Our enrichment group went to a local nursing home close to Memorial Day to deliver cookies and sing patriotic songs. The residents LOVED the songs, and most of them sang along to "America the Beautiful," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "Star-Spangled Banner," "The Caissons Go Rolling Along," "My Country 'Tis of Thee," and others. The kids practiced beforehand, and they actually sounded pretty good! Notice Jackson's Civil Air Defense helmet that belonged to his great-grandfather - several of the residents recognized the logo and asked about it. :)
Making cookies beforehand:
The next batch of pictures comes from completed school projects. I want to do a better job next year of getting pictures of their projects. I often want to keep the actual projects, but there just isn't room enough in the house for all of them! Pictures will last longer. :)These sea creatures were made as part of our study on weather and water this past year.
For Tapestry of Grace second semester, we studied Africa. They each had to pick a country they were interested in and research it. They needed to create a report that included the capital, flag, customs, language, food, and crops. It was interesting to see the countries they chose.
Cora took a science class at our homeschool co-op, and this is one of the reports she prepared for class. She chose to research killer whales, and she discovered a lot of interesting facts about them. Did you know a killer whale was once found in the Thames River? (me either)
Can't seem to move the pictures around today - this is Shiloh's map of Africa. The maps created no small amount of angst since they had to be hand-drawn. Shiloh is a perfectionist and did not like her first try. :)
We learned about the push westward, and Shiloh created a poster to allure people to move. 
We also studied South America, learning about Simon Bolivar and the push for independence from Spain.
These are pictures of the lapbooks that we do throughout the year for history. It's a great visual reminder of all they've learned, and the kids learn summarizing skills as they have to provide information or pictures from their memories of the events, places, or people.
There were so many more projects that they did throughout the year, but these were just the ones that survived to the end of the year to take pictures. :) They especially enjoyed a research project that we did on immigrants. They were asked to interview great-grandparents or grandparents about their ancestors, and the answers they got surprised me! I found out from my dad that my great-great-grandfather Levi just up and disappeared one day. No one ever found out why or discovered his fate. The family believes it had something to do with gambling associates. They also enjoyed learning about the Civil War - ahem, the War Between the States - and they had some great discussions with Daddy about the subject. This year we're moving into modern history and so far we've studied the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, the Titanic, the Panama Canal, and the San Francisco earthquake. It's funny to me what each child becomes particularly interested in - I would have thought that Jackson would latch onto the Titanic or the earthquake because of the destruction and drama involved, but no. He wanted to hear more about the Panama Canal and the details of how they dug the trench, how they dammed the river, and how the locks worked. Did I mention he wanted to know all this in DETAIL? I learned more than I ever cared to about watertight doors on locks, dynamite blasting for trenches, and the solutions provided to cut down on malaria and yellow fever. Shiloh has now moved into the "dialectic" level of learning, which means that we have discussions each week that ask her not just to absorb and repeat information, but to offer analysis on the information. It's been so interesting to hear her thoughts on Teddy Roosevelt's presidency (she admired his enthusiasm and gusto - she didn't like how he thought government could take care of everyone's problems :) ) and Amy Carmichael's mission work (she was very encouraged to hear how Amy pressed on in the midst of incredible personal difficulty and she was troubled by the caste system that hindered her from presenting the gospel to all Indian people).
For Tapestry of Grace second semester, we studied Africa. They each had to pick a country they were interested in and research it. They needed to create a report that included the capital, flag, customs, language, food, and crops. It was interesting to see the countries they chose.
Cora took a science class at our homeschool co-op, and this is one of the reports she prepared for class. She chose to research killer whales, and she discovered a lot of interesting facts about them. Did you know a killer whale was once found in the Thames River? (me either)
Can't seem to move the pictures around today - this is Shiloh's map of Africa. The maps created no small amount of angst since they had to be hand-drawn. Shiloh is a perfectionist and did not like her first try. :)
We learned about the push westward, and Shiloh created a poster to allure people to move. 
We also studied South America, learning about Simon Bolivar and the push for independence from Spain.
These are pictures of the lapbooks that we do throughout the year for history. It's a great visual reminder of all they've learned, and the kids learn summarizing skills as they have to provide information or pictures from their memories of the events, places, or people.
There were so many more projects that they did throughout the year, but these were just the ones that survived to the end of the year to take pictures. :) They especially enjoyed a research project that we did on immigrants. They were asked to interview great-grandparents or grandparents about their ancestors, and the answers they got surprised me! I found out from my dad that my great-great-grandfather Levi just up and disappeared one day. No one ever found out why or discovered his fate. The family believes it had something to do with gambling associates. They also enjoyed learning about the Civil War - ahem, the War Between the States - and they had some great discussions with Daddy about the subject. This year we're moving into modern history and so far we've studied the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, the Titanic, the Panama Canal, and the San Francisco earthquake. It's funny to me what each child becomes particularly interested in - I would have thought that Jackson would latch onto the Titanic or the earthquake because of the destruction and drama involved, but no. He wanted to hear more about the Panama Canal and the details of how they dug the trench, how they dammed the river, and how the locks worked. Did I mention he wanted to know all this in DETAIL? I learned more than I ever cared to about watertight doors on locks, dynamite blasting for trenches, and the solutions provided to cut down on malaria and yellow fever. Shiloh has now moved into the "dialectic" level of learning, which means that we have discussions each week that ask her not just to absorb and repeat information, but to offer analysis on the information. It's been so interesting to hear her thoughts on Teddy Roosevelt's presidency (she admired his enthusiasm and gusto - she didn't like how he thought government could take care of everyone's problems :) ) and Amy Carmichael's mission work (she was very encouraged to hear how Amy pressed on in the midst of incredible personal difficulty and she was troubled by the caste system that hindered her from presenting the gospel to all Indian people). Part of the year-end project for Shiloh and Cora for French was to learn the Lord's prayer in French and recite it on video. Obviously, we still need to work on accents, but here they are:
1 comments:
LOVING all the pictures and videos of the kiddos! Makes this Oma very happy. ;-)
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