Week Four

Native Americans

This was a beautiful week together. Knowing we have Native Americans in our lineage it was so special to be able to study and learn more, together. It was like a time machine transported us back into early America with all we created and read. If I had any doubts so far if Adventures was a good fit for our family this year, this week took them away... far away. I am feeling blessed to be teaching them something we all love. This adventure is worth it.

These sweet peg dolls are a beautiful addition to our homeschooling room. They were a purchase I do not regret and they are ideal for several weeks of Adventures. The girls have played with them with such care and giggles, too. They are crafted with sweet, thoughtful details and love.
If you would like a set to explore with yourself you can find them here in this shop.

This week we read the book, Native American Indians, which was very informative.
Also, on the book basket list was this Cinderella style adaptation, retelling an Algonquin folktale called, The Rough-Face Girl, by Rafe Martin. It was a sweet, engaging story that was well worth the read. I was thankful our local library had this book on the shelves.

We found some paper dolls to print, cut and color.

I really liked how the dolls included clothing from many different Native Americans. It was a lovely addition to all we were learning, bringing it full circle. It is always a goal for me to have activities to keep hands moving while we read and learn. Many times when I am reading to the girls, I have them color, cut, or make believe as I read. And these dolls were a perfect fit for this week.

These teepee cone cupcakes were a perfect little snack.
We found several recipes online for creating these.
This is a time when pinterest and searching around online can be a blessing.
I do find, though, that when I decide to try something we found online to add into our studies, our expectations need to be lowered. We need to make it "us", not whatever we see in photos or another's work. We all need to remember that we are having fun and trying our best!

And some completed pages from Draw Write Now (Book 3).

These finger puppets printables are very easy to put together and were well loved by this girl. I was happy to find them to add in to our adventures.

We completed our wigwams, as we were instructed to, in our lessons. They were not a favorite activity for the girls, but we got through it.

We found this tutorial online for these tepees. They looked like a fun alternative to the simple option, so we tried them. It was bit harder than we anticipated, from start to finish, but they were quite pleased with the finished result. They played for hours this week with these and the peg dolls. I was so pleased that they even let their tag-a-long brother enjoy them, too.

And to wrap up our Native American week, we watched The Sign of the Beaver.

Our Solar System

We really enjoyed the study on our solar system, the sun and gravity this week. We read from the First Encyclopedia of Science

and we also added these books we had in our home library to our book basket

We decided to paint some suns on paper plates and add the Earth and the moon to see their rotations a little easier. It was a simple project, but the result is a great tool for learning.

You might note the cute little planet crown, which were fun to make as we sang about the planets in our solar system.

We also created a styrafoam planet diagram.

You will need one 12 inch dowel, several foam balls and colors of paint, as well as paper plates and skewers to create this little art project. We also used a label maker for labeling the planets when we were finished. I had several children working on this project at once so I found that use canning jars to allow the foam balls to stand, allowed full coverage of the paint, made completing the project a lot simpler. I did no worry too much over sizes of the planets or colors, as long as they were having fun and some learning was revealed in the process. It was one of the projects the girls enjoyed the most so far this year, so I am glad we did it...

oh, but how the little things can get to me. when we went to take pictures I realized, even more things were "off" with this project. I really wanted to tear off all of the labels when I realized they had been put on upside down and redo them "correctly", but as I saw the joy in the eyes of the creators, I could not. I had already made this a "fun" project before we even began and I would not go back on that. How can you look into the eyes of someone you love and tear apart their hard work like that? I think as home educators we always need to check our baggage at the door. For me that is perfectionism, the need to give them the fullest, best education possible and to achieve greatness. The problem with those expectations is that they are rigid, unfair and most unrealistic. They need to learn, explore, grow and make lots of mistakes along the way and I need to guide, instruct and also find the perfect balance of catch and release... grounding with fun...
an art I have yet to learn, but strive after.

On one of our fuller, longer, I-hope-we-make-it-through, days, my girl Grace made this awesome solar system. It took her a very long time and I am so grateful that she stuck with it until each piece was finished. It is a very cherished treasure around here.