Tin Foil Art

This was an art project Savannah and Molly picked to do one day while Sophie was at Tuesday school.  You draw a fish on tin foil, then rub the tin foil over some vegetable or fruit netting, paint it, ceramic paints work best, then cut it out and paste it onto a background you've designed.  Molly did a pretty good pelican I thought...I only helped her a little bit.

HOCC Talent Show

 The home school group we belong to put on a talent show for all the kids to perform in.  Sophie memorized the poem "The Three Little Kittens".  We made cut-out kitten puppets and Sophie dressed up like a mama cat.  She did a great job reciting her poem and used the different voices we practiced.

Savannah had written and published a book through Shutterfly about wild adventures she has with her cousin Nate.  For her talent she read the book to the audience.  She did really well and everyone wanted to look at her book afterwards.  She has another book soon to be published called "The Pumpkin Nights".  We can't wait to read it!

Another neat thing about the evening was Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Nancy and Elise were visiting us so they were able to attend and watch the girls perform.  Elise even got to be in the group photo.  See if you can find her.

Human Body Party!

As part of Biology this year we studied the human body for ten weeks.  Savannah was a little "sicked-out" at first about having to study it.  But at the end she said her favorite part was learning about bones.  At the end of the ten weeks, we made human body cut-outs complete with decorations...some edible, some not.  Then we had human body sundaes!

A few days later I found that someone had eaten all the intestines (fruit flavored licorice glued on).  Gross!

Building the Wall of China on a Roman Road

For one of Savannah's history projects, she chose to build the wall of China.  Most of the wall of China was made by slaves stamping earth and gravel with their feet between board frames for years and years.

Savannah built a wooden frame and then pounded with a mallet, earth and gravel until it was solid.  She then slowly pulled the wooden frame off and we had a small piece of wall.  It definitely was easier to make then the original wall, and helped us understand the concept of how it was made better. 

The Wall of China is sitting in the Roman Road Model.....another project we did where we tried to replicate the process of building a Roman road.  We put down a layer of glue (aka cement), then pebbles, then sand, then dirt, then bull-dozed it with a rolling pin.  It didn't look like the Roman roads but we figured they had several years of chariots and horses to help smooth theirs out. 

Dramatic Storytime Club

This year we participated in a little drama group.  It was a lot of the same kids we did the craft club with.  The girls loved it.  We would pick a story each week, then we'd get together and read it, followed by creating simple costumes, casting the characters, and finishing with the dramatization of the story.  It was good for our girls to get out of their shells and show off their cute personalities.  These pictures are from the story "The Princess and the Frog".  Molly was the frog, Savannah was a co-princess, and Sophie was a sister to the princess. 

Craft Club

We have been meeting with other homeschool families and doing a craft club. My girls absolutely love it. It's probably their favorite thing during the week. So far they have made everything from little pillows to braided rugs, log cabins, and knitted hats. Savannah especially loves craft club and has several girlfriends her age who attend. She is constantly wanting to try to sew things and create things. It's been a great experience for all of us.

Ancient Roman History

 Savannah Opens a Roman Popinas!

A popina was an ancient Roman wine bar, where a limited menu of simple foods (olives, bread, stews) and selection of wines of varying quality were available. The popina was a place for men of the lower classes of Roman society (slaves, freedmen, foreigners) to socialize.  Savannah opened her popina up just for one night.  We drank MonaVie and had a yummy soup, cecina (pureed garbonzo beans, olive oil, and basil), olives, pita bread, and a yogurt sauce.  Savannah had a great time creating her menu, setting up her stand, cooking with mom, and selling us her food. 

We learned about and made Roman Fasces one day.  The traditional Roman fasces consisted of a bundle of white birch rods, tied together with a red leather ribbon into a cylinder, and often including a bronze axe (or sometimes two) amongst the rods, with the blade(s) on the side, projecting from the bundle.  It was used as a symbol of the Roman Republic in many circumstances, including being carried in processions, much the way a flag might be carried today.  Ours ended up looking more like an axe because we didn't have a bundle of sticks, but you get the idea.

Paper Flowers and the "Bean" Jar

Hooray! We filled up the "Bean" Jar.

The girls get "Beans" (which are actually pink marble type things) put into their jar (glass vase) anytime I think they deserve them. If they did a great job on their lessons, or they brushed their teeth without me reminding them, or they helped one of their sisters etc. they get a handful of beans. It took us a couple months to fill up the jar. Once they filled it up, they drew a card from a set of cards they had made up earlier of activities along with a service project they'd like to do. The card they chose this time was "Go to a movie" and "make blankets for charity". So we went to see "The Princess and the Frog". The girls of course loved it. Now we need to figure out making those blankets for charity. Hmmmm.....

Paper Flowers

We decided since we now had a full bean jar, we should make something to put in it before we empty it out to start over again. So we made paper flowers out of tissue paper, sucker sticks, green crepe paper, fuzzy balls and other things. First we wrapped our sucker sticks with green crepe paper for the stems. Then we cut squares out of the tissue paper, poked a hole in the middle of three or four papers, pushed a sucker stick into the hole just a little way, twisted the paper around the top of the sucker stick, taped it with tape, glued a fuzzy ball into the center and walaah we have a flower! Then we made different insects to go in each flower. Savannah had a lady bug, Molly a bumble bee, and Sophie a butterfly.

Hard at Work

Miscellaneous pictures from a day of homeschooling. Molly decided to make herself a little bed. Savannah was deep in thought and Sophie was working on a one of her many art projects.

Sign Language

We are learning sign language. It is one of Molly's favorite times. We use the Signing For Kids book and so far it has been great.