Show & Tell: Adventures Week 14

This week we wrapped up Week 14 of Adventures in My Father's World.  (Week 13 is a special 3-day Thanksgiving unit, so we're postponing it for another two weeks.)

Bible was the highlight of our week again this week.  Our verse was, "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me'" (John 14:6).   We read John 14:1-11 to hear the verse in context.  Next we got out a map of our county, and I had Hannah find various routes from Point A to Point B.  For example, she found multiple ways to get from our house to co-op and our house to the grocery store.  Then we talked about how there are lots of ways you can go to get somewhere when you travel, but when you're talking about Heaven, there's only one way to get there:  believing in Jesus. 

We went on to read Acts 4:12:  "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."  This led to a great discussion about different names people sometimes use for God (Allah, Buddha, even "God" when it's just a generic god they've made up and not the one true God of the Bible who exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and how these are really just false Gods. 

We also read Matthew 7:13-14:  "Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  Hannah drew the two paths on the dry erase board so we could have a visual:

Here's her picture of the wide path leading to fire and the narrow path leading to the crown.  I asked her, "Do you think most people will choose this path?" which is why there's a huge yes on the wide path and a no on the narrow path.  That definitely looked strange to me, and I guess it looked strange to her, too, because she went back and added "tec. yes" to clarify that technically, yes, you should choose the narrow path; and "tec. no" to clarify that, no, you shouldn't choose the wide path.

In history this week, we learned about about the next four states that were added to the union, which were Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina.

Our science typically branches off of our Bible, but for the past two weeks it has branched off of our history instead.  Since our year includes an overview of the 50 states and every state has a state bird, we're doing a unit on birds.  Our week was full of bird activities this week!

First, we learned that a robin (the state bird of Connecticut) can eat up to 14 feet of worms in a day!  Hannah and Millie measured out 14 feet, and let me tell ya, that's a lot of worms for one little bird to eat!

We also learned that a chickadee (the state bird of Massachusetts) weighs the same as 4 pennies!

We made several birdfeeders to put in the yard.  Honestly, I have no idea how successful this will be.  I can see us having lots of birds because there isn't as much food around as there is during the spring, but I can also see us not having many birds at all because they've all flown south for the winter.  I guess time will tell!



We put a wild bird seed cake in the backyard.



We put a berry and seed suet feeder in the front yard.

We put a soda bottle birdfeeder and a thistle seed feeder in the backyard.

We even used all of these ingredients . . .

. . . to make a popcorn and berry garland in the back yard.  Or a bird k'bob, as Hannah calls it.  :)  And if we end up with no birds after all of this, then there just aren't any to be found this time of year!

And it's not really fair for the birds to be the only ones who get a treat, so we made some edible bird nests for a special snack one day.

A little shredded wheat "grass," chow mein noodle "twigs," and chocolate and peanut butter "mud" . . .

. . . along with some jellybean eggs, and you have one delicious nest!

Hannah has really enjoyed the bird study more than I thought she would.  In fact, she fell so in love with the goldfinch that she decided to do this week's co-op presentation on New Jersey just so she could talk about it!

While we had the popcorn popper out for our bird activity, we made a little extra so we could try a project we read about in Farmer Boy.  Supposedly, if you fill one glass with milk and another with popped popcorn, you can add the popcorn to the milk one kernel at a time without the milk overflowing.  Supposedly.  Here's our experience:

Here's our full cup of milk and our full cup of popped popcorn.

Here are the first few pieces going in.  So far, so good!

She continued adding the popcorn . . .

. . . one piece at a time.  And the end result . . .



Apparently we're not nearly as talented as Almonzo Wilder!  :)

 In math this week, Hannah started a unit on division.  The Halloween candy called out to me and begged to be used as a manipulative!  I gave her 12 pieces of candy, and she divided it different ways.

She saw that if there was only one person to "divide" the candy between, that person would make out like a bandit!

She also saw that it could be divided equally between two people if she and Millie had to split it . . .

. . . between three people if she and Millie had Rachel spend the night . . .

. . . between four people if she and Millie had to share it evenly with Mom and Dad . . .

. . . and even between six people if Michael and Sabrina came to eat with our family one night.

And just to throw a little nature study into the mix, take a look at the spider the girls found outside their window one day while they were playing in their room!

This is the best picture I was able to take of the web, which is what they were really fascinated with . . .

. . . but check out the spider itself!  Doesn't it look like a smiley face?  It made me wonder if God knew at the time He created that spider that I'd be here one day to get a kick out of it!

We also took off on Tuesday to have fun at the Renaissance Festival with some friends.  Feel free to read about our trip here.

As always, this post is being linked to Kris' Weekly Wrap-Up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.  And for the first time, I'm also linking to Jen's Wrapping Up the Week at Forever, For Always, No Matter What.  If you've never been to these blogs before, they're great places to go to get a glimpse of what others are doing in their school rooms!