This was probably one of my most favorite weeks of homeschool so far. I invited Sis Kullberg, in our ward, to teach the kids how to play chess for history (knights would play chess in their castles while passing time between battles). The kids absolutely love it! I love it too! It is so much simpler than I thought. Also, we studied shells this week, so this weekend we took the kids to a beach house and spent Saturday morning collecting shells to categorize for science. Now this is the best part of homeschool!! We were lucky to have the Trevisanuts come with us as well!We went to a place called "Twin Rocks". I couldn't believe what wonderful weather we had for the winter! There was no wind, lots of sun, and not that cold. It was better than a lot of our summer days at the beach! Here we are categorizing our shells after we got home.Here are Isabelle's shells...Robert's- So, I know that a crab shell doesn't really fit into the categories, but it was still cool!Austin's- P.S. He sounded out some of the names of his shells- even Abalone, I was pretty impressed!
For cub scouts ealier this week Robert participated in a "Cubtona" it was really cute.
So, when we lived in Philomath we did a "Spanish Night" once a month with a number of other families. We listened to Spanish music, made Spanish food, it was fun. So, we decided to get together with some of those families and do one. Emily and Isabelle playing piano. Both Daniel and Nathan had birthdays soon, so we celebrated them.Rob too!Then we danced the night away.The Clements stayed the night with us. We had so much fun!Rob had to be in Chicago on his birthday this year, so we did a little family thing for his birthday before he left. His favorite present was a photography how to book.
Rachel gave us a really great Christmas present-planned out FHE's with all of the items needed, included. We had a great time doing pudding paintings! For spelling one week I had Isabelle spell in flour. Robert got this "Crystal tree" for Christmas.We learned about castles etc for History, so we made a "Norman Castle" out of fruity pebbles. The kids had a very hard time waiting long enough for me to take this picture before digging in! We also made medieval coin purses. Back then they would tie them to their belts. Thieves would come along with knives and cut the "purse strings".We started growing some Sea Monkeys for science. The first day we fed them and could actually see them swimming around, Talia dumped the whole thing on the floor! Oh well, Rob ordered some more.
So, as I was preparing for Homeschool this month, I noticed we would be talking about knights, castles, kings, coats of arms etc. So, I emailed my family to get some family crests from our family to show our kids. As I was looking through the family history website, my awesome brother Bryan created, I found a picture of Alfred the Great of Wessex, England. I was so excited because that's who we studied about in history this week, and he is like our 39th great grandfather!!
Anyways, he was one of England's first kings. England was getting invaded and attacked by the Vikings, on all sides. All of the other kings (there was not one king over the whole country at this time, just in smaller areas) couldn't stand up to the Vikings. Alfred the Great was the first English king to defeat the Vikings.
When they were first attacked by the Vikings it was Christmas day and the English were not prepared. Alfred hid in the countryside pretending not to be king. It is said that he was scolded by a peasant woman for burning the cakes she asked him to watch over. So, for homeschool we made Alfred cakes- basically English scones-yummy! (We didn't burn ours though).This is how they turned out. We also made Alfred the Great statues. This is the inscription on the real Alfred the Great statue:
Alfred found learning dead and he restored it
Education neglected and he revived it
The laws powerless and he gave them force
The church debased and he raised it
The land ravaged by a fearful enemy from which he delivered it
Alfred’s name will live as long as mankind shall respect the past
I also found out that George Washington is related to Alfred the Great. So, in probably a round about way I am related to him to. COOL!
Anyways, in other things. I had to take this picture of Robert loving Talia during school. They love each other so much! Isabelle started acting classes this week. She is loving it so much!!! It was all she could talk about the whole night of her class. It makes me so happy!
Rob got a fun packet for us to celebrate his five years working for Grizwold water systems. The Grotto in Portland. Christmas dinner Isabelle wanted to act out the Nutcracker. Christmas Breakfast. Robert threw up in the theater on Christmas Eve. He went straight to be when we got home. We asked if he wanted to open presents with us and he said he did. When he saw his p.j.'s he said he felt immediately better. He called them "miracle p.j.'s". White elephant with the Trevisanuts. I loved the ginormous comb. For homeschool we made some mosaics because we learned about the Byzantine Empire. Our prettiest tree ever. Some fun cookies I made.
We went to a place called "Twin Rocks".
I couldn't believe what wonderful weather we had for the winter! There was no wind, lots of sun, and not that cold. It was better than a lot of our summer days at the beach!
Here we are categorizing our shells after we got home.
Here are Isabelle's shells...
Robert's- So, I know that a crab shell doesn't really fit into the categories, but it was still cool!
Austin's- P.S. He sounded out some of the names of his shells- even Abalone, I was pretty impressed!
