India - MFW ECC Weeks 23 & 24

We enjoyed our time in India! Here are pictures of our Indian feast. The kids helped me make Chapatis, and I also made basmati rice, chicken curry, some veggies, and golden raisins. I was surprised that Caleb loved the curry. I thought it was really good too, and so did Kevin and Matthew. Unfortunately, Rebekah didn't like it, but she's difficult to please. None of us liked the bread either...

Here are their notebook pages about India. We also read a lot of books and watched a few documentaries, including one about climbing Mt. Everest (Nepal) that was very interesting.

We loved reading a missionary story about Amy Carmichael!

Our science focused on mountains. They made a mountain model out of newspaper and masking tape. They labeled and decorated each layer of the mountain. I gave them a list of about 10 things I wanted them to include, such as tundra, tree line, snow line, elephants, mountain goats, etc.

We also covered a page in our science book, The Usborne Living World Encyclopedia, about parasites. I recently was reminded (by the facebook community) that the students are supposed to be doing a notebook page every time we read this book. Oops, haven't been doing that! So, I had them pick anything off the page to draw and copy one sentence about it. Here's Caleb's:

I spent some time reading about a writing program called Writing with Ease. I decided to purchase the e-book for level 1 and start working through it with Caleb to help his writing. It describes copywork and narration wonderfully. However, I'm having a hard time fitting it in! Maybe we can do a bit more over the summer. I also plan on having both Caleb and Rebekah learn cursive over the summer. I thought the extra handwriting would overwhelm Caleb during the school year.

Rebekah has been amazing me with her reading. She finished her first chapter book!

She has been plugging away at her bible notebook, here are a few pages:

I hope you'll stop by again. Next stop, China!

Pillow Covers - From Curtains

My sister-in-law asked me to make her some pillows for her living room. The fabric came from her living room curtains! They were too long, so she just cut off the bottoms, and I had plenty to make her perfectly matched pillow covers.

These are so easy to make!  Make the fabric so it will wrap around the pillow and overlap at least 3 inches.  Hem the short ends, then wrap the fabric around the pillow inside out.  Pin the hem ends in place, but not the edges.  Then pull the pillow out the side and sew up each side.  Turn it right side out and stuff your pillow back in!

Hello Kitty Skirt

I found this adorable fabric on the clearance rack at JoAnn's. It was still $7 a yard, but I only needed 3/4 of a yard to make Rebekah a skirt. She loves Hello Kitty! It was a bit see-through, so I added an under skirt with fabric I already had. I made the underskirt a bit longer so she wouldn't outgrow the skirt as quickly, and I thought it was cute. I didn't even have to put in a waistband because the fabric was already shirred on the top!

She loved it when I made it, but she still hasn't worn it. What do you think?

Saudi Arabia - MFW ECC & 1st, Weeks 21 & 22

These last couple weeks we've been studying Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East. Our favorite part was our end of unit feast! Caleb helped me make homemade pita bread, hummus, chicken shish kebabs, and tzatziki sauce. I followed the recipe in The Kids' Multicultural Cookbook for pita bread, tzatziki sauce and the kebabs (well, except we used chicken). The pita breads were amazing! And we already made another batch. We'll be making them often around here!  The hummus came from Another Trip Around the World. We didn't like it at all, I actually had to dump it... It was too runny and tasted too much like chickpeas!

Don't the pita breads look amazing though?

Here is a close up of our center piece. It was called a No-Ruz Centerpiece from the book, Global Art. In the pie tin are sprouting lentils, which is also part of the project. The kids had fun making the stand, and then we got a bonus science lesson while watching the lentils sprout!

Here are a few worksheets they did. I found a free color page of a camel online (thanks Google), and had them copy two facts from a website we found. We also watched a few Youtube videos of camels (just do a search). We also spent some time reading books and watching DVDs about deserts for science. In our Properties of Ecosystem's science book, we learned about acid rain, pollution, and recycling.

For bible, Caleb copied the Lord's Prayer, found in Matthew 6. His spelling, language arts and math were about the same, nothing profound to share. Then we also read about Esther and watched VeggieTales: Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen.

But, we have added Spanish to our learning adventure! Our pastor announced recently that we will be starting a Spanish speaking church in our church, that will meet Sunday afternoons. It won't be ready to launch for a while, but in the meantime, we decided to learn Spanish so we can communicate with these people! We're starting with Salsa videos and just practicing some vocabulary. I think I may purchase The Complete Book of Spanish for all of us, me included. I also found a great app on my phone (Samsung) called Dualingo. I've been using it every day, but I'd say it's definitely for adults, not children. 

Rebekah is still doing great in 1st grade. Here are her latest bible notebook pages:

During school one day, Joshua got ahold of Rebekah's tea set and broke the spout right off of her tea pot. She was VERY upset, so a few days later we went to the thrift store and found her a new one! So I brought my Samantha doll out of storage and we had a tea party! Making memories with my little girl!