Week 13: My Father's World K - Unit 9: Octopus

This week our theme from My Father's World Kindergarten was Octopuses. Blue Rock loves octopuses and we had a fun time learning more about them. There are so many neat activities you can do with octopuses. They are neat animals. We have several books about sea animals that feature octopuses in them. We have enjoyed reading stories about them this week.

This week we also worked in our garden, planted some seeds, caught a snake, and cooked together. As always he played a lot outside, with friends, and for the most part is enjoying being a kid and learning about the world around him. Every day we start off with our memory verse of the week. Most days we read additional scripture related to what we're learning about. I don't always write about this.

Verse: My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever. Psalm 145:21 NIV

Theme: Even the octopus praises the Lord.

Song: "Praise Him"

Monday: Today was Veterans Day, we are so thankful to all the men and women who have served and are serving in our military.  We took the day off from school today. We got Blue Rock's pre-K pictures taken and our family Christmas pictures taken for our Christmas cards. Here are two from our photo session.

My handsome boy!

Family picture

Tuesday: Monday was Veteran's Day so we started our school week today. I introduced our verse of the week and some information about octopuses. Then Blue Rock did his letter and color recognition page, cute out the pictures, then did some work in Developing at Early Learner 2. We rushed out the door for ladies' Bible class, met hubby for lunch, went to the grocery store, and then were going to go to a friend's house this afternoon but I wasn't feeling very good, mainly tired. So we rescheduled for later this week. Blue Rock woke me up at 5:30 this morning. Not fun! Overall it was a great day.

 

Wednesday: Blue Rock started the day off harvesting seeds from our yard long beans and counting them. I love when he finds extra activities to do, especially when it's something that needs to be done. Then he did his handwriting page for "O" and "9." He also did a picture box activity and made a hand octopus. Later in the day we planted some lettuce seeds in our Garden Tower and he made a giraffe picture.

Counting seeds

Handwriting page

Picture Box Activity

Hand Octopus

Cutting out the octopus

Planting lettuce seeds

Giraffe picture

Thursday: Thursdays are always pretty busy. We do school at home and then meet-up with friends for our co-op group. We started the day off looking at a globe. Together we found and named all of the oceans. I pointed out that all of the oceans are connected. Then he did a World Map picture. He colored part of the ocean and we talked about places we've lived, Germany and Texas. He's very interested in Germany since he was born there and I'm amazed with how much he remembers about our house there and different things. We talked about how the octopus lives in the ocean. Then we made an octopus magnet and talked about Psalm 69:34 which says Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and all that move in them. Then we went to our co-op and the kids heard a wonderful story about family and Thanksgiving. Then the kids ran around and played until lunch. We ate with everyone and then did some grocery shopping.  I made a beef soup and Blue Rock helped me peel carrots. I also made two lemon chess pies. We had a surprise guest, one of my husband's friends, Ryan, stopped by on his way through town for dinner. It was a busy and fun day.

Cutting the words out for the blend page

Gluing the words on the page

He read all the words without any help and matched them to the right picture.
Great job!

World Map page and activity.

Octopus math page

After he did his math page he cut out the bottom of it and measured the length.
He also made a square and rectangle and counted how many rods were needed where.

Cutting out the octopus magnet

Homeschool co-op group

Peeling carrots, helping with dinner

Our pies! Yum!

He made a frame and taped our picture on the back of our office chair.
Very creative!

Friday: Fridays are always fun. Today we started off with the blend ladder. Blue Rock is getting really good at sounding out words and spelling words on his own. He often puts together words that we aren't covering using letters provided. I only use about 5 consonants and two vowels. Most of the time he wants to use another vowel or two and continue making more words. I love watching him and helping him learn to read. It's so rewarding! Then he wrote a few words and then followed some directions. There were three words on each line and I'd give him instructions to find a certain word and either circle it, underline it, or something else regarding that word. He did great. He has a great memory. He did a maze and got to do several pages in Developing the Early Learner 2. Then we met our friends for lunch and a play-date. Then I took him to Toys R Us to pick out a toy for a friend's birthday party on Saturday and to look at Christmas presents. He got to get one present early, the Hungry, Hungry Hippo's Game. He played that game for 4-5 hours on Friday. Then he woke up Saturday morning, early, and wanted to play it. Every day he's been playing it and it has quickly become a favorite. I didn't have that game as a child but wanted it. It's fun playing with him. Most of our games are more educational so it's neat to have one that is just mostly fun. When we left this morning I saw a snake caught in our garage. When my husband got home, he and Blue Rock took care of the snake. For dinner we had octopus hot dogs and broccoli cheese soup. We rarely eat hot dogs but I saw this idea for an octopus hot dog so I thought it would be a great way to end our week. We had another fun week of school and living life!

Blend Ladder

Writing words

Reading words

Doing a maze

Activities from Developing the Early Learner 2

Activities from Developing the Early Learner 2

Activities from Developing the Early Learner 2

Hungry, Hungry Hippos

He's really good at this game and when he'd win he'd jump up and say, "I won, I won!"

The snake in our garage

Let's get that snake

They got the snake!

Our octopus dinner

He loved it!

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.