Friday, November 12, 2010

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!

25 comments:

Kimberly said...

Good job, Mom! You do great. How exciting about your daughter reading the Bob Books. She sounds a lot like Leah. Leah takes her books all over, too.

Carrie said...

I am so bookmarking this for when we study the Statue of Liberty!! Way to go, Millie on reading your Bob Books!! I absolutely love that last pic of her and Greg!

& look at that gorgeous kitchen!! ;)

Gifts for Girls Academy said...

Sounds like a great week! I love how you integrated your subjects. The penny experiment sounds interesting. I think my girls would love to see that.

Lisa said...

Great activities and woohoo on the reading!

Kyla Johnson said...

I love this post!! I'm so encouraged to hear that Millie has started reading her BOB books!! Ours are still in a box in one of our abysses (is that a word??) but we did start our blend ladder yesterday so I'm hopeful! I love your kitchen too btw!

TechWife said...

You had such a fantastic week! I love the way you compared the size of the Statue of Liberty to your daughter & then measured out the height of the statue on the ground. What a wonderful way go gain perspective!

Anonymous said...

What a great week! Thanks for sharing!

Patricia said...

I love your daughter as the statue of Liberty. I invite you to daddy's time bloghop in my blog. God bless!

Sharla said...

Please give Millie my congratulations! Reading opens up a word of adventure and opportunities - it's a very big deal!

I love the penny idea and the Statue of Liberty stuff - great imagination there. I really like how you compared her size to your daughter's size- that will make her remember it so much better.

Great week!

wdworkman said...

Congratulations Millie! And, Hannah makes a wonderful statue.
Janet W

Samantha said...

I adore all of the activities you did to study the Statue of Liberty. She'll definitely remember that! I remember Bob Books - my kids all loved them when they were little. Somehow, they manage to be easy to read and interesting - a rare feat! Wow - that looks like a mega-pencil sharpener in the one picture - where did you get that?

Samantha

Monica said...

Congratulations on the new reader in the family! That was such an exciting day here.:)

Unknown said...

Congrats to Millie! We love Bob books around here too, and I am famous for putting things in a "special spot" and then never finding them again :) Glad you able to find the books and capitalize on the moment when it was all coming together for her. Love the pennies experiment, I will have to try that with the boys. Thanks for linking up again and have a great weekend!!

Mom said...

Congrats to Millie:) It makes this former reading teacher proud as a peacock. This weeks blog really was great for me, in spite of Hannah's innocent comment about planes. Hannah, I hope someday you'll get to see Niagara Falls; it's especially pretty at night. And I did fly in a plane to Texas.
Love you all.

Christine said...

We are behind you in Adv, so I like following your blog for ideas. May I ask what curriculum Millie is doing? Is that MFW as well? This is our first year using MFW.

Mark N Yvette said...

Way to go Millie!!! I am so proud of her =)

Jennifer said...

WOW! What an encouragement to receive such friendly comments! :)

Samantha ~ It's a GREAT pencil sharpener! My husband got it from the Office Depot online store.

Christine ~ Millie is using the MFW K program this year, but we're only doing the phonics and math part. I'm saving Bible and science for next year when she'll be better able to really grasp the concepts. :)

Patty said...

I want to go to your house for school, too!

Robin Johnson said...

I love your activities for the Statue of Liberty. Lots of fun and learning!

Tonia said...

Looks like a very fun week! Love all the activities!

Gator Mommy said...

Congratulations Millie!! I love your Statue of Liberty! I don't think daddy will allow me to dress up any of my boys, ha ha! Great week

Mandy in TN said...

What an incredibly wonderful week! (also, shh, i can so identify with the abyss of a homeschool closet.)

Monica said...

wow can I just copy and paste your week in my wrap up? It would be sooo much easier. I just can't keep up with blogging these dayszzz. YEA YEA YEA congrats on reading YEAHHHH! I loved reading The Five Love Languages too. Can you clean my kitchen as nice as yours. I wish I had fresh flowers on my counter too.

RachelT said...

Your very own Statue of Liberty was so cute! And what fun to begin more adventures in reading with the Bob Books!

Starfish Momma said...

Yay for Millie and her very first book and I loved Hannah's Statue of Liberty picture :)