Last of April

We spent Easter Sunday at my mother-in-law's house after church.  Mary and I made a Bunny Butt Cake to bring for dessert. It was delicious!

All the littles had an Easter egg hunt after lunch in the backyard. The girls had to check out all their treasures!

Beth and I gathered all the kids and started a softball game. We played for hours, and everyone was completely exhausted. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun!!

Saturday was Bible Quiz Regionals. It was exciting and intense, to say the least. There was a three-way tie and the teams went into playoff's. Max's team placed first, which we did not expect, and it was truly epic! All those kids work so hard, and are so driven and focused. It truly was a joy to see them quiz.

Sunday night was the end of the year party. We had a potluck dinner. All the kids received character trait awards from their coaches, and then they all went swimming. We are officially done for the season! We are going to enjoy our break and hit it hard again in July.

We had a great week of school. Max had a little help from a friend...

I'm hoping to be through Unit 12 before we take a six-week break. We'll start again after the fourth of July weekend, and just have 1/2 days .

Res to Ref: Units 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7

Just a quick update for the month.  We have been so busy!!

Max is starting to find his rhythm in Res to Ref.  I can tell he's enjoying the history.  His oral narrations are just fantastic!  No more run-on sentences, and so's, or and then's!!  It warms my mommy-heart to see him so fascinated with everything he's learning.  He thought A Midsummer's Night Dream was, and I quote, "hilarious."  He just finished Black Horses for the King, and begged to read more every day.  I have a hard time keeping both kids out of their books before they're scheduled.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this month because I've been deep-cleaning and reorganizing -- and I couldn't remember where I put my camera!

Unit 3

History Project - Unit 3

Making game pieces Unit 4

Making game pieces Unit 4

Mary is almost finished with Bigger Hearts, just eleven days to go.  I think she's ready for Preparing, and I am looking forward to going through that guide again, but I think we might do a few unit studies before we start.  I was packing up some of the books from Bigger and asked her if there were any she wanted to keep.  Mary carried off a stack of books to her bedroom almost higher than her head! She's already reading Alexander Hamilton and By the Great Horn Spoon again.  I think I'm going to hang on to the guide for a while.  You just never know what the Lord has in store!

Dyeing eggs

Helping Dad

umm... Hillbilly fun?

While Max was at quiz practice this morning, I took Mary to the Easter egg hunt at our church.  She had a blast!  We went to the park afterward with Max's coach, his wife, and both of their teams for a bar-b-que.  It was a perfect afternoon!  Sunny and not too hot, good food, great people, and we all had a really nice time.  We have Regionals next Saturday, and then we are done for the season.

There is a documentary coming out in June about Bible Quiz.

Have a wonderful and Blessed Easter!

He is Risen!

RTR: Unit 2

History
Max continued this week in Peril and Peace.  He learned about several early bishops and their stand against Arianism.  His narrations have been very strong this week and have led to some great discussions about courage, faith, and grace. In Max's written narration about Augustine, he concluded with, "He soon ended his lonely pursuits of good things in this world for a much greater treasure:  The Lord Jesus Christ."

Max was thrilled with how his history project turned out.  I had to dig around in my art bag, but I managed to find a few pieces of colored chalk.

Cheers for a successful history project!











Last week's project didn't go so well because our dog, Zoe, ate two pieces from Max's Roman arch before it was finished.  He spent so long carefully drawing his road and columns.  I just felt horrible for being so careless!  I left the pieces on the hearth to dry, forgetting that Zoe has eaten every salt-dough project the kids have done.  Max didn't mind, and didn't want to redo the pieces. Truly a case of 'the dog ate my homework!'

Science

Max read about the sun this week.  He drew a diagram of our solar system with each planet's path of orbit.  

He made a solar eclipse for his experiment this week.  He explained all about thermonuclear fusion, light waves, auroras, solar flares, sun spots, and Bailey's Beads.  We built a pinhole viewing box Friday afternoon just for fun.  I love to see him excited about what he's learning!

Language

We started Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons last week.  I'm glad it's moving slow, because we are still finishing IEW SWI-B with our co-op.  We only have three more lessons to go in SWI-B, so I think (hope) we can handle the workload.  Max's writing has improved tremendously over the past year.  Rod & Staff English has really prepared Max for writing. Honestly, I was concerned about writing with a checklist formula, but it works!  We are planning to stick to the IEW path.  

Bible

Max is enjoying his Bible study. I'm a little sad that he's doing it by himself since we both enjoyed working through Genesis together last year.  

Since he does Bible Quiz, I'm not having him memorize additional verses. We are almost done with Quiz season, and Max has memorized all his material, so he's only quoting one book each day to keep it fresh.

Math
Max is cruising through Pre-Algebra so far.  He's done well with
Math-U-See.

Tales from Shakespeare
I love this book!  What a great way to get kids interested in Shakespeare. Max finished The Tempest.

We had a great week.  Max loves art appreciation, Emily Dickinson's poems, and Boyhood and Beyond.  We've started DITHOR again, too.
I must admit, I have been anxiously awaiting this year.  So many great books, and a time period that I want to learn more about!  I've been pre-reading through Max's books on Sunday afternoons, a week at a time.  

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Heart of Dakota: Resurrection to Reformation Unit 1

I was bit anxious about the transition into a new guide this week, but I have to say it went really well.  Max was eager to dig into these new books.  The notebooking pages are so beautiful, and Max was thrilled because he had more room for his narrations.  His favorite subject this week was Shakespeare!  He was disappointed that he couldn't read ahead.

I love Apologia, but I have never been able to make it work for us.  Before we found HOD, I had the kids combined in Simply Charlotte Mason.  By the time we got to science, everyone was tired and losing focus, and most days science just didn't get done. I'm just not good at lesson planning and pulling from different sources, which is one of the reasons our family LOVES Heart of Dakota.  All the work has already been done for me, and we get everything done in a reasonable amount of time!

Max was glad to see me pull out Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy. He made a flat model of the planets to see how they compare to each other in size for his science project.

We had the River Classic Tournament Bible Quiz at our church this weekend.  Max quizzed 12 rounds on Friday and 7 on Saturday.  He qualified for the one-on-one quiz off, so he had 2 more rounds Saturday afternoon.  He placed 5th for individual high score.  I am so proud of him!

It was an incredibly long weekend, but such a blessing to spend time in God's word with a wonderful group of people!  

Just a few pics...

We had dinner with our favorite missionaries last Friday.  It was fun to catch up and hear about the work they have been doing in the Czech Republic for the past few years.  We had a fantastic time!

My big boy making his own breakfast.

I think we got about 6 inches of snow by Monday afternoon.

Time for a snowman!!

Painting the Town Red

Mary and Mollie won the Limo Ride Contest at our church!  The girls were so excited, and I think they had a great time.

               

                                          

 Seriously folks, that's a HUGE ride!

All the winners with Pastor Clent.

Getting ready to go out for dinner and dessert!

Back to School

We've had an incredibly busy month.  Movie camp, Church Camp, library programs, zoo trips, painting, swimming, and just general mayhem! I think we all thoroughly enjoyed our break from school.

Tim convinced me we needed a swimming pool.  The kids were thrilled, of course!  They played all day in 4 inches of water (and every day since)!

We had a Back-to-School barbeque on Sunday night.  We sat around a 'campfire' and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  The kids played red light/green light and had a sack race.  

                                              

The kids spent hours on Sunday afternoon building Lego Mazes!  Yay for mom getting a nice long nap!!

And, we have a new addition to our family. *sigh*  Her name is Kitsa.