Field Trips

Last week was a relaxed homeschooling week for us.  It wasn't intentional, it just happened that way. It was basically a field trip week.

Monday we took a trip to an orchard that is about an hour away, my hubby took the day off work to join us.

Then on Wednesday the kids took their first Zoo Class at our local zoo.  They learned all about the primates.  They had a super fun time and look forward to doing the next one in November.  Forgot to take pictures of this.  Maybe next time.

Then on Friday we took a family trip to the St. Louis zoo, which is a few hours from us.  It was a fantastic day to go, the weather was perfect, not super hot like it was earlier in the week.

Week in Review

Well, actually this is weeks 2,3, and 4 in review.  I've gotten a little behind in the blogging area lately.  This week especially, my hubby has had a few days off lately and we've taken some family time.  So this week has been a field trip on Monday, Zoo Class on Wednesday and then St. Louis Zoo on Friday.

So lets begin back a few weeks to Week 2 of Adventures in U.S. History.  We talked about Christopher Columbus that week, and did some fun activities.  We made boats out of foil, which obviously were the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.  Then we got to have some fun outside seeing if they would float.  Well let me just tell you, they did not!  Thankfully my boys went with it and had fun anyway.

We also talked about Jesus that week.  We learned that Jesus means the Lord saves.  We started our poster that we will add to for the rest of the year.

In Week 3 we began talking about Jamestown.  We learned about Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. We began reading Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims.

For our Bible we craft time we made a crayon melting with the name Jesus and then hung them up in our school room windows.

Finally this week we have been working on Week 4 in Adventures in U.S. History.  This week we have been talking about Native Americans.  We have been learning about the different tribes that we located here in the early days.  Our crafts this week have been a wigwam and a teepee.

Our new Bible concept this week has been that Jesus is the Light of the World.  We have been working on John 8:12 which is "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Moving on the what we have been learning in Kindergarten these past few weeks.  We finished up our Creation Unit, we learned about what God created on each day.  Then we moved on to learning about the Sun and the letter S.  Our first experiment with the sun was making raisins.  That hasn't turned out well for us, they are still sitting in our kitchen, slowly wrinkling up.  The second project we did was making a sun dial.  That actually turned out well, once I got the placement correct.

This week we have been talking about the Moon, and learning the letter M.  Unfortunately with all of our field trips and such this week, we haven't gotten to do many experiments or projects.  We have read some great books about the phases of the moon though.

There you have it, our last few weeks.  I am hoping to do a weekly post on what we have been learning.  So keep an eye out for those!

The Best Thing I've Learned This Week

In all the chaos that is my life, I sometimes forget that how I portray myself to others could be misleading!  It hit me twice last week, that people seem to think that I have myself all together!  OH boy is that not true!

I think because I am an organized person, I like to be on time and I am a good planner, people think that I'm all together.  When in reality, they don't hear the crazy screaming children as we are rushing out the door.  Or the crazy screaming mommy who is frustrated at her two year old because he won't use the potty.

So the best thing that I learned this past week, is to be careful how you portray yourself.  You never know when someone else is struggling and looking at you thinking that they are failing.  I never want anyone to think that my life is perfect or that I know all the answers.  So in an effort to curb this perception, I am vowing to be open and honest about what is really going on.

The next time someone asks me "How are you?", I may just respond with the truth!

Just in case you don't believe me, here is what my kitchen and school room look like at this very moment!

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend.  I am so glad to be beginning a new month, and really getting into our new routine.  I am excited about what this year will hold for my family.

This weekend my family is just relaxing and enjoying time together.  Unfortunately its like a 100 degrees outside so most of our relaxing is being done inside.  We enjoyed some shopping and trying out a new restaurant to our area.

And yes we will be working on school work today.  We have some vacation days coming up, along with a fun field trip to the apple orchard so I wanted to make sure we didn't fall too far behind.


I hope everyone had an awesome holiday weekend!