School stuff

I am really enjoying this school year. We're studying different countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, and the curriculum includes a list of projects for the kids to choose from for each country. What has been fun for me is I've known a missionary in almost every country we've studied, so I've had the girls email them, too, and we've read their blogs and learned more about them. I think it's been fun. Here are some things we've done.
We studied the Pacific Islands first, and Mikayla drew these pictures showing the difference between low islands and high islands.


Jessica planned a luau, and invited her friends, and I was excited about putting pictures of that on here, but things kept happening to make us cancel, so we finally just had a family luau. She made "Tahitian Poe," which was pureed bananas baked with cornstarch and brown sugar, then chilled in the fridge and cut into cubes. Ummm...we all thought it was...well...we won't be making it again. ;)
We enjoyed reading about life on a Pacific Island by reading the Choate's blog, here.

After that we studied Australia. Jessica wrote a story about an aboriginal girl meeting white people for the first time, and Mikayla taught us an Australian game. We emailed some friends from my single days at Wedgwood, Ken and Kathy, and it was good getting caught up with them.

When we studied New Zealand, we got to try another new food because Mikayla made a dessert called "pavlova," and it was DELICIOUS!!

Jessica made a Maori carving out of a bar of soap. She's so much more artistic than I am!


Another thing I love about the curriculum we use is that each year they offer an opportunity to get your kids involved in a mission project. This year we're raising money for The Seed Project, which is part of Wycliffe Bible Translators, in the One Verse project. The money we raise will go towards translating the Bible into Meeto, an tribal language in...Mozambique!!! I thought it was so cool to be able to be involved in this right after going there! The girls sold cookies and lemonade at our yard sale yesterday, and we have over $40 so far. $26 "buys" one verse, and Sonlight will match what we send. They also put fun lessons and videos on line each week teaching about Bible translation and the Meeto people. If you click to make the picture bigger, try to look at some of their drawings--they're priceless!

(Look--it was cool enough for jackets!!! But then it got hot enough for shorts...)
Rebecca, by the way, is loving kindergarten, and so am I! She comes home happy every day, and usually immediately starts playing school! She is learning to read and write in leaps and bounds. I love when they're in the "write what you hear" stage, and the cute things they write about. Here's one of her white board drawings.

I leave you with this glimpse into the life of a homeschool family by Tim Hawkins. (I know you've probably seen it, but it still makes me laugh, and I can't figure out how to show you the one I saw on fb on the difference between homeschoolers and those who are homeschooled. So this will have to do.)