Pumpkins

I must admit, I am terrible when it comes to Halloween.
Let's talk about pumpkins first.
Brian can carve a mean pumpkin.
One year, he carved an eyeball.

The kids were still in the painting phase.

Then the next year...

Well, lets just blame medical school.

Or maybe the squirrels.

So, the next year I was determined to tackle those pumpkins.

But before I knew it, it was the day before Halloween

and our pumpkins were still bare.

So I quickly got out the white and black paint.

ehh.

This year, Brian was so ambitious, he got us 6 HUGE pumpkins, 

and we got 4 tiny pumpkins from the cider mill.  

Seriously?  

He knows how I am with pumpkins.  

So, Tuesday night.  

Three-ish days before Halloween instead of one (I'm improving), 

we got around to a mix of painting and a little carving.

Now, what to do with those 5 leftover pumpkins?

Perhaps we will paint them for Thanksgiving.

Most likely...

we will be feeding the squirrels again.

Standards

Here are some handouts for Family School, Year 1, Geography, Lesson 2.

I had the older kids write a paper on standards.

Geography Lesson 1

Here are some handouts that can be used for Family School, Year 1, Lesson 1.

Butterflies

I have been working on some fun things.
I can't wait to share them!
I just need to find more time...

In the mean time, we got our caterpillars in the mail over a week ago.
The kids are loving it.
They are all in an "I want to be an entomologist when I grow up" phase.
I wonder how long that will last?
We are waiting on one more to turn into a chrysalis, then we get to put them in their habitat.

I drew some pictures for this unit and made a handout and worksheet.

My kiddios always make me feel like a superhero when I give them something I drew.  It is really fun for me to make these for them.  I printed off large pictures and laminated them for our lesson.  

We are waiting anxiously for our butterflies to emerge!

Worms

We went on a worm hunt.

We found some worms.

We made some observations.

In Bryce's words,  "worms are wormtastic".

Here are some worksheets I put together for Family School, Year 1, Science, Lesson 4.

Science 1.4_worm wksht

The kids wrote their own silly worm poems.

Science 1.4_worm poem

I posted both versions again, scribd and googledocs.  I don't know why googledocs isn't showing the picture with color.  I also don't know how to make it downloadable.

I'll keep trying to figure it out.

Vocabulary

I needed a good place for us to record our vocabulary words.

I put together these sheets.  Now the kids just keep them in the front of each folder.  

It is easy to find for recording more vocabulary and studying old vocabulary.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to share the things I am making.  I'm trying out scribd.  The first vocabulary sheets are uploaded from my google drive.  The second one is uploaded on scribd.  What do you think?  Which one is easier?  Does anyone know of a better option?  I have to admit, I don't really know what I'm doing...

Vocabulary

Your Good Name

Carl Linnaeus.

The man responsible for taxonomy.

The kids really enjoyed this lesson.

We briefly went over classification.  This lesson was basically an introduction.  One of the species we talked about was the wolf or dog.  We learned that the official name for the wolf and dog is lupus.  On our walk, the kids had to point out every lupus they saw.  Bryce would even use his "Brycer" voice (those who know him know what I'm talking about) and say "Oh, you cutesy wootsey lupus.  You are such a cutey lupus."  It was quite funny!

I made this handout on Carl Linnaeus.  The kids filled it out as I went through a powerpoint and as we watched a short clip about Carl Linnaeus.

The big kids wrote their findings down.

The younger kids drew pictures.

(Does Carl's picture look funny?  The color looks off.  I don't know why it is doing that.  It looks normal in word.  Does anyone know how to fix that?  I tried, and can't seem to figure it out)

Names.  Why was it so important for Carl Linnaeus to organize and find names for Gods creations?
Names are important.

We read this.



In the year 2000, I read this story and it really stuck with me.
I found this in one of my journals.

If you look closely, you can see that I added the name of the Lord, Jesus, in my name, as a reminder to me that I have taken His name upon me, and I must honor His name.

I also made one for Brian. (he was on his mission).

What have you done with your name?

That is a powerful question.

The kids loved drawing their names. Inside their name, they carefully added the Lord's name.  We promised to help each other honor His name, and do good with our name.

So...

Life Learners

Ahhhh.  Science.
Fact::  All kids love science.

What is it about science that fascinates all children?
For one thing, the experiments...of course.
And probably the fact that science is everywhere.

What is science?
"Science is knowledge and understanding of truth or facts."
Everywhere.
Even if you don't know it,
you are most likely a fan of science.

Science has existed since the very beginning.

Pres. Henry B. Eyring said this.

As we study more about science and the world around us,

we are determined to find our purpose little by little and become life learners.

We know we are not here to simply be entertained.  

We are here to learn more about our Savior and the world that we have been given.

We are here to become more.

We discussed how we can make this happen.

Johnny wants to use illustrations to help him remember what he is learning.

I love that Rylee put to "be organized".  I love that she recognizes that order makes it easier to learn.  

Rylee wants to look at a lot of pictures to help her learn better.

Certainly, reading will be a big part of our learning!

Writing it down helps us to remember that it is important.

Typical Bryce, drew a car.  He wants to know everything about cars!

On to our learning!