I See You!!

You know if you walk in the kitchen and find Rachel hunkered over on a chair like this that it can't be a good thing.



Some might think the poor child was hurt or crying.

But we know better.

This position can only mean one thing. She is eating something she knows she isn't supposed to, most likely candy. However, she doesn't quite understand that just because she can't see us, it doesn't mean that we can't see her!

Konos: Map of Japan

Unit: Honor
Theme: Japan

Nicholas made a map of Japan. We found a good map on the internet and printed it in color. Nicholas taped the map to the table and then taped a piece of tracing paper over it. He traced the outline of Japan onto the tracing paper.



Then he used one of our library books about Japan to label the four main islands, Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, and the waters around Japan.



Next he colored the islands and retraced his original drawing with a Sharpie marker to help the lines stand out.



Nicholas really enjoyed this project. The addition of tracing paper to map making made it more fun for him because we haven't made maps like this before. I think we'll add tracing to our work more often!

Konos: Sushi

Konos Unit: Honor
Theme: Japan

We've learned about farming and growing rice in Japan. We've learned about fishing and ports. Rice and seafood are both staples in the Japanese diet and they are often served together in the form of sushi.

I was going to make sushi as part of our study on Japan. Keep in mind that not all sushi contains raw fish!

Our grocery store actually has a sushi bar where you can watch them prepare fresh sushi each day and I knew I could get some Nori (seaweed) there for making my own. But when we got there we decided it would be so much easier to just buy the sushi already made and just let the kids try it. So I took the lazy way out and we brought our sushi home from Kroger.

We did find these really awesome chopsticks for the kids though. They are plastic so they are durable and reusable. They have this cute little rubbery guy that attaches to the ends of the sticks to help hold them together. It makes using chopsticks so much easier for little kids.



I was proud of how adventurous the kids were. They were ready to just jump right in and try it.



Nicholas thought it was really weird at first but still he finished it and even had a second one!



Even Rachel gave it a try.



After dinner, Nicholas spent some time in his room and came back out with this incredibly creative Lego Sushi!



I love how he takes something he's learned about and reflects it back in his own way. It shows that he 1) paid attention 2) enjoyed what he learned enough to keep thinking about it after he has left the table and 3) that he is able to take ownership of the concept and make it his own. I love that teaching him at home allows him the freedom to continue his learning on his own in this way!

A Unit Study Approach to School

I thought I had all of our curriculum picked out months ago. However, there is so much wonderful material out there that it just boggles my mind sometimes.

We are going to change some of our plans and try a unit study this year. Unit studies are very different from the way traditional school is taught. Instead of having designated time and textbook for each subject, the subjects are all woven through a common theme. I have found a great curriculum called Konos that I think will help me include Rachel in some of our projects.



I'll give you a simple example of how a unit study works. Konos lays out their lessons by character traits such as Attentiveness, Stewardship, Obedience, etc. Then within each character trait there are specific topics that each cover a 2-4 week period. They also have a great online resource that helps gives parents extra background information, lesson plans, and basic encouragement to help share the material with their children. I've signed up for a trial of the online sessions and the trial is only available for a 3 week study of Japan under the character trait of Honor. So we are going to start studying Japan for the first 3 weeks of school.

Through this unit study, we will cover Bible study by learning Bible scriptures about honor and loving all of God's people. Science will be done by learning about tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis including an experiment or two. We will study the history and culture of Japan by learning about their crops, their food, their way of life including cooking and eating some real Japanese food. We will also learn about the martial arts, samurais, and more modern events such as WWII and the recent devastation from the earthquake and tsunami. We will be learning a lot of new vocabulary words through this unit and we will practice spelling with these word lists. We will learn about servanthood through a good works program to help tsunami victims. We have tons of great literature from our library for reading, both fiction and non-fiction about Japan. I have books for Nicholas to read aloud to me and I have other books to read aloud to Rachel. And of course, we have lots of art projects.

We're taking a slow approach to school this week just to get back in the swing of things but Nicholas has been so excited to start learning about Japan that I actually started a few things last week.

We went to World Market to just browse the interesting imported foods and products to see if we could find some Japanese products to try. The kids each got to pick out one Oriental looking fan. I'm sure at least one of these will be broken before we actually use them with our Japanese costumes but fortunately they were only $2.00 each.



We found lots of food from Japan. We got some supplies for our upcoming Japanese tea ceremony including a few Japanese cookies to go with our tea. This store has so many unique items from all over the world that it is easy to spend an hour just browsing.



At one point I had to take the kids to the bathroom and for some reason Nicholas was nervous about going in the men's bathroom alone. I checked the women's bathroom and no one was in there so we all went in there. As I in the stall helping Rachel, I heard Nicholas wonder aloud, "What in the world is this?" I opened the door to find him studying the tampon dispenser! "Ummm, that's just girly stuff." Fortunately, he let that one drop!



I thought it was neat that World Market has a promotion where through September 30th they are donating 100% of the net proceeds of sales of all products produced in Japan to Direct Relief International to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. It was a great introduction into some of the humanitarian efforts around the Japan disaster that I had planned on discussing with Nicholas.

First Day of School

Yesterday was our first day back to school, homeschool that is!

We started the day with a healthy breakfast of Cheerios and fruit - and a silly-looking smile.



I had hidden the textbooks around the playroom and living room and the kids had fun searching for them!



I just can't get over how much fun Nicholas had looking for his textbooks. When he found his last one, he said, "I want more books!"



We usually take our first day of school picture outside the front door on our way to school. But since we don't have to leave for school now we took our first day of school picture on the couch where we spend a lot of time reading each day.



Of course, uniforms are required at our school so Nicholas came dressed as a Ninja. I love to watch him get so excited over learning. It makes me smile!!



Surprisingly, instead of having a princess join us at the table, we had the honor of meeting Darth Vader. He sure seems shorter in person than I expected.



We started the day with Bible Study and learning a memory verse. I used a song and hand motions to help the kids learn the verse. I was surprised how quickly they picked it up after only one day. Even Rachel can recite some of it and she wasn't even really trying to learn it.



We took a break and spent some time outside. Rachel played with bubbles and Nicholas practiced archery.



The markings on the target are very faint but it was almost a bullseye!



We got through most of the work I had planned for the day but I did wrap things up a little earlier than usual just to help us all ease back into the routine again.

We decided to have a little first day of school celebration with cupcakes after dinner. Rachel poured and mixed all of the ingredients together. She was so excited and announced, "I made them all by myself!"



I love seeing her little feet standing on the kitchen chair. Such a symbol of "little-ness". Nicholas is too big to need a chair anymore :(



Of course, the chef should get to lick the mixing paddle right?



Just remember...Messy means fun!



I made them each a special cupcake. One for Nicholas that says "2nd" for 2nd grade and one for Rachel that was going to say "Preschool" but I couldn't write that small with icing so it ended up just saying "Pre-K".



Happy First Day of School!