See No Evil...Hear No Evil... Smell No Evil?

Oops, that’s not the way it goes. The girls learned a lot about their senses last week…5 wonderful gifts that God gave us…taste, touch, sight, smell and hearing. The theme was “God Made Us Wonderful.” It was a fun week.
Doodlebug really enjoyed this game of identifying items by touch.
Then we learned about hearing and the girls made their own music with a little wax paper and a comb.
Here’s a picture of DD trying to draw without her sense of sight...
And DB experimenting with DD’s sense of taste.
Is there any question about DB’s opinion of the smell of garlic?
I took this picture at the library, but don’t let these pretty smiles fool you. This is the same sweet Desheng Darling who informed me that the reason she wasn’t listening to me this week was simply because she was too busy using her other senses. Lol. And Doodlebug… Oh my…This little angel locked me out of the house this week and thought it was HILARIOUS! If you look closely at the picture, you’ll see that DD has on pink sandals rather than the brown ones that go with her outfit. The reason for this is that Doodlebug hid one of DD’s brown sandals as a prank and we didn't find it until later…Oh we have such fun!

Perseverance and Pumpkins

The theme of last week’s lesson was PERSEVERANCE. We used the story of The Tortoise and the Hare from Aesop’s Fables to illustrate this concept. Like the turtle who had to “keep going” even when the race seemed endless, we too must continue to carry out God’s plan even when it seems difficult. We must persevere and always try to do our best. We must not quit. Like the turtle, in the end we will win.

Our focus was on turtles…both land and sea. We actually saw a live turtle on a country road last weekend, but I wasn’t able to get any pictures. We stopped the car and let the girls take a good look. We also visited the pet store to look at turtles.

Check out the price of this Mata Mata. Can you imagine paying $499.00 for a turtle?
We also made turtle cookies that turned out looking like big green blobs!
The girls even made turtle bracelets...the latest fad! Although I learned a lot of new things about turtles, I have to admit that this was not my favorite week. I had a lot of activities planned, but we had so many interruptions that I just didn’t get everything done. Maybe I was experiencing the whole “perseverance” thing. One of Daddy Darling’s favorite sayings is “Persistence Pays Off.” He will stick with a project until every minute detail is complete. Maybe I should have let him teach about perseverance last week; however, I’m not sure what I might have had to persevere as a result of him being around the girls ALL DAY! Lol
We took some time on Friday to meet with our play group at the Pumpkin Patch…definitely cuter than turtles and a lot more fun!

Snow Bunny, Desheng Darling, and Marisa

Doodlebug, Desheng Darling, Snow Bunny and AR
DB and AR
SB, DD, DB, and AR

DD, Mama Darling, and Doodlebug

Nesting Time

After this week’s Nest Theme, I have a new respect for birds! Have you ever tried to build a nest? Oh my. Let me just say that if building a nest had have been required for me to have children, I probably wouldn’t be the mother of four today. Don’t get me wrong…labor with no anesthesia was DIFFICULT and spending approx. 20 hrs on a plane with a screaming baby was no piece of cake, but at least I didn’t have to make over five hundred trips (while pregnant) picking up little pieces of straw, thread, and “stuff” in my mouth in order to build a nice, safe home for the birth of the babies. If you ever get the chance, look closely at a bird’s nest and take note of the intricate details. It’s amazing.

This week’s Biblical theme: “God takes good care of me” was demonstrated by comparing the way God enables birds to instinctively take care of their young to the way he takes care of us. God wants to keep us safe and help us grow just like he enables the parent birds to take care of their young.
Psalm 91:1-4a “Those who go to God Most High for safety will be protected by the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘You are my place of safety and protection. You are my God and I trust you.’ God will save you from hidden traps and from deadly diseases. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you can hide.”

Chocolate Chow Mein Noodle Nests....Yummy!

Making a nest from chocolate chips and chow mein noodles is a lot easier than trying to make a “real” nest. The girls and I set out on an adventure to collect materials to make a bird’s nest...The collecting part was interesting, but the building part wasn’t quite as simple as we thought it would be… Even when we started with a brown paper bag as a base and cheated with a glue gun. lol

Since we are obviously not gifted in the area of Animal Architecture, we decided to just stick with the chow mein noodles …. But this time we made a nest for our egg salad. Not bad when you mix in an egg and bake for a few minutes.

Something tells me that if I continue with these types of activities, I am going to have to buy bigger clothes. Next week’s theme involves turtles…Can you believe I’m already thinking about chocolate, caramal and pecan turtle candy???? Ummmmm.

Comparing Apples to Apples!

This week we have been studying about apples…planting, growing, harvesting, marketing, and cooking. DD and DB visited our local farmer’s market and saw many different types of apples. Who knew that there are over 7,500 different kinds??? Of course they weren’t all at the market. We bought a variety of types to compare and contrast. Our focus is not actually about apples; it’s about the Fruits of the Spirit. The theme is: “If I stay in Jesus I will have much fruit.” In order for an apple tree to produce qualitiy apples it must be planted, nourished to maturity, pruned at times, and then harvested. This process takes several years. Likewise, if we want to produce the “fruits of the Spirit” we must accept Christ, mature through God’s Word being pruned along the way, apply his truths and live accordingly. This process may take several years for us as well.
Below are some pictures of the girls involved in learning:

Making homemade apple sauce

Yummy!

Making homemade apple pie

Mmmmmm!

DD and DB have learned many things about apples and orchards this week. They even learned about the adventures of Johnny Appleseed and how to make (or not make) an apple pie.

I learned a few things too:

• Frozen pie crusts do better when you leave them in their original containers. I read somewhere that a glass pie plate would make a prettier pie..ha ha ha Mrs. Smith’s aluminum pan would have been just fine! Guess that's why she makes the big bucks for her baked goods!
• If you are going to change the ready-made crust to a glass pie plate, make sure that it is the right size…duh! It doesn’t work well when the pie crust is TOO SMALL for the plate.
• A play dough rolling pin doesn’t work well on pie crust. (Hey, it’s all I had!)
• The correct temperature for cooking a pie is NOT 450 degrees! Let me explain. I’m really not as dumb as I sound. The recipe said to bake the pie for 10 minutes at 450 on the lowest rack, then change it to 350 and move the pie to the center rack. I was in the process of moving the pie when Doodlebug tripped and fell hard. She was crying, so I went to comfort her… forgetting to change the temperature on the oven.
• My family will eat anything (even if it is a little too brown!) At the end of the day there was only one tiny piece of pie left. LOL
• Most importantly, the girls had fun!

Lest you think this study of apples was all in vain…
DD demonstrated that she has a very good understanding of what I have been trying to teach her this week regarding the Fruits of the Spirit when she told me that she was experiencing “long-suffering” as she worked beside me in the kitchen. lol Gotta love that girl!

I Will Live and Grow in Jesus

A lesson from a leaf…
The focus of our lessons last week was Leaves. What can you learn from a leaf? Well, DD learned quite a lot. She learned about the normal kindergarten stuff like photosynthesis and transpiration…seriously (just simplified.) She also collected and classified leaves, created a few masterpieces, and read books about trees, etc. But the most important lesson she learned was that we are all very much like leaves…(not just the sweating and breathing part) but just as a leaf separated from the tree withers and dies, we too, will cease to live and grow when separated from Jesus. We need to “stay attached” to Jesus through prayer and the studying of God’s word in order to live and grow into the kind of people God wants us to be. Here are a few pictures of our week:

Observing the water given off through transpiration
Leaf Collection

Leaf Art
Yummy Leaf Cookies...Mmmmm
This week we are studying about Apples...We plan to make homemade apple sauce and an apple pie! That may not sound like much to most of you, but if you are as "domestically challenged" as I am, you'll understand why it's a big deal. I may or may not post pictures. LOL

Just Enjoying Life!

With play group friends at the park...

Or entertaining us at home...

Is she cute or what????? LOL

Sunday Fun

Sunday was a beautiful day. We had planned to go to a special event called Culture Day yesterday where the girls would have been able to experience several traditional Chinese activities, but the weather forecast convinced us to stay at home. Looking back, I wish we had gone.

Since the girls didn’t get to wear their traditional Chinese attire yesterday, I let them wear it to church this morning. I love to see them dressed like this. (Notice DB’s hair…we are considering letting her bangs grow out. I’m not sure if I like this new style or not.)

After church and a quick trip to Subway, we took the girls to the park. It was just too pretty to stay indoors.

Gray Skies are Going to Clear Up...But Not Soon Enough

I obviously should have checked the forecast before planning this week’s lesson plans. Who knew?
We’re using My Father’s World curriculum and supplementing with numerous other resources. The topic of our first two weeks was Creation. There was no need to check the forecast for that, but our topic this week was the Sun. The emphasis was actually on “Jesus being the Light of the world” and how God’s word is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our paths. Just as the sun enables us to see so that we don’t stumble and get lost, God’s son provides the way to keep us from being lost and enables us to follow the path in life that we should. DD learned many interesting things about our sun, the star, as well. Of course, in order to do projects involving the sun, the sun must be shining. Well, that hasn’t happened much this week. We attempted to make raisins by leaving grapes on a plate in the sun…No sun--no raisins. We also attempted to make a sun dial…We have enough trouble getting to places on time now; it would be impossible using a sun dial on days like we’ve had this week. No sun--no time...always late!
But finally, today (Friday) we had a little sunshine, so I snapped a few pictures of our day.

Notice that DB's hand is on the wrong heart. Oh well.

Calendar Math
Working hard

Still, just grapes. Sometimes you just have to make your own sunshine. lol

Having so much fun that they don't even know they're learning.

P.E. at the PARK

One of the nice things about home schooling is being able to plan your own schedule, spending as much time as necessary on the subjects that need more attention (even if it's P.E. that needs more time.) Desheng Darling loves school and has done so well. She loves learning! She never wants to quit, not even for play time. Since she had worked so hard during the week, I decided to use part of our time on Friday for P.E. AT THE PARK! Fun! Fun!

To make it even better, our friends joined the class. lol

Freedom of Speech...Not Always a Good Thing

I took DB to her first speech session at our public school today. This is what I got when I asked her to smile for her “first day” picture. Will you please pray for her teacher? LOL

DD was her true self, too. When we first arrived at the school, it was obvious that the principal (an aquaintance from my earlier years as a school administrator and board member) was having a tough morning dealing with a very rebellious child. The school officers were eventually called to handle the situation. When the principal came back into the office where DD and I were waiting he smiled and started this conversation.
Principal: Hi. How are you? What brings you here today?
Me: Our little one is in speech here.
DD: I’m the bigger one!
Principal: Yes, I see. You are really growing.
Me: Looks like you’ve had a busy morning.
Principal: Sighing…Yes, I have.
DD: Just a little TOO busy, huh? (Another one of my "most embarassing moments")
Luckily, the principal just smiled and said, “She’s very intuitive too. Isn’t she?”

(Just another justification for home schooling DD) LOL