Prairie Days

 This week we read Three Names by Patricia MacLachlan. It's the story of a great grandfather
who lived on the prairie growing up with his dog who had three names. We usually do geography first so they have in mind where we're studying for the whole week. They found the plains states on the map and colored their own.

Hannah and I also labeled them on another map. I found many different variations

as to what counted as plain states, but at least she was introduced to a new part of the country.

 I've always wanted to try this activity- making butter! We had some whipping cream left over from Thanksgiving and they (mostly me) went to work shaking and shaking and shaking until we had butter. I like how Hannah is even wearing a prairie-like dress for this activity.

They had mixed opinions on the result, but to me it was clearly better tasting and smoother than any pre-made spreads or sticks. When our fasting is over I plan on making some for us to have on a regular basis.

 Three Names included many interesting similes, so I introduced them to the kids. They had a good time coming up with their own. We did several sheets of work on this. My favorite of Hannah's was "Colin is as loud as a Chloe."  I guess that one counts : )

 For art, we talked about vanishing points and horizons. So I concocted this collage project. If you can't tell (because I'm not an artist) it's a covered wagon riding off into the distance. Rather than letting them do most of it themselves, this time we did it all together in specific steps. I added the tornado at the end, partly because it's accurate for the area, and partly in homage to all my childhood art projects in which I added a tornado to almost every landscape scene : )

 Hannah added one too and wanted her prairie scene to be at night so she added some stars and a moon. It's hard to see, but she also penciled in people running from the tornado.

 Chloe wanted hers to be in the morning and added clouds.

 I was pretty pleased Colin participated the whole time. Chloe helped him with several things, too, so she did a good job being a helper. I can definitely see her being a teacher some day, although she says she wants to be a "cook."

 Chloe had a wonderful school Christmas program last week. She wore lamb ears, which I mistakenly called bunny ears in front of the teacher. I was very quickly corrected! haha

 Since we were all dressed up we took our Christmas card photo- this is just a goofy outtake ; )

 At Thursday's co-op the kids learned about St. Lucia and made candle wreaths for their heads.

Besides reading several books about prairie life (one being an elementary version of Little House on the Prairie) we read a few about prairie animals. Then they chose an animal they wanted to do a little report on. I had made a sheet of questions to answer about the animal's characteristics, habitat, eating habits, etc. Chloe chose the prairie dog and Hannah chose the bison. Then they painted their chosen animal. Hannah used a photo as a source and copied the basic shape but wanted to get creative with the colors. These bison remind me of vegetables. I see carrot heads, and legs, beet bodies, and broccoli beards. 

 Much to our surprise, we ended up seeing one that very night. We ventured to Bass Pro Shop for  Christmas activities and happened upon this guy. I loved Hannah's face when she realized she got to see her animal in person.

We read this interesting description about how Native Americans used them.

Finally we introduced the kids to the game Oregon Trail, which I loved so much growing up. I figured they certainly wouldn't last the whole trip much less be interested in caring about food rations and broken axles. But they did! They made decisions about how to cross rivers, listened to other travelers' advice, and of course loved to hunt. We nearly made it to the end- all 5 of us healthy, but at the last second 4 of us drowned in a river crossing!!! The kids were completely unsure how to react to that- sadness? laughter because we were so near the end? Since then they've played a couple of more times, calling it "The Game."

In other news, Hannah completed the 1st Volume of her math book and was very proud of her 180 pages worth. She loves it. The other day I gave her a page full of subtraction facts, nothing really exciting and she said, "Yayyyy!!!"  I guess she loves the black and white of it all. It's either right or it's wrong, and at her age so much of that about life is still a mystery.

I also printed up tons and tons of worksheets for them to do on all sorts of subjects. I started out looking for the ones focusing on following verbal directions but found so many others I couldn't help myself. When I first researched homeschooling a lot of parents warned that sitting at a table doing worksheets was their kids' least favorite thing (makes sense), so it was important to stay creative.
I guess our kids are in the minority. They seem slightly suspicious of most of our projects although they love them in the end, but mention worksheets? You'll hear cheers of joy and a rush to the table!
So wacky! Anyway, this coming week we are headed to Scotland ; )