We had a colorful week full of manipulatives! I got a box from Rainbow Resources today which contained several new copywork books and two containers of Pattern Blocks. My kids have always loved making things with Pattern Blocks. We had a big bucket full of Pattern Blocks in Ohio, but I don’t know where they ended up. But this is a new day, and God has blessed us with finances to get everything we need, including Pattern Blocks!
But first we did some more activities with M & M’s from Confessions of a Homeschooler’s Letter of the Week – letter M.
http://youtu.be/DtVsY1KCDG0
Several of the kids worked on squeezing lemons and limes, and then I made lemon-lime-aid for them. They loved it!
Garrett memorized a poem which I already shared about. Fiona has almost memorized it, too.
http://youtu.be/2HTJIuYqNno
Here are the Pattern Blocks that everyone got so excited about. They have been making things with them all week.
Emma built this tower. This is very good for her to practice her fine motor skills. She was very proud of herself!
We did Coloring Pages about The Constitution that I will send in to a coloring contest at Knowledge Box Central. Garrett, Fiona, Kelsey, Morgan and Emma and Abby colored these. We discussed what The Constitution is and the three branches of the government it established. We talked about the way it is being disregarded by the present administration and how some are trying to denigrate our Constitution and label it outmoded and outdated. We watched the Schoolhouse Rock video on YouTube about The Constitution, too.
We studied the Book of Acts from Picture This! Kelsey, Morgan, Fiona and Garrett did this.
We have read the Book of Acts before, but drawing pictures to go with it is helping them to remember it better. As I was reading about the angel setting the apostles free from prison, Kelsey asked why nobody has made a movie about the Book of Acts. I don’t know of a really good one, but it would be great if somebody would make one that shows how cool and awesome it was when the angel came into the prison and let them out and told them to go to the Temple and preach some more. Then the priests sent for them and were all full of themselves and were planning to interrogate them and rough them up some more, but the guards came back and said that nobody was in the cell. It was well-guarded, and there was no way out, but somehow they were gone! Then someone came in and told them that the apostles were at the Temple preaching again in the name of Jesus! It’s funny in a way. I think my kids are seeing how powerful and amazing God is and how He wants to do great things through us in the power of the Holy Spirit. Which is exactly what I want them to learn.
I linked this post at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up.
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
Your kids are beautiful. I wish we had some of those blocks ourselves those are really great. Loved the idea for a movie. My Dad used to love preaching about that story when I was growing up.