FIAR: Miss Rumphius

Ah, the lovely "Lupine lady", Miss Rumphius!  The more I read this book, the more I love it.

We rowed it a few weeks ago and expanded into a seed unit.

It follows the life of a little girl who lived by the sea

And grew up to see the far corners of the world.

Though she never married,

she lived a happy and contented life

making the world a more beautiful place.

We had a lot of fun painting lupines 

( Lavender seeds that we planted (wish I had lupines!))

And they enjoyed making their lapbooks...

(Poor girl was sick this day..)

We followed up this with our seed unit..
starting from potting seeds in starter pots... 

to watering and watching them grow... 

then painting bigger pots and replanting them.  They loved it all.

Beans starting to sprout...

Bean plants!

Sweet peas..

Our Iris bulbs.

Painting terra cotta pots

We also did an inadvertent seed experiment.

The beans taped to the cold glass window

did not grow at all, making obvious to the girls

the importance of having the right temperature

 in plant growth.

(In addition to needing water, air, and sunlight.  It was a fun unit!)

More random pics from March/April

In no particular order...

Crictor!  The BOA (haha) constrictor.

So fun being able to read a book I enjoyed as a kid 

to my own kids.  :)

Making clay boas...

Domino math!

From Pinterest.

I daresay her handwriting

has improved over the year!

Proud of her!

We've been reading this sweet book

which introduces history to kids starting from

Creation all the way to the 

Founding Fathers (in a very general overview).  

Above, a pic of Emilie's "timeline" of her life.  

A fun way to introduce the concept of timelines to her.

We'll be studying Ancient Old Testament History in 1st grade

and will be doing a more formal timeline then.

Haha - I entered a contest to win a free Maestro Classic

CD (Carnival of the Animals) -- and I WON!!!

I HARDLY ever win anything.  

Stoked!  :)

Will magnets work through glass and water??

The girls had fun finding out... they do! 

Sorry no pics of the water fun they had...

it got a little crazy (wet) and I couldn't get any good shots.

Spring has sprung

We're starting to feel alive again, taking nature walks in this early spring weather.  

We've been cooped up for too long this winter!  

Riding scooters & bikes, finding buds on trees, learning about signs of spring.

FIAR: The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

We rowed this sweet book a few weeks ago.

I had requested it on inter-library loan months ago and only now got a response, so it was a nice surprise to row this vintage book the week before Easter.

It's the story of the little red lighthouse that really exists under the GW bridge in NYC.

The girls enjoyed watching this video tour of the real red lighthouse.

We made a lighthouse craft.

And we also watched this Reading Rainbow video of "Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie" - based on the true story of a young girl who manned the lighthouse in the NE.

We enjoyed reading about lighthouses.

We also talked about what makes bridges strong (triangle supports!) and made some of our own bridges out of toothpicks and marshmallows...  :-)

We learned the "dge" phonogram makes the sound "j"...

And about compound words:

And we talked about the most important Bridge (to God) of all: Jesus.

And the girls decided (on their own!) to make a cross!

We also had fun dyeing Easter eggs...

Happy Easter everyone!

A Montessori Give-away!

http://carrotsareorange.com/montessori-language-starter-kit-home-classroom/

Life

The days are going by in a blur... 

Noah is still waking up several times a night, 

although we are slowly getting into a routine...

Jee had a birthday!

So thankful for my wonderful, supportive husband!!

We got to go out to eat (with baby while mom watched the girls)...

although we were both zombies from sleep deprivation (last month),

it was still so nice to get out.

Here's a pic at our small group with a ginormous carvel cake (his fav).

Spring has finally sprung!

(Although today started out at 21 degrees...  :/)

We are all getting cabin fever from this weather!!

And Noah is growing up so fast!!

He is the sweetest, smiliest little boy.

This was from last month, I think...

Love him!!!!

April Happenings

Catching up on blogging!  Wow it's already April!

Pictures in random order...

 Sums of 9 using c-rods

 Writing from January when Noah was born..

 Is this a repeat picture?  Can't remember...

 We flossed marshmallow "teeth" to reinforce dental health...
(Idea from here)

 C-rod fun...

 Color mixing with a fun science kit...

 Eliz spelling out CVC words...

 Homeschool co-op starting up again (way back when)...

 Constellation unit...

 Painting with q-tips..