Day 80: Exploration Day-Experimenting with Water

Today we are on Day 80 of My Father's World 1st Grade for home school.  We have finished Usborne's "Things Outdoors" for Science, and today we began "Science with Water."

Today, we read pages 2-3, "Experimenting with Water."  I'm letting Davin narrate the pictures below, so he'll tell you what we did!

First, I put a jar of water on the table to see that the top of the water goes in a straight line, just like the table top.  

 Next, I sloped the bottle and the top still went in a straight line!

 Then, I looked at the bottle with a magnifying glass and saw that there tiny, white bubbles in the water.

 Continued.....

 Still playing with magnifying glass....

 Then, I put water in a glass pan and saw that it extends to cover the entire pan.

 Lastly, I put 2 cups of water in 3 different jars.  I thought the one on the left looked like it had more water, but all of them had the same amount!

I learned that water takes any shape!  I liked doing these experiments a lot!

A (Barely) Snowy Day, Hot Cocoa, & a Cuneiform Tablet

We had some snow flurries today; just enough to bundle up the boys and send them outside to play.  I'll admit I get just as excited as the kids about it!  I know that snow and I will not be friends in a few months, but for now I welcome it :)

Here's Davin trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue:

Going down the slide:

Dorian sliding:

Swinging:

Enjoying some hot cocoa after playing outside.  Daving proclaimed this "the best day ever" while working on his superhero puzzle:

Yummy:

I love how Dori is holding his little cup:

During our school time today, we were studying "The First Writing": cuneiform (Sumerians) and hieroglyphics (Egyptians).  We made some clay a few weeks ago using this recipe and it held up very nicely in the refrigerator:

Modeling Clay:

• Mix together
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup salt
• Food coloring, optional
• Store in refrigerator.

Here's what the Cuneiform Alphabet looks like:

Here's Davin using a screwdriver to carve the wedges to spell out his name:

The end result, with a hole that can be used to hang it up once it dries:

(The books we're using for history are Story of the World: Ancient Times by Susan Wise Bauer, along with the student activity book.  We have really enjoyed these books and Davin is not only learning a lot, but retaining it and having fun!)

Advent with the Jesus Storybook Bible

I came across this wonderful blog post about using the Jesus Storybook Bible for advent readings. We are huge fans of this book and I'm excited to use the readings each day leading up to Christmas!

Advent with the Jesus Storybook Bible

I printed out the schedule of readings and put them in our cute wooden Christmas Tree advent calendar (a gift from my mother-in-law!).  I also put two pieces of candy or chocolate inside each little door so the boys can enjoy a special treat while I read them the story each day.

Thanksgiving Story

I was reading "The Thanksgiving Story" by Alice Dagliesh to the boys and we were talking about what it would have been like to be a family traveling to a far-off place to make their home.

"Imagine if Daddy and Mommy said that we were going on a journey to a new country," I said.  

"What country?" asked Davin.

"Hmm...It's called Atlantis," I replied (just saying the first thing that popped into my head!)

"Actually, Atlantis is a lost underwater city," Davin informed me.

Thank you, little encyclopedia, for making Mommy feel terribly silly for suggesting such a preposterous location! 

Mini Pumpkin Pudding Pies

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The boys had fun making our dessert today: mini pumpkin pudding pies!

They mixed up the pumpkin pudding and had fun scooping it into mini graham cracker crusts (and they had fun eating some pudding in the process!). It was a fun, easy dessert and really yummy with a little dollop of whipped cream on top :) It's fun having such good little helpers!

Thanksgiving Week: Homeschool

This week we're going to take a break from our normal homeschool subjects so that we can focus on Thanksgiving!

We will read lots of books, do some activities, crafts, games, writing, science, sing some hymns, do a little bit of cooking, and have a lot of fun!  A lot of theses ideas come from the Adventures in My Father's World teacher's guide.

Here's some books from our collection that we will read:

Here's some books from the library we will read:

We participated in the virtual field trip to Plimoth Plantation last week on this website:

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/

and also took a virtual tour of the Mayflower.

Some of the Crafts we'll do:

• Make woven placemats


• Make an Indian vest


• Make a hand turkey


• Make a hand and shoe turkey

For Science, we will use some of our squash for these activities:

• Will it float? experiment


• Predicting the weight by comparing it to pantry items with the weight on it, then weighing them.


• Predicting and measuring the distance around the middle of the squash.


• How many seeds? activity

Some of the hymns we will sing.  I just love singing hymns!:

• We Gather Together


• Count Your Many Blessings


• Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow


• For the Beauty of the Earth


• Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

For writing, we will write about everything we are thankful for, of course!

For Cooking, we will make some cornbread like the pilgrims made and make mini pumpkin pies with pumpkin pudding and mini graham cracker crusts.

Some Indian games we will play:

• Twig Toss


• Almond Toss


• Spearing Game (not as dangerous as it sounds!)

Also, Scripture Adventures has a FREE Thanksgiving guide with TONS of neat things to do!  I'm planning to use it a lot this week, especially for the writing activities.

Just enter "moneysavingmom" at the checkout to get it for FREE!

It should be a very fun week!!!

Lorie Line Concert

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My mom and I went to our annual mother/daughter Lorie Line holiday concert today. We've been going for over 10 years, I believe! We always have such a lovely time :) Thanks Mom, I love you!!

Oh, and thank you to my dear husband for watching the kids during the show. You're the best!

I'm afraid the pictures are pretty blurry :(

Time to go play from my two new piano books!