Awesome Gifts to give 9 Year old Boys

Elijah had his 9th birthday a few weeks ago, and there is always the question of what do you get him.  Yes of course there are Legos, but we are getting a little crazy in that department, so I was trying to think outside the box!

Every year for my kids birthdays my mother in law takes them to the book store to pick out a couple of books.  So I wasn't surprised when she did this for Elijah.  Some of his favorite books right now are The Magic Tree House books, he also picked out The Lego Book (which gives the history of Legos).

 Magic Tree House Books

The Lego Book

He had also been asking for a bow and arrow set for a while, so my husband and I thought we would just get him a cheapo one from Wal-Mart, it was like $6.  Yeah, skip the cheapo ones and get a good quality one, because cheapo broke in less than 10 minutes!  So we will be ordering him a bow and arrow set from JM Cremps.

Bow and Arrow from JM Cremps

His favorite gift of all was the Snap Circuits Jr.!  He sat and played with that for about 2 hours!  I thought he would enjoy it, but didn't think he would love it, well he LOVES it!  We will definitely be getting another one for Christmas!

Snap Circuits Jr.

Yes he did get a few Lego sets this year as well, those are always great stand by gifts.  This year he really wanted the Lone Ranger sets, so he got the Teepee and the Silver Mine.

The Silver Mine

The Teepee

Disclaimer: I am NOT an affiliate with any of the links provided. I do not receive any compensation through these links.   I just chose to add them to help you find the products quickly.  

MFW Kindergarten

With Noah we have been going through My Fathers World Kindergarten curriculum.  Its a 6 day program, but I have actually condensed it down to 4.  I know that might not sit well with some, but its what I needed to do.  For one thing, Noah struggles with wanting to do his school work, so 4 days is about his maximum.  I also have a problem carrying over the topic from one week into the next, for some reason I just don't like that concept.  Its hard for my Type A brain to grasp.  So right now we are doing 4 days a week with him.

Over the past few weeks we have covered S-Sun, M-Moon, L-Leaf, A-Apple and N-Nest.  These have all been super fun units, with lots of activities built in.

Beginning with the L-Leaf unit, that was one that I really enjoyed.  Noah got to do lots of hands on learning with it.  We went and collected leaves outside and then examined them, and did leaf rubbings with them.   I have found that he loves doing the salt tray for writing his letters, and that he hates to actually write them on paper!  So there has been lots of salt tray writing going on.

The following unit was the A-Apple unit.  Another one filled with awesome fun!  A few weeks prior we had gone to an apple orchard for a field trip.  In college I was a Early Childhood Education major, so for my final project I had to do a theme unit, which just happens to have been Apples.  So I dug out all of my stuff from that, and the kids had so much fun!  We also made yummy mini apple pies!

Finally last week we were on the N-Nest unit.  I think his favorite part this week was making a bird sequencing book.  He put the pictures in the order they happened and then we put them in a book and wrote a short story to go along with it.  He has also really enjoyed the books that go along with this unit, one of them being The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman.  Sorry no pictures from this week, like I have said before I really need to work on my picture taking skills!

If you are wondering what our homeschooling day looks like, you can check that out here.

Week In Review- MFW Weeks 5 and 6

I am trying to play catch up so once again I am going to be bundling a few weeks together.  We have been having tons of fun with MFW so far.  I am so excited about what the year holds for us.

To begin, in Week 5 we talked about Jesus the Light of the World, Mayflower and Pilgrims, and Stars.  I am doing a light version of their Bible lessons, because we do the AWANA program, I really want to focus on those verses for memorization.  We did discuss Jesus being the light of the world and what that means to us.

For History, we are learning about the Pilgrims and what it must have been like for them to be on the Mayflower for so long.  We also did a cool project, which was making an oiled window.  That was pretty interesting to see how that must have looked in their houses instead of the glass windows we have today.

In Science we learned about Proxima Centauri and Betelgeuse.  I had never heard of these before but they are stars.  Proxima Centauri is our second closest star (the sun being our closest star) and Betelgeuse is 600 times larger than the sun.  Very cool stuff for a 9 year old boy!  We had a lot of fun measuring it all out in our backyard!   We also talked about the Big Dipper, unfortunately we have yet been able to see it.  They tend to be in bed when its dark and the few times we have been out its been too cloudy to see!  Someday they will see it though!

I am standing where the sun is, and Elijah is way down there by the big red ball which is Betelgeuse.  

We finished reading Squanto this week as well. My boys loved that story!  It was a great pick, Elijah is actually reading it again on his own.

Now for week 6 we talked about Jesus the Bread of Life, New Netherlands (New York), and Bread.  Once again doing a light version of Bible.  We talked about how God took care of his people in the wilderness by giving them manna from heaven.

In History we learned about the Pioneers from Holland and how they settled in New York, which they called New Amsterdam.   We made butter, so much fun!!  Except my kiddos ran out of steam and I ended up shaking both jars of cream. Which is really hard work!  We looked up what butter churns are and talked about how that is probably what they used in stead of shaking them with their hands.   Elijah really enjoyed his butter, once we added salt of course.  Noah tried one taste of it unsalted and didn't like it and then wouldn't try it after I salted it.

Once I told him he had to shake if for like 15 minutes, this is the look he gave me.  

These kids crack me up!  I didn't realize how funny this picture was until I posted it here!

For Science was talked about yeast and what its purpose is.  We did two different experiments, and had I known I would have done them side by side.  But for the first one we did yeast and water with sugar poured into a bottle with a balloon on top.  The second one was yeast and water with salt poured into a bottle with a balloon on top.  It was fun to hear what they thought would happen.  Elijah knew that the one with sugar would blow the balloon up but wasn't sure what would happen with the salt.

The progression of our yeast experiment, using sugar.

After about 5 minutes

After about 10 minutes

After about 40 minutes

After a total of about an hour.  

I did not take pictures of the salt one, but it pretty much stayed like the first picture.  I also realized that I am lacking in picture taking!  I really need to do a better job!

This week for our read aloud we began The Courage of Sarah Noble.  So far they are liking it.

I will be adding a Kindergarten Week in Review soon!

I'm still here!

Ok, so life has been CRAZY lately!!  To be honest, schooling has been a huge challenge the past few weeks.  I am still trying to process why everything seemed so crazy.  What I have come up with is that I have been feeling worn down, tired and just plain overwhelmed with life lately.

To make a long story short, we have been dealing with potty training set backs, a crabby two year old that cries almost all day, a bad attitude in a 9 year old, and other personal life issues.  I am really hoping to get myself back on track, I am feeling a bit better these days, and trying to take better care of myself.

I do have some great posts lined up for the near future, if I can get myself to write them!  Here are some topics that I will be covering over the next so many weeks (I am putting them here, in hopes to be some accountability for myself):

1.  Shopping Aldi
2.  Gifts for 9 year old boys
3.  Frugal living ideas
4.  Weekly Recaps of My Fathers World both Kindergarten and Adventures in US History
5.  What I'm reading and what I hope to read in the near future