Horse, Saul... we are working our way through reading The Children's Homer right now and we are about to start studying David.
I know I've mentioned it lots before, but I REALLY LOVE this My Father's World curriculum! It's so nice to have everything all laid out for me and to know I can trust it to be accurate and Christian. I can't say enough about how wonderful it is!
We are still meeting with our homeschool group. We did a cooking unit and they got to work with fondant and learn how to cover a cake.
We've done sewing and the girls made these cute backpacks.
And we have done a science unit where they have been able to study and dissect a cow eyeball and a frog!
Our next unit will be a fun art class. I can't wait to see what they learn there! After that we will start the rotation over but with an emphasis on learning skills needed when they start babysitting. They are looking forward to that!
In other school news, we are still plugging along. I've added a fun new bookshelf to our school room made by my wonderful hubby! He's so talented! This has helped to organize all of our books!
Spelling has fallen by the wayside somewhere along the way, but we are working to get that going again. Maryella is seeming to be picking up a bit of speed with her reading lately, although we still have a long way to go. Kaylin has been saying recently that she *gasp* likes math! Oh my! Never thought I'd hear her utter those words! Annlee is doing really well and I can tell that she is making great strides in her writing skills. Elianna is still in preschool at church, but she's doing plenty of learning herself! We just discovered last night that she can read little words. Talk about a shock! I haven't even begun to work with her! I'm already relaxing a little about next year! Speaking of next year, we ordered our curriculum already and it is taking all my strength to not dig into that! But it will come! We are in the homestretch now of our second year and everything is going amazingly well. I'll try to stay more on top of things now that I'm all caught up. We've got a fun birthday coming up soon, an exciting addition to tell you about that will make vacations even more fun, a trip to the Creation Museum planned for April, and so many other wonderful adventures! I can't wait to for all that awaits us!
