I am reading Because of Winn Dixie to Caitlyn, and at one point it references Elvis Presley. Caitlyn didn’t know who that was so we amended that by watching some clips on youtube.
This was her favorite and she keeps asking to listen to it.
I love that her education can bend to her interests, and that we can really explore things that just pop up in our studies. Have you been studying anything out of the ordinary lately?
On February 27 Caitlyn and I participated in the End It Movement. If you aren’t familiar with it you can find more information here.
After explaining what it was in general terms. I reminded her about our prior studies of slavery, Egypt and Moses. Then I talked to her about how slavery still exists in the world, and what a horrible thing it is.
I showed Caitlyn how people were showing their support by putting a red x on their hands. I drew one on my hand and asked her if she would like to do the same. Caitlyn is typically very neat and doesn’t like things like this, so I wanted to leave it up to her. She took the marker and slowly and deliberately drew an X on her sweet little hand. I could tell she was really thinking about it, and my heart just about melted for her (and broke thinking about all those girls out there unprotected that we were drawing that x for).
It actually snowed, so after a little convincing, Caitlyn and I got out and explored a little.
We explored the sensory aspects, drew in it, and examined it. There wasn’t very much snow, but it was enough to entertain us. The next day when most of the snow was melted we also explored the ice and melting water.
It also inspired a serious snowflake cutting marathon, culminating in my being the coolest mom ever:
Caitlyn and I had a lot of fun learning about the Winter Olympics this year. It was interesting, because it also happened to hit at the same time we were studying the first Olympics in Ancient Greece in our history program. It’s amazing to see how far the Olympics have come. In the early Olympics I knew no women competed, but did you know that married women weren’t even allowed to attend/observe?
We also learned some interesting facts about the Olympic games in Sochi. Our favorites were that some of the Olympic medals this year contained meteorites and that the torch traveled into outer space for the first time ever.
Caitlyn also learned a little about each sport, and watched enough of everything to at least see what it was. Sometimes I was surprised by what captured her interest. She really got into the one round of curling we watched, cheering enthusiastically and all, but she didn’t want to watch anymore. Women’s luge ended up being her favorite thing to watch though. We loved Kate Hansen, and her bubbly personality. Caitlyn was disappointed that she didn’t medal, but it was exciting to watch Erin Hamlin earn America’s first ever medal (bronze) in an individual luge event. Here is Caitlyn mimicking the ladies.
We did a couple of writing exercises based on the Olympic events and at the end she completed a profile on her favorite athlete. She chose Gracie Gold, so we watched some more clips of her at prior events and did a little research. All in all it was a great learning experience for Caitlyn!
One of our favorite FHE events is the annual Valentine’s Day Party. This was our second year and Caitlyn was super excited and put a lot of effort into her valentine box this year.
Making purple for the rainbow and then assembling her rainbow paper.
Peek-a-boo through the minion hole.
The box all wrapped up and the girls all colored in.
While that was drying she made all of her valentines.
Showing off her Despicable Me box, and you can’t have a minion box without a little silliness.
At the party Caitlyn handed out her valentines, enjoyed some lunch, and played with friends.
This was Caitlyn and Elsie playing a little dodge ball.
Caitlyn and I were also blessed to be invited to another little Valentine’s day party this year at a friend’s house. It was three homeschool families and the kids had a blast playing and hanging out. I think we enjoyed this even more than the big FHE party! (Mommy forgot to take her camera to Miss Amy’s house though)
I am setting up a private Youtube channel to host our videos, since I am taking more and it is taking up too much space on our website.
Access is run through Google+
If you follow me on Google+ then I can add you to the video access circle and you will be able to see new and old videos as I post them. I will link them here, but I think they will only be viewable via Google+ or the actual youtube channel once I add you.
Google+ link: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/111360527927345053727/111360527927345053727/posts
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWCgUoW5gH1ydYf9Gv4kvVw
Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to help, but this is all new to me too!
Katie
Caitlyn and I both tried to take pictures of the volcano, but it happened so fast we didn’t get much.
Caitlyn really enjoys our tradition of celebrating day 100 of school. This is year I had found a few new activities for us. After marking off day 100 in our book, Caitlyn made her tiara and completed the if I were 100 worksheet.
Then we listened to a couple of silly 100 songs and Caitlyn did 100 jumping jacks!
After we did everything I had planned Caitlyn wanted to do 100 stickers like we did last year.
We had a great day!
I have always loved Christmas and everything leading up to it, but now I have one more thing to love, Christmas School. It is my favorite time of the year! Caitlyn and I always have so much fun learning about the true meaning of Christmas.
This year we did Truth in Tinsel again. It is such a good program, that presents meaningful information in an accessible and interesting way. These were some of our favorite ornaments this year.
We also baked cookies and made a gingerbread house together. Caitlyn loves being in the kitchen, and improving her home making skills. We also attempted to make snow, but we didn’t really enjoy the feel of the polymer snow. When the snow didn’t work out we decided to use it to accessorize our gingerbread house.
Caitlyn is still enjoying King’s Praise Ballet and she was thrilled to have a solo and lead a smaller group of girls during the winter performance. She was cast as the dove in the Noah’s Ark scene of the ballet. She did an excellent job leading the other animals onto the ark and “flying” out as the dove.
I think my proudest moment was when the ark door crashed onto her, making her fall, in the dress rehearsal and she just got up and kept going. She is getting so responsible and big!