FIAR: The Story of Ping

Our last official row of the semester was The Story of Ping.  We worked on this book the weeks of November 3rd and 10th.  Now, I can't say it was a disappointment because we always manage to have fun and accomplish a lot of hands on learning with our Five In A Row titles.  However, I have extremely fond and sentimental memories of this book from my own childhood, but Emma did not share my enthusiasm for the story.  At all.  Not a favorite of hers.  I don't really know why?  She hated that Ping got "spanked" and lost from his family.  Nothing appealed to her about the book, so we did not end up reading it every day.  That's okay.  It still served as a springboard for other things.

We did a fun math sheet with Bingo markers to calculate how many members are in Ping's family.  We also used some downloads from Homeschool Share and a FIAR Fold and Learn to make some pages for our scrapbook.  I accidentally erased some pictures from my memory card from this row, so I don't have much to actually show.

Since ducks are buoyant, we conducted a "sink or float" science experiment.  We gathered assorted household items and predicted if they would sink or float.  Then, we tested our theories and graphed the actual results.  The graphing exercise was great practice.  We also then categorized our items into various categories....those that sink, those that float, those we guessed correctly, those we guessed incorrectly, etc.  She really enjoyed this.

Ducks are also waterproof, thanks to a special oil glad that secretes an oil they distribute when they preen their feathers.  We demonstrated this theory by painting a card stock duck with oil, then spraying it with water.  Waterproof!

The one redeeming thing about this book was our in depth study of ducks.  She LOVES animals, and was endlessly interested in the duck theme.  We found TONS of non-fiction books at the library to read, as well as a basket of fun literature....Happy Birthday Dear Duck, Daisy Comes Home, and many more.  We will continue to study ducks when we row Make Way For Ducklings this spring.  I thought I would have to wait several months to space these two books apart, but she has already asked a few times when we are going to do the next duck book, so that's great!

Our library had several early elementary level books about China.  It was quite interesting to learn about the culture and traditions of little girls in China.  We also prayed for the spread of the Gospel there and had some sweet heart to heart talks about what freedom of religion looks like in the US.  I'm often humbled by the sweetness and innocence of children and their viewpoints.  Some of the questions she asked and prayers she offered were really memorable.

There were a few things that fell by the wayside....we never went out for Chinese food and we didn't make our own egg rolls.  I also had some cute Chinese crafts that we did not do.  We had out of town company during the first week of this row, and a field trip day during the second.  Since there were a few things we did not get to, I thought about extending our study by a few extra days, but she was ready to move on, and due to her lack of interest I felt okay about closing the book on this one.  I wish she would have been more excited about the story, but we still managed to have a good time and learn some valuable things.

I can't believe we finished our first semester already. So far we have rowed:

Night of the Moonjellies

Madeline

Harold and the Purple Crayon

How to Make An Apple Pie and See the World

Johnny Appleseed

Lentil

Papa Piccolo

The Rag Coat

The Story of Ping

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

I'm excited about the progress we have made, and have BIG plans for more titles this spring!

Elf on the Shelf Takes Up Residence

We didn't realize when Rudy took up residence here that he would be quite so mischievous.  Seems that having an elf in the house is a bit of a tricky proposition!  We never know what we will find first thing each morning.

Tuesday......

Rudy decorated our pantry door and built a snow princess for us.

Wednesday....

All eyes were on Rudy!

Thursday.....

Now, this one was especially challenging.  I stayed up half the night Wednesday into Thursday working on a computer project, and I completely underestimated just HOW BADLY I would need a caffeine fix early in the morning.  Rudy and I had a little negotiating to do so that I could make a cup of coffee (or two) before Emma came downstairs!

Friday....

Rudy took a joy ride down the stair case and into the den.

I snapped this picture of our cat, Leo, trying to figure out what in the world was going on!  He was really giving that toilet paper the stink eye.  :-)

Looks like we are in for a busy month.  Elves sure do make fun houseguests!

Dawn of December: Elf on the Shelf and Truth in the Tinsel

December First!!!  HOORAY!!  I absolutely love the holidays, and I'm looking so forward to a month of fun, food, fellowship, friends, and family.  This year we are doing Elf on the Shelf for the very first time.  Our elf, Rudy, arrived this morning and we celebrated with a North Pole Breakfast.  

We had snowballs (donut holes), homemade hot chocolate with chocolate dipped marshmallows, and cinnamon twists.  Rudy brought a few surprises to town with him....an elf plate and a monogrammed ornament.  Emma bit into a snowball and lost yet ANOTHER tooth!  It's crazy.  If she keeps this up we are going to have to put dentures in her stocking! 

Our distinguished guest.......naturally.  Although, Rudy told us in his letter that he is scared of dogs.  YIKES!  Penny is sure to win him over.

Rudy is very fun, and I have found lots of cute ideas on Pinterest for elf mischief.

HOWEVER...

Preparing our hearts and minds to observe the birth of the Christ child is our TRUE reason for celebration around here.  This year I downloaded an advent study from Truth In the Tinsel.  That study will be the main focus of our homeschool this month.  Each day, we will do the devotional together, then make an ornament to hang on our advent tree.  We are also reading applicable stories from our various children's Bibles.  I will share more about our advent tree in the next few days.  Our advent focus will most likely replace FIAR studies for the next few weeks.  (I'm still debating about doing one book.)

We also started a new read aloud today....The Boxcar Children. Such a beloved classic!

A tremendous cold snap blew into town this morning, so we stayed inside ALL day, reading and crafting.  I even skipped a Faith Keeper meeting tonight.  (No guilt, which is rare!)  I was so incredibly wiped out from Thanksgiving that I just hit a wall late this afternoon.  The boys had a meeting tonight, so Emma and I stayed home alone.  We curled up under a fuzzy blanket by the light of the tree and watched Winnie the Pooh Christmas and made foam snowflakes.  (Thanks Oma, for the ornament kit!)  IT WAS DIVINE, and I said a little prayer that the peace and relaxation and gratitude that I felt tonight would set the stage for the next 31 days.  :-)  

I tend to get energized by the chaos of the holidays.  I know not everyone loves the extra bustle, but I delight in the baking and crafting and decorating socializing and list making.  I think it is super important to keep Jesus at the center of it all and put the brakes on (like tonight) if it stops being fun and starts to feel overwhelming.  Otherwise, I relish the arrival of December the first and gladly slip into the vortex of the Christmas storm!!

FIAR: The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

I'm glad to be back online after a long absence.  Our computer broke and went into the shop, and once we got it back, there was a long line of family members waiting their turn to hop on and get caught up with life!  I have several posts to do in a row to get back up to speed, so here we go....

We rowed "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" by Hildegarde Swift during the weeks of October 20th and 27th.  Because we are picking up some extra content in science and reading and those areas are taking up more time in our day, I have spent two weeks on each of the last several Five in a Row studies we have done.  There are only so many hours in a day!  I have mixed feelings about that pace....I find so many creative, hands on ideas for each book, as well as baskets full of add on books from the library.   I want to spend enough time with each FIAR title to include as many of those fun "extras" as possible.  However, I also have a long list of books I would like to cover, so as I plan for next semester I need to evaluate how many activities we do and how fast we want to move.

Anyway.  SO much good stuff and so little time to cover it all.  That's the upside/downside of homeschooling...there's always more to learn!

This was a wonderful story written in the 1940's that we enjoyed very much.   The little red lighthouse is an actual lighthouse in New York City on the banks of the Hudson River.  It is not functioning today (it is part of Fort Washington Park), but it is open to the public for tours.  It's demure size pales compared to the George Washington Bridge towering beside it, and this charming story captures the thoughts and emotions of the little lighthouse as the bridge was built.

The internet is a fabulous resource for this row.  There are videos available on you-tube of the story being read aloud.  There is also a Reading Rainbow episode of Keep the Lights Burning Abby, which is a wonderful go-along with this title.  We "toured" several lighthouses online, including the actual red lighthouse in Fort Washington Park.

There is a fun and easy "How To Draw A Lighthouse" tutorial available at ArtProjectsForKids.

We covered concepts like horizon line, foreground and background, and how to use curved lines to make our lighthouse appear rounded.

In real life, lighthouses are any combination of red, white, and green.  I never knew that before.  I made her limit her choices to those three colors.  We used tempera paints for this project.

New York City is on my bucket list BIG TIME.  I have never been there, and my husband has zero desire to go.  I hope the Lord provides an opportunity one day for me to visit.  My oldest took a trip there last year as part of the fine arts department with her college.  (She is a photography minor.)  Emma and I went back through all her photos from that trip, and also read several books about New York from the library.

Of course, we added our story disk to the map.

We also read many books about bridges, and chose a few structures to study more closely.  We engineered some of our own bridges using building toys to see which ones were the strongest and why.

These experiments were a pleasant surprise in that she expressed quite a lot of curiosity!  She was genuinely interested in which bridges would hold the most, and she herself kept coming up with ideas for how to try more of them.  I had to drag her to the table this day to get her started (ugh), but once she got going, she was unstoppable!  A good lesson on not judging a subject matter before you know how FUN it can be!!

It was a gorgeous day outside the day we studied bridges, so big brother took her down to the 

"log bridge" over the creek behind our house.  He even sent me pictures!

Have I mentioned how handy it can be having helpful, wonderful older kids around???  :-)

Our big project for this row was building a lighthouse from a red plastic cup.  I gave her a roll of Washi tape to make the lighthouse stripes, which ended up looking really junky, but she had a blast with that silly tape!  Used up almost the entire roll!!  I asked her to make the first lighthouse according to the directions I gave her, and then promised her a second cup and set of supplies to make one however she wanted.  This is a good compromise for us from time to time.  I want her to learn to follow specific directions, but I also love to see what she comes up with on her own because she is so outrageously creative!  Since I tend to have a few control issues with crafts (clears throat), making two often keeps the peace.  ;-)

The top of the lighthouse is a battery operated votive candle. They come two to a pack at the Dollar Tree.  (Another reason why making two houses was handy!)

I thought these turned out DARLING, and she LOVED turning them on each day.  They sat in the middle of our homeschool table all week, and she even took them upstairs as night lights one night.

One of my favorite memories from this row......

Emma invited me into the homeschool room one night, long after we had finished school and it was dark outside.  She had our little lighthouses glowing and a snack sitting on the table.  She asked me to read aloud to her by the dim light in her cozy setting...absolutely a heartwarming moment!!

That brings me to the topic of reading.

We have used a lot of Sonlight through the years in our homeschooling.  I absolutely love Five In A Row and it is a great fit for us this year, but there are some really fabulous Sonlight books I don't want her to miss out on.  Also, FIAR titles (from the first three volumes) are shorter picture books, and I want her to develop the discipline of sitting through longer books with more complex story lines.  So, I've tried to incorporate even more read aloud time in our days.  This is a challenge with so many library books that coordinate with our FIAR studies, but I'm trying to find a good balance.

Anyway, Light at Tern Rock is a STUNNING story, and one of my all time favorites.  (I don't think Sonlight currently uses it, but they have in the past.)  I loved sharing this story once again with my youngest.....it brought back sweet memories of early homeschooling days.  I had to text my daughter at college and tell her that, true to form, I started crying so hard at the end of this book I couldn't continue to read aloud.  Emma was looking at me like I was nuts, and I had to explain to her that "it's just this thing Mommy does with almost every Sonlight book"!  This one tugs the heartstrings.

It's also fun when I can get readers that are spot on with our studies.  This was a fun one.

I had a few more activities planned that we didn't have time for.  We talked about compound words quite a bit, but I didn't use my compound word flashcards to play games.  Also, I found some fun printables about personification that we did not do.  I set those aside in hopes there is a future FIAR title with a good personification theme.  Lastly, I bought New York City stickers from the scrapbook section and was going to have her decorate a map of New York for our notebook.  I'm saving those stickers!  Maybe someday I will have my own photos from a Big Apple trip that I can scrapbook!  Ha!

Yet another sweet story under our belt and more fun times spent together making memories.  This book was a winner and gets thumbs up from us both!

Oh Dread... The Computer Is Dead!

My Mac is sick, and being held hostage at the Apple store waiting for a part to come in. Losing the family homeschool computer is like losing a limb! :-(

Rest assured we are still here...and still plugging. Last week we finished Little Red Lighthouse and this week we are rowing Ping. We also love Apologia Zoology and are having lots of insect fun.  All of our ladybug larvae have hatched and we have 18 ladybugs!!

Hopefully we will be back up and running in the technology department soon.....posts and pictures are coming! In the meantime, we are staying in and staying warm....a major cold front arrived this morning.  Makes for good snuggling and read aloud time! Happy schooling!!