Our Bible lessons for the week covered the stories of Noah's Ark and The Tower of Babel. Our doctrinal drill was on Heaven. We began learning the song "Oh How I Love Jesus". Cruz had to recite his memory work and I made a video of it. Here he is saying John 3: 14-19:
He repeated one of the verses but other than that I thought he did well.
He is still working his way through the alphabet in Language. This week we covered the letters O- S. He has four worksheets to do each day with each letter. They review letter sound, letter recognition, and letter writing. He began working on some new sight words and we played a few phonics games each day. He reads a short story at the end of each daily lesson.
Ben is still working on shapes. This week we focused on squares. We begin our daily lessons by singing a few songs. We sing the ABC song, a song about colors, and a song about the shapes. I used tape to outline the shapes on our floor and we march around the shape we are learning while singing the song. It is silly but fun.
Ben using his Jolly Trolley mat to sing the alphabet song.
using flashcards to line up the alphabet
Here he is marching around the rectangle with his "pet" dog. I don't normally allow them to bring toys into the schoolroom but this day he said his dog wanted to sit and listen. When it was time to march he could not resist letting him join in on the fun.
Cruz's Math lessons were on Addition +1 and Commutative Property.
This little trampoline has become a great addition to our school day. A missionary family gave it to us recently. When I notice Cruz reaching his limit in a lesson I will send him out to get something to drink and then jump on the trampoline. I usually give him a number and ask him to jump that many times. He loves it and it is a great stress reliever and a fun way to clear his mind. He usually comes back ready to try again.
Our Health lesson was on choosing good snacks. We talked about healthy
snack choices and not so healthy choices. One of his assignments was to
cut magazine pictures of good snack choices and glue them in his
notebook.
It was Pocahontas week in History. We finished up reading Pocahontas and the Strangers in our read aloud time. We really enjoyed that book. Our lessons for the week were also about her.
Pocahontas
We made vests and headdresses to dress up like the Indians. They really enjoyed that! They also wore their beads that we made a few weeks ago.
We watched several You Tube videos about Indian dance and then they would act out what they saw. It got pretty loud that day!
the back of Cruz's vest
me and my boys having a fun school day
We learned about the State of Massachusetts.
Science is their favorite subject of all. I am certain it is because of the fun activities we do each week. They get really excited to learn what their new topic is. This week was one of their favorites. We learned about freezing (hence the title of this post).
playing with ice cubes while I introduced the new topic of the week
We did several activities. Our first one was test freezing some foods to see if they would freeze. We put a small amount of cooking oil, honey, ketchup, mustard, milk, and water in a muffin tin. We covered it and put in the freezer until the next day. We took a survey to see what they thought about each item. Ben thought everything would freeze and Cruz said the mustard and milk would not freeze.
squeezing items into the muffin tin
ready to freeze
We also made a batch of jello and froze it in our Popsicle molds. They enjoyed eating their jello pops the next day. It gave us a chance to talk about liquids and solids. We also talked about melting as they ate them.
The next day they were very eager to inspect their foods. The only things that froze solid were the water and milk. The oil did not freeze at all. They loved eating the cold honey.
One day I surprised them at snack time with frozen foods. I had put things in the freezer the night before to test and see how they froze. They got to snack on candy corn, raisins, gummies, gummy worms, Ritz crackers, Pringles, marshmallows, chocolate chips cookies, and Cheese Nips. It didn't go well with our Health lesson for the week but they sure enjoyed it.
They were surprised to learn that the foods tasted the same they were just cold.
Cruz wanted to know what would happen if you froze a rock. It led to a good discussion which eventually led to us doing an experiment to find out. This was not a part of my intended lesson but it was a good opportunity to explore an idea. I sent them out on a nature hunt to find a few things they would like to test freeze. They brought back some rocks, a piece of tile, grass pieces, leaves, and a flower. I let them add a plastic scuba diver toy and a Hot Wheel truck also.
We put everything in a big plastic tub and filled it with water. We ended up tying the scuba diver, truck, and tile piece to a stick and suspending it into the water so it would freeze in the middle and not sink to the bottom. Do you think my boys were having a good time? Oh my goodness they loved it!
my and the boys with our science experiment
We put it in our deep freeze and waited until the next day to get it
out. All afternoon they asked me how I thought the scuba diver was
doing. They joked that he was chilly willy. Ben said maybe he could
climb into the truck and drive out of there, ha.
Here they are the next day when we got our tub out of the freezer. Cruz was curious about why part of the ice was white and not clear so we googled it to find out why it was like that. I love Google!
our ice block
they were fascinated
They rubbed all over it with their hands and feet and just giggled the whole time.
here they are looking at all the things they had put inside
they thought it was cool to see the air bubbles trapped inside
When they were done checking it out they decided to get their hammers and have some fun.
This one is my favorite. They hit every piece of that ice until it was melted and gone. This activity was such a fun idea and it all stemmed from a simple question.
Our last activity of the week was called Painting With Ice. We used food coloring to tint water. We then poured the water into an ice cube tray and let it freeze overnight.
making ice crayons
the next day we popped them out and used them to draw on paper as they melted
painting with colored ice
Our art lesson for the week was drawing a baby penguin.
Cruz's penguin
Ben's penguin
Lastly, we have also been studying about Guatemala in preparation for the upcoming Independence Day celebration on Sept. 15. We have made a few crafts and decorations for our school room door and watched some videos. So far we have studied the flag, Tecun Uman (Guatemala's National Hero), the Quetzal bird (national bird), the Monja Blanca (national flower), and the marimba.
Our school room door decorated for Guatemala's Independence Day. We lack learning about the Mayan ruins at Tikal that we will do next. It is always fun to learn about and celebrate the country where we serve. We love Guatemala! And we love school. Learning is fun!
What have we been up to lately? Here is a little look.
I mentioned in a recent post that Cruz began piano lessons. One of the requirements was that he needed a way to practice. We do not own any music equipment or have access to any. His music school gave a few recommendations of places to go in our town to look for a keyboard. The same day we signed him up we headed across town to look at a store. Before we ever got to the store we ran into some friends we had not seen in a while and were catching up with them. We mentioned what we were out doing and they immediately offered a keyboard that they have and are not using for us to start out on for now. What a blessing that was and perfect timing might I also add. They dropped it off a few days later and he has been practicing on it ever since. I am so thankful for God moments like that.
helping Cruz practice his music last Friday afternoon
On Friday night we had company over for supper. It turned out to be seven of them which made for a fun time around the table. We laughed, talked, and shared mission stories. It was good to have that fellowship time.
Friday night with friends
The boys especially enjoyed having another kid to play with while the adults visited. These three had a fun time together.
On Saturday morning I loaded the boys up and we drove to the mall. I needed to write lesson plans and they needed to burn off some energy. I grabbed a table by the playland, bought a chocolate frappe, and got to work. The boys played hard and had a really fun morning.
it was a win, win for this mama/ teacher
There is a new ball pit set up next to the playland that the boys have been wanting to get in to. They finally had time to do it on Saturday. They had it all to themselves.
I also let them take a turn in this Spiderman bounce house. They thought it was the coolest thing.
We returned home in time for lunch and then spent the afternoon sorting through old clothes and shoes. We give most of what they outgrow to the village people. It is always sweet to see a kid running around in something that my boys used to wear. I didn't realize we had stored up so many shoes. As you can see from the photo below we had quite the collection of New Balance tennis shoes. Yes, I have been just a little brand loyal over the past six years.
Some little village kids are going to be proud to get these.
Later that day we surprised the boys with a little water balloon war in the backyard.
On Sunday morning David traveled to Nearar to teach Bible study. The boys and I do not usually go with him. The hike is just a little too extreme for the boys to do on their own and they are too heavy for me to help carry. We will be glad when the new church is built along the road. We will then be able to go together as a family. Instead we usually watch a live stream of the service at First Baptist Jackson, MS. I am enjoying their new pastor and love looking for my friend Malinda in the choir. This past week during the invitation time Cruz walked over to our dry erase board and started drawing. When I asked him what it was he said, "it's me walking with God just like the preacher was talking about". How precious was that!
Cruz's drawing of him walking with God
And my heart's prayer is that one day he will do just that! "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6. Like many parents I am holding tight to that promise.
