Week 3

aThe boys were very excited to get to this week because they knew what we would be learning more about Noah's Ark. 

Over the weekend, at a friend's house, the boys had seen a painting of Noah's Ark and spent a while looking at all the detail.  They were most excited to see the dinosaurs in the painting.

We started the school week out by watching an amazing movie from Netflix called, "The Incredible Discovery of Noah's Ark".  I had never heard parts of the theory that was talked about in the documentary and certainly had never heard about how there are many people who have actually seen Noah's Ark up on the mountain.  I really recommend this movie.  Christopher, Chris and I really enjoyed watching it.  Matthew and Gabriel were not as into it as we were.

We also learned about Noah's descendants and their migration in different directions and the boys enjoyed drawing pictures of the Tower of Babel.  We also did a little project using Cuneiform writing with the boys' initials on slabs of cookie dough "clay" and the older boys are learning/reviewing the books of the Old Testament as their memory work.

We finished up our science study of light this week with an experiment making light using wintergreen Life Savers and a pair of pliers. It was actually pretty neat...we went into the bathroom without the light on and I quickly crushed a Life Saver in the pliers and it let off a tiny flash of light. So that was pretty neat. We also learned about refracted light using a penny under a glass of water covered with a piece of paper.

Gabriel was really excited about starting the phonics part of his school.  We learn about each letter for six school days and this week he learned about the letter "S-s-Sun".  The letters and sounds are not learned in alphabetical order but in a way to help learn how to read.  There is also a Godly character trait taught with each letter.  This week, the words to remember that go along with 'S-s-Sun' are "Jesus is the light of the world".  Each letter follows a unit study approach that includes many hands-on activities covering science, math, Bible, art, children's literature, and creative thinking.  We did this same curriculum when Matthew did kindergarten and I'm thrilled to be using it again.

Gabriel making raisins out of grapes.

Gabriel learned about shadows by making a sundial and tracking it throughout the day.