Two Week Detour

The last two weeks have been very long, and normal routine went completely out the window somewhere along the way. My grandmother passed away last weekend. She was not able to fight off the infection which had consumed her body after her bowel was perforated during a routine hernia surgery. The shock of her sudden loss has been emotionally draining on our entire family. I know that many of our friends and family have been praying on our behalf for the last couple of weeks, and those thoughts and prayers are so very appreciated. Thank you. 

Somehow, in the course of the last two weeks (the first while my grandmother was fighting for her life in the ICU, and the second with two funeral services---one in Montana) I did manage to complete week 2 of Bigger Hearts for His Glory with Punky and Buggy. One 5 day unit in two weeks doesn't sound like a lot of progress, but considering the circumstances, I think we did okay. Yesterday, my grandma was taken to her final resting place, and we said our "for now" goodbyes. My boys learned a difficult life lesson about loss and grief this week, and I'm thankful that they we were not trying to shuffle them off to school in the middle of all of that.

Tomorrow I will begin Unit 3 with Punky and Buggy, and try to find our way back into a routine. I had hoped to start Little Hands to Heaven, (at half speed) with Louie and Sugar Biscuit this week, but it may wait. We'll see how ambitious I'm feeling! Seeing as how it is currently 4:00pm on Sunday and I'm updating the blog rather than going over this week's lesson plans...... That is one of the best parts of these programs though; the teacher's manuals really are just "open and go." Very little preparation---EXACTLY what I need!

I did manage to get a couple of pictures during the last two weeks. Unit 2 continues to focus on the sea, and the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. The first science experiment of the week had me filling a baking pan with sand, dry beans, dry cereal, dry macaroni and cranberries. The kids kept asking what I was baking. Ha! Wishful thinking, Little Ones. Wishful thinking.

Yum!

 So, the whole point of the experiment was to discuss the fact that different birds eat different things. Therefore, they each need a beak which is unique in size and shape to help them eat their own unique food.  The children were provided with different tools to simulate different types of beaks---pliers, clothespins, tweezers, etc. The boys had a great time figuring out which tool worked best for each of the different types of food I had buried or scattered in the pan of sand.

Even Louie got in on the action!

 I have to admit, I wasn't as thrilled about the instructions for the art project this week. First, we were to cover a piece of white construction paper with wax paper, and draw a fish on the wax paper; thereby transferring the fish shaped wax onto the construction paper. That seemed like a lot of steps to accomplish a relatively simple task, so I simply had the boys draw a fish with a white crayon. Then we were to use water colors to paint 3 sections of color on our paper (green, blue, and purple). After painting, we were to wrinkle up a piece of plastic wrap and lay it over the paint. When removed, the plastic wrap was to leave a "watery" look in the paint. Uh, well...that didn't work for us. The boys were painting so slow that one color was drying before they even moved onto the next. The instructions made it sound as if we were to have the paper very wet, so I kept having the boys add more and more water. When they had their painting finally done, the construction paper was so saturated with water that there was no way the paint was thick enough to be affected by the wrinkled plastic wrap. So, the watery look was basically a fail. I'm still not totally sure how well that was going to work anyway, using water paints. Maybe next time we'll try it with another type of paint. At any rate, Punky and Buggy had a fun, and the paintings did still turn out pretty neat.

Huh. Just realized I didn't take any pictures of the final product. Guess you'll just have to trust me!

The biography we have been reading for our read-alouds is George Rogers Clark. The boys are absolutely LOVING this book, and beg me not to stop reading at the end of each day. The most recent chapter we read found George venturing out with his father to shoot his first deer. Keil usually tries to shoot a couple of deer each fall---it's an inexpensive way to feed a lot of growing children! (Although, I still have a really hard time finding ways to cook the meat so that I can tolerate the taste. Blehhhck!) Of course, after reading this detailed story of a young boy accomplishing his first big kill, Punky and Buggy could hardly wait for Keil to come home so they could beg to go along on his next hunting trip. With all the events of the past week, Keil and I haven't had a chance to discuss this, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. What is the right age to let a child tag along on a hunting trip? 

And, while we're discussing age-appropriateness, I have another question. Should I be concerned that my almost-three-year old has recently begun to insist on wearing a frilly little tank-top under all of her clothes because (as I just today realized) she wants to wear a bra just like me? Personally, I found the whole thing completely, and hilariously adorable. However, her shirts and dresses are rather....frumpy looking with the extra bulk of the frills underneath. One of those mommy dilemmas is brewing. I'm hoping she'll tire of the extra layers and ditch the tank top on her own. (And soon!)