Kathleen, your kiddos look like they've had a wonderful week. Congrats to Allison for starting Beyond! I remember all those activities from the beginning of this year, we sure made some fun memories!
This week brought some interesting things. One of them came on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. We received over a foot of heavy wet snow!!! The kids were absolutely thrilled! They thought spring was upon us, and were very pleasantly surprised that they had more snow to play in! This first picture is of our deck behind the house. There was almost no snow the day before I took this picture. The other is of our front yard where we believe there are a lot of "buried treasures"!
Little Hands to Heaven-Week 23
My little two had another fun week with Little Hands. The letter this week was "S". We focused on some of the miracles that Jesus did during His earthly ministry. They enjoyed the fingerplay, especially the "wiggle, wiggle, squish" line! Their counting page had them drawing band-aids to remind them how Jesus healed people's "owies". We also talked about the way Jesus calmed the storm. They found this to be very interesting, as they are both a little afraid of storms. Again, I didn't manage to get any pictures. I guess time flies so fast working with these littler ones, that I always forget to grab my camera!
Beyond - Unit 23
This week we've been learning about the time just prior to the Revolutionary War. We read a story about the young George Washington and his time spent as a surveyor. They also did an activity where they made a map of their front yard, in a similar way. They enjoyed this greatly! On another day they performed an Indian Dance. This was a great way to burn off a little energy, and be allowed to make a LOT of noise in the process!
On the third day, we read a story about Patience Arnold and how she was brave and obeyed what her mother told her to do. They also made a little garden model of their own, and then the next day made an herb garden. They really enjoyed the smell of some of their "real" herbs used in their little gardens. And others not so much!
This weeks memory verse was Prov. 15:1, and boy, did it ever fit well this week! "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." I can't tell you how many times we referenced our verse this week!
Our little Morning Bells devotion for the week talked about learning to be content in all things. I used this as a time to talk to my children about some real life (extended family) illness and talked about how just like Job, we need to be saying, "Blessed be the name of the Lord!", at all times, in all seasons. I am so thankful that the Lord used this time to open the door to explain some of the tough things in life! Praise the Lord!
Preparing-Unit 23/Day 2 - Unit 24/Day2
Since the wonderful news about HOD doing high school, I've been coming up with a plan for my older two. The younger three will not be affected and can carry on with our original plan for the guides and they will be able to complete all of them by graduation. However, my older two would be missing out on one or more of the guides. So, for a few years, we plan on doing 5 day weeks and just working our way through the guides. This will mean that by high school they will be starting the first high school guide. I'm so glad that it worked out this way. They won't miss any of the great guides and yet won't be rushed. This pace should be a great fit for both of them!
This week was another fun one for my son. His history project this week was to make a viking brooch. He learned a lot about what they looked like by doing the research within the guide. He really had a lot of fun making this, but wouldn't let me take a picture of it!!
He didn't like how it turned out! The glue he was using wasn't setting up and drying the right way. It was spreading out too much and, as a result, didn't make his design very rigid. When he put the foil over the top, it was hard to tell what the design looked like underneath. It would have been better if I had thought to have him try craft glue or something thicker. The design was really neat. He had drawn a viking helmet with horns. As you guessed by now, we're learning about the barbarians and the vikings.
He's also been enjoying Leif the Lucky. He finished this book today, and liked it a lot. Surprisingly, he's really taken in a lot in the way of geography from this book. Here's one of the maps he made this week:
In science he's been reading the One Small Square:Coral Reef book. He just loves these books so much. He did an experiment where he had to make a model of a coral polyp. They are inverebrates that are protected by a hard coating and stinging tentacles. He tells me it turned out well! By looking at it, I wasn't so sure!
It was made of all edible things so he enjoyed eating his work when he was done!
Here's another picture of a notebook page he made about the coral reefs.
Next week we'll be having a short week. We'll be going on a little family vacation. If I have time I'll post before we go, or most likely I'll just post the next week along with the following weeks post! Have a great weekend everyone!
I'm from coastal SoCal and now live in the AZ desert. I have yet to experience a snowfall like yours! Beyond looks really fun. I like the herb garden idea. I don't know if I'd want to eat the coral polyp your son made. 
