2008JeffJourney

It's All Because of Swiss Day....

June 6, 2010
 
 

(**Be Free... Back to the creek the tadpoles went.)

After reading aloud Treasures of the Snow, a book set in the Swiss Alps, M's teacher hosted the class to her house for the much anticipated Swiss day. After sampling some Swiss food and enjoying the movie version of the book, they all set out on a hike. It was then they happened upon a creek with tadpoles and M became the proud adoptive dad of four beauties.

As the weeks went by (5 to be exact) two tadpoles grew up to adulthood while two sprouted their two back legs.

**George and George (because he couldn't tell them apart) went back home as tadpoles.

**Molly and Michael made it to adulthood under his protection.

 

After doting on the creatures for weeks, I thought M would be weepy releasing his youngsters to the wild but he took it like a man.

  

Though after 20 years of parenting I think I would have realized before we set out that if there is water, mud and animals, the kids are not going to stay clean to go to church. Sigh.

We Made It!

May 28, 2010

  

Field Day marks the end of the CCS year.  On August 12th, when we started out this year I had my doubts that we'd be able to keep up with the early mornings and afternoon homework, but here we are. We not only made it but really enjoyed the process as well.  There was not a day when the boys complained about going to school.

**First Grade Tug of War (with a little help from a Dad)

***Four of the Sixth Grade boys take off in the sack race.

*** Look Mom, I'm a table..." A- occupying herself on the sidelines.

Field Day was a family day of competition and fun.  The students started out with sack races, hula hooping contests, relays and races. Soon everyone was joining in.

 

***C holds his own in the tug of war and races L in the obstacle course.

To cap off the day and ward off the heat, we headed to D's teacher's neighborhood pool for an end of the year party - pizza, swimming and conversation.

 

Lessons Learned with M's Sampler

May 27, 2010

One of the projects in M's first grade class this year was a cross stitch sampler. After learning the basics, their teacher would read captivating books like The Magician's Nephew, Treasures in the Snow and Mr. Popper's Penguins as they stitched away.

***Eager to work on his sampler after church one Sunday he stitches through his tie.

Through it he learned attentiveness to detail, creativity in design, patience with the stitching (and untangling thread) and joyfulness in a job well done.

 

*** M joyfully displays his sampler at the End of the Year program.

Plants: All in Four Hours or Less

May 7, 2010

***Snack: A bountiful plant feast!

Today marked the last day of teaching Enrichment Classes this year for M's first grade class. I am amazed at how the topics I picked in August went hand in hand with what I was studying with another child for their schooling - a Providential blessing!  This class on plants fell in the middle of the two chapters covered in the high school biology class on plants that J&E are working through. The hard thing was finding just the right activities to occupy six seven year old students for four hours.

**The cover of mine and M's lapbook

The emphasis of the day was to become familiar with six parts of the plant (leaves, stems, roots, flowers, seeds and fruits.) We combined a lot of activities to make a lap book that hopefully they'll be able to go back to again and again. 

Art - This sunflower art project for the cover was taken from a library book, Linking Art to the World Around Us: Plants & Art Activities edited by Ellen Roger.

**We added a brown (dirt) flap to show the roots.

**The inside of the lapbook.

Bible: Mark 4: The Parable of the Sower

I wasn't satisfied with much of the freebie lapbook print outs but I did get a coloring sheet (which they glued to the back of the lapbook) and the clip art for the front of this booklet. Inside these minibooks they drew pictures to show what they thought each of the things in the parable stood for.

**M's depiction of the "thorns," - this boy has 3 treasure chests - and Satan is drawn as a snake.

The rest of the activities mostly fell into Science:  

Sorting: On a table with six squares drawn with masking tape we sorted out our snacks into the different parts of the plants.  We lingered mostly on fruits using the science words (seed bearing part) which makes no room for the word vegetable.

Stems: We went through the parts of a science experiment.  I printed off materials and procedure but they wrote (or dictated) in the rest (problem, hypothesis, results, conclusion.) The experiment was putting a white carnation into food coloring and watching how the stem transports the water. I also brought a flower I had started in blue food coloring several days ahead and a piece of celery so they could write their conclusions. I thought the celery was pretty cool and showed clearly where the "straws" were in the stem.

 

***Materials, Procedure, Conclusion

Seeds: We looked at many seeds from as small as a carrot seed to as big as a coconut. They chose four seeds to tape to cards that they could label. We examined soaked bean seeds to see the inside of the seed using Exploring Creation with Botany as a guide for the "dissection" and then completed the Parts of a Seed shape book. And we cut open an avocado to find a seed and "plant" it in water.

Flowers: We once again used Exploring Creation with Botany for a structure to our flower dissection though they are more technical than I.  We just identified four parts of the flower and talked about pollen and nectar.

Leaves: We could have lingered on this section for most of the time. Our nature journals are attached to the lap book with Velcro so that they can be removed and used and put back again. We took a nature walk trying to find different shaped leaves.  Our list came from a much longer scavenger hunt sheet that would be fun to do someday with older children.  The kids chose one "favorite" leaf and brought it back in the classroom.  There they did a rubbing, a drawing with detail to the veins, measured it, felt it and smelled it. Some more activities were found in an activity guide for trees in a park in Ireland.

Phew! We were still gluing, taping and finishing as the parents pulled in to pick up their students! Of course this study would be great doled out over several weeks with time to digest information and marvel at how vast and wonderful God's creation is. It is truly a gift from Him to be surrounded by such  variety for the senses!

Manners Day

April 2, 2010

The long awaited Manners Day has arrived and he is ready.

Endurance Pays Off

March 30, 2010

It has been a very long month of experimenting, observing, researching, reporting and practicing - but he made it! And made it well. D gained enough points for his science fair project that he earned a first place ribbon and got special mention for his ability to express what he learned.

 

Service With A Smile

March 22, 2010

***M and his buddy rolled the snickerdoodles in cinnamon and sugar.

Four times a year, CCS has service days where the parents lead an activity or trip with each class to bless another. Today M's class worked hard on making cards to give to different people who have been involved in their lives or that they were praying for.  They also put together a package to send to the soldier that they are praying for. As well, they made cookies and cards to give out to the elderly residents when they went to a local assisted living home in the area to sing and recite their poems. Phew! It was a full morning with enthusiastic servers who are a blessing just being who they are!

Preparing for Easter

March 19, 2010

What a joy it was to co-teach M's first grade class on the theme of Easter. They were an enthusiastic group as we made Resurrection Rolls, read through 3 books of John, hunted Easter eggs and reviewed the Resurrection story with the aid of Resurrection Eggs.

As we read from the book of John, each student held a prop that they had to listen for when it was used in the story. They were very attentive. It was exciting to see their eyes light up as we talked about the miraculous working of Jesus described in these chapters - the healing of Malcus's ear, the "falling back" response of the guards when he said, "I Am He" and, of course, his power over death when he showed up with Mary when he was suppose to be dead!

May we look to His power as we worship Him this Easter season!

  *** Snack time was delicious!

Oh, What You Can Do With Simple Machines!

March 5, 2010

Inclined Planes, wheels, levers, pulleys, wedge, screw, inventions, Rube Goldberg,  ...

It's funny how when one of us is studying something it can draw in everyone else.  For several days all in our house were identifying and making simple machines. We made a simple version of a Rube Goldberg invention to bring in for a climax to my Simple Machines study with M's first grade class. We also discovered through You Tube the world out there of engineers fascinated with creating. Our favorite is a music video by OK Go to the song, This Too Shall Pass.

Who wouldn't have fun playing with all these simple concepts that give us such variety in our daily lives?  The class went off well with enthusiastic participants in all the activities.

F is for Flag

February 26, 2010

The CCS policy says that one of the enrichment days must be taught by the dad, so when C saw the topic of the American Flag that is what excited him most.  The six first graders had a great time learning about respect and care for our country's emblem. They got to raise and lower the colors over and over again till they all had a turn, hear stories of our flag's history and sum it all up with a competitive game of flag trivia jeopardy. A good time was had by all.