Into the New Year

 

Into the New Year

Whew!  The past two weeks have just FLOWN BY!  We've been busy little bees, catching up on chores and pen pal letters, making trips to the park (it warmed up to 55 degrees!!!), and getting back into our groove with homeschooling (more on that in a minute.)  And of course the kids have been having a lot of fun tearing into the craft packs and science kits that they recently received.

Here is Megan building a circuit with her new science kit from Grandpa and Grandma Taylor.  

I am still amazed that it has held everyone's attention for this long!  This is one of those activities that the kids will sit for hours playing with, and won't argue about who has what. 

In science, we are working our way through Usborne's, "Mysteries and Marvels of Nature" as well as Sonlight's Biology I book.  We're currently studying insects, so I have a pretty unhappy 5 year-old princess on my hands.  This is the face that she has made for the past two weeks every time science rolls around!  Totally grossed out by BUGS! 

This girl just wasn't made to enjoy the gory details, and Usborne books are full of them!  My other two kids are loving every bit of it.

History.  I have to be honest--we have been a' slackin'!  They have kept up with the reading, but we haven't been having as much discussion time or extra activities since we picked back up after the holidays.  Which reminds me, I have to go right upstairs and get our craft out for tomorrow...right after I'm done here.  Or after the kids go to bed.  Or maybe I'll...well, I guess you can see who has been doing the bulk of the slacking!

Here's what my kids are doing right now:

This is the custom Aggravation board that my dear dad made for me for my 28th birthday.  My Great-Grandma had a board just like this one, and she and her friends would have game nights when they were younger.  Everybody in our extended family grew up playing "marbles" on Great-Grandma's board.  My mom also went to a lot of trouble to find me a marble tin that was similar to my Great-Grandma's (Jackson is holding it in the picture).  It was truly one of the greatest gifts that I've ever gotten.  And now I get to watch MY children sitting around the board, playing Marbles.  It's awesome!  Here's a close-up of my dad's handiwork.  I'm trying to convince him to go into business making boards, but he's not sure just yet.

In the next two weeks, we are jumping into the heart of the American Revolution.  I have some fun activities planned, including writing our own family Constitution and learning to dance the Minuet.  We've also been watching the entire season of "Liberty's Kids" on DVD.  I am praying that by February we will be done here and moved on to Lewis & Clark.  We need a good expidition around here!!!

Other books we are reading this month: