Some Things We've Done...

My next blog entry I plan to post soon, and it will detail new things we're about to do (and some of what we've already started but won't discuss in this entry), new school books we got, etc.  But for now, some of the things we've done since the last entry....

Some Book Work Done...

Over the last month Jaden did spelling lessons and math word problems.  He finished the Gr. 2 math word problems and has started on the Gr. 3.  Trusten did alphabet flash cards but no longer needs to do those. 

Things We've Read...

 
We started getting our Weekly Readers in.  Trusten's came nearly a month sooner, so he's enjoyed four issues, whereas Jaden has just had one.  We've enjoyed our Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard magazines, as always.  The former one expired, though, so we didn't get a September issue.  Trusten has enjoyed my reading little children's books to him much more over the past few months.  His favorites lately are the Little Golden books:  The Little Red Hen; The Happy Man and His Dump Truck; I Love You Daddy!; and I Love You Mommy!  We have several Little Golden books.  The first two I named above were two of Jaden William's favorites when he was that age and younger.  Just as I had William fill in the blanks at the end of some sentences, I have Trusten do so.  He can just about read The Little Red Hen by himself (he actually does sit down with it by himself and reads it by memory).  He fills in more than I expect him to.  He gets ahead of me.  It's fun. 

Jaden went through all of his graphic novels about inventors that he got for his birthday in just a month and a half, along with most of his six Hardy Boys books.  I think he's working on the last one or two.  He usually reads two books at a time, because he keeps a book in the Suburban for rides, and then he reads with his Light Wedge in bed at night.  I'm so glad he loves to read, though!  :-)  He likes to talk about the nonfiction ones, too.  He'll ask whether I know such and such thing.  As for fiction, I try my best to introduce him to only kosher reads, and even afterward I ask questions about what he's reading. 

Things We've Louped...

A leaf-resembling katydid that got in the house

Luna moth, Polyphemus moth, four swallowtail butterflies, and stalactite or stalagmite

The butterflies and moths were really fun to loupe.  It ended up getting so hot and so dry for so long that the butterflies and moths started dying.  :-(  It was so sad, but we took advantage of it and collected them to study.  Now, thankfully, there are many flying around again.  The tongue of one of the butterflies was positioned nicely, and the hair on the moths was awesome!  Seeing the eyespots under a loupe was also a treat.   I wish I could have gotten the picture to show up better.  That other thing is a stalactite or stalagmite that Nathan's friend Dave found when they went into our neighbor's cave.  Looking at the katydid under the loupe brought out all the more how much it was designed to look like a leaf. 

Some Plants We've Identified...

Oak leaves, pokeberry, yarrow, and others

Some cutting and pasting still needs to be done on a few of these.  Jaden will do that.  I need to read about these things and add to the index cards, and then they will find a place in our plant binder. 

Some Things Jaden Has Done...

Constructing his homemade sawing table as Trusten watches

He's hoping to find gold

Jaden has been busy with outdoor activities, as usual.  He kept telling me he needed a saw.  I didn't want him to buy one.  He already has enough tools that are dangerous enough, I think.  He finally talked his daddy into letting him buy one.  Not only that, Nathan bought the thing!  So then Jaden set to work building himself a sawing table so that he can lay his boards to saw over it.  That denim thing with the duct tape on it that he's sporting?  Why, that's the makeshift tool pouch he made for himself.  He got the denim out of the rag bag. 

He was excited one night last week, telling me excitedly that he had an idea of something to make.  He wouldn't tell me what it was.  He said I had to wait until morning to find out.  He told me that he needed to go outside for a few minutes first thing in the morning to get some materials, so I told him that was fine.  The next morning, he zoomed outside.  Not long afterward he showed me his finished work.  He had taken sticks, a thick and sturdy ponytail holder, and a big pink bobby pin to construct a round goal on a stand, and then he showed me that it was for a game.  He had also collected a small rock, and he demonstrated his invention by throwing the rock through the hoop/goal.  I was impressed.  I sure wish I had taken a picture of it right away.  He took the thing to my parents' house when I made a quick trip down there to attend my sister's baby shower, and he left it there for my mother.  He assured me that he'd be making a new one soon, so I'll be sure to take a picture of it and share it. 

He always has new ideas of inventions and things to build.  He gets that from his daddy.  :-)

The other picture is of him out roaming the yard with our metal detector.  His goal?  To find some gold.  He also wants to find out how to make gold.  You read correctly.  He wants to figure out the chemical way to manufacture his own gold.  He is so funny, but he's ambitious.  Gotta love him!

Well, that's it for now.  I am already planning my next post, so look for it soon.

Until next time...

State Games, Thankfulness, Spiders, Birds, and Butterflies

Sunday, February 28:  Nathan and Jaden went to the storage building to get a chain for the chain saw, and Nathan cut down some small trees to start on a log playhouse for the boys.  Jade did Explode the Code, and of course we read our proverb and a bible story.

Monday, March 1:  Jade did 3 writing pages plus a paragraph on a tablet page, 2 math pages, a reading lesson.  I read a proverb, a bible story, an entry in the prayer book, and read the chapter in God's Design for animals on the introduction to invertebrates to both the boys.  I've been reading more books to Trusten.  I've been reading at least one book nearly daily to just him.

Tuesday, March 2:  Jade did 2 writing pages; we did a proverb, a bible story, and an entry in the prayer book.  I read a chapter in Swiss Family Robinson, and I reviewed where we were in Prepare & Pray.  Then I found a free animated movie online for the boys, and the boys and I watched it together.  It was called Meet the Robinsons.  It had a nice moral to the story, I thought, and it also gave me the opportunity to briefly explain that a person cannot travel in time to the past and go back and forth from the present or past to the future and back.

Wednesday, March 3:  We went to town on this day, and I didn't have Jaden do any book work this day.  We just did our usual...proverb, bible story, and book readings.

Thursday, March 4:  I am sick of getting too many catalogs in the mail that are only good for recycling.  I hate that so many trees are cut down for this nonsense.  I canceled seven catalogs, and since then I have remembered two more I need to cancel.  If I want to buy something from any of these people, I'll go online and find their stores!  I reminded Jaden of how so many trees are cut down for all this excessive advertising.  Some of these companies give a catalog once a week or more!  At least that is the way it seems.  We get some of them a lot.

Anyway, Jaden William did 3 writing pages, a reading lesson,  and 2 math pages.  We did a proverb and a bible story.  I got out the metal detector for Jade to use in the yard while I sat out on the front porch and read and Trust followed him around, and he unearthed some hunk of something.  I'm not sure what it is.  The boys and I raced out on the road a few times.  That was fun and good exercise.  Jaden also made a slingshot.  He wanted to play Funschool after we came in, and I told him to try out the states games that he hasn't played in well over a year.  He did well.  This also reminded me that his Clever Island account should be canceled soon.  I am going to assign him to work on his time, addition, and maybe a couple other things on there, and then it will have served its purpose.  My dad gave him the subscription to that.

Friday, March 5:  Jade did Explode the Code.  I took away his toys and gaming privileges.  I want him to have a heart of thankfulness, love, respect, and obedience.  I reminded him and Trust how they should treat each other and us.  Jaden has become unthankful, and I think it's because he has so much and doesn't realize how good he has it.  We also looked at the pictures of me in my school yearbooks, and I discussed and demonstrated how prison schools...uh, I mean U.S. government [public] schools run, and Jaden thought he was being tortured.  I told him that we had to actually go through it, including being punished for having to go to the bathroom!

Saturday, March 6:  We did a proverb and thankfulness lesson out of the Choosing Thankfulness book.  We spent much time outdoors.  We all went walking through our woods, including Liv being held by Nathan.  I held Trusten's hand.  When we got back Jaden and I looked through the spider field guide and the bird field guide.  We had seen a spider's empty egg sac on the the ground.  The bird field guide was looked through mainly because Jaden decided he wanted to look at that, too.  Oh!  I've seen a bald eagle flying twice recently while out and about driving, both times in the same area.

Sunday, March 7:  Nathan and the boys worked on the playhouse in the afternoon, but then the chainsaw cord broke.  That figures.  Jade saw and described a butterfly, so I took out the field guide, and we discussed the possibilities of what it could have been.  I later taught Trusten about caterpillars, chrysalis,  and butterflies, as well as patience when when I dry him off after bathing.  He was wet and pretending to be a butterfly wanting to leave, impatiently.  I said that butterflies had to be patient while emerging and drying off their wings.  And of course I read them a proverb and a bible story.

Monday, March 8:  We read Jaden's March issue of Your Big Backyard magazine.  Some of the things the boys learned were about the ears of different animals and the different functions ears served for animals (hearing, cooling off, etc.), as well as the different locations and appearances of ears; the difference between hares and rabbits, shapes in nature, and bluebirds.

We looked through and discussed my latest issue of Arbor Day news.  The night before Jaden expressed an interest in wanting to learn more about sea stars (sometimes called starfish), and Trusten has been asking about octopuses, so we looked at some pictures in a book we have called All About Animals by Childcraft.  I then read the lessons in the God's Design for Science for animals on mollusks and echinoderms.

Jaden has talked a lot about numbers.  He often asks the same questions over and over and tells me the things he understands over and over, just in different ways.  He's clearly fascinated by math and numbers, which is great, but it's funny (or not so funny) for me, because that is a weaker subject for me.  I am average in math (ranging from below average to above average in subareas).  I can teach him all the basics of arithmetic, accounting, algebra, geometry, and more, and then beyond that he'll have to take online classes or go take a class or whatever, if he needs more math, because he's sure not going to get anything beyond the basics of math from me.

He also sometimes talks about states and various places at bedtime, because he has a world map and a U.S. map hanging on his bedroom wall.  This is something he did this day.

 Tuesday, March 9:  Jade started off the day adding numbers and asking and telling Nathan about sums.  He counted and counted while I nursed Liv before bible time.  He did two writing pages, and we did all the usual other things.

Wednesday, March 10:  Jade did two writing pages, we read our normal things, and we left to Arkansas this day to go celebrate my mother's 50th birth anniversary the day afterward.  We chased tornadoes while traveling!  So, we talked about tornadoes and funnel clouds and such.


Thursday, March 11:  We read our proverb (didn't take the bible story book), and we went out to eat for my mother's birthday.  The place we went had a carousel and lots of games and things for the boys to play.  I'm sure Jaden liked that, since he has all that taken away at home currently.  Then we went to a rodeo, which is something I'd never even been to myself.  It was at the White County Fairgrounds where my dad is the fair manager.    The rodeo participants were college students from ten different states.  I feel sorry for those calves that are roped and slammed to the ground to have their legs tied.  Jaden seemed to think it was great, and Trusten just kept climbing up and down the two stadium seats between my sister and me.

Friday, March 12:  We ate lunch with my mother and aunt, and we traveled back home.  We read our proverb.

Saturday, March 13:  Ah!  The sabbath was so welcome after such a busy week.  I was so tired, though, that I didn't even do the boys' lesson today.  I did do a little writing myself, and the boys started off the day watching the movie Solomon and Sheba. LOL!  Trusten actually picked it out. 

I think I have pictures to share, but I can post them next time.