Week 12: My Father's World K - Unit 8: Dinosaurs

D is for Dinosaurs! Big and small, God made them all!  Last week we studied dinosaurs and had a lot of fun! Blue Rock loves dinosaurs so this was an extra special week. I considered moving this unit to December since we have free tickets to Dinosaur World to use in December but seeing how busy December is, I'm not sure we'll be able to make it so we're going to keep going in the order of our curriculum.

Verses: Genesis 1:1 (NIV): In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Psalm 24:1 (NIV): The earth is the LORD's and everything in it; the world, and all who live in it.

Theme: Big and small, God made them all!

Poem: "Five Little Dinosaurs" that sounds the same as "Five Little Monkey's"

When I purchased My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum, I also bought The Wonders of God's World Dinosaur Activity Book by Earl and Bonita Snellenberger.  This week rather than doing work in Developing the Early Learner 2, we just did work from our dinosaur activity book.

Monday: Blue Rock started off the week with his picture cards page which features the letter "d."  I introduced our memory verses and we talked about dinosaurs.  We read the poem for the week which he knew since he knows "Five Little Monkey's."  Then we talked about what makes a dinosaur a dinosaur and how a man named Sir Richard Owen invented the word dinosaur in 1841. Then we talked about God creating dinosaurs like He did all the other animals.  We talked about fossils and how fossils are formed when a body, such as the dinosaur's, was trapped by layers of sediment laid down by the Flood's water.  Soft body parts decayed, but the bones remained.  Then he pretended to be a paleontologist and rather than "dig" he "cut" a part some bones and put together a dinosaur puzzle.  I helped him paste it.  Then we read What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? by John Morris and Ken Ham. This is a great book about dinosaurs from Creation Scientists.

Picture Cards Page

Cutting the picture cards

Cutting out the dinosaur bones

Constructing the dinosaur

He wanted me to help him paste the bones on the page and he took my picture

The dinosaur is done!

Tuesday: Blue Rock seemed to be catching a slight cold so we didn't go to ladies' class this morning. I don't want to chance him passing on his sniffles to anyone. We took it pretty easy today. Thankfully by the end of the day he seemed to be doing fine. Lots of fresh foods full of Vitamin C and D.  Today he did his handwriting page for D and 8, colored some dinosaurs as we learned more about them, and he wanted to play with his pretend money. We went over the coins and dollar bills. We also played let's make this amount. So we'd take a quarter and see how many other coins it would take to make a quarter, two dimes and a nickle, five nickles, twenty-five pennies, etc.

Wednesday: Today was lots of fun. Our biggest event was making dinosaur soap. We bought our supplies yesterday and that was the first thing Blue Rock wanted to do after breakfast. Our soaps turned out nicely. Then he did a dinosaur math page, a word page, where he cut out the words and matched them to the right picture. He got all of the words right. Then we did the ladder blends and he started spelling a few words by sounding them out with the few letters that were used. I was impressed! Last he made a dinosaur magnet.

Homemade dinosaur soap

We made 10 bars of soap!

Dinosaur math page

Word page

Blend ladder

Cutting out his dino magnet

Dino magnet is on the fridge

Thursday: This morning Blue Rock did his ladder blends and spelled and wrote some words. He made a paper bag dinosaur and this afternoon got a surprise gift of some dinosaur stamps. He loved them! He had a late night from church last night so I let him sleep in and then I had to get blood work done this morning so we missed our science co-op.  However, this afternoon our co-op had a soap making class, so I knew we'd get to join our friends then. We split the younger boys and girls into two groups. I helped monitor the boys. They made some fun soaps that smell like gingerbread. The girls made strawberry smelling soap. The high schoolers did real soap using lye and had a chemistry lesson. It's neat to be part of a church homeschool group that does some fun activities.

After doing some blends he wrote the words "sad" and "nut"

Stuffing his dinosaur

He wanted to give his dino a long tail



Watching the soap base melt

One of his sweet friends from church

Adding brown color to the soap mixture

One of his fabulous babysitters

Dinosaur stamping!

Friday: Blue Rock started off the morning with stamping dinosaurs on a picture I made for him. Then he drew four pictures and wrote the words under the picture for what he drew. He's becoming quite the artist. Although coloring and drawing are not his favorite things to do. He'll even tell you that. We met some friends for lunch and a play date. I was going to take him to the museum to see the dinosaur bones and let him dig for some but he didn't want to go. He said dinosaurs scared him. That was new to learn. So we went home and I made us some delicious pumpkin yogurt milkshakes. That evening we went to the annual Greek Festival in town. We had another wonderful week of school. Our weekend was even more busy with two birthday parties and lots of fun.

Stamping dinosaurs

He loves stamps!

Coloring his pictures, mostly things that start with "d"

He drew dad, a door, an apple, and a dino that flies

Our pumpkin yogurt milkshake was really tasty!

Greek Festival!

Family picture

The lively entertainment

Always fun to watch

How to Make Dinosaur Soap

We made 10 bars of soap

This week at our home academy, we're learning about dinosaurs.  I saw some soap recipes on Pinterest a while back and thought it would be fun to make some dinosaur soap when we got to this unit.  I had never made soap before and it is really easy.  You really only need a few ingredients.  You'll notice many of my ingredients are optional.

Easy Soap Recipe

for Dinosaurs and other Critters

Ingredients:

Soap Base - you can buy 2 lbs block of melt and pour soap at Hobby Lobby and Michael's for about $10.  Use a coupon to get it cheaper!  Use a clear soap base if you plan on coloring the soap and putting a critter inside.

Soap Molds - At Michael's these were $3.50 each for the plastic ones.

Plastic dinosaurs and/or other animals - I bought a bag of plastic dinosaurs from Target for $0.50 when they had all their back to school supplies half off in the dollar section. 

Soap Colors - These came in packs of three at Michael's for around $3.50.  This is optional.

Scents - I used what I had on hand and didn't scent everyone.  I used lavender essential oil and peppermint essential oil.  I also used organic vanilla that I cook with.  This is also optional.

Add-ins - This is optional.  I added some poppy seeds to a few bars.

Another option is to purchase a soap making kit for $20.  Use a 40% off coupon and it's only $12 plus tax.  A kit comes with soap base, one mold for four soap bars, some plastic animal critters, and three colors.  I purchased a kit and an additional soap mold so I could make 8 soaps at once.  I also mostly used the dinosaurs I had purchased previously, although my son wanted to put a turtle in the soap. This kit made 10 bars of dinosaur soap.

I spent $17.50, not including the scents or poppy seeds. This makes the bars of soap about $1.75 each, which is very reasonable. Next time it will cost a lot less since I now have soap molds and colors. Next time I'll purchase 2 lbs of soap base for around $6.50, using a coupon, so my soap will cost around $0.65 per bar.

Directions:  Cut the soap base in cubes. Put in a glass container such as a Pyrex measuring cup and microwave for 30 seconds.  Stir and microwave for 10 second intervals until the soap is melted.  Add a few drops of color and scent if you want.  Stir and pour into the soap molds.  Add your plastic figures when you've filled the mold about half way.  Then cover with the rest of the soap mixture.  Let sit for about 30 minutes.  I used a knife to cut around the edges and pop out.  I let them cool on foil.  That's it! Making soap couldn't be easier!

Soap base, wooden stick for stirring, Pyrex measuring cup, colors, scents,
soap molds, and plastic dinosaur figures along with a few water animals

Cut the soap base and put in the glass container to microwave

I added some soap coloring and let Blue Rock mix it

Our first batch of soap cooling down


First batch of soap

All done! 10 bars of colorful soap.



Excited to be in the 3rd Trimester!

Love my beautiful baby girl!

I am so thankful to be in my 3rd trimester!  I went to my 38 week appointment this morning.  I really love my doctor and her staff.  Since I just saw a specialist and had an ultrasound they weren't going to do one today. I was a little disappointed as I had hoped to get some new pictures because my sister needs one.  So the sono tech told me she'd go ahead and do one for free so I could have some new 3D pictures.  The specialist didn't get very good pictures when I went to him.  My doctor just didn't want my insurance company to reject the bill and me pay out of pocket $150.  This was so nice!  I love doctors who go above and beyond for their patients.  I feel blessed to get these pictures every time I have an appointment.

Look at her sweet arms and legs!

Gracie was hiding her face so it was kind of hard to get a good picture of her.  She was hiding in the corner on my right side where I've had cramping and pain.  The ultrasound tech told me babies tend to have a favorite place to "hide" and so that's probably why I've been having pain there.  We got some sweet pictures, I did the glucose test, which the orange drink really didn't taste too bad.  I had four vials of blood taken and got a rhogam shot.  Everything looks wonderful and she's growing perfectly.  I now get to see my doctor every two weeks.  After losing 4 babies, I am even more thankful to be pregnant with a healthy baby and each day is a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing.

How far along? 28-29 weeks

Sweet face

Baby’s size? A little more than 15 inches, about the size of a butternut squash. She weighs about 2.5 lbs.

Total weight gain/loss: About 31 lbs! Packin' it on!

Maternity clothes? Yes!  I've never weighed this much before!  Loving the stretchy pants!

Stretch marks? No new ones and my old ones have pretty much vanished.  We'll see what I look like once she's born.

Sleep: I'm sleeping pretty good. I have to get up one or two times a night to go to the bathroom, though.



Arms and face

Best moment this week: Looking at car seats, strollers, and other baby items. We gave most of my son's baby things away so it's fun getting to shop and look for baby things again.  I'm enjoying being in the U.S. looking at baby things.  With Blue Rock I shopped in German stores or online. It was also nice having Blue Rock with me to sit in the stroller so I could push it with a child in it. At first he was happy to do this but after a few times he no longer wanted to get in a stroller.  It's been a while since he's used a stroller. :)

Miss Anything? Being slender.  I can't fit around things like I can when I'm not pregnant. Although I love this belly because it holds such a precious gift.

Movement: Yes, all the time!  I think she moves the most when I'm trying to sleep at night but throughout the day she moves and kicks.  She feels like she's taking up my whole belly.  I feel her on both sides and love watching my belly move.  It's very surreal.

Food cravings: Pretty much what ever is in front of me.  Lots of sweet things too, which I'm trying to avoid...not easy.  I'm hungry all the time.

Anything making you queasy or sick: No.  Although I can't eat anything too spicy or heavy too close to bed or I start having reflux.

Gender: Girl!!

Labor Signs: Nope.

Symptoms: Growing belly and lots of movement and kicking.

Belly Button in or out? Getting flatter everyday.

Wedding rings on or off? Off. I weigh 40 lbs more than I did when I got married almost 10 years ago. Most of that is due to pregnancy. :)

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and blessed! 

Looking forward to: Meeting my daughter.

Please pray for: A healthy baby and pregnancy.

Week 11: My Father's World K - Unit 7: Us

This week we did Unit 7: Us of My Father's World Kindergarten.  Blue Rock had fun and we did a lot of hands-on things dealing with our 5 senses.  It was a busy week, as we had Halloween Parties, some play dates, and general life activities.  This Mama even went to a Mom's Night Out where we had a scarf exchange, which was fun. 

Verse: Psalm 139:14 (NIV): I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Theme: Us as in God made US WONDERFUL!

Song: "Oh, Be Careful Little Eyes"

Monday: Today we talked about the letter "U" and he colored and cut out pictures that started with U.  He did some touch activities.  Our sense for today was touch. I put some objects in a bag and had him reach in and guess what they were.  We talked about how God made us and He gave us 5 senses. We walked around the house and felt the different textures of different objects.  He got to look at one of the sensory boxes I made for our Homeschool Group's Halloween party later this week. We talked about how different objects were different or the same.  We also made Creme Brulee which was delicious! 

Reaching in the bag to find something

Hey a snake!

Objects he found in the bag

Playing with the Fall Sensory Bin

Going around the house finding other objects to touch

Tuesday: Today was fun. First we had handwriting which is not a favorite but Blue Rock's doing better every week.  He really wanted to skip writing U's and just write 7's.  I told him that wasn't an option but that we'd do a fun activity once he was done.  After handwriting I blind-folded him and had him guess different sounds I made.  He had to use his ears to figure out tapping, zippers, beans falling, rumbling of leaves, a keyboard, etc.  He loved it and wanted to blind-fold me afterward!  We played this game for a while.  Later we made some delicious pumpkin muffins.  While we were making them he told me how he loves to cook with me and Daddy. What a sweet heart! We played a long time outside and he came up with a game where I'd close my eyes and he'd draw a picture on his chalk board. Then we'd switch places.  I went to a girl's night out with some friends from church and we had a scarf exchange.  Meanwhile, my husband took Blue Rock to basketball evaluations.  He's going to play basketball in January.  Hubby didn't get any pictures but said he did a great job dribbling.  One of his friends is going to be on his team.  They are both really excited!

Handwriting

Blind-folded to see what he hears

I got to play this fun game! He wanted to take my picture too!

Making some pumpkin muffins

These were so good!

Playing the chalk game where he changed his name to Paint

Wednesday: This morning one of Blue Rock's friends came over to play while her mom went to an appointment.  We eat lunch with her and her mom on Fridays.  They had a blast playing together.  They spent a lot of time outside and inside. They even did some school work together.  His friend wanted to color so I asked Blue Rock if he wanted to do his school work.  His friend wanted to do some too so that was fun teaching two kids. They also both love rolly pollies and found a lot of them outside.  Then they fought over them as they both wanted to have the most.  After she left we finished school.  Blue Rock made a person magnet for "us" and we talked about the sense of smell.  I brought him various candles to smell and spices.  He closed his eyes and had to guess the smell.  His favorite smell was the vanilla candle.  His least favorite was the garlic salt.

Having fun!

They did a maze

He practiced his States identification

They did a worksheet of coloring 4 pictures differently with just two colors

Finishing up his work

Using his nose to smell different scents

Using his nose to smell different scents

Us (person) Magnet

Thursday: Today was Halloween so we did an extra craft this morning and several things with two homeschool groups.  We got most of our school work done this morning before heading to church for our co-op group. One new thing Blue Rock did today was read some words on a page.  I told him a word and gave instructions, such as draw a blue X over the word "sun."  He got all of the words right.  It's neat to test his abilities in different ways. I was feeling pretty icky, I'm starting to have Braxton Hicks contractions and they can be pretty painful.  After our co-op we stopped by my parents to show my dad Blue Rock's costume. We ate lunch with him and then ran home, made some mummy dogs for another Homeschool Halloween Party and headed out. We had a wonderful day!

Blend Ladder

Reading new words

He made a pumpkin craft

Trying on his costume

Practicing for later that night

Fire Chief

Mummy Dogs

Pumpkin craft at party

One of many games

Pumpkin Bean Bag Toss Game

What he wants for Christmas

Friday: Today we finished up where we left off from yesterday.  To continue our 5 senses activities this week we started with sight.  I blind-folded Blue Rock and had him draw a picture of a person.  It was very difficult.  So I took the blind-fold off and let him draw one and he said it was easier to draw one when he could see what he was doing.  Then we moved on to today's activity which was taste.  I got a few different foods that were salty, sugary, sour, and bitter.  I had him close his eyes and I fed him a bite of what ever food it was.  He guessed what it was and told me if it was salty, sugary, sour, or bitter.  He loved the game.  He also drew four different pictures and practiced writing the letter that the picture started with.  We talked about the basic food groups and why it was important that we eat a healthy balanced diet, to grow strong and healthy.  We ended with a spoonful of honey after we talked about how God's rules and how they are sweeter than honey and it's important to follow what God has set out for us.  Psalm 19:7a, 8a, 10b-11: The law of the LORD is perfect. It gives us new strength...The rules of the LORD are right. They give joy to our hearts...They are sweeter than honey that is taken from the honeycomb. I am warned by them. When I obey them, I am greatly rewarded. After he ate some honey he said bears love honey too and he does too.  Then we did some pages in Developing the Early Learner 2.  We met up with some friends for lunch and the kids played for almost 2 hours.  Overall we had a wonderful week!

Drawing a picture of a person blind-folded was very difficult

It was easier to draw a person when you can see what you are doing

This week's pictures

He drew a person for "us" who is dancing, an umbrella with spikes,
a balloon, and a turtle.

Some of the food, I also added blackberries to give him something really sour

Trying the foods and guessing what they were

Looking at the food groups

Yummy honey!

Working on perception skills