Week 20 P ~ Penguin {1/30 - 2/3/2012}

This week we studied Penguins! Such interesting little animals! So, in a nutshell... the mom lays the egg, then the dad carries the egg for two months on the top of his feet and under his belly to keep the egg warm. During those two months, the mom travels back to the water... and basically parties it up eating as much as she can. Then she comes back and brings up the food (pleasant huh!) for the babies to eat. How do they know to do this? Who told them what to do? Unbelievable!!

Our Library Books:


We also enjoyed March of the Penguins and Happy Feet


and a little Pittsburgh pride to go along with our theme...


Our Bible Memory Verse was Philippians 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves

Week 19 E ~ Elephant {1/23 - 1/27/2012}

This week we studied E ~ Elephant! We had a fun time learning about the Elephant! They are so large, yet rather peaceful gentle animals! Some interesting facts are that the Elephants trunk has no bones in it, and has over 40,000 muscles - just in the trunk!! They also eat about 300lbs of leaves, twigs, fruit a day! That is a lot!!!

Our Library Books:


We also found some cool websites that had live video feeds of elephants!

Our Bible Memory Verse was Philippians 1:3 "I thank my God every time I remember you". This verse was chosen b/c you know.. elephants are supposed to have a great memory!

They also got to watch Dumbo and they did this elephant craft:

Week 18 H ~ Horse {1/16 - 1/20/2012}

This week we studied H ~ Horse and the number 14. We studied Horses and how horses obey right away to commands they are given. We also learned that God wants to lead us on a good path and He wants us to obey.

Our Bible Memory Verse was Colossians 3:20 "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."

Our Library Books:


Totally not school related... but one of the cutest things right now is Cole saying, "neigh". Whenever he sees a horse, he says it!

Week 17 C ~ Cow {1/9 - 1/13/2012}

This week we learned about C ~ Cow and the number 13. We learned all about Cows and how the process of milk goes from cow to carton. We even watched a video from a dairy farm on the process. One thing we did to learn more about milk is we had a "dairy party" for lunch one day. The lunch menu was: Fruit Smoothie made with yogurt, ice cream, mozzarella cheese stick, toast with cream cheese, a cheese quesadilla and sour cream for dipping and a piece of milk chocolate. They enjoyed it, but I think mostly they loved that they could eat their ice cream first!


We talked about how milk helps our bodies to grow and we also discussed how God's word helps us to grow too. Our Bible Memory Verse was John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Our Library books:

Week 16 G ~ Goat {1/2 -1/6/2012}

This week we studied G ~ Goat and the number 12. We learned about Goats and the different things Goats are used for. We studied the biblical history of Goats and talked about sacrifices in the Bible and how we don't need to sacrifice animals because of sin anymore because Jesus died for our sins.

One thing we learned was that goat's make milk too... so we did a taste test! Everyone could tell which one was Goat's milk and which one was Cow's milk.


Our Bible Memory verse was John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."


Our Library Books:

Week 15 ~ Review Week ~ {12/26 - 12/30/2011}

This was a Review Week, which was perfect since it was a nice relaxing week after Christmas. We just spent our school time reviewing the letter and number, the subject we studied and our memory verses. We also spent time reading some Christmas books!!

Week 14 I - Insect {12/19 - 12/23/2011}

This week we learned about Insects and the Number 11! We learned some fun facts about insects, like all insects have 6 legs and three main body parts. We really focused on ants, and started our very own ant "farm".



We also learned that Ants are very hard workers and not lazy. Our Bible Memory verse went along with that. Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for men."

Our Library Books:

Week 13 W ~ Water {12/12 - 12/16/2011}

This week we studied W ~ Water and the number 10. We learned about how there are three forms of water - liquid, solid and gas. We also studied how our bodies need water to live and how our spirits need "living water" to live. We made a chart and listed different things we could think of that were liquids, solids and gases. It was a proud homeschooling mom moment when Alyssa said that pee was a liquid! We also read about where water comes from and how it gets to our house. The girls still scream "water tower" every time they see one!

Our Library Books:

Week 12 O ~ Octopus {12/5 - 12/9/2011}

This week we learned about O ~ Octopus and the number 9. There were quite a few interesting facts about Octopus that I was not even aware of... they can change color to disguise themselves and they shoot a dye out as a defenses to get away from attackers. Pretty neat creatures!

The girls made a craft of an Octopus by tracing their two hands (minus the thumbs) and then cutting them out and gluing them into an ocean they had painted. I also made a special dinner of Octopus and Seaweed(hot dogs and spinach noodles). The kids loved it!


Our library books:


Our memory verse this week was Psalm 146:2
I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Baby Break {11/21 - 12/2/2011}

We took a Baby Break from 11/21 - 12/2 as we welcomed Baby Blake into our family!!

To read more about what goes on outside of our homeschool life you can check out Growing Gerwings www.growinggerwings.blogspot.com

Week 11 D ~ Dinosaurs {11/14 - 11/18/2011}

This week we studied D ~ Dinosaurs and the number 8. This was an interesting lesson and I am sure once the boys are at K level and I am teaching it to them, they will be a bit more into it, but it was still good for the girls. Our curriculum came with a really good book called, "What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs" by John Morris and Ken Ham. It was creation based and was awesome. So many worldly books that only promote evolution, made this book very refreshing to read. We also got two other books from the library that were good.

We started doing a blend ladder chart a few lessons ago and Hayley is doing really well with it and starting to read quite a few words with the letters we have learned so far. I had started both girls on a reading program over the summer, but didn't want to do too different things once we started this curriculum. I think I will do it with Alyssa over the summer to work on her reading.