Sorry for the absence...

I didn't mean to be away this long. My Internet was down the last part of last week, and by the time we finally got it up and running again, it was Monday. And this week has been a very good, but very busy, school week so far.

I will try to update on what went on last week, while we were out of touch with the online world.

Last week we were studying Genesis 1:9 and 1:10. 

⁹ And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

¹⁰ And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

We had a look at the seven continents, learned the continent song (Europe, Asia, Africa.... North America, South America.... then there is Antarctica, don't forget Australia - 7 continents, 7 continents.... yehap, that's the one!)

We talked about the difference in a globe and a map, and read books from the library about both. We talked about how a globe is an accurate representation of the Earth as a whole. but that a map can give us much more information.

Then, the kids colored these printable sheets of the continents. I need to actually just do a post about our science/geography/history curriculum using the Bible, and then I can go a little more in detail about these, as well as what we still have to do.

Buddy Boy was so excited to be able to work with the big kids.... for about 5 minutes. Then, I helped him finish his picture. We needed it to be fully colored, whether he wanted to or not, so I grabbed a crayon and dove right in! :)

We have suffered of late from a grammar burn out.... or something like that. Whatever it was, we haven't done any grammar in way too long. We have done previous grammar work, using our grammar farm. However, it was taking up more space than I really had to offer it. So I have changed up our language shelves and removed a portion of the farm to save space. Since then, I actually sat down and read the language key presentations for parts of speech, and although Little mama and Hoss know good and well what the noun, article, adjective, etc. are, I knew they would enjoy them. So we reviewed. That's where things got interesting.

The first time I tried the key presentation for a noun, it was a flop. I had four out of five kiddos in there with me, with the intent of reviewing with the oldest two and getting some new information in the heads of Miss Priss and Bug. The key presentation for noun in the Cultivating Dharma albums suggests something that goes like this...

"Tell the student(s) to go get ______ and bring it back to you." The point is to leave out the noun, and leave them guessing. They might go get something and bring it to you, just for you to look at it and tell them that's not what you wanted. What happened in MY house - Little Mama started crying, said she had no idea what I was talking about, and the rest stomped away saying I was confusing. So.... we waited a couple days. Upon revisiting, and keeping it just to LM and Hoss, things went smoother. They quickly pointed out that I didn't tell them what to bring. So I told them what I wanted - a pillow, scissors, a boot (not pictured), a blanket (also not pictured). 

 I also gave them the noun of girl and boy. 

However, when you tell them to bring you boy, and said boy is 3 and has no idea what's going on, and doesn't really care for it... well, boy verbs out - and walks away! :) 

That's when we talked about the noun, the nomenclature of a noun, and how it is used. Usually, the story of the noun would be appropriate the next time you sit down with them (not in the same day as the key presentation). BUT.... I did things different - shocker, I know. Instead, I pulled the parts of the noun story using the reference to the black triangle and the color of coal, and the fact that coal is underground for many many years, and therefore is very old, and added to that the Garden Of Eden. I explained that in the beginning of creation, God gave us the very first nouns. Person - Adam and Eve, Place - Garden of Eden, Thing - animals, trees, herbs, etc. So therefore, the noun is as old as time, and of utmost importance.

Although I took the actual farm out of the classroom, I kept the accessories and placed them in a basket. We still had *garden* *dirt* *grass* that could be used as places, and *farmer* for person, and of course, animals for *things*. They labeled these, although it was super easy, and enjoyed it just because.... I don't know - they are kids. I guess that's it - they didn't learn anything new to them, but enjoyed it anyway :) They also recorded the nouns in their nice, 3 subject notebook, that I purchased in lieu of many small ones to have to keep up with. I used the subject dividers to separate what work will be done where, so I can find it all in one place, and they can as well.

Then I read them a book (this was once a library book, long ago.... before a page was torn. Then, we donated to the library the funds for the book - and it became ours! That's a nice way of saying, we had to pay up!)

They had a mission - I would read, and they were to point out the verbs throughout the story, and record them if they wished.

The following is a dual purpose work. It is meant to be 1) an adjective extension - color words are adjectives for the felt, and 2) practice reading color words. Miss Priss used it as this, and read the words and matched the felt colors. Bug has since also learned to love this work, since she is (squeal!) beginning to read, which was such a surprise to me to discover this past week!

I had to take this one on the sly.... she didn't want me to catch her in the picture, so I told her I was just getting her work in it instead. Just glad she smiled as she assumed I was capturing only her work!

One day there was a painting break out in the kitchen. Everyone was in, having a blast, and making a grand mess which resulted in getting my floor hand mopped by a few kiddos! They really enjoy painting, and Little Mama is pretty good about sharing the supplies from her painting set she got from Christmas.

Sunday, much to my dismay, we spent the day home instead of church. Just as soon as the children who said they didn't feel well, began to feel well, I looked out to see that snow was falling everywhere. And it fell.... and fell.... and fell. If you live up North, you may be laughing right now. Snow is not unheard of where we live, but we are far enough South that it's not an every day sight. So we hunkered down inside, and the kids watched it fall from the window. These two pictures directly below were taken just as it started.

The final result was 4-5 inches of snow.... and these lovely little snow children (actually made the next day). The kids loved them, I was ready to be done with them, and my husband - well, he said getting home in the dark of night was a little creepy with these kids staring at him through frosty faces at night time :)

It also yielded snow ice cream - a wonderful treat! Here Hoss is, smiling away as we begin the process of making the sweet, homemade dessert.

While we waited, we played with extra snow and food coloring.

Most of the snow ended up being some kind of mossy green/black, except Hoss'. We named it *fiery sunset*.

And, last but not least, finally getting to eat the ice cream!

That's not everything we did of course, but what I had time to take pictures of. We have been so busy this week, and I have a few posts going up as well in the next few days, so be sure to check back!!!