Hello family and friends! We have been up to A LOT over here these past two weeks. First of all, we have started up with our unit studies "five in a row".


The first book we studied was Madeline. Through reading Madeline daily, we learned many new things in a variety of subjects. The kids learned where on the world map France is located, particularly Paris on the river Seine.
We discussed the trade aspect and why big cities are usually located on or near rivers. Then to prove our point, we took a fun field trip to the downtown Oklahoma river and canal. We road the canal boat and walked around the river, much like Madeline did in Paris (too bad we couldn't go THERE for a field trip).






* Unlce David happened to actually be in town from Austin, TX when we took our field trip so the kids got to have a fun night with their uncle, we were all excited!*

We noted throughout the night the big "city" buildings and how rivers attract people and businesses through trade via river boats, and the water source in itself. We also discussed how in the case of Paris, the river Seine was able to bring in trade from surrounding countries from the ocean feeding the river (the English channel). The kids also learned what the flag of France looks like and the kids got to paint one of their own.





The kids also did math with blocks as manipulatives, and we worked on a new concept- division. Savannah learned the symbol for division and we took groups of 12 blocks (to represent the 12 girls from Madeline and we divided them into different sized groups to see how many groups of 4 there would be, groups of three, etc. It was a fun activity and Liam played along.



We did other activities including social studies and history. We even compared our heater to the heater that was drawn in the hospital scene in the book. We found the copyright page and located the year the book was written and discussed how different the 1930's are from now, and who we know that were children during that time.

We have also begun a new book for our studies called Grandfather's Journey. It is a fascinating book that lets the kids in on Japanese culture, history, geography, and landscapes. It is also a Caldecott Medal winner.So far we have located Japan and traced the "Grandfather's Journey" from there by boat across the Pacific ocean to our own continent, North America. We all agreed that 3 weeks in a boat is a very long time and it must have been quite a journey. And also how mom probably would have been throwing up the whole time since I get seasick. Savannah noticed how the women in the book wear Kimonos and how that's what the waitresses at Shogun's steakhouse wear, and we think we just might need to take a field trip there :). We discussed a little bit about World War II and how our countries were fighting and the tragedies of war.

We discussed comparisons in the book, how their lives after the war were scattered like "leaves in a storm". We learned a new word "simile" and how this type of writing is used by the author to give us a better picture or feeling of what the character's went through.



Also on the homeschooling front, we started our awesome co-op. A homeschool co-op is a once a week event where a number of families get together and the kids get to take different classes taught by all of us moms. We know and love so many of the families involved in this co-op. There are around 80 kids involved. Savannah is taking a science class, an art class and a fun and games class where she'll be doing hands on activities and games with other kids her age. She had a blast. Liam is in a 3 year old class where he will be doing lots of learning activities for kids his age.
I get the privilege to teach chemistry to 7 middle school to high school age students and I think it's going to be fulfilling and lots of fun!

Lastly, Liam turned 3 and he had an awesome time at his birthday party. He felt so special that day and that is what birthdays are all about!










I can not believe my giggly, snugly sweet baby boy is already 3. Time really does fly more and more every day.