Week 11: November 12 - 16

Bible: Review of the last three weeks

The Three Wise Men
Jesus Grows Up
John the Baptist


Noah said his favorite verse was Luke 2:52 "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men," because it shows Jesus was a boy like him!


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This week in science: Animal Senses
*Hearing in bats and dolphins

*Vision
How insects compound lenses work.

*Nocturnal animals - how can they see in the dark?

*Eye position and field of vision

Here is another link for amazing facts

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History and Geography : The Minoans: c2500BC-1450BC

Mapping Crete

The legend of King Minos: According to Greek legend, the god Zeus fell in love with a beautiful princess called Europa. He turned himself into a bull and swam to Crete with the princess on his back. King Minos of Crete was one of Princess Europa's sons. The Minoans take their name from King Minos who ruled the island.

The legend of the Minotaur: half man, half bull the Minotaur was to have lived in a huge maze under the palace at Knossos. A young Greek prince called Theseus set out to kill it. King Minos' daughter gave the young prince a magic sword and a ball of thread. Theseus unwound the thread as he went deeper into the maze, leaving a trail behind him. After killing the Minotaur, he followed the thread back to the outside world.

Life on Crete

*Travel and Trade
*Religion

*Writing: Linear A

The end of the Minoans: possibly a natural disaster weakened the land and the people and left them compromised making it easier for the invading Mycenaeans from Greece to conquer them. They never recovered and eventually died out.

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ART: Fresco

We studied the wall paintings of the Minoans and then Noah painted his own Fresco

I spread spackling on a sheet of paper and had Noah paint with watercolor while the spackling was still damp. When it dried, we had a beautiful stiff fish Fresco.

Below it : more Minoan art

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Math: Reviewing single digit addition & subtraction

Identifying and making patterns

Week 10: November 5 - 9

This week's Bible verse: "Obey God because you are His children." I Peter 1:14
John the Baptist

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This week in Science: Internal Balance and Sending Messages


*Body Temperature

- - terms: warm blooded, cold blooded
we connected to a link discussing a day in the life of a lizard
and studied ways animals warm up and cool down
*Water Balance
*Liver and Kidneys
- - terms: liver, urea, kidneys, urine, bladder

Sending Messages:

*Color coding
- - examples: cinnabar caterpillar's orange and black stripes warn that he is poisonous
butterflies - the African monarch butterfly is poisonous, but predators will also leave the Swallowtail butterfly alone because its coloring mimics the monarch.

*Body language (the dance of the bee, importance in the pack)
*Making noises (birds, grasshoppers, crickets: calls of warning, or to attract a mate)
*Chemical messages to attract a mate or mark their territory


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History & Geography: Europe c6000BC - 3000BC

Mapping Europe
First Villages

*farmers
*homes
*temples and tombs

Northern Europe c3200BC-1500BC
The Monument Builders
*Stonehenge
*Mastering Metal
*Tombs and treasure

Week 9: October 29 - November 2

This week's memory verse: Luke 2:52 "And Jesus grew in wisdom, and stature and in favor with God and men."
(Same verse as last week because there was no adventure club last week, so we stayed on the same lesson.)


U.S. History: This is not really the year that we will be studying U.S. History as a regular subject, but we are making it an occasional study. This will be a fairly long project I think. We will be memorizing the meaning of the pledge of allegiance. Here I've written the whole thing out.

I Pledge Allegiance - I Promise to be faithful and true (Promise my loyalty)
to the flag, to the emblem that stands for and represents
of the United States all 50 states, each of them individual, and individually represented on the flag
of America yet formed into a UNION of one Nation.
and to the Republic - And I also pledge my loyalty to the Government that is itself a Republic, a form of government where the PEOPLE are sovereign,
for which it stands, this government also being represented by the Flag to which I promise loyalty.
one Nation under God, These 50 individual states are united as a single Republic under the Divine providence of God, "our most powerful resource" (according to the words of President Eisenhower)
Indivisible, and can not be separated. (This part of the original version of the pledge was written just 50 years after the beginning of the Civil War and demonstrates the unity sought in the years after that divisive period in our history)
with Liberty The people of this Nation being afforded the freedom to pursue "life, liberty, and happiness",
and Justice And each person entitled to be treated justly, fairly, and according to proper law and principle,
for All. And these principles afforded to EVERY AMERICAN, regardless of race, religion, color, creed, or any other criteria. Just as the flag represents 50 individual states that can not be divided or separated, this Nation represents millions of people who can not be separated or divided.
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History: The Indus Valley People c2500BC - 1500BC

Mapping the Indus Valley in South Asia

food, crafts, trade and the city of Mohenjo-daro. Here, Noah is working with cotton. He learned that the Indus Valley farmers were the first people to grow cotton and weave it into cloth.

The end of a civilization

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This week in Science: Breathing

Breathing in water: fish and how their gills function

Breathing in water and on land: amphibians

How the lungs work to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide

How insects breathe: through holes in their bodies

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Week 8: October 22- 26

This week's Bible verse: "And Jesus grew in wisdom, and stature and in favor with God and men." Luke 2:52
Jesus grows up
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This week in History: The Egyptians c3100BC - 1700BC
Mummies and Pyramids

Tomb treasure

The Great Pyramid

mummification - This lesson was so much fun. We linked to some Usborne sites from our chapter on Egypt, and toured King Tut's tomb, studying the pictures painted on the interior walls. These pictures are treasured art to us now, but back then they were actually left as maps, leaving directions for the deceased Kings as they traveled through to the next life. Then I wrapped Noah as a mummy and took his picture so he could see what he looked like. He was so interested in the whole process. He especially wanted to know how the ancient 'doctors' removed the brains - through the nose of course!

He was anxious to get out of the wraps though.

Person(s) of interest - Cheops, Pharaoh of Egypt c2589BC - 2566BC pronounced key-ops; also Khufu in Greek
The Great Pyramid was made for him . . . or was it?

Mapping Egypt

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This week in Science: Teeth & Digestion

Meat eaters - carnivores (Lions) Plant eaters - herbivores (Giraffe) and the all purpose teeth of the omnivores (monkeys)

kinds of teeth: canines, carnassials, incisors, permanent teeth, premolars, molars. Other animals referenced: sharks, cows, and deer

Digesting plants; we learned about the special digestion system of rabbits and cows (Noah was surprised to learn that cows have 4 stomachs!)

Digestion in birds - some birds eat small rocks to help them crush the seeds and some birds swallow their food whole, coughing up pellets of indigestible fur and bone.

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MaTh We're still working with money, learning denominations and how many coins of each kind go into a dollar - this is also an easy way to introduce the concept of fractions. Also reviewing counting by 5s and 10s

We work on Spelling words whenever we're in the car

Week 7: October 15-19

This week's Bible verse: "Seek the Lord while He may be found." Isaiah 55:6
The Three Wise Men

More nature study. This is the best time of year, at least I think so . . . but then I find beauty in Winter, Spring and Summer too! Noah was given a Salamander for his birthday so we have added the reptile to our lessons.
It's been interesting building him a suitable habitat. We read that yellow spotted salamanders are burrowers so we filled his aquarium with dirt, rocks and leaves and a little dish of water for soaking in. This is the time of year that he would be hybernating; he just dug right in and got comfy. They also eat worms, grubs and just about any insect, but so far we've provided him with tiny crickets to hunt and devour. Fortunately, they are so small and he is so addept at snapping them up in one gulp, that I haven't had to see anything disturbing. He seems happy for now and the kids love watching him so looks like he's here to stay for awhile. But they can live 20-30 years in the wild and even though that is much shorter in captivity, I don't know that we'll be keeping him that long.

We've been two days ahead, so Noah was able to close his books on his birthday.

We also began working for the Juan Manigault campaign this week by going door to door in our precinct. We took a brief survey whenever someone would come to their door and handed out brochures to anyone needing more information about our candidate. Noah and I spent about three and a half hours doing this so far discussing Christian citizenship and our responsibilities while walking.
This week in History: The Egyptians c5000BC - 1700BC
Mapping Egypt
Farmers of the Nile Valley
*crops, animals and the farmer's year
This week in science: Feeding, Food & Energy - we learned about the parts of the animal's mouth made for finding and devouring food, food chains, and how the body makes energy from the food. Noah's favorite was studying the grasshopper's mouth parts: the Mandibles for holding or biting, the Palps for tasting food and the Maxillae for pushing the food into the mouth. All of these were acted out of course . . . on each other.

Week 6: October 8-12

This week's Bible Lesson is Review:
The Angel and Mary
Jesus is born
Shepherds visit

Noah's favorie verse was Luke 1:31 because, "Mary was having baby Jesus." So he drew a picture of Mary with the little baby in her tummy.

Monday was a light day, most of which was spent outside exploring nature. Noah began a leaf collection, although it doesn't really feel like fall with the 90 degree temperatures and the extremely high humidity. Even now as I type, it is beginning to rain so maybe we'll get a little relief.


Tuesday - in Noah's class during mom's group, he learned about airplanes and how to make them out of paper. Now we have a paper airplane fleet!


Wednesday, Thursday & Friday - a blur of days. This has been a light week academically. We did have a field trip on Thursday. We went with four other homeschooling families to a pumpkin patch. You can read about the day on butterfly kisses - October 11.


This week in Science: Moving on Land
We read about how animals move on land, creeping, crawling, running - Noah does a really good caterpillar - and then we found this little guy out on the patio. We watched him for awhile and then let him go on his way. It was nice of him to stop by today, it fit in so well with the lesson!

Week 5: Oct 1-5

This week's Bible verse: Luke 2:11b "He is Christ, the Lord."

Monday - History; we've covered the first farming, writing, crafts and trade of the Summerians. Now we are continuing with early kings and war. This part is really interesting for Noah. In his fun reading, he's been reading about King Arthur and the knights of the round table, which is centuries from what we're currently studying, but he is liking it so much that he is having a knights birthday party this weekend.

Tuesday - Science; we ran out of time to make the volcano last week, so we worked on it today, squeezing it into our studies of the deep sea. (It is still not finished, so it has not errupted yet.) After all, some of the largest volcanoes have grown under water creating the mountain ranges and deepest trenches. It has been amazing to learn about the life forms that thrive along the heat vents. Noah utilized some of the web links from our Usborne science book. His favorite was diving in the deep sea in a submersible and collect sea life specimens, identifying their characteristics and taking quizzes on what he had learned.

Wednesday - Here is Noah's spelling list. I am teaching spelling the CM way. These are words that Noah has been reading in his reading lessons.

little, lick, kick, sick, teeth, feet, hand, sand, coats, fly, when, girl,

gate, hate, that, feel, gold, cold, told, look, hunting, barn, then, grass,

back, rock, socks, cake, lake, make, shore, away, never, start, now, hear,

goat, fish, eagle, kitten, sheep, moon, swim, jump, walking, rats, horse, where,

said, say, with, same, have, gave, down, tree, talking, rich, just, were,

Thursday - Noah's printing has greatly improved in just a weeks time. Today's a writing day. I'll try to post some of his writing soon.

Friday - Noah finished his 100 Easy lessons reading book, his personal goal to read and finish the book before his birthday has been achieved. I'm so proud of his accomplishments.

This week in Science: Moving by Flying & gliding