Show & Tell: Adventures Week 15

I know I usually dive right in and start our weekly wrap-up with Hannah's school, but Millie has some

BIG NEWS

to share!  It all started on Tuesday when her worksheet had a sight word on it . . .

. . . which made me wonder if maybe—just maybe—she could be ready for the Bob Books Mrs. Cyndy gave her for her birthday.  I knew right where to find them because of my keen organizational skills spent a good half hour trying to find them in the abyss we call "the school closet." I finally got my hands on them, and we gave them a try.  She did it!  She read her first book!  She was so excited, she called Greg at work and luckily got him right before practice started.  They made a reading date for later that night when he got home.

So Tuesday was the first day ever that both of my kids were reading in bed during quiet time.  And believe me when I say those Bob Books have gone everywhere with us since then.  They even ride in the basket of her bike when we go around the block.  :)

And another big accomplishment in Pre-K . . . she made it to the half-way point on her 100 Chart!

Every day she adds one cube to her Unifix "train."  Then she counts by 10s up to the number of the day (e.g., 10-20-30-40-41-42-43.) 


Today she made it up to 50!



Proudly holding her 100 Chart with 5 rows finished and 5 rows left to go!

Then she writes the number on her 100 Chart and counts by 1's all the way up to the number of the day.  Finally—finally—she has learned that 9 is a special number that introduces the next family.  For the longest time, she would say "28-29-2010-2011."  :)

Now for Hannah and Adventures in My Father's World . . .

This week we looked at the next four states to be added to the union:  New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, and North Carolina. 

Filling out the front side of her New York state sheet.



Underlining the facts she thought were interesting on the back.



*****TRUE STORY*****

While Hannah was filling out her New York state sheet, I was telling her that Grandma was actually born in New York and moved here when she was 12. 

She looked at her U.S. map to see how far it was from New York to Texas and said, "She probably flew in an airplane, huh?"

I said, "I'm not sure about that.  You'll have to ask her."

Then she said, "Wait . . . they probably didn't have airplanes back then, did they?"

**********

It's hard to study New York without taking a look at . . .

The Statue of Liberty!

We painted paper plates to make her crown . . .

. . . and wound ribbon around a paper towel tube for the torch, with a little yellow tissue paper for the flame.

We learned that the Statue of Liberty is green because of oxidation, and we did an activity to turn some pennies the same green color.

We took two pennies . . .

See how nice and shiny the tails are?

. . . and placed them on a vinegar-soaked paper towel in a bowl. 

The heads are nice and shiny, too!

After just 24 hours, this is what our pennies looked like!

Interestingly, it was only the heads (the side that was up) that were discolored.  The tails, which were actually touching the vinegar, still looked like new!

We also compared the size of the Statue of Liberty and Hannah.

Hannah's mouth:  2 inches.

Statue of Liberty's mouth:  3 feet.

(Hannah guessed 1 foot.)

Hannah's nose:  1 1/2 inches.

Statue of Liberty's nose:  4 feet 6 inches.

(Hannah guessed 2 feet.)

Hannah's right arm:  1 foot 9 inches.

Statue of Liberty's right arm:  42 feet.

(Hannah guessed 20 feet.)

Hannah's height:  4 feet 5 inches.

Statue of Liberty's height:  305 feet 1 inch.

(Hannah guessed 285 feet.)

Then we went outside and measured 305 feet 1 inch to see how tall this lady really is.



This gives you an idea of the size of the Statue of Liberty.  In this picture, I'm standing on the ground, and Hannah is at the top of her torch.  See her inside the red oval?  (The red arrow is pointing to it.)  Squint a little harder . . . a little harder . . . there!  (If you still can't see it, you can click on the image to enlarge it.)

Next, we shifted our attention to another popular New York attraction:  Niagara Falls.  Hannah read this book, which she really enjoyed . . .

. . . and then we made our own waterfall to demonstrate that water is always seeking the lowest point.

Our water faucet "river" flowed into our milk jug "lake."  When the lake filled up, a waterfall was created as the water continued its journey to the ocean.

When we studied North Carolina, we talked about the Wright Brothers.  I was kind of surprised that both girls already knew their story, apparently from a Magic School Bus DVD we have.  (We're big Magic School Bus fans around here!)

They did learn, though, that their first flight took place in 1903 (so yes, Hannah, Grandma very well could have flown on an airplane!) and that it only lasted 12 seconds.  We each designed our own paper airplanes to see how long they could fly.  

The best we got was 3 seconds.  We definitely need to redo that activity with Daddy here.  I think paper airplanes are just a "guy thing."  :)

Yes, Hannah and I had fun with our states this week; and yes, Millie read her first book.  But that all faded in comparison to our Bible study.  It's so much fun now that we're really studying Scripture together and not just memorizing verses.  (Not that I think memorizing verses is a bad thing.  It's a great thing!  But you know what I mean . . . I hope!) 

Yesterday we read through 1 Corinthians 13 (the "Love" chapter) together.  The ladies at our church have been taking a look at Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages for the past couple of weeks, and it has given me so much insight into what makes Hannah tick.  That coupled with going through this chapter verse by verse and coming up with examples of what each "love is" and "love is not" statement might look like when it's lived out was just an amazingly sweet time of sharing, and it gave me still more insight into who Hannah is.  I praise God for the words we shared together.  It's a privilege to be with my children every day and it's an honor to be the one who gets to teach them, but there's no feeling in the world like realizing that you really know them, and that's where we seem to be heading right now.

Next week is our last week of 2010.  We've been going at it since early August, so I'm sure we'll all enjoy a little time off!  :)

If you want a peek at school in others' homes this week, you can visit Kris' Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers or Jen's Wrapping Up the Week at Forever, For Always, No Matter What.

Have a great weekend, everyone!