Our Day....

Our day started with some zucchini muffins and scrambled eggs. Yummm... the muffins were soooo good.  We then did some picking up and then jumped into some spelling, grammar and literature.  This is where the complaining always begins with Mirian. This girl does not like reading or writing. Or so she tells me. She does just fine with it, she just doesn't like worksheets, phonics or practicing it at all.  She's a hands on girl.  It's hard to explain to her that the only way to practice writing is to ummm..... write. This is where I need to start being creative in this particular subject, because it's the most important stuff she can learn, and I really want her have a love for reading and writing.

She doesn't mind the Literacy so much, as she does love reading books, and hearing stories.  It always helps too when there's an activity to go along with it. Today she got to create a postcard to send to the timid mouse in a story that complains all the time and looks for the negative.  (How applicable after this morning.)  She was to give the mouse advice on how to be happy.  She decided to tell him to be grateful for what he was.

Art time for Savannah was illuminated manuscripts and creating one of her own initial. 

Mirian was doing mono printing. Oh how I forgot about printmaking.  I took a class in college and how I loved it. I forgot how much specifically mono printing is a personal favorite. Unfortunately I was fixing lunch while they were doing their project, and didn't have the chance to sit down and do some prints up myself.  Something I definitely need to do in some down time.

Basically you paint your picture on a baking sheet, plexi-glass or any other smooth surface.  Try to get a good even coat so it doesn't dry out .  After painting the image, you can then use an eraser to draw additional elements or lines removing the paint for more detail.

You then lay your paper on top of the paint and rub it well. If the paint is pretty dry you can dampen your paper before placing it on the paint, to help it print better.

You then pull off the paper and you have a mono print.  They are so easy and fast. Mirian made about 5 of them. Even Caitlyn and Isaac got in on the fun.  Savannah was wanting to join is as well if she didn't have a separate assignment.

Savannah studied the feudal era today for history and created a mobile of the different feudal systems, and people that lived in that era of time.

Mirian has been studying nomads and their way of life. The last two lessons were on how the nomads ended up in the fertile crescent and began to settle and create villages in Mesopotamia.  

Mirian is always funny when it comes to questioning her about a lesson and  what she learned. I asked her during the last lesson if she remembered what the land was called between the two rivers. She stated that she didn't know.  Her usual answer to anything and so I reminded her. The funny thing is that I know she remembers. Why?  Because this weekend when they were all playing "family" together.  Mirian kept calling out to her little daughter. "Mesopotamia! Mesopotamia come here!"  Hmmm.. a little ironic that she remembered it well enough to name her daughter that. :)

So today we continued on with learning about the farmers that first settled there. How they farmed, grew crops and irrigated them. We talked about how they tamed animals and learned to raise herds of animals like goats and sheep. We discussed how they built their first homes.  Later they started building them closer together to help each other and soon we had small villages. As they became more prosperous they were worried about people harming them or stealing things so they began to build big walls around their villages. The city of Jericho having the largest walls in the area.

As an option to the lesson we could create our own bricks from dirt. (Which I think we still might do.) Or we could create a small diorama of the first villages. Mirian voted for the village. It's hard to determine whether to do some of these optional activities. You know how much time they'll take, making it so you might not be able to move on to another area of curriculum.  Yet you know that these are things that make learning fun. So I decided to go for it.  So we built our little village and added the different elements we had learned about.  Huts, crops, rivers, tamed animals, and stone walls.

Mirian had a great time and it's fun to see the others get involved as well. 

They had such a good time that later they started adding their own things as well. Like the raft to go up and down the rivers.

And of course you have to have people to live there.  

So they could all live next to each other in their little huts. They played with it all evening.  

Savannah even decided she needed to create her own tonight before bed.  They were so proud of the fact that she created it so they could hook the crops or rivers together with each other to create even a larger village.  

I have to admit that these are the parts I enjoy the most about learning as well. Forget worksheets, let's build one ourselves.