January Update

I'm going to try to do a short version of our lives over the past few months. This post is catching you up on January.

We joined a book club. We select one book a month and read it at home. Then we all meet as a group to discuss it as well as work on preplanned activities. Our book of the month in January was "The Whipping Boy".

At home we had "Teatime Tuesday" while we read our book. We also made our own covers for "The Whipping Boy".

At the end of the month we met with the group for book club. The kids made shields and decorated them with a coat of arms that they selected. We also discussed food, vocabulary, and some history. (February we missed because I was super sick, and March's book club will be part of another post.)

These two fantastic kids earned new karate belts!

In science we spent the month learning about solids, liquids, and gas.

In History we studied Ancient Greece and their war against Persia.

Miscellaneous pictures of our month include:

Jayden working on his snap circuits kit

 

 Lucy aggravated that I was taking pictures

 Caitlin practicing her drawing skills

 Jayden is learning how to make pancakes from scratch!

 Caitlin took a few gymnastics classes

 Caitlin swimming (with no floaties!)

Snow days!

 Next up will be February!

Science- The reason for the seasons

Last week in science we learned what causes the seasons to change.

First we watched a video on Brainpop Jr. We discussed new vocabulary such as hibernation, cycles, and the equator. We discussed what each season is like, describing the weather and the clothes we wear. 

 Not pictured is the globe we used to demonstrate where North America and other parts of the world face during the different seasons. We did our lab sheet and worksheet, which both kids really enjoyed.

Tying in our Spanish lessons we also named our seasons in Spanish!

Christmas

We have been busy bees with holiday events lately!

The latest one we went to was an ugly sweater/outfit party.

We also went to an event hosted by a local amusement park at my job. The kids decorated a cookie.

 They also made an ornament.

 We met Santa and Mrs. Claus.

 Shockingly, both children actually sat on Santa's lap!

 They both got a new stuffed animal.

The kids got a couple of raffle tickets to play games. Altogether they won bracelets, bouncy balls, pencils, and 3 free tickets to the amusement park!

Happy holidays, from our family to yours!

History

This week we have continued with our Ancient Greece unit. We reviewed the terms monotheist and polytheist.

We read a myth called "The Golden Apple". In this myth Zeus wanted to lower the population on Earth so he caused an argument between several Goddesses over who was the most beautiful. He sent the Goddesses to Earth in order to settle their dispute. There they had a mortal named Paris, who was supposedly the most handsome male on Earth, decide who would win the Golden Apple, and thus be known as the most beautiful one. Each of them made promises to Paris should he pick them. He selected Aphrodite, causing the other Goddesses to be furious. Aphrodite's gift to him was the most beautiful mortal woman named Helen. Helen instantly fell in love with Paris and they ran off to live in Troy. Unfortunately Helen was already married to the king of Greece, Menelaus. King Menelaus called on the Gods to battle beside him and win his wife back. Some of the Gods and Goddesses fought on King Menelaus' side while others fought on Troy's side, leading to the Trojan War.

Jayden labeled a map of Greece.

 Both kids worked on a word search using words from The Golden Apple myth.

 They also colored a picture of Aphrodite and Zeus.

And finally, we checked out this list with a list of the Gods & Goddesses of Greece.