Jesus Heals Centurion's Servant

Our Bible lesson this week was about Jesus healing the Centurion's servant. It was interesting other of this soldier's faith - he believed Jesus could heal heal his servant with just a word. And HE did. There wasn't a lot of fun things to do with this lesson no matter how hard I tried to find activities. So this week was somewhat short.

We started with the coloring page for the lesson while I read the passage from the Bible. Kaleb decided to join us this week - he varies...sometimes wanting to participate in our Bible lessons, sometimes not. I don't force him. I want him to like it.

We discussed the faith of this soldier and decided to make a Roman helmet (link below). Once, Kaleb saw what we were doing, he decided he wanted to make a helmet as well. But he did not want to wear it!

J was impressed with her gold Roman helmet. We tried to make the helmet craft found in the lesson but apparently gallon jugs, no matter how you cut them, won't fit on her head. The paper helmet was just right and easy enough to put together. Like I said, it was a quick week in Bible, not too much to do. I like the weeks we have lots of fun stuff so I am hoping next week will be better. See you soon.

Links

Children's Bible Lessons - has a neat 3D project for the lesson.

Growing Kids In Grace - has a few idea on the lesson as well as the printable for a Roman soldier.

Mass Explained - has a paper version of a Roman Soldier's helmet to download and color.

Crafting the Word of God - has a whole set of Roman amor to make from paper. It is really for the Armor of God but it could work with this lesson.

Space Unit - Jupiter & Saturn

This week, we learned about Jupiter and Saturn in our Space Unit Study. We are moving through the Solar System and we are learning so much.

She is continuing her research about the planets filling in the details she reads.

She worked on her planets for the mural that we are creating in our dining room. Every time we learn about a new planet, we add it to our mural. We plan to add the dwarf planets as well.

I bought a set of planets from Toys R Us but they do not necessarily match the planets that we are learning about. So, we make due and add pieces when needed. We had to add rings around Saturn!

More research....more reading...I am so proud of J. She really has put in a ton of effort in her unit study. As I said before, she chose the topic and I just added the activities. It really does make a difference when they are invested in what they want to learn! No hands on project this week but we have a list of activities that we are going to do (and we are excited about). On to the last of the outer planets, then stars and space exploration.

B4FIAR - Angus Lost

We "rowed" Angus Lost this past week. Still loving B4FIAR. Angus Lost is about a dog who ventures out on his own because he is tired of the same old things; only to find out that he liked the same old things.

We started the Row with a new sensory bin. I used white felt, cotton balls, a felt cave and several animals from the story. I could not find a Scottie Dog though, so we used another dog in our bin.

I also made snow dough from flour, water, and baby oil. It has a real nice texture. I gave Kaleb several dogs and let him dig through the dough.

For lunch, Kaleb had dog bone shaped PB&J sandwiches.

We started every day by reading the story. Then, he colored the Scottie Dog black. He also traced the color word and we matched the letters with the alphabet magnets. In case you hadn't noticed, in honor of our dog book this week - Mickey was replaced by Snoopy! Snoopy joined us the whole week while we rowed this book.

Then, using the same magnets, we matched the letters to Angus' name and Kaleb's name.

We talked about what other words began with the letter D. Kaleb made a book from Homeschool Share. All mini books will be put into a lap folder for later.

We played a game of Dog Lotto, also from Homeschool Share.

He practiced finding Angus' way through the maze.

We made a cave from a paper bag and added Angus inside along with cotton ball snow.

We measured different items with non-standard measurement - a snowflake ruler (link below). This also gave us practice in counting verbally. He loved finding things to measure - dogs, my foot, the baby....

We practiced our numbers by playing this cookie game from Scholastic. Kaleb decided to bring several dogs and feed them the cookies.

He practiced his name using the letter magnets. He recognizes the letters of his name but can't tell me the order of the yet.

We discussed taking care of a dog as well as petting only dogs that they know. When we lived in the city, there were a ton of street dogs that you dared not to pet. So I wanted to make sure that he knows when he may pet a dog and when he shouldn't. Now, when we see a dog in the neighborhood, he tells me if it is a pet or a street dog (mostly pets here).  He gave his doggies a bath to get them clean from the snow dough.

We made a cave in the corner of our living room using a blanket and some duct tape. The kids loved it. All week, they played and read in it. It kept falling down and they begged me to put it back up again.

I borrowed the other Angus books from the library - Angus and the Cat & Angus and the Ducks. Kaleb loved all the books and to celebrate our row - we fed the ducks.


Links

Nurture Store - has the recipe for the Snow Cloud Dough that we used.

Homeschool Year - had the idea of the cave with a bear, we just eliminated the bear and added Angus.

Homeschool Creations - has free printable for the story.

Homeschool Share - has lap booking resources for the story.

Kristen Stefanko - her TPT store has the free snowflake measurement printable that we used.

Tot Tuesday

We have a nickname for our newest addition - Riley. We call him Smiley Riley. He has a great smile complete with two of the cutest dimples! My problem with Riley is every time I pull out the big camera, he stops smiling. I try and try to get him to smile but he refuses to smile when I am holding the camera. Imagine my surprise when a friend of mine was babysitting him one day and posted these on her Facebook! I love them, they are super cute.

You can actually see his dimples. What a cutie! He definitely brightens up my day!

Jesus Walks on Water

Jesus walking on water just happens to be my daughter's favorite lesson from the Bible. I did not know that until we began but it was nice to know she had a favorite! We had some fun while learning about this miracle. I was surprised that there weren't many ideas around the web for this lesson. So, we basically did what was planned in our book.

We added a few more Books of the Old Testament for J to learn. She is up to II Corinthians. We are not on schedule with the book, we are doing it "our" way.

As I read the lesson, J colored her sheet. All of her Bible work goes into her notebook.

She worked on the maze, super easy for her, harder for Kaleb.

J made an ocean sensory bag. She cut a pair of feet and some fish from foam and added them to a ziplock bag. Then, we added some Dollar Store hair gel plus a few drops of food coloring.

She mush is around and we had Jesus' feet walking on water. A word of warning, though, if you do this project. Seal the top of the baggie with packing tape. If you don't, it will open up at a random time and cover whatever it is near. (I speak from experience, since it splashed on my mini blind. It cleaned right up.)

We talked about how difficult it would be (impossible, really) for us to walk on water. Then we did a sink/float experiment. I found several objects around the house and we discussed sinking/floating. I wrote the object down and asked if they thought it would sink or float. I noted what they said and we tested it out. There were a few things that surprised them by floating or sinking. Then I asked them to find a few objects around the house to see what would happen. Any time they can play with water, they have fun!

Not too much this week for our bible lesson. But that's okay since they still had fun and learned a lot. Hope you had a great week. See you soon.

Links

Serving Joyfully - has the experiment about the Dead Sea using an egg, salt, and water.

Bible Fun For Kids - has a few ideas for teaching the lesson, plus free printable. I loved the suggestion using two marbles.

Space Unit - Earth & Mars

This week, we learned about Earth and Mars for our Space Unit.

We read books from the library about the Earth.

J labeled the layers of the Earth's crust for the notebook she is working on.

She worked on a Me on the Map mini book that I found from TPT (link below).

We learned about how to love the Earth by reducing, reusing, recycling, and planting. She made this Earth mobile with all of her ideas on how to love the Earth (link below).

Mars has the largest volcanoes in the whole Solar System - Olympic Mons. Our hands-on-project for the week was to make a salt dough volcano and erupt it.

The recipe I found to erupt the volcano consisted of baking soda, vinegar, and dish detergent. This is the first time I used dish detergent. I always just used the first two ingredients. I also added some red food coloring for effect. The dish detergent really made it bubble up. The kids loved it.

We had so much fun erupting the volcano that we used all of the vinegar that I had. We will be buying more soon to do it again!

Our last project was to make an Earth sun catcher from green and blue tissue paper and a project sleeve.

These turned out cute and are currently hanging in our window. Next week, we are moving on to learn about Jupiter and Saturn.

Lastly, in what school can you come dressed as Bat Girl? Only in Homeschool! J decided to work school in her Bat Girl Mask. How fun!

Links

Primary Theme Park - has a youtube list of videos for a Space Theme.

Chemistry.About.Com - has the idea for the volcano using flour, baking soda, and dish detergent.

Inspiring Teaching Design - TPT store has the free Me around the World printable booklet.

KTP on TPT - has the free printable Earth Day Promise mobile.

Mom on Time Out - has the Earth sun catcher tutorial.

Valentine's Day Fun

We started our Valentine's Fun with a sensory bin. It was full of pom poms, cupcake erasers, heart shaped jewels, and glitter heart stickers. All items were bought at the Dollar Store.

I found a simple owl and heart banner for the kids to make at Target. 

Together, we made a heart shaped wreath from card stock for the front door. This project was easy to make and it is super cute.

I bought several candle holders from the Dollar Store. With some Modge Podge and tissue paper, the kids made some cute candle holders. The small holders will be given as gifts to our neighbors and the larger ones are for our house.

They also made some cute hearts with pipe cleaners and heart-shaped beads.

We graphed Conversation Hearts by color and then ate them!

We made Valentine's cards for our family with tons of glitter and stickers. We spaced these activities through out the week so we weren't overwhelmed. It was fun to have holiday themed art projects. Hope you have an awesome Heart Day!

Links

Fireflies and Mudpies - has the idea for the heart sun catcher.

Buggy and Buddy - has the idea for making the heart candle holders. To light up mine, I use battery operated candles from the Dollar store.

Craft Box DIY To Go - has the idea for the paper heart wreath. Super simple and really cute.