Making Bread

Today was the end of Micah's study on dough. Which meant that he got to make his own bread! He was very excited!

Jacob and Naomi were very excited too! And yes they are in their pj's-we were having our first homeschool pj day!

He took it very seriously and worked hard at it!

Then it was time to shape it and put it in the pan.

And then I let him put it into the oven by himself.

And take it out by himself.

It looked and smelled great!

And we all agreed that it tasted GREAT!!!

Learning about Dough

This week Micah is learning about yeast and its effect. So today we got make some modeling dough. Naomi really loved playing with hers and kept saying that she was making pizza.

Micah decided that he wanted to try to make a spider.

Jacob made an airplane and I made a heart.

Naomi kept making pizza...

Then we put them in the oven and baked them!

Homemade Butter

This week Micah has been studying about the colonists. We have been studying all aspects of their lives and what it was like when they first came to America. One thing we studied this week was how they made butter. So today Micah had a project to make his own butter!

We needed to have a jar with a tight fitting lid, heavy cream and some strong arm muscles! One thing we learned, that was important, was to set the milk out for a while to let bacteria to grow. We tried to make the butter right after we took the cream right out of the fridge and it did not work.

Then it was time to shake. We learned that the butter fat is trapped in something like water balloons and the shaking will help us break open the water balloons so butter can start to form.

After a lot of shaking we finally started to see butter forming. At that point you drain off the liquid which is buttermilk. Then you add some water and shake a bit more. Then you drain it again and this is skim milk. What you have left is butter!

Darrick toasted some bread for us to put our butter on.

Everyone agreed it was good!

Projects

One thing I love about our curriculum is that it has a lot of neat projects for the boys to do that makes their lessons more interesting. I also love to fill any extra time with a craft or art project.
Here are some of the things that decorate our classroom right now.

As part of Jacob's Science lessons about Trees we walked around the neighborhood and collected leaves. Then we pressed some and used other to make leaf rubbings.

This is something I made up but it is for Jacob's Math. Everyday he adds another circle piece to his caterpillar. We use it for the number of days we have been in school, counting by 2's and 10's (that is what the glitter one is for).

This week Micah studies Native Americans in History. He made a cool wigwam and tepee after he learned what they were.

These were color by number sheets that I have and after the boys colored them, I glued them on paper and hung them from the ceiling.

Today we worked on making Scarecrows out of an art book I have. They really liked this one!

Graphing Favorite Colors

One of Jacob's recent Math activities was to make a graph. We decided it would be fun to do one on favorite colors. I posted it on Facebook and we got a ton of responses.

The first thing Jacob did was make a tally sheet to record the results.

Once the tally marks were done it was time to graph the results!

Jacob was very happy with his graph, he did a great job!

Check out the results and see how your favorite color did!

Names, Eggs and Tumble Books

Darrick is doing a great job teaching Bible to the boys every night. It feels so good to know that we are intentionally teaching our kids about God and they are responding really well.


We are all memorizing Proverbs 9:10 together and still learning about names and how special they are. One activity we did last night was to make something special with their names. So we made bracelets and necklaces.

Today Micah did an experiment for Science. He is learning about all different kinds of Scientists and the jobs they do and the experiments they do. So today he got to be a scientist and do an experiment. He had two cups of water and added salt to one and then had to watch what would happen when he dropped an egg in each!

This week we also made a trip to the Marysville Public Library. It is nice and has a lot of programs and great books. Something we discovered while we were there were TumbleBooks. They are online, animated picture books and chapter books. Jacob looked at some today and they were a big hit. Check out the link we posted on the side-your kids will love them! Click on the link, then "Click to begin", then storybooks. Enjoy!

Science at its best

This week Jacob is learning about things under the ground. One of the activities is for him to find a bunch a worms and put them in a glass jar with dirt. He gets to observe them at first. Then he covers them with a towel and checks back on them in a couple of days.

Jake had so much fun looking for worms and discovering all the other bugs that we came across. We found a lot of worms and filled our jar quickly.

Then when it was time to observe he studied them so fervently. Jacob was so excited about his worms that Micah finally had to come over and check it out. Naomi wanted nothing to do with them and just kept saying "ewww".

It is so great to see the boys so excited about learning and getting to experience things so hands on!