MFW Adventures Week 10

Bible: This week we learned that Jesus is the Living Water. We read the story of the Samartian woman at the well from John 4. We decided as a family to give up drinking juice, milk, and soda this week and focus on drinking more water. We discussed how our body need water to survive and what happens when we do not get enough water.

History: We studied the birth of America.  Our lessons came the books The Fourth of July Story and Red, White and Blue. We read about Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence. Jake was excite to hear that Ben Franklin helped him with writing it.  We looked at a copy of the Declaration of Independence and saw the impressive signature of John Hancock.   We learned that part of becoming a new nation meant having a new flag. We learned that historians believe that Betsy Ross made the first flag for George Washington during the war. Another fun fact that we learned was that the colonies created many different flags to represent them. All the flags had thirteen stars and thirteen strips. Emily was very focused on this book, so we decided to take the opportunity to create a book report. We used the writing process from Write Source.

In addition to Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, we also learned a little about the Revolutionary War.  I'm so happy that we are watching the Liberty Kids series on Netflix.  It is truly helping the kids to understand this time in history. We watch the following shows this week:

1. Postmaster General Franklin
2. Washington Takes Command
3. Common Sense
4. The 1st Fourth of July


I found a hidden treasure at our local library this week.  I found Liberty Kids computer game from The Learning Company.  The game covers the following events: The Boston Tea Party, Lexington and Concord, The Declaration of Independence, Washington Crossing the Delaware, Saratoga, Valley Forge, and Battle of Yorktown.  The kids are enjoying the games and trying to earn as much computer time as they can.  Jake said, "Mom, there is no better way to learn history than to play history ". I have to agree, the game really is a lot of fun.

In an effort to understand which states were the original thirteen colonies, we colored a map. Since it was coloring, I chose not to ask Jake to join us. Yes, I was in fear of a tantrum!  I was very please that Jake took the initiative to join us once the saw the girls have such a good time.  I think the snack at the table help too!

With the focus of the Declaration of Independence, we made ink out of blueberry juice (we squeezed out the juice from fresh berries). We then added some salt and vinegar and had the perfect ink for writing. We used duck feathers to write with. We took advantage of the nice weather and took this project outside.  The boys took small breaks between riding their bikes to paint.  Ashley wrote a cute letter to her grandma, Emily tried to paint flowers, and the boys just doodled.

To end the week, we adding the Declaration of Independence and US  timeline piece to our timeline.
 
Science: We discussed how water is absorbed through different materials.  Our first experiment was using water to test the absorption of different materials.  They put a tsp of water in a dish and tested to see what materials could absorb the water in 5 seconds.  The kids wrote out their predictions. The kids chose the various items: coffee filter, regular diaper, flat cloth diaper, sponge, paper towel, Kleenex, and tracing paper. They learned that items with holes/pores absorbed more liquid. Emily predicted that a sponge would soak up the water in the 5 seconds. Her prediction was correct. We  learn from our experiment that a slightly wet sponge worked best. Ashley predicted that a regular diaper would soak up the water.  Her prediction was wrong, actually a flat cloth diaper soaked up the water in the 5 seconds.

Next we observed how water could cause colors to separate. We used markers to make large dots on coffee filter strips. Then we put the strips in a saucer of water and watched to see what happened as the water reached the dots.  The colors separated, but not as book as the book showed.  The black dot was the most impressive.  We could see almost all the shades of color come out of it.  Purple pulled out some blue colors, and red showed some orange and pink. Brown showed lots of red and orange.

Music: Ashley and I learned that the Nutcracker ballet was performed in 1892 in Russia. Tchiakovsky composed the music but he didn't write the story. We read The Nutcracker Ballet and Ashley loved every single minute of it. I am looking into the local theaters to see what the Nutcracker will be performed this year.  I want to make sure she gets to see it in person from a professional ballet company.

field trip: We went with one of our homeschool groups to apple hill.  We took a tour of the apple farm, walked through the corn maze, picked a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, tried some apple cider and different types of apples that they grow, and went on a nature hike around the grounds.  It was a beautiful day and the kids for excited to see their friends.  I was highly impressed on how well Max did for being two, as it was a long day and a lot of walking.