Kindergarten Open House and Graduation

Wow, we finished a year. God's hand was all over it. Yesterday, we hosted Micah's Kindergarten Open House from 4:30-6:30pm. Micah and Lilly enjoyed preparing the cupcakes, and I set up some of Micah's special projects in the front room. Special visitors included: *Della & Peter Dible; *Marie & Nick Weber; *Ellen Ross(from the Barton Home); *Jim & Kelli Taggart; *Janice & Phil Cook.

When Open House ended, we got on our computers, Skyped the grandparents (Illinois and Florida), had a Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony, and dubbed Micah a first-grader. It was a powerful day to end an amazing year!

Arthur Trivia ANSWERS

Thanks again for participating!
1. Aardvark
2. Bionic Bunny

3. Lakewood Elementary; 3rd grade

4. D.W. (Dora Winifred) and Kate

5. May 26th

6. 8 years old

7. rabbit; Buster Baxter

8. Arthur's Nose; 1976

9. Pal

10. The Sugar Bowl

The Sugar Bowl

Where do Arthur and his friends like to go and hang out? The Sugar Bowl. You'll see them there in their PBS television shows and also in some of Marc Brown's books. It's an ice cream parlor. So, to wrap up our author study of Marc Brown and his famous character Arthur ...

1. we created our own Sugar Bowl! The kids decorated the front window where our play kitchen is located and we designed a Sugar Bowl Menu (prices determined by Micah)
2. we ventured down to Old Town Scottsdale and went to a real SUGAR BOWL (ice cream parlor). http://www.sugarbowlscottsdale.com/ (Lilly told her daddy that night - "It's all pink!")

Lilly looked like Sue Ellen. I looked like Muffy. Micah looked like Binky (he doesn't have a yellow shirt like Arthur). See the resemblance?

We ordered the 'desireme banana split'. Yummy!!

Visitors from Tennessee

Great Granny Rich and Great Aunt Carol flew out for a long weekend visit. They haven't been out since Matt's and my wedding (10 years ago). It was their first time to see our home and play with the kids - in their environment.
We ate at 'The Tee-Pee'; Matt and Micah took Granny to the Women's NBA game; went to church; took a field trip to Jerome.

It was a wonderful time! Thanks for coming.

Reading all around

We had so many Arthur books, so we took every opportunity to read them whenever and wherever. Here we took advantage of the great weather outside and our fun "treehouse". Marc Brown also began a series of books about Arthur's best friend, Buster. He travels a lot. Another Marc Brown series is Arthur's little sister, D.W. Lilly's favorite character though was "baby Kate". We read 2 of the chapter books - Goalie Ghost (involved hockey) and PenPal Playoff (involved basketball).

Priceless!

I've always liked the Mastercard commercials that end with "priceless". So, I've developed my own. I don't have orange and yellow circles, but I have blue and red. I've narrowed my many blessings to just three - like the commercial.

* 9 UNITS OF STUDY AND 4 AUTHOR STUDIES - 135 COUNTED DAYS OF SCHOOL

* READING OVER 400 BOOKS FOR SCHOOL - 15 TRIPS TO THE LIBRARY

* FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE FOR ADDITIONAL FUN AS A FAMILY - PRICELESS!!!

Guest storyteller

My friend, Sue Gould, taught 1st grade for at least 23 years. She is sooo fun! We have a similar philosophy on education, kids, life, ... and so I invited her over to play with us, read some of Marc Brown's books, see our classroom, get to know the kids, have lunch and talk.
Thank you Sue for an entertaining morning!

Suck it up!

No, no one is whining. It's our aardvark/termite game. Rules are a mix of "Wipe-Out" and "Minute to Win It" (Micah's favorite tv shows). Each aardvark gets one minute to 'suck up' as many termites (rice krispies) as they can (there is a straw taped to the back side of the snout). Termites outside of the mounds are 1 point, termites inside the mounds are worth 3 points. Termites have to be placed on the appropriate mat in order to count. It's a game against time, opponents, and yourself (if you do additional rounds). *Lilly just enjoys eating the termites. :)

Termite Mounds

Aardvarks like to eat termites. So, we decided to have "termite day". Totally unplanned, on our day, the Terminex guy came. We talked with him and watched him check the bait traps. Luckily, we didn't get to see any in person. We watched our 6 minute video, very well done - provided in previous blog, and made our own mounds. On Saturday the kids painted the mounds. Stay tuned - tomorrow we'll be playing a game with them.

Animal Videos

During our Earth Day unit, when we were learning about wildlife conservation, we ran across some neat live videos of animals: eagles, brown bears, owls, ... several with new babies.

When we started our Author study (Marc Brown) and wanted to know more about Arthur and his animal we looked them up online as well. Here are some of our favorite sites:

Arthur (Aardvark):

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/mammals/aardvark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z5OoBqqYsk

http://www.zooborns.typepad.com/zooborns/aardvark

Termites (what aardvarks eat):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m7odGafpQU

Late Bloomers

These little friends were inspired by a book (during our Earth Day unit) entitled Seeds, Seeds, Seeds. A little bear gets a package from his grandpa that gives him 5 days worth of activities with seeds. One of them is to grow grass in a soda bottle, such as the one Micah is holding. Lilly and I were so impressed once it started growing that we got in on the action with eggshell heads. This picture was taken when their grass "hair" finally started growning.

Unconditional Love

Our trip to the Barton Home was Thursday. It was our last one until August (summer break). It's hard to know who will be there the next time back after a long stretch like that. We've said good-bye to several of our friends there through our 1 and 1/2 years of visiting them. We also have some new friends (see below for Micah's picture with Mary).

This was probably our last time to see Cece at Barton Home 1. She's cutting back on hours and not working Thursdays anymore, except to substitute. She works there and gets our friends ready for us on the days we visit. Thanks Cece - it was wonderful getting to know you!

During this week's Bible study we shared with them about God's unconditional love and some Arthur books. Arthur wasn't crazy about his nose, but in the end he realized he wasn't Arthur without it. God designed us perfectly, we may be made fun of for some of our features, but God loves us unconditionally (no matter what). Micah did an awesome job at reading 1/2 of Psalm 136 ("His love is eternal"). Wow, so God not only loves us unconditionally but eternally. What's better than that?!

Micah's memory verse, Psalm 52:8, continues on ... verse 9 ... "I will always thank you, God, for what you have done; in the presence of your people I will proclaim that you are good."

Our friends at the Barton Homes heard that from us today and each visit.

Marc Brown's Inspiration

Marc Brown's grandma, Thora (also Arthur's grandma's name), was his inspiration and encouragement to his imagination and love of drawing. On our first day of our study we read Mr. Brown's first Arthur book - Arthur's Nose. Arthur's changed quite a bit since that book written in 1976.

In a letter to his readers, Marc Brown writes ... "Every child needs someone who believes in him or her and offers unconditional love." That first sentence gave us our scripture focus for the unit - unconditional love. Our readings are: 1 Corinthians 13; Psalm 136; and the memory verse: Psalm 52:8 (+ 9 for me). There are so many more to choose from.

But I am like an olive tree growing in the house of God; I trust in His constant love forever and ever. Psalm 52:8

Arthur Trivia

With each of our author units we've had a set of trivia questions. So, here we go ...

1. Arthur is the main character in this group of friends. What animal is Arthur based on?
2. What is Arthur's favorite tv show?
3. Where does Arthur go to school? What grade is he in?
4. What are Arthur's siblings names?
5. When is Arthur's birthday?
6. How old is Arthur (what age does he represent)?
7. Which character/animal is Arthur's best friend? Name?
8. What is the title of the first Arthur book? What year was it published?
9. What is Arthur's pet puppy's name?
10. Where do Arthur and his friends like to hang out?

Visit http://pbskids.org/arthur/index.html for more fun with Arthur!

Marc Brown - Author Study

Our last unit of the kindergarten school year begins tomorrow. I get so giddy the night before a new unit as I prepare the front room with our new books and any other items I have that go with the theme. This time we have over 50 Arthur books (written by Marc Brown). Some of them are easy readers (level 3), some are books that can be read in 5 minutes with lots of pictures, and some are chapter books. A great variety of levels! Marc Brown also has several books about Arthur's sister, D.W. and his best friend, Buster (which we also got from the library). We'll also be enjoying some PBS tv episodes (either at 3:30pm - just before WordGirl or taped for our own convenience).

Celebration of Learning - Eastside Explorers

Our homeschool co-op, Eastside Explorers, www.homeschool-life.com/az/eastsideexplorers, hosted a "Celebration of Learning" event on Friday night. Kids brought displays, books, etc. that they felt represented their school year (09-10) and their accomplishments. They set their items on a table for other families to browse. We had dinner, time to browse, and a talent show (children presented) - piano pieces, memorized poems, scriptures, songs, instruments, etc.

It was a terrific evening with new friends from the school year!

*Micah had his books he's written, illustrated and put together; art work he entered in the Art Fair; and our laptop with favorite photos from our year. He wore his tie-dye t-shirt he recently made.

A hummingbird experience

One night while we were playing in the backyard we had a beautiful hummingbird play with us. This little guy flittered low to the ground and would get really close to us. He didn't care if we were swinging, sliding down the slide, playing baseball, or being loud. At one point, he got within a foot of Matt and Micah and even wound around their legs, like an obstacle course. He hung out for 3-5 minutes, left, then came back and played with us for another 3-5 minutes. A truly wonderful experience!

(This is not my picture. We didn't have any cameras out with us and were afraid we'd scare him if we went in to get it. We just enjoyed the experience and I got this photo, as a reminder, from the internet.)

NATIONAL TEACHERS DAY!

The kids and I celebrated National Teachers Day today at the Phoenix Zoo. It was an amazing day. The weather was great, the crowd was minimal and we saw new things happen. The baby elephant was napping - we saw her wake up, flip dirt on her (to cool off), get up and play a little (also use the bathroom). We saw the 3 week old zebra and he came down close. We rode the train and ate our lunch. The kids played for over an hour at the water area. Thanks for a great day kids!! This has been a wonderful year of teaching and learning (for me too).

Gulf of Mexico oil spill

On Monday we had a perfect opportunity to review some concepts from the past two weeks and then relate it to the very present moment of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. We googled some data & video about oil wells and the process of collecting the oil, what we use it for and some of the effects of this happening. We referenced a couple of books we had gotten from the library: Oils and the Environment (Ian Mercer) and Earth-Friendly Energy (Ron Fridell).

Breath of fresh air

The boys went camping for the weekend. It was a father/son Sunday School camping trip at Woods Canyon. Matt and Micah took a friend, Skyler. All together there were over 70 men & boys enjoying nature at its best. Talk about an appropriate field trip!

Making paper

Thank you Nick and Marie (our neighbors) who provided the newspapers for our recycling project. We made recycled paper! Matt was home on Thursday and so he was able to participate in this fun project with us. We shredded, soaked, blended, strained, dried & flattened. Wha-la!!

Earthy Yum Yums!

We like to create edibles with our science experiments! During this unit of study we had: 1. our Earth Day cake; 2. blue (Lilly) and green (Micah) jello cubed up and combined in a bowl to look like the earth and 3. oreo & pudding 'dirt' with gummie worms..