Japan - MFW ECC & 1st, Weeks 27 & 28

Japan was a very interesting country! Joshua quit taking his afternoon nap, so he started joining us for school. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it was stressful! He loved the Japanese Carp project we did (above). Joshua's is the one on top and Rebekah's is the one that is cut out. We also tried some origami, which was a bit difficult for Caleb. Rebekah has much more patience, but I ended up making most of them!

Here are their worksheets from Japan. I failed at making any food from Japan. We didn't find any good recipes, one suggestion was Ramen noodles, which we had for China instead, oops.

They really liked watching Big Bird in Japan!

In science, we learned about the beach and ocean animals. We watched several documentaries from the library and read a few books. Caleb did a great job drawing a shark!

Joshua loves making notebook pages too! I draw the animal he wants and he colors it. This is a sting ray.

We also did some salt water experiments. We learned about the different densities, and how fresh water stays on top for a while before it mixes. (See pictures below.)

This is just a picture of them working on notebook pages.

The day before this picture (below) was taken, Caleb had an all out fit because he didn't want to do the practice from the textbook. The reason he hates these, is because he has to write the problems himself... However, this day, I warned him of the practice page and told him he could sit on the couch. Instant good attitude! I hope it works next time! (He was also being really nice to Joshua!)

Rebekah started learning about weight. We made our own scale for her to compare common items, it was fun.

And here are her bible notebook pages. She is doing an amazing job. Most times, she won't let me look at them until she's done.

That's it, next up Russia!

China - MFW ECC & 1st, Weeks 25 & 26

We enjoyed our time in China! Above are some Chinese numbers that Caleb painted. And below are Chinese lanterns we made. Rebekah had the idea of putting a bottom on it and putting an LED tea light candle in it. They turned out good, and they enjoyed playing the the dark bathroom with them! And we also had lunch at a Chinese Buffet restaurant, but I forgot to take a picture.

One of our favorite things was reading the missionary story of Gladys Alward! Wow, was this an action packed book! I had to skip over a few scenes that were just too graphic for my young children, but we all loved this book. I highly recommend this series of missionary stories!

We watched a few DVDs that I found at the library. I really like the Countries of the World series. We've found a DVD for most of the countries we've studied. Joshua especially liked Big Bird in China! We had a lot of books from the library as well!

Of course, we had to do a few worksheets too!

Below, they are playing with some Chinese tangrams.

For science, we've been reading a lot about the ocean. We did a few experiments with salt water. Can you see that the egg in the salt water is floating! The second picture is how we tried to grow salt crystals. This took a long time to actually see crystals, almost a month!

In math, Caleb finished Singapore 2B! Yeah! We will take a week break to review math facts and then start 3A. In English, I started using Writing with Ease, Level 1 for Caleb, just to make sure he has a solid foundation in narrating. It's starts pretty easy. We're fitting in 2 lessons at a time, but only once or twice a week. I think I will work on this over the summer for both Caleb and Rebekah. Over the summer, I also plan on teaching them both cursive!

This was a story he wrote for our regular English program, Language Lessons for Today by MFW. The first sentence was given to him, he wrote the rest.

Rebekah finished her 100 chart, so we had a fund day stringing 100 cheerios! I also let them have some candy to celebrate!

She's still plugging away at her bible reader and bible notebook. Here are her latest pages. Her writing is great, but her pictures are usually hurried. Oh well, I'll take it!

We were also able to take a tour of our local post office with our homeschooling group! Joshua loved it!

Lastly, here's a cute picture of Matthew. He's figured out how to climb on the chairs...  nothing is safe now!