MFW Kindergarten: Unit 11

 My Father's World Kindergarten Unit 11: I is for Insect.

I am not overly fond of insects but I took one for the team this week and took our kiddos on a bug hunt. We found several very interesting bugs. None of which we touched....cause creapy crawly bugs really bug me! Ha!

I also got quite a break this week. Our vacation Bible school lessons had to do with the jungle and the kits came with 5 days of bug crafts. I enjoyed getting a break from planning crafts, activities, and field trips. The children enjoyed getting to go to the church every night to paint, glue, and visit with their friends while learning about God.

I is for insect was a pretty relaxed unit in our house this week. I would love to hear all about your insect week!

MFW Kindergarten: Unit 10

My Father's World Kindergarten unit 10: W is for WATER! What a fun unit to complete in June!

We started by learning about the different properties of water. What better way to learn about that then by making koolaid popsicles?

Then we were off to see some serious water! Who could pass up a day at the lake?

Or a boat ride?

We also experimented with the difference between oil and water. The kids expected the two liquids to mix together like the koolaid had for the first experiment. They were rather shocked that  no matter how much they stirred the oil would not combine with the water.

Learning about W is for Water was a big hit with our kiddos! I would love to hear about how your family covered this unit! 

My Father' World Kindergarten: Unit 9

My Father's World Kindergarten Unit 9 is all about O is for Octopus. For this unit we decided to take another field trip. This time to a local aquarium!

I am always looking for ways for our children to see the real animal or item we are discussing. There is only so much we can learn from a textbook or pictures on a computer. It is so much more informative to actually interact and "play with" the item we are learning about. I have found that not only is it more informative but the facts also seem to be memorized easier and have a quicker recall down the line.

While at the aquarium we saw not only octopus species but also so many other sea creatures!  We learned a great deal about the digestive systems of fish, the mating habits of penguins, the feeding habits of sea turtles, and much much more. We had an amazing time learning about the different creatures that live within our oceans.



You know what I am going to say next. Come on...tell me about your O is for Octopus units!

My Father's World Kindergarten: Unit 8

This week we are on to D is for Dinosaur!

We took a really big field trip this week! We headed to the Creation Museum! I am planning an in depth post concerning our trip to the Creation Museum as there was so much more than just dinosaurs to explore while we were there. 

We all enjoyed exploring the museum and learning about the dinosaurs! I would say it was a major hit with all of our children.  I got a kick out of the Garden of Eden display with not only the tradition animals represented but also dinosaurs. The Museum takes a biblical approach to the dinosaurs, but leans towards a young Earth description. Our family however believes in an old Earth philosophy. This was easy enough for me to work around. I simply read all of the plaques and materials out loud and altered any information that I didn't feel fit well within our old Earth beliefs.

I had plans to do some other hands on activities such as shape dinosaurs, digging for chicken bones in a mock archeology dig, etc. However while recovering from being sick and going on such a long trip to the museum we were over booked and cut our losses. I do plan to do some hands on activities the next time we complete this unit (with our younger two children). 

Have you completed D is for Dinosaur? If so I would love to hear all about it!

Father's Day Care Package

This month's care package came just in time for Father's Day. My husband loves to fish and calls me his "fish".....so a fish themed care package seemed a given.

I started by buying a very small tackle box and some fish themed candy. I printed out a simple "Daddy's Tackle Box" label and attached it to the front of the box. I then raided my daughters markers to draw some fish and such on the label.

 I wanted to add some goldfish to the box with the fish themed candy....but they got eaten before they could make it into the box.

 

My husband asked for a framed picture of the kiddos for his desk at work. Since it is impossible to get all six children to sit nicely together and ALL look at the camera at one time I went for individual pictures.

 

Lastly I decorated the box itself. I checked out pinterest for some fish themed deployment boxes and came up with the ideas below. The original box I based mine off of was much prettier and artistic. Mine was done at 10pm with just construction paper, markers, and tape.

My husband got a kick out of the fish theme this month. He is not having a wonderful time "over there" and anything I can do to make him smile even for a second is totally worth it. Just three more boxes to go before he gets to come home!

Financial Friday

Time for another Financial Friday! I gave myself a challenge of reading one financial book per month throughout 2015. You can find the entire series HERE if you would like to catch up!

This month I chose to read All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi. Now I am not a political blogger, which is easy to see, I however love Elizabeth Warren. I am a big fan of her book The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents are Going Broke, I highly recommend it!  Seriously……go get the book! 

Alright so you have already figured out I am a little biased when it comes to Elizabeth Warren. I do however promise to not sugar coat my feelings about this book. The book was written in 2005 so a bit out of date. There is very little investing information however which would be the first things to become outdated. The majority of the book is about taking control of your finances and learning to live on the authors’ ideal of a perfect budget. 

Elizabeth and Amelia break down their budget process to three categories: Must Haves, Savings, and For Fun. Each category has a certain percentage associated with it. The though being that if your spending for each category remains in the targeted percentage then your budget will balance and you will be doing well. 

I added up our spending…….we are nowhere near their recommended percentages. It seems our Must Haves and our Savings take up too big a portion of our budget leaving very little money for our Just for Fun categories. 

*Don’t tell my husband that!*

The entire book is not just about their categories however. The book is broken down into the 6 Steps to Lifetime of Riches. These include escaping the thinking traps, counting the dollars not the pennies, building your future by paying off your past, building your dreams and more.  The book really does cover all of the basics required for starting and maintaining your budget over time. Complete with ideas of what to cut out if you are having trouble getting your budget to balance properly.

This is a great book to start with if you are feeling overwhelmed by budgeting and maintaining a budget over time. The authors cover such a wide variety of material that the book is extremely helpful to those just beginning the process of fixing your financial ship. Or those like myself that are always looking for new ways to tweak their budget to get the most for their income and time.

****I was not asked to review this book and received no compensation for doing so****

My Father's World Kindergaten: Unit 7

My Father's World Kindergarten Unit 7 is all about Us! This week we had a light week in terms of projects and crafts. It seems we managed to come down with Strep Throat. We spent our free time in the hospital getting our test results and medications then coming home and resting.

I guess you could say we learned about Us this week. We learned how much we all weigh, what our fevers were, and what type of infection we had. Guess that is something! I am very happy to say that after 10 days of antibiotics we are all feeling much better and ready to get on with the rest of our planned projects!

How did your U is for Us units go? We would love to hear all about it!