Homeschool - Units 7, 8, 9, and 10

This will give a more brief overview of what the kids have been learning.  I'll preface this by saying all the kids are doing math work daily....and I might just write what thing they're working on.

Vanessa:
She has nearly finished her first handwriting book!  I ordered her the next one and we'll take it slower.  She has finished book A of her math book and is onto book B of kindergarten level, and there is an emphasis on saying "one ten" and "2 ones" for the number 12, and "one ten" and "6 ones" for 16, and so on.  She is adding numbers like 1+4 and 2+5.  She can easily count to 100 by herself and counts by 10s to 100.  She counts by 5s up to 20.

Her history is going through The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes and units 6-10 covered:
-God took care of Joseph in prison
-The king had a dream
-Everyone obeyed Joseph
-Joseph helped his brothers
-Joseph forgave his brothers
-Jacob blessed Joseph's sons, Ephriam and Manassah
-Israel's people cried out
-God saved baby Moses, taken care by Egyptians
-God spoke to Moses
-Moses warned the king
-God sent the last plague
-The king was sorry
-God led his people
-God parted the sea
-God gave the people of Israel food and water
-The 10 Commandments
-The people prayed to a calf
-God's people brought gifts to the tabernacle.
-God watched over tduhe tablenacle (cloud by day, fire by night)
-The people were afraid
-Joshua led the Israelites
-Rahab helped the spies.  (Vanessa was very bothered that the lady's name was Rahab, she didn't think that was a very pretty name for a girl)
-God made a path through the river
-Jericho's walls fell down
-The sun didn't set

Various activities, crafts, and "acting out" of these stories happened.  Some days they didn't because I didn't have time.

Vanessa has continued to learn new words to read.  She reads stories like this:

"Rub dub dub. The man is in the tub.  Man has fun. Man sat in his tub."
"Bob is on the bus.  Tim is not.  Bus is gone.  If Tim runs, Tim can catch the bus."

She has taken an interest in reading and tells me what words start with through the day, and learns to read some Biscuit books too.

Calvin:

The history continues the true story of the Pilgrims, and unit 7 begins with the Pilgrims and the Dutch dressed and worshiped differently.  They were kind to each other and lived peacefully.  The thing that made the Pilgrims want to leave was to have their own place to worship God freely.  Their children were becoming "too Dutch" after 12 years in Holland.
Miles Standish was a brave soldier who had a sword named Gideon.  He wanted to go to America too.  Preparations were difficult, Dutch helped them.  It was hard for them to leave their Dutch friends but trusted God to watch over them as they went to their new land.  The original ship meant to take them to America was the Speedwell, which couldn't make the trip because it leaked.  They boarded the Mayflower because repairs could not be made in time to leave before hitting storm season.  The Mayflower was packed.  A disobedient person, John Howland, almost drowned during a storm when he was on the deck of the ship.  Two new babies were born on the ship, one named Oceanus.  9 weeks on the ship.  The first place they saw land was not a good place to settle.  They went ashore to wash things and return to the ship.  Pilgrims continued to find a place to settle, came across Indians who wanted nothing of the gifts the Pilgrims tried giving them. Pilgrims found deserted indian village and found wigwams.  Pilgrims found buried corn and took it.
God called Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem's walls - it was hard to build a wall when under attack.  Pilgrims had to find a place to build their houses in fear of indians.  Francis Billington was a trouble maker boy who almost set the ship on fire by playing with gunpowder.  thankfully that did not happen.  They finally found a place to settle in Plymouth Bay.  The rock they stepped on is still on display in Plymouth today.  Psalm 40. The pilgrims waited patiently!

Poetry:  Mother's Jewels, Where Lies the Land?, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and What Are Heavy?

Calvin finished reading his Early Reader's Bible (500 pages!) and moved onto Owl at Home.  Owl at Home was SO entertaining, he looked forward to reading it every day.  He's gaining a broader understanding of what he is reading, comprehending more.

Memory Verses:  Psalm 119:1, 1 Thess 5:11 (build each other UP! imagine what the Pilgrims went through on the ship.  A cheery face would have done them good, Colossians 3:23 (do all things heartily to the Lord!, just like the Pilgrims), and Psalm 40:1 (wait patiently, God will deliver!)

Storytime: We read Sarah Witcher's story, a historical fiction book.  One chapter a day.  Then we moved onto Little House in the Big Woods.  Another historical fiction.  They love the read-aloud story times. Violet listens in too.

Violet:

History overview:  Moses leading people out of Egypt (finished Tirzah book), finish Egyptian section, researched about Pharaohs, The Lord kept his covenant with Abraham. giving of the 10 commandments, God providing for them, Joshua chosen to lead Israelites after Moses died, (studied 12 tribes and where they settled, she made her own map), Idol worship began, Ruth and Naomi, first king Saul (bad king), next king David (good king!), moving onto Greeks in the time of David, studied the legends that tell of how some Greek cities were conquered (Troy, Trojan war by knowing Homer wrote about this in two poems, Odyssey and Iliad), she made a "scytale"! message - VERY cool.  king Solomon, what he was known for (building palace and temple, dividing kingdom by his death into Israel and Judah), Spartan army and what they valued (strength, winning), Athenian people and what they valued (art, beauty), beginning of olympics, founding of Rome is a legend, king Ahab was a terrible king and did the worst evil in God's eyes.  Jezebel was just as bad, introducing the worship of Baal.  Elijah and how he stood for God and created a "contest" of the Gods - GOD won.  Even burnt up a soaking sacrifice alter.

Studied Psalm 34: 1-7 for 4 weeks.

Poetry:  Foreign Lands, Looking-Glass River, Autumn Fires, My Shadow (all by Robert Louis Stephenson).

Language Arts - going through daily english lessons, pronouns, nouns, apostrophes, what gets capitalized.  She's also reading through two Adventure Books for her reading program (Riding Freedom and Phoebe the Spy)

Daily Dictation.

Research on all sorts of things related to history, including vocabulary words.

Science:  finished desert work, started "Great Dinosaur Mystery" book, animal cell parts (vacuoles, mitochondria, cytoplasm, cell membrane, and nucleus"... made a  cookie with toppings to represent these.

A few recent pics.

one of Violet's written narrations about the legend of how Rome began.  (Romulus and Remus being found by a wolf...)

project Calvin did to illustrate how white Francis Billinger's face must have been (scared!) when the gunpowder exploded on the ship!  Red peeled back oval says "BOOM"