Show & Tell: Adventures Week 12

This week we wrapped up Week 12 of Adventures in My Father's World.  We took a little bit of a break from history to begin our state studies . . . although technically I guess it's still history because we're studying them in the order they were added to the union.  At any rate, since we're at the beginning of our nation's history and our nation started with 13 colonies, we have 13 states we need to take a look at before we move on.  This week, we looked at the first four states:  Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia.

Each day, Hannah filled out a sheet for the state we looked at that day and colored it on a U.S. map.  On her state sheet, she marked the capital on a map of the state, added a sticker of the state's flag, wrote the state's postal abbreviation, and looked at a sample of the state bird and state flower to accurately color in a drawing of it.

Here are the four state sheets Hannah completed this week.  (I just realized that, unless she used invisible ink, she never labeled the capital of Georgia!  Oops!)

Not every state has an activity to go with it, but many of them do.  This week, we had activities for Pennsylvania and Georgia.

When we studied Pennsylvania, we made a much smaller version of the Liberty Bell.

The girls used a Sharpie to draw the famous crack, and we printed out a label with the Liberty Bell verse ("Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof") and added that, as well.

We're studying Tchaikovsky this year, and for the past couple of weeks, we've been getting acquainted with The Nutcracker.  This week we listened to Chocolate, Tea, Trepak, and Toy Flutes.  This was kind of neat because we did it on the same day we studied Pennsylvania, which is the home of the Hershey Company.  If you know me at all, you know it doesn't take much for me to include food in our projects, and studying the home of Hershey while listening to Tchaikovsky's Chocolate . . . well, that was just an open invitation!  Fortunately, I had a little self-control and we limited it to a cup of hot chocolate.  ;)

On Thursday, we studied Georgia.  I was surprised that Georgia was the fourth state added to the union.  I guess I thought that since Delaware was the first to approve the U.S. Constitution, it would have just radiated out from there and finally made its way down to Georgia.  Shows you what happens when I think!  ;)
 

Here's Hannah completing her state sheet for Georgia.  She's coloring the state flower while she looks at a sample of it.

And here she is coloring Georgia on her United States map.

Everyone knows that Georgia is famous for its peaches, but we learned that there are actually three P's that it's known for:  peaches, pecans, and peanuts.  We stuck with the most famous and made peach cobbler Thursday night.

Hannah's BFF Rachel spent the night, so we had three little girls who had never tasted peach cobbler before.  We just knew they were in for a treat!  Turns out not one of them liked it!  Apparently the part of the brain that lets you know cobbler is delicious is the part that doesn't develop until you're 21.  ;)

Because history/social studies/state studies/whatever you want to call it was so light this week and because we didn't have an assigned read-aloud for the week, Hannah and I were able to make time to read The Sign of the Beaver together.  (If you've never read it before and don't want me to give away the end of the story, skip the rest of this paragraph and the next one, and I'll meet you at the paragraph about Millie.)  We both loved this book up until the last chapter; then only I was a fan.  Hannah was okay when Matt decided not to go with Attean and Saknis, but I think the reason she was okay was because she thought they would be reunited somehow.  When the book ended and she realized they were never going to see each other again, she was devastated!  Like laying in her bed crying at bedtime kind of devastated.  I asked her how she would have ended it if she were the author, and she said she would have made it where Matt's family was lost in the wilderness, and Attean would have found them as he left for the great hunt and brought them to the cabin, and they all would have lived there together. 

I tried to comfort her by pointing out that since God created people with the ability to make memories, Matt could always remember his time with Attean, and Attean could always remember his time with Matt.  Then she became really inconsolable and let me know that that would make it even worse because then they'd know that they were missing each other.  The only way I was able to get her to calm down was to tell her that I had rented a movie based on the book, and sometimes the movie ends differently than the book.  So we'll watch the movie at some point over the next couple of days and compare the two.  There's a chance that we could be in the same boat we were in last night, but I'm holding on to hope that either (a) the movie ends with a happily-ever-after feel, or (b) one of you wise women will leave me a comment letting me know the perfect way to handle this situation!  (Please?  Pretty-please?  With sugar on top?) 

This is the movie I rented that's based on The Sign of the Beaver.

In Pre-K news, I continue to be pleasantly surprised with Millie's progress.  She's getting the hang of blending her sounds to read CVC words, and she's even begun to spell a few!  The biggest problem I have with her is that she wants to do everything with her eyes closed because she thinks it's more impressive if she can do it without looking.  The problem is, you kinda have to look if you're gonna read and write.

Here she is working on her spelling sheet for the week.  I say a simple CVC word, and she decides which short vowel she hears in it.  Then she adds the first and last letters of the word, and finally she rewrites it using the handwriting guides next to it.

Here's her finished product for the day.  She's up to spelling three words at a time when we do this.

This is one time she's actually supposed to have her eyes closed!  The idea is for her to grab a letter out of the letter bag and illustrate a word that starts with that letter.

This time the letter was "M."

And this is after she's well into her worksheet.  She illustrated olives for "O," a man for "M," a snowman for "S," and she's in the process of writing a "U," which she ended up illustrating with an umbrella.

I'm including this last picture because it qualifies as nature study, but it leaves such a sour taste in my mouth that it's taking everything I have in me to include it.  The girls were outside playing one day, and Millie came in to tell me about a cool bug she found.  Normally it's Hannah that runs in to deliver this news; this was Millie's first time.  So of course I grabbed the camera and went outside to take a look.  This is what I found on the table by the pool:

Another praying mantis.  They're starting to be regulars around here!

So why the sour taste in my mouth?  Well, about 2 seconds after I took this picture, I noticed that one of our neighbors' dogs (which was at our house because two little girls who shall remain nameless lured it home with a treat) had come up onto the deck with us.  I told Hannah, "Let's get the dog off of the pool deck, please," and no sooner had the words left my lips than the dog lost its balance and fell into the pool.  It panicked, and instead of going to the stairs to climb out, it went to the closest place and started climbing out, scraping its hind legs all over the pool in the process.  The result:  three big, not-so-beautiful holes in the brand spankin' new pool liner. 

(Cue sarcastic voice in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1)  Oh, joy!  Because we just happen to have 200 extra dollars laying around, and we couldn't think of one. single. way. to spend it!  What a relief!  (End sarcasm.) 

Ah-hem.  So mama may have yelled loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear because the dumb dog was at our house to begin with—let alone on the pool deck—instead of just realizing that it was an accident, and accidents happen.  Do I hear a nomination for Mom of the Year?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Sigh.

All in all, it was a good week, even if it was a little on the expensive side.

To read about other homeschool moms who may or may not have yelled at their kids this week, head on over to Kris' Weekly Wrap-up!  :)