The Price is Right!

We have been looking for a reasonably priced SpiderMan costume, that fits, for about two years. This week Matt dropped Micah and I off at a costume outlet store while he and Lilly went to REI. We found a few SpiderMan costumes and Micah was trying them on. The first two were similar except for the eyes on the mask, but differed in price - $25. and $30. Micah said "so what's our price range?" I said "well, I think $25. is still too much to pay for a costume, even though I know you'll play dress-up in this one throughout the year." He said "well, I like this one better ($30.), but this one is less money ($25.)." He was really thinking this through. Then, we saw it, ... another SpiderMan costume. It wasn't quite as 'puffy' (making the muscles stand out) but otherwise it was just the same. It was the right size and ... it was $15. I said "Micah, I'm willing to pay $15. for a costume that you'll use a lot. Want to try this one on?" We were both so giddy with excitement! He got it on and we started on our way to the mirror in the opposite corner of the store. On the way over there he says to me (mask completely over his face) "Mom, I know you can't see me but I'm smiling really big under here." I cracked up and thought to myself 'that's worth the money right there'. Obviously we got the costume. He put it on just outside the store and we walked to REI to show daddy and Lilly. He's hardly taken it off since. :)

Spelling Bee - Eastside Explorers

Eastside hosted their annual spelling bee on Monday night (10/26/09). Since it was our off week for Home Fellowship we went to support and observe. Micah's crazy about words, but wasn't sure about participating this year, so we opted to see what it was all about. There were two sections: k-2 and 3-8. It was interesting and well-done.

Schepf Farms with Eastside Explorers

Eastside Explorers put together a field trip to a favorite fall spot - Schepf Farms. Matt took Friday off and we went down as a family to join a lot of other families. It was soooo much fun!! We got settled in as a group and then ran free, running into other friends and family throughout the farm. We'd do a ride with one family and then a show with another. At noon a majority of us ate lunch together at the ramada. Several of Micah's friends were there and he met a few more. After lunch there were no lines to the rides and there was a wonderful breeze. Fabulous day! Micah's favorite ride was the go-cart ... individual one. He rode it over, and over, and over again. Lilly's favorite ride was the bumble bee. She rode it over, and over, and over.

To view more Schnepf Farm pictures go to: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatWrFi5ctW3m

There are no "COINcidences"

I continue to run that thought through my head when things like this happen ...

I'm printing out directions for our field trip tomorrow (Schepf Farms!). An email from Focus on the Family is in my inbox. That's not uncommon, but the subject line read: God's Perspective on Money. Do you love it?! I do. Here's a cap:

While the Bible points out that money can be a snare for some people, wealth can be a good thing when it's used to help others and advance God's Kingdom. One of the ways God is using the current worldwide financial challenge for good is that many are recognizing the benefits of having a simpler life and not becoming overly focused on earthly, material possessions. As Hebrews 13:5 (NIV) says: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." For helpful resources, encouraging articles and biblical guidelines for wise financial stewardship, visit our Money and Finances page at http://focusonthefamily.com/

What a perfect verse to go along with our study too. That should be the one we memorize. We've read the Good Samaritan (the robbers stole the money; the good samaritan gave money to take care of the man); The old woman who gave her two copper coins; how Jesus was 'bought out' by Judas; etc.

Late Night Learning

One, of many, blessings to teaching Micah at home this year is that we're able to continue some of our favorite night-time family activities, outreaches and Home Fellowships. Monday night we went down to Neighborhood Ministries to serve the kids dinner. This time BOTH kids worked! Micah counted out paper products to put in the bags for each classroom, Lilly helped hold the bags open while we put the items in. Our family, Matt, myself, Micah & Lilly served the meal in the kindergarten/1st grade classroom. While the kids were eating Micah & Lilly sat down with them, joined in conversations and then later did the Bible lesson and craft activity. What a beautiful sight!

Our collection - Money Words

Here are "MONEY WORDS" we've collected. I'll continue to add them to this entry. Keep them coming!!

Bucks, Dinero, Greenbacks, Green, Coin, C-Note, Benjamin's, Moola, Bacon, ace, bean, bone, scratch, dough, spondulicks, G's, buckeroo, loot, proceeds, currency, lucre, filthy lucre, hard cash, pocket money, pin money, wampum, bill, note, draft, check, bread, cabbage, jack, lettuce, green stuff, long green, gelt ...

Donations Accepted

No we're not asking for money. We're asking for "money words". We're going to be brainstorming different ways to say "money". You know ... 'cash', 'currency', 'moola', and so on.
Send us your list to: jodierich1@cox.net, subject: Money Words
Thanks for participating.

Money, Money, Money

It's our last National Symbol - Motto: In God We Trust. It's on our nation's currency and so we'll have a brief introduction to money. I don't want to do too much until we've done more with counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. But, this was a great segue to become familiar with the coins, read about the familiar faces (more biographies: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, ...) and familiar places (Capital, Lincoln Memorial, etc.) that we find on our currency. We'll make some connections with place value and using our base ten blocks. We'll compare the coins and their worth (greater than, less than). And so on.
The best part ... we'll get to put some basic prices on our items in "MICAH'S MARKET" (located in the playroom). Micah's Market will no longer be accepting credit cards - just kidding.

Song Choices - Money

Our tunes this time aren't quite the familiar "America the Beautiful" and "Star-Spangled Banner", but don't be too quick to mute. I thought about money and the emphasis our society places on it and being successful persons. I encourage you to listen to the words as you visit our site.

Things Like You by Sanctus Real

Don't be offended with the words 'loving things like you has wrecked my life'. It's talking about "things" not "people". In this song the idea of 'loving things' has gotten old and they're looking for 'a better way to live my life'.
Things Like You (a few lyrics)

Everyone wants everyone else's everything

Sometimes the more we have the less we really gain

I'm tired of loving all that money has to buy

Get out of my heart, out of my mind, I'm leaving you behind

TobyMac, one of our favorite song artists has this song, J Train, which emphasizes the fact that all the money in the world won't buy anyone a ticket to Heaven.

J Train (a few lyrics)

Sit back, relax put on your travelin' gear

No need to doubt so put aside your fear

"Destination" out of this atmosphere

It's the J train baby, we depart from right here

No lines to fight no ticket to price

I'm rollin' first class 'cause I've seen the light

Try as you may but your money can't buy

A ticket on the J Line to the other side

USA unit - resources

Personal resources:

Matt had some pictures of when he visited New York and Washington, D.C.

Our neighbor, Max, has been serving in the Army since he graduated from high school. We were able to get a deep-down and personal definition of FREEDOM from someone young and serving, and also from his mom. Here is Max's definition:
Freedom is knowing that you have to live up to the high standards of our Founding Fathers and those who have laid down their lives defending either this nation or our ideals, many times without thanks from those people that were being defended. Many parts of freedom allow us to help others which is a great thing, while other parts of freedom require us to do so. My bottom line on freedom and most other things is taking responsibility for what we do ... good or bad, and realizing that people who came before us had it much harder than we do and wanted all of us to be better off than they were. We need to live up to those expectations and do the same for future generations.

Books: (Many easy readers, simple sentences and good descriptions)

I Pledge Allegiance; The Liberty Bell - Let's See series; The Declaration of Independence; The National Anthem - Our Nation's Pride series; Spotlight on the United States of America; The Statue of Liberty - True Books series; A is for America; George Washington - First Biographies series; a few other non-fiction books and biographies; some fictitious books - Arthur Meets the President; Arthur in New York; My Senator and Me;
Special - America The Musical (book and CD of music); America the Beautiful audio CD sung by Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus - we host these guys in our home when they tour the USA.

Websites:

www.statesymbolsusa.org/National_Symbols/National-Symbols.html
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/index.html

No test necessary

Watching Micah use, talk about, tell someone else about, ... is such an exciting confirmation that he's absorbing information, making connections, and learning. Some of my favorite moments are when I come out of Lilly's room, from putting her down for a nap (and maybe resting a while myself - an hour or so ...) and he's been diligently working on a book, drawing, etc. all about what we're studying. In addition to that, if he had some handwriting or math to work on for his independent work, it's done. Here are some pictures of a book he made about our Nations Symbols.
My greatest joy after this unit was sitting at the dinner table and teasing him that he wasn't having his "red, white & blue" dessert until he said the Pledge of Allegiance by himself. HE DID. Then he also said his scripture - "Galatians 5:1 FREEDOM is what we have ..." He could have asked for seconds and thirds!!!

Oh, here's that dessert. Looks yummy huh? :)

Along comes a book

Micah loves being read to and I love to read. It's a perfect match with books. :) Since he started kindergarten we've been traveling to the library even more regularly than before, and it's been wonderful. We got a book this last trip called The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg. We grabbed it because of his joy of writing and drawing. Wow! We read it this afternoon and at the end he sighs real big and says "wow, that was good!" I could sense that he got personally involved. Along comes a book that just grabs him! Another book that's done that recently is The Paper Princess by Elisa Kleven. We read that during our Armor of God unit. It also had a 'drawing' connection. We would highly recommend these books for anyone who enjoys being artistic.

Columbus Day - field trip with friends!

Many friends had Monday October 12th off from school for the Columbus Day holiday. We took full advantage of that and lined up a field trip to the Phoenix Zoo with the Bubars (Kristina, Joey, Willy, Benji, and Charlotte). The older boys fully enjoyed mapping out our journey for the morning. The elephants and the orangutans were the highlight animals. The boys took many, many pictures of the animals (I had 89 on my camera).

Click on the following link below to see some of Micah's animal photos, along with mine of the kids. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatWrFi5ctW2z

As You Wish - field trip

We designate Thursday as our "field trip" day, but if something is available or works better on a different day, then we 'make a trade'. Last week (10/8) was a great day for us to venture out. So, we went to Desert Ridge and painted some pottery at As You Wish Pottery. Micah had a pumpkin (he got after Halloween last year and hadn't painted yet) and I was ready to update my handprint plate for the kitchen. Afterwards we got some Rubio's and sat out by the fountains/firepit for lunch. Beautiful breeze and sun rays.

National Symbols

We continue our Freedom Unit this week with more national symbols: The Bald Eagle, Uncle Sam, The Statue of Liberty, and The Star-Spangled Banner. This "Lady Liberty" looks a little familiar!!

The Bald Eagle photo comes from Aunt Carrie. She captured this shot in February when it was nesting in their neighborhood. Beautiful! The Bald Eagle represents strength, freedom and can only be found in North America.

Eastside Adventures - Mad Science & Phx Symphony

On Friday October 2nd, Micah had two different Eastside Explorer activities going on. Matt took the day off and they had a 'boys school day'. At 9:30am was Micah's "Mad Science" class. After science they journeyed downtown to hear the Phoenix Symphony.

Old Glory

We spent a lot of time learning about the United States flag, Old Glory, last week. The Pledge of Allegiance has become part of our initial calendar routine. Although the pledge was written for children in 1892 there are still a lot of big words. A marvelous book that takes the pledge word by word (so that Micah understands what he's saying and why) is "I Pledge Allegiance" by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson. We learned about the purpose/meaning of the colors, shapes, and design of the flag, how to respect the flag, and when to fly the flag.

A good pruning

What a science project this afternoon! For 2.5 hours we (Micah, Lilly & I) sat on our front sidewalk, with neighbors (Dave, Ruth & Nick), watching professionals trim, prune, and crest the palo verde tree which roots in the Hendrick's front yard. It's so refreshing, light and safe. It looks very nice! A much needed 'hair-cut'. :)

Leaf Collection

The idea made me giggle inside, but Micah REALLY wanted to make a 'leaf collection' book. I stapled some paper together for him and he was off. In Phoenix we don't have much variety for leaves or leaf colors. It's even more difficult in our backyard, but that did not slow him down. He is so thorough with ideas he gets in his head. It's so fun to sit back and watch! He was quite selective in his process. Precious. And he was so excited and proud. They all looked alike but he told Matt "I picked all my favorites."

Journaling

The mornings are perfect temperature-wise. The kids enjoy going out before breakfast, maybe again after breakfast and then we go out for recess. We take our Science Journals out just before recess and collect data, draw, etc.

Just like a garden

Just like a garden needs good soil, sun and water to grow, my kids thrive when I provide Bible and prayer time for them each day. School time has helped us stay more consistent with keeping this in routine. We start each day with calendar, scripture, prayer journaling and prayer time. It's so good for each of us, to help keep us grounded. It reminds us we're going to mess up (everyday!) and God's grace surrounds us.
During worship time at Tuesday morning Bible Study (we all had our kids with us) Ms. Ruthie had us sing a very appropriate song. Awesome timing! The kids were all singing, it was beautiful!

The tune is to the song "I will make you fishers of men".

"Read your Bible, pray everyday, pray everyday, pray everyday

Read your Bible, pray everyday,

and you'll grow, grow, grow

and you'll grow, grow, grow.

Read your Bible, pray everyday,

and you'll grow, grow, grow."

The Sower

We are seeing some progress in our seedlings, which is providing nice data for our Science Journals. In the garden we have wildflowers sprouting and a pea plant is about 4" tall. Near the firepit we have 3 pumpkin plants growing, some cherry tomatoes, 25 cucumber plants (we need to prune back) and 4 (as of this weekend) green pepper sprouts.

Here is our progress in 2 weeks.

I almost forgot - AUTUMN!

While thinking about our upcoming unit I forgot that Autumn/Fall would be starting this week. Micah has been excited to change the "summer" icon on the calendar to "fall" (he only gets to change that section 4 times a year). So, over the weekend I adjusted this week to spend some time ending summer & preparing for autumn (Monday), celebrating Autumn's arrival (Tuesday) and a few days to integrate. We had a few books here at home that reflected the seasons and months of the year.

So, What Coming Up?

Our next unit is "In God We Trust - Freedom". It will entail learning about the United States of America, the freedoms we have as U.S. citizens, our government, learning the pledge of allegiance (that will become part of our getting-started routine), and integrating the Freedom we have through God's grace and provisions (Main Scripture: Galatians 5:1 Freedom is what we have -- Christ has set us free! Stand then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again). In the United States, our money/currency still says 'in God we trust'. During this unit we'll be working with early concepts of money.

Mystery of History

We had a unique opportunity come before us a few weeks ago to join some of our friends in a 'family-oriented' history curriculum. It's called "Mystery of History". Four families - Walthers, Skotnicks, Toppenbergs, and Riches are getting together on Tuesday nights from 6-7:15pm to learn historical information from creation to the resurrection. It's timeline format allows for a mini-lesson and activity in a progressive manner. Tonight (9/15) is our second evening together. Here are all the kiddos!

Catch Up Week

We're taking this week to catch up on some odd-ends before our next big unit begins on Monday Sept. 21st. Monday, yesterday, Matt stayed home. We got some seeds/plants for our garden and yard and planted those on Saturday. Yesterday we made science journals and drew our first entries. We read our scripture from Mark 4 - the parable of the sower. (That's got a lot of meat in it. One seed per day.)
Today was week 2 of our Women's Bible Study. Every other day since last week Micah has said "I can't wait until Tuesday." He really likes his Homeschool group and what they have chosen to do for activities.
Tomorrow we take Sydney and Sammy to the vet for their shots and check-ups.
Thursday Micah & I have our dentist appt. (Della's coming to play with Lilly) and then we do our Barton Home Bible Study from 11:30-12:30pm.
Friday, the kids have a JCPenny appt. at 10am for their next set of pictures. Then Matt & I get ready to leave for the weekend.
Whew! That's more than plenty and more than I usually pack in a week. Therefore, the "learning activities" are miscellaneous and not quite at their regular times.

The Ugly Duckling

A field trip with Eastside Explorers on Thursday Sept. 10th took us to the Scottsdale Desert Stage Theatre. Micah's friend, Ryan Gravel, was also going. We went to see "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen. It was marvelously done by children ages 3-18. Micah and Lilly both sat mezmerized and Micah continues to talk about it. Lilly goes around quacking the tune from one of the songs, seriously. "Quack, ... quack quack. Quack, ... quack quack."

On Friday we did a few other Fairy Tale activities and stories, read some bio about Hans C. Andersen, but decided not to extend it through this week.

Clifford's Birthday Party

Decked out in red we celebrated Clifford's birthday while Matt was home on Monday. Thankfully I had demonstrated that red + white = pink. Since our icing was white it would only get deeper pink with red food coloring. Red sprinkles saved the day!!!

Happy birthday Clifford!!

Clifford Activities

Lots of reading!! We checked out 26 Clifford books for the week. Micah made a "Clifford & Micah" book, using printouts from Clifford's site and drawing himself using the characteristics emphasized. There were lots of opportunities for alphabetizing. (Matt & Micah alphabetized the color names before graphing M&Ms and Skiddles; Micah alphabetized the Clifford characteristic pages for his book; Micah alphabetized all the Clifford books) We painted ... mixing several colors with RED and seeing what we got, we expanded into magenta and marigold ... and smushed colored gelatin. Matt was home for Labor Day Monday so we celebrated Clifford's bday at lunchtime. We spent one extra day (Wednesday) with Clifford activities ... one of which was a Venn Diagram with another one of Micah's favorite dogs - Scooby Doo.