Museum Trip!

Today we had the blessing of going meeting up with my old HC friend Karen and her kiddos! We took the kids to the Madison Cultural Heritage Center, where Karen has some of her photographs on display! The adults had a ball catching up (thanks Facebook!) while the kids played in the museum and the cool caboose on the Center's grounds! While we live in Madison, I had never been to the center. It is a great hands-on place to take kids. It also fits with our History study of the U.S.! We are loving the My Father's World approach to U.S. History. Charlotte Mason is the perfect way to study history for these little guys! We have been reading about Squanto and Jamestown using story format and living books! Also posted are some pictures of our artist study. This week we have talked about Van Gogh!

Week 3: Jamestown

Good morning! We have started our third week by reading about how God wants us all to be saved! What a great way to start the week! Ethan's friend Andy is here with us this morning and will be with us for part of the Summer. While the boys had breakfast, I read them the 1st chapter of Squanto,which they seemed to enjoy. We found MA on the map and guessed why it has that name (The MA Indians of course!). After that we started Sequential Spelling 1, with our first list. Andy caught on right away that all of the words were "in" words: in, pin, sin, spin.....if E noticed he did not say a thing. We have done our addition and subtraction flash cards for the morning. We are off to VBS in a minute, but this afternoon, after a playdate with R and E, we are going to be reading about Jamestown, doing a written narration/copywork, a Van Gough inspired art work, and quiet reading. A good start to a great week!

100 Things

Thanks to Jenny at Charity Mom for sparking the idea of making my own 100 list!
1oo Things That Make Me Happy
1. hearing/reading adoption stories
2. seeing my sweet son when he is sleeping
3. reading a good book
4. bubble baths
5. British chocolate
6. eating out with friends
7. Indian food
8. new magazines
9. First Friday Book club-and the girls :)
10. crushes
11. fresh flowers
12. the beach in Greenisland, No. Ireland
13. Mr. Tesco/Tesco's
14. coffee shops
15. Jungle Jim's
16. McVittie's chocolate digestives
17. baby smiles
18. musicals
19. My son's Kermit impression
20. Ethan singing Louis Armstrong
21. learning something new
22. knitting
23. hearing from former students
24. painting with Ethan
25. new recipes that turn out well :)
26. GLEE!
27. new books on my Kindle
28. singing along to music in the car
29. days out with Angy
30. bath with books
31. talking to friends on the phone
32. sharing E's adoption story
33. Rebeca's apartment in Paris-being with family who live far away
34. Art museums
35. bookstores
36. The Central West End in St. Louis (my old college neighborhood)
37. catching up with old friends
38. day trips with Ethan and Pam
39. long talks with Jeff
40. tea with Louise-my neighbor in Greenisland
41. being with Fiona and family
42. Epcot
43. walking around St. Meinrad
44. visiting the KY Dominican's motherhouse in Bardstown (St. Catharine's).
45. going to Mass
46. blogs
47. chocolate ice cream
48. watching old sitcoms
49. Rosie Reader books
50. visiting big cities
51. Ethan doing the Single Ladies/football dance
52. snuggle time reading to Ethan
53. laughing out loud over silly things with friends
54. new jammies
55. helping with children's Christmas choir
56. coffee out with Debbie and Jill
57. Melting Pot
58. reading in bed in the morning
59. sleeping in
60. reading fav books over and over
61. Yarn shops
62. walking down Euclid Ave. in St. Louis
63. watching Ethan learn something new
64. Anne Lamott books
65. Veggie Tales silly songs
66. fav songs on repeat
67. a cup of tea with cream and sugar
68. quiet time
69. Christ Renews Tuesdays with the girls
70. My CCD Kinder kids (I get them again next year too!)
71. travelogues
72. long late night talks on the phone with Melissa
73. new friends
74. making scones
75. baking bread
76. eyes the color of peace
77. long hugs
78. waking up early and getting to go back to sleep
79. Old photos and videos of Ethan-esp. with the British accent.
80. long walks with my iPod
81. watching the leaves fall in the Fall
82. holding babies at Pam's
83. late night talks about nothing
84. checking in on Facebook
85. taking Ethan to see new productions
86. Watching the Nutcracker with Ethan
87. birthday cake (esp. for breakfast!)
88. Molly Moo's ice cream
89. chicken tikka masala
90. finding the prefect present for someone
91. the start of a new class/semester
92. when a TPRS story takes off
93. that light bulb moment in teaching
94. watching the kids faces when we go into the Art Institute/St. Louis Cathedral/see the skyline
95. being SO into a book that when you put it down it takes a minute to remember where you are
96. watching the sunset with someone I love
97. teapots and cute tea cups
98. visiting zoos/museums/etc.
99. that new baby smell
100. inside jokes :)

Columbus.....

We are having another busy day today. Last night at bedtime and today I read to E about C. Columbus and his life. E narrated a short summary and then copied it onto his narration sheet. I'm not sure how to get him to use best handwriting. What he is doing is more than legible, but I'd like this study to leave him with his own book of U.S. History. I also realized how much easier things are when he is on his Concerta. We read some air air and the atmosphere and then he did a "searching for air" experiment. He is upset that I could not make the DVD player work-so he missed out on watching the science video that goes with our books. He'll get to watch it soon. Math review of addition and subtraction facts went pretty well. He's in his room reading right now (Mama needed a time out and so did he!). Art was the hit again today! We looked at a piece of art by Joan Miro' and then made similar crayon and watercolor paintings. We both really enjoyed this! Papa is coming to take him to the movies at 4. The only thing we have left to do today is our bedtime read aloud. Have a great day :)!

Monet

We are getting ready for our first full week of our American Studies curriculum. Until then we are playing with art/famous artists thanks to a wonderful website my friend Teresa posted: www.artprojectsforkids.com . Today EE, his friend R, and I learned about Monet's watercolors and made some waterlilies of our own. Here is a sneak peak of the artists hard at work.

The Vikings

We are just finishing our first topic: The Vikings. Due to the end of "official" school we did not do as much with this topic as we might have. At bedtime E and I have been reading a Magic Tree House book on the Vikings. Right now we are "in" Ireland with a young St. Patrick. In addition, we have read about Leif the Lucky and E has done a narration page on the reading. In science we have talked about which things float and how adding salt to water changes which items float. We've also talked about scientists and the scientific method (in very general terms). I LOVE how MFW connects all the subjects :) We are looking forward to next week: Christopher Columbus, boatmaking, getting into our Bible study, and science with air!

Hello out there in Bloggyland :)

Hi there! As yesterday was the last day of school, I decided to take up blogging again. This blog will follow our Summer adventures with "Adventure in My Father's World" curriculum. Our summer learning will focus on American History via the Charlotte Mason method. If things go well, I might think about continuing the experiment into the school year. If not, we will have had a Summer of learning neat stuff in a hands-on, project based way! Enjoy!