Weeks 5 and 6

 

In weeks 5 and 6 we studied Mexico. This was our first country that we studied outside of the United States, so we needed to use our passports! The kids loved putting the Mexico flag sticker into their passports.

We had lots of fun with this country and learned much about the culture and also enjoyed the Mexican food! Tacos were already a favorite meal in this household, so it was definitely on the menu! With our homeschool co-op we also had a fiesta and tried other Mexican foods such as taquitoes, cheese quessadillas, bean and corn tortilla soup, chips and salsa, and Mexican hot chocolate.

We also made tissue paper flowers....

 

 

  

 and also made our very own pinatas!!! The kids had fun breaking them open and gathering all the candy.

 

Along with studying Mexico, we also studied about deserts. We learned how plants survive living in the deserts. I found this great lesson/experiment online:

http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Botany/BOT0089.html 

Here is a picture of the plant we used for our experiment - the Aloe Vera plant. We learned how the waxy skin of desert plants work, how the spongy roots work, and why the pore size of these plants matter. And of course when we were finished we broke open one of the leaves and examined the aloe vera and discussed the importance of it.

Here are some of the books that we read and loved:

We used water paints to illustrate a picture of the desert and also made a collage of desert animals using some cut-outs from magazines.

 

We ended our study of Mexico by visiting a local desert. Yes, there is a desert in Maine!!! We had lots of fun on this family trip although it was very chilly. Thankfully, they had blankets on the tour ride. For those of you who are interested, here is a link to their website:

http://www.desertofmaine.com/

After the tour was over they searched for gems, panned for fossils, and also got to see butterflies up close in the butterfly room.

We had so much fun studying this country!

Weeks 3 and 4

During weeks 3 and 4 we have studied the United States of America. My oldest daughter colored and labeled a map of the U.S. and her knowledge of the names and whereabouts of each state has greatly increased!

Along with studying the geography of the U.S., we also studied forests and learned to identify some different types of trees. We spent lots of time on nature walks and even had the chance to tour a local apple farm.

As fall is now upon us, we made sure to visit a local amusement park before they closed for the season. Here is a picture of my little man enjoying his first ride on the merry go round.

 We also made sure to get in a little more time on the 4 wheelers this season.

We have had a great start to our school year so far and we are all looking forward to next week's study of Mexico!

First 2 Weeks of School

It has been an amazing year so far! We have completed two weeks of school and I feel like we have learned and accomplished so much! This is our first year using My Father's World and we are loving it! Exploring Countries and Cultures has been such a blessing to us and we have had some great learning experiences so far! We are looking forward to continuing our studies through the different continents and learning about the different cultures of this world. Here is some of the fun stuff that we have been doing:

 One of the first experiments that we did was to examine our backyard habitat.

 

We also studied about niches. This experiment's purpose was to observe an earthworm's niche. We created an environment for our earthworms and observed how they mixed the different colored soils together showing how they break up the soil and make it more fertile.

 

In week 2 of ECC, we worked on our nature notebook by going outside and drawing something that we saw from nature.

  

 

Making paper dolls from across the world were one of the other things that we did as well. We hung them up above our world map as you can see. Memorizing John 3:16 was also part of our learning journey as the emphasis was on that God loves peoples from all different cultures.

We ended week 2 by making a world cake with our homeschool co-op. We divided the cake into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres for easier decorating. This was so much fun and a great ending celebration for them remembering the names of the seven continents and the five oceans.