Snow With More Expected

Well, our children are happy.  We got snow yesterday enough to go snowmobiling and to build little snow caves.

They and Ellyanna spent most of the afternoon outside coming inside to warm by the fire and then go back outside.

So far Daniel has been very careful and doesn't drive fast.

Earlier last week when it was warmer I looked out my window and saw this pair of pigeons right in front of the house.  Since last summer we had noticed them usually sitting on one of our grain bins but never up close.  Once I saw them sitting on our electric wires and heard their soft cooing.  I am happy to have them here.

Friday evening I saw this amazing sight.  The crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter (not as bright on the picture up in the left top corner) shining bright in the southwestern sky.  I had been outside hoping to see Mercury.  Mercury is visible 1/2 hour after sunset and 1/2 hour before sunrise.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.  Since it is so close it gets to be 750 degrees during the day.  Mercury has no atmosphere to hold that heat in like earth does so at night it gets to down to -300 degrees.  Because Mercury has no atmosphere, the sky always looks dark.  There are no air particles to scatter the light waves all over the sky.  The reason the sky looks blue on earth is because particles scatter the sun's blue light across the sky.  In fact if you were standing on Mercury the sun would appear white all the time as there would be no particles to bend the light waves into color.

We learned other fascinating things about Mercury.  Since there is a spacecraft orbiting Mercury we were able to view many images online.  This week will be studying Venus.

Here is a great astronomy site that you can join for free to learn what is going on in the night skies.

Speaking of school I need to get ready to start our day.

Flowers

Do daughters like to get flowers from their dads?  They do!

On Wednesday morning there was a nice bouquet of red and pink carnations on the kitchen table.  I correctly assumed they were for me from Tim.  When we went down to do school I saw that someone had brought my bouquet downstairs and set it on Leah's desk.  I had seen her admiring my flowers and asked if she had brought them down.  She said she hadn't.  Then I asked Daniel.  He, too, denied it.  It hit me then that Tim had bought two bouquets, one for me and one for Leah.  You should have seen the pleasure dawn on Leah's face when I told her that Dad must have bought flowers for her, too.  I think she sniffed the smell out of those flowers as she sat there that day.

We had a good week of school.

Leah continues to learn new phonograms and reads so well.  Since the beginning of first grade we have been going through the major Old Testament Bible stories.  We are now up to the time of King Saul.  I read the story to her, she narrates it back to me in her own words, then she reads in her Bible reader, and draws a picture and writes a two or three sentence summary in her Bible notebook she is making.  Leah likes to draw but was getting tired of drawing all those pictures.  Awhile back I found a Bible sticker book that has most of the stickers we need for a particular story.  If it doesn't I offer to draw the picture for her and she colors it.

Leah learns a new verse from Proverbs each week.  We practice it every day.  On Tuesday she prints her verse on a handwriting sheet.  She is also learning the books of the Bible, has learned the names and order of the old testament books, and is now learning the new testament.

We do science once a week using the book, Science with Water.  We don't always do all the experiments but do enjoy reading it.

I ordered some standardized tests from Seton so my children get used to taking these tests.  In North Dakota home schooled students are required by law to be tested in grades: 4, 6, 8, and 10 by a certified teacher and the cumulative score sent to their school district.  I won't need to do that as our children aren't required to be tested this year.  This is just for our needs.  I like Seton tests, they aren't expensive and I can administer them myself.

Leah has enjoyed taking the tests.  I have been giving one section each day and each day she asks if we are going to do a test.  She has finished the reading and language sections and got only one question wrong.  I'm thinking she will find the math section a little more difficult.

It's interesting how we all have our strengths and weaknesses.  Daniel had more difficulty with the reading and language sections mainly because he couldn't finish the tests in time but will find the math much easier.

Really, the tests don't benefit our school much because as their teacher I already know their strengths and weaknesses and don't need a test to show me this.  But I want them to be good test takers and comfortable taking them.

I thought I would focus more on Leah's school in this post as I usually write more about Daniel's.  But I can't quit writing before a share a bit about what Daniel studied this week.

In history we had studied up to the Middle Ages.  This week we went back in time a bit to study the beginnings of China.  I found it interesting that they were a great empire the same time of the Roman Empire. but neither empire knew much of the other.

In astronomy we studied the sun.  As I hoped I learned some new things.  At least I don't think I knew them before.  One thing we learned is that the sun gets its power from thermonuclear fusion which is little explosions inside the sun.  Thermonuclear fusion makes the sun brighter and brighter each year which makes the sun hotter and brighter.

Therefore, "thermonuclear fusion tells us that there could not have been life on earth billions, or even millions, of years ago.  You see, since the sun is getting brighter and brighter each year, if we were to go back in time, we would see the sun getting dimmer and dimmer each year.  In fact, if we were to back billions of years, the sun would have been so dim, or faint, that it could not have provided enough warmth for life on earth...This gives us good evidence that life on earth is young, certainly not millions of billions of years old, as some might want you to believe." *

We did a few sun experiments.  Daniel made a couple pages for his astronomy notebook.  He is getting better at getting his thoughts together and being able to write them down. 

 An annular eclipse of the Sun that will be seen everywhere in the USA west of the Appalachians will happen on May 20.  So you might want to mark your calendar.  Also if it is a clear night you can look out to the southwest shortly after sundown and see the planets, Jupiter and Venus.  Venus is a little lower and brighter with Jupiter up higher.  Did you know that Venus and Jupiter are, respectively, the third and fourth brightest objects in the sky, after the sun and the moon?  Check it out as these two planets are shining so brightly right now.  Soon they will be in conjunction.

Can you tell I like studying astronomy?

* Taken from Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Astronomy

The half waning moon was beautiful this morning.

Our daughter and son-in-law went away for the weekend so we got to dog sit Jade, or Jadie Baby as I like to call her.  She still is a baby as she is not a year old though she is bigger than Elly.  Since she is strictly an outside dog Whitney brought her heated dog house which we put in the old goat barn.  At night I would lock the fence.  Here we are this morning going to let Jade out of the fence.  The dogs happily greeted each other.

I found this great dog house at Sam's online and showed it to Whitney.  It keeps Jade nice and warm on its own but also has a heated floor pad for really cold days and nights.

Elly does not mind being outside all day with Jade.  They run and play so she keeps warm.  By evening she is ready to come inside.  Her fur is not as thick and long as Jade's.  Plus she is used to the indoor life.  When Jade goes home today Elly will probably be depressed for awhile.  I think she likes Jade more than Jade likes her.



Full Moon

I always find a full moon a fantastic sight.  I especially like to watch it come up on the horizon.  Imagine my delight when Daniel came in from outside to tell me that the moon had just come up and it was "big and orange."  I quickly ran out to see it, then had to run to the house to get my camera.

The children have been enjoying these nice days and have been staying out after dark most nights.  Daniel has set up a target for practicing his shooting and is getting quite good at it.

They have also been enjoying the trampoline and swing set.  On Sunday they tramped through the woods and pasture.  Elly found a deer leg somewhere.  That bothered the children but we let her keep it.  She took it away somewhere so no one could take it from her.

School days have been going well.  We are still in the Middle Ages.  The past few days we read about the Crusades.  Since we just read about Richard the Lion Hearted, king of England, and his brother John, I am thinking that now would be a good time to start reading Robin Hood as a read-a-loud in the evenings.

Last night we started reading Dangerous Journey A Story of Pilgrim's Progress.  We were one night behind.  I wasn't sure if the children would like it and be able to sit through two chapters but they loved it and didn't want me to stop at chapter 3.

I remember reading Pilgrim's Progress out loud to the older children.  They were older than these younger ones at the time and really liked it.  I'm finding this version of the story as good as the first and appreciate the illustrations.  Reading the story we find it easy to make spiritual applications in our own lives.

We started astronomy using our Apologia  Exploring Creation with Astronomy book.  Since Apologia didn't have the elementary science books back then our older children used the Apologia science books starting in 7th grade and liked them.  I will be reading this book along with Daniel so he can narrate back to me what we have read in his own words.  Then we will do the projects at the end of the chapters.  A few months back I purchased a glow in the dark solar system set at Hobby Lobby that we will put together this week.  I appreciate being able to use science books that don't go against our  beliefs.

I am finding so many ways to apply Daniel's new verses in my life and in the lives of the historical figures we are studying.  His verses for the next two weeks are found in Philippians 2:3-4, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

For Leah's science we are going through Usborne's Science With Water and finding it fun and informative.  We do a lesson once a week.  Leah continues to do well at her reading, writing, and phonics though she struggles a bit with learning her math addition and subtraction facts.

This week I was called to jury duty.  The murder trial is expected to last for a couple weeks.  After writing to be excused as I am responsible for teaching and caring for my two young children and have no one other than Tim to help me with that, Tim works nights and needs to sleep until 1:00 at least which would leave the children on their own for several hours, and I have a medical condition that would make it difficult to sit for periods longer than an hour, I was still called to be there.

Tim did get up on Monday when the children did so he did not get much sleep that day.  He also did school with Daniel so it was a day off from that for me. 

This was my first time being on jury duty and I found the whole process interesting.  I spent the whole day there while the lawyers questioned the eighty potential juror's in groups of thirty at a time.  I was in the second group and had listened to the questioning of the first group.  They were allowed to answer in private if they wished.  Our group came up for questioning in the later afternoon.  I was able to speak to the judge and attorneys in private and explained my problem.  They agreed that it would be difficult for me to serve and let me go.  If it were not for the nature of the trial, the children's care, and the medical problem I would have liked serving.