Month: October 2008

Seattle Aquarium on Sunday

prayingmother

Well, I did two posts of things we did a few weeks ago. I still have a list of things to show that the kids have done, but I decided that today I’m going to put up something recent–our visit to the Seattle Aquarium on Sunday.

I was a little concerned when we arrived at the Aquarium because they were hosting trick-or-treating there, but it wasn’t extra ordinarily crowded. We also spent quite a bit of time fighting with the credit card machine where we paid our parking. It must have been cold, because it was going very slow.

G’tums hadn’t been to the Aquarium since he was a baby so I was especially looking forward to seeing how he would enjoy it. He’s the age when zoos and aquariums are the most fun. And I wasn’t a bit disappointed. He loved it.

He looks concerned that he got his fingers wet, but within a minute his whole sleeve was wet.

They loved touching all the things in the touching pools, there were all kinds of things from gooey sea cucumbers to prickly urchins.

The neatest thing we saw was the octopus. Right now they have a huge one in there. I heard somebody say that it had gone from 15 pounds to over 50 in a year and a half. It was a visitor talking, not an employee or volunteer, so I don’t know. All in all, we definitely got the best views of an octopus that we ever have before there.

Then there was a section about whales and the kids got to ride a whale. Here’s the proof:

Are you impressed? I was!

Okay, last but not least is my favorite photo that I took. It was of a clownfish. You probably figured that we should see some fish there right? Well we did, but it’s so hard to take pictures through the glass. But this one I even managed to take through the glass. My husband let me use his camera while we were at the Aquarium, because the battery on mine was dead. His has so many features that I don’t always get things set right, but I’m right proud of this shot!

Jesus’ Death and Resurrection Lapbook

prayingmother

In August Zippy did her second lapbook. It was on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was to correspond with the children’s Bible lessons that we were studying from My Bible First on the closing scenes of Christ’s life. These lessons were part of Year C Quarter 1 of the My Bible Says set. These lessons covered Judas’ betrayal through Jesus’ ascension. We studied these particular lessons for 5 weeks and we only made one minibook per week.

We also purchased this lapbook from In the Hands of a Child. They didn’t have one specifically on this topic so I purchased the Easter lapbook from them and just did the components that corresponded with our lessons.

Zippy invented the cover herself. Please notice the real nails on it. She glued one side to the lapbook and attached the other side with velcro.

Lapbook Cover:
Jesus on the Cross Cover

Inside of lapbook:
Inside of lapbook
Women visit the tomb.
Inside of Tomb

The Gospel Commission Accordion MinibookGospel Command Accordion File

See more pictures of Zippy’s lapbook on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Birds Lapbooks

prayingmother

In August Zippy and JD Boy each made their first lapbook. They each did one on birds.  We got this lapbook from In the Hands of a Child.

They also worked on learning about birds by completing a Feathered Friends Honor from the Adventurer Club. One of the things they did for that honor was to memorize the calls of ten different birds: Great Horned Owl, American Robin, Mourning Dove, Black-capped Chickadee, Herring Gull, Ringed-billed Gull, American Crow, Common Raven, California Quail, Mallard and Steller’s Jay. (Oh, that makes eleven.) We learned these sounds at enature.com and from listening to birds around our house.

This first set of pictures is from my five-year-old’s Bird lapbook. We cut the photos out of Wild Animal Baby magazines for his front and back covers.

  Cover:
Bryant's Lapbook Cover
  Back Cover—a pocket for a puzzle:
Bryant's Back Cover -- pocket for puzzle
Inside of bird lapbook:
Bryant's Bird Lapbook
  list of birds identified at our feeders:
Bryant's Bird Feeder List

See more pictures of John Deere Boy’s Bird Lapbook

Here is my 8-year-old’s lapbook. Her cover was cut out of National Geographic Magazine.

  lapbook cover:

Inside of her bird lapbook:
Zippys's Bird Lapbook

See more pictures of Zippy’s Bird Lapbook.

Zippy also started a life bird list in April. Below is her bird list as of today (10/29/08). She is also working on completing the Bird Honor from Pathfinders.

Zippy’s Life Bird List

Date   Bird Location
4/4/08   Black-Capped Chickadee Backyard Birdfeeder
4/4/08   Chestnut Backed Chickadee Backyard Birdfeeder
4/4/08   American Robin In grass/backyard
4/4/08   Nuthatch Backyard Birdfeeder
4/4/08   Spotted Towhee In grass/backyard
4/4/08   Dark-eyed Junco Backyard Birdfeeder
4/5/08   Gadwall Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08   Mallard Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08   Marsh Wren Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08   Red-winged Blackbird Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08   Canada Goose Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08   Common Raven Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08   Blue Heron Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08   Gold Finch Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/7/08   Varied Thrush In grass/backyard
6/3/08   Pigeon Maple Valley Hwy./Close to bridge/on electric lines
6/15/08   Harry Woodpecker Backyard Birdfeeder/Suet
6/18/08   Western Bluebird, Family Grandma’s Backyard/In birdhouse
6/18/08   Cedar Waxwing Grandma’s Backyard in bushes and trees
6/18/08   Tree Swallow Grandma’s Backyard
6/18/08   Gray Cat Bird Grandma’s Backyard
6/20/08   Mourning Dove Grandma’s Backyard
6/25/08   Black-headed Grosbeak Backyard Birdfeeder
6/28/08   American Crow Forrested Campsight around picnic table
7/1/08   Bald Eagle Issaquah-Hobart Road/Wooded Valley
7/2/08   Song Sparrow Backyard Birdfeeder
7/2/08   Northern Flicker Backyard Birdfeeder/Suet
7/3/08   Immature Spotted Towhee Back Porch/Under Birdfeeder
7/3/08   Steller Jay Backyard Birdfeeder
7/11/08   Magpie Yakima, somebody’s yard
7/12/08   Western Kingbird Electric line, open area close to Lake Rosevelt
7/12/08   Housefinch Grandma’s Backyard
7/12/08   Turkey Vulture Fields in Eastern Washington
7/19/08   Gray Jay Camping near Mt. Ranier
7/24/08   Pileated Woodpecker On Douglas Fir in Frontyard
8/9/08   Cormorant Deception Pass/Pacific Ocean
8/9/08   Red Tailed Hawk Deception Pass
8/9/08   Herring Gull Deception Pass
8/20/08   Belted Kingfisher On telephone wire in Central Oklahoma
8/20/08   Great Horned Owl In tree in Central OK
8/21/08   Cattle Egrets Field in Southwest Kansas
8/21/08   Great-tailed Grackle Parking lot in Derby, Kansas
8/25/08   Great Egret By pond in Wichita, KS
8/28/08   White Breasted nuthatch At feeder in Gentry, AR
8/28/08   Cardinal At feeder in Gentry, AR
8/29/08   Green Heron Creek behind Rahm’s house, Gentry, AR
9/1/08   Scissor Tail Flycatcher Trees in Rahm’s yard, Gentry, AR
9/1/08   Eastern Bluebird Gate by the road, Gentry, AR
9/1/08   Eastern Kingbird On telephone wire, Gentry, AR

Intro

prayingmother

I’ve decided to start blogging about our homeschool experience. Over the next few days, I hope to add some of the activities that we’ve done in the last 6 weeks, but this is my first entry, so let me tell you a little about myself and family. We have three children: daughter – 8, son – 5 and son – 2.  I’m a full time stay-at-home-mom. My husband is self-employed and has a home office, but spends most of his days working at his customers’ locations. Our home is in a semi-rural area.

We have chosen to homeschool because our fondest desire is for our entire family to be in heaven and we want to do our best to encourage our children that direction.

Well that’s us!!

Family photo9/27/08