MFW Adventures Week 16

Bible: "Jesus is Immanuel!" This is a great topic right now as we are heading into the Christmas season.

History: We visited Rhode Island and Vermont this week. We learned about Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road. Our state activity this week was to try real maple syrup. This is right up our alley, as pancakes are a staple in our house. Since we completed learning about the original 13 colonies, I put together a card game for the kids to match up the state with the state abbreviation. My goal is for them to at least memorize where the states are on the map and the abbreviation this year.  We focused on memorizing where original 13 colonies are on the map.  Check out this site we are using. I allow the kids to use their maps if needed for help.

Science: We took a break from the MFW's science this week. Emily chose for us to study Elephants. We also meet with Emily's teacher at her home for some great science time.  We learned all about local trees, their leaves, and cones. We feed the horses and talked about what they eat. We took a wonderful nature hike around her property.We even found some old tabacco plants that grow naturally on her property. Emily was in heaven, as she would love to live up in the hills here.

Math: Jake enjoyed playing some of his favorite math games this week. It is amazing that a kid can learn is numbers from 1-20, adding, and subtracting from board games. I can only hope that Max will be this easy. Since Jake learns so easily, I have started to look at teaching him through some of the Montessori styles.

Lindor Truffles Review

Well, my wonderful box of chocolates arrived. The kids and I started jumping for joy.  We rushed home from the mailbox, ran into the house, grabbed a knife to open the box. The boys were jumping up and down and the girls were squealing with joy.  All our mouths were watering like crazy.
As we opened the box, there was no more jumping; smiles turned to a very stressed look of horror. The chocolates had melted, and I mean melted everywhere in the box. There was one large bag and several small bags with two truffles in each one.  All melted everywhere. Poor little Jake who is 5.5 started to cry.  How sad is that.  I closed up the box and gathered the kids up and off we went for ice cream.  Needless to say, it was a sad, sad day.

I contacted Buzzagent and they will be sending us another box in the mail.  Lets just hope if arrives before the campaign is over.

MFW Adventures Week 14

Bible: We learned how Jesus is "the Way the Truth and the Life".

History: We are continuing our visit to the fifty states. This week we studied: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina.

.Science:  This week we discovered interesting facts about the Robin, Chickadee, and the Northern Oriole. Here are the drawing the kids did for each bird nest.

Ashley's

Jake's

Emily's

We studied about the state bird of Connecticut, the Robin. Here is our 14 feet long measurement, the amount of worms that a robin can eat in one day. Jake was amazed that they eat that much.  He asked if he could eat 14 feet of gummy worms to see if he could do it too. My response, NO.

Jake drawing his line of 14 feet

The kids enjoyed their time making Robin's Nests. We chose to make chocolate play dough, instead of the edible recipe provided through MFW manual.

We decorated our tree for the birds by stringing popcorn and dried fruit. We were amazed that the birds ate all the popcorn and fruit within two days.  They really love the stuff around here.

We filled up our bird feeders to see who would come and visit. I am happy to report that we had several birds come by for a snack this week.  The kids love watching the humming birds at their feeder the most.  They are such cute little birds.

We also learned that a chickadee (the state bird of Massachusetts) weighs the same as 4 pennies!

Read Aloud: We started reading a new book in the Laura Ingalls series, Farmer Boy (pg1-49)

So far my kids and I are not sure if we will be finishing this book. This week we read the first four chapters.  Within these chapters the books talks about five teenage boys in the class that try to upset the teacher. Once the teacher tries to disciple them, they beat him up. These boys even kill a teacher by beating him.  My children are very sensitive to violence and I'm not sure this book is for us.  We will try one or two more chapters and see what happens.
Since we already eating the left over popcorn from our bird activity, we decided to try the experiment we read about in Farmer Boy.   You fill one glass with milk and another with popped popcorn, you can add the popcorn to the milk one kernel at a time without the milk overflowing. Worked for us perfectly.  The kids couldn't resist trying the milk with the popcorn in it. 

MFW Adventures Week 13

This is Thanksgiving week, come back in a few weeks to see what we did.

MFW Adventures Week 12

Bible: Since this weeks science focus is birds, we looked at birds in the bible. We started the week by discussing that God greeted birds on the fifth day of creation.  We then read the story of Noah.  We discussed how a dove was sent out to identify if there was land anywhere near by.  Later in the week we read about Jesus' baptism, and God's strength.

History:  We are on a cross country trip to visit each of our US States. Within each state, we will learn many features that include the capital, famous landmarks, state bird, state flower, state flag, and the abbreviation. We are starting our tip with the original 13 colonies. This week we spent time in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia. The kids enjoyed coloring the state sheets included in MFW packet. The highlight visit was in Pennsylvania.  They learned that there is a town called Hersey's Pennsylvania.  In honor of this city, we spent sometime eating Hersey Kisses and drinking chocolate milk this week. 

These are the MFW Adventures sheets are are included in the program. I also found U.S. State Cards from the  $1 store. We will be using this to review the states we have learned each week.  Each child has their own, so that can practice when they like.

Each day they color and add the abbreviation for the state

Each child has their own passport book. We add the state flag sticker, abbrevaions, and capital for each state we visit each week. The kids added their picture, name, age, and address to the first page.

Each child has a map with the stickers to
add, as we learn them. We placed them throughout the house (kitchen, staircase, and bathroom). Each day the kids learn about the state and then place the state sticker on the map.  They are really enjoying this and love that they are placed throughout the house. I will be quizzing the kids as we move about the house each night.  It is becoming a game for the kids, which make learning so much more fun.

Science: This week was an introduction to our study of birds.  We are using the book Take-Along Guide Birds, Nests and Eggs. The kids gave great examples how birds are different than other animals. We talked about migrations, when the best time to watch birds (between 6am and 10am), and a little about bird nests.  Later in the week, we studied Goldfinches, which is the state bird of New Jersey. The interesting fact that the they liked best, was that the male looses his color in the winter and that goldfinch eggs hatch in 12-14 days.

To end the week, we celebrated Halloween with our homeschool group. 

Kids doing cake walk

Jake playing pin the superhero.

Ashley playing pin the superhero

Trunk or Treating

Jake checking out more trunks and playing game

Max and Emily Trunk or Treating at friends car 

All of us walking the parking lot to Trunk or Treat

Jake enjoying some witches potion!

Ashley bobbing for apples at homeschool group party

Head over to " Homeschool Highlights in MFW" to read more post of families using My Father's World curriculum.