Olympic Flag Fun

With the Olympics less than a week away, we're delving into Olympic history, sports, and symbols.  This afternoon we had a bit of fun coloring a picture of the flag and then creating our own Olympic flag using pipe cleaners and construction paper.

Ethan's flag coloring page.

I had to add this just so I have record of it.  Katie colored the blue, yellow,
and black rings all by herself.  I did the  red and green rings.

Raisins Experiment

Ethan has been wanting to dry grapes for a few weeks.  Since I found some on sale this last week, it seemed the perfect opportunity to have a little experiment.  It was fun to do, but as with all experiments it was a learning experience and there are things I would do differently next time - like only let them dry for 48 hours even if they don't seem done!  Our raisins look really good, but are very hard and chewy.  Not something I can even attempt to eat with my braces, and even the kids are having a difficult time chewing them.  They work great for our morning oatmeal, however, when you put the raisins in with the oats to reconstitute them a bit.  It was all around a fun experiment.

We did both purple and green grapes.

Ethan and Katie both helped prep the grapes and trays.

First morning - 12 hours in

First morning close-up of the purple grapes.

First morning close-up of green grapes.  They took a lot longer to dry.

First afternoon - about 24 hours in

Second/third day - somewhere between 48-72 hours.

Final product.  Purple grapes on the left and green on the right.

Beatitudes Update

We're plugging right along in memorizing Matthew 5:2-12.  Even though we've done quite a bit of memorization with the kids in the past, it never ceases to amaze me every time we start a new project at how quickly and easily it sticks in their little minds.  We've either listened to and sang along with the "Thy Words" CD or recited it aloud at least every single morning during family worship, and sometimes in the evening as well.  We've got each verse pretty well down.  We're having trouble keeping each beatitude in the right order, however.  I've been trying to come up with some sort of mnemonic device for it.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to know them!  That's the hump the kids and I each have to get over.

Our plan for evening worships hasn't been as consistent, however.  We've had quite a few evenings where either Daddy is gone or we've all been out.  We still have our evening worship, but planning and doing the actual Beatitudes worships hasn't been nearly as consistent.  Gotta start working on that part...

"The Tree Falling Down"

Ethan's journal/blog entry about the men felling the tree that was damaged in last week's storm:

"We went outside straight after lunch.  We saw that the workers were cutting the tree down.  They cut off the limbs first, and then it was just trunk, and they cut it down with the truck with the rope tied to it.  There were three workers.  They used one blower, one truck with a trailer.  The guy was up in a bucket on an orange truck.  They used the truck with the trailer for rope.  The rope was tied to the tree and the truck.  We saw ants after the tree fell down.  The ants were in the tree.  I enjoyed watching the tree fall down."

When the tree was ready to fall, the truck backed up and pulled with the rope.

Home Ec

Ethan played the part of head chef and Daddy sous chef this evening.  He got to pick the ingredients for "non spicy curry" (his request) and Daddy the seasonings.  They had a grand time!

Ingredients:
Carrots
Potatoes (red, purple, and white, since we were out of russets)
Kidney beans
Peas
Salt
McKay's chicken style seasoning
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Turmeric
Paprika
Ground mustard
Coriander
Cilantro

A Child's Play...

"A child's play is a child's work."  - Dr. Ruth WilliamsMorris

I will never forget these words for as long as I live.  One of my most frustrating, and revered (how is it that those two go hand-in-hand so often?!), professors at Southern would repeat this over and over during our Childhood Development class.  I learned so much from her about play, language, and gender differences.  Thank you, Dr. WilliamsMorris

Here's a bit of Katie's work from this morning:

Dressing her baby

Making block numbers for Ethan to write

Playing with Ethan's Legos

Beatitudes - Day 1

This evening for worship we read a description of the setting for the Sermon on the Mount from "The Desire of Ages."  We talked about the meaning after every couple sentences and discussed imagining in our minds what it might have looked like.  After we read the brief description, then came the fun time!  Both kids love to draw, so this worship was made special by getting out the coloring supplies.  Here's what Ethan drew:

The Beatitudes Unit

This year for worship/Bible time we're focusing on scripture memory.  I've chosen several prominent passages or chapters and we're going to focus on it for about a month, studying and memorizing it together as a family.  The kids already know Psalm 23 and 1 Corinthians 13 from past memorizations, so we're brushing up on them, as well.  Our focus for July is the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:2-12).  In case anyone is interested in what we're doing or would like to do something similar, I'm posting the unit I've created to go along with it.  We're not doing it every evening, but scattered throughout the month.  We are, however, reading it and/or singing it every single day so that we all hide these precious words in our hearts.

As we go through the lessons I'll post updates and new ideas.  

Beatitudes Unit (click here to view unit)

"Glorious Fourth" at Conner Prairie

Unfortunately we missed the main "Independence Day" event.  The website made it sound like there were activities all day instead of just at 1:00 pm, but I'll definitely have to remember it for next year.  They said they had a drum corps, dancing, read the Declaration of Independence, and other activities.  The kids would have loved it!  They still enjoyed their time, though.  They both got to "help" quilt outside under the shade trees, enjoy a parlor concert on the piano-forte, and play in the summer kitchen for a while.