Friday, October 30, 2015

MFW Kindergarten Unit 21

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It is time for our My Father's World Kindergarten unit 21! This unit is titled "B is for Butterfly". We have been blessed to be surrounded by butterflies this summer. There is something about living on a farm in the middle of nowhere that attracts all different types of butterflies.

For our craft project this week I found a wooden "paint your own" butterfly magnet kit at walmart. There were only 5 butterflies in the kit and we have 6 children. I was not about to buy a second kit.....oh the fighting over the "extra butterflies" that would have resulted! I instead found a large wooden letter "B" for our son. I figured it was still the letter of the week, and it was the first letter of his name. Win win in my book!







We also took time this week to find real butterflies and learn about the different types surrounding us. I would have LOVED to have planted a butterfly garden. It however was the wrong time of year. I will have to keep this in mind for this Spring. There is something so cheerful about having butterflies around you each day.




















I would love to hear how your family studied My Father's World Kindergarten Unit 21 "B is for Butterfly"!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Rainforest Diorama

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We have spent the last month working our way through My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures unit concerning the Brazilian Rain forest. After a month of science lessons you would think our children would be able to at least answer some basic questions.

Nope.

You would think by now I would realize that our children do not do well with straight book centered work. They need hands on lessons in order to truly understand lessons. This month we decided to complete a diorama of the Rain Forest in order to cement the material into their heads. 

I went BIG for this diorama!

Materials:
Standard tri-fold science fair board
4 foam boards (the floors)
7 cardboard paper towel rolls (tree trunks)
Construction paper
Fake leaves
Fake flowers
Moss
Green ribbons (Vines)
Fake fruit
Plastic animals and insects.

I measured the "floors" of the diorama using the cardboard paper towel rolls. At the top of each roll I marked the side flaps of the tri-fold board. I cut through the side flaps to make a slot for the foam boards to slide through. After installing the two floors we taped the bottom and top on as well.

The girls then took total control of the project. They had to research what objects went in each location. This included what animals lived in each level, where the majority of the leaves were located, where fruit would be found, and where that pesky 7th paper towel roll "tree truck" went (the emergent level), what the forest floor looked like, etc.


Listening to the girls work together to complete the research and assembly of the diorama was a blessing to me. I had intended for the diorama project to take 4 days. Instead they worked so well together that they finished in one afternoon. We still have two weeks of Rain Forest lessons to complete and will be using this diorama as a visual aid while completing our readings. This project has been so much fun I think we will have to make a diorama for all of the biomes we are studying this year!

Friday, October 23, 2015

MFW Kindergarten Unit 20

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We have almost completed our My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum! We are on to Unit 20: "J is for Jewel"!

This was an easy craft week at our house. I purchased 6 small wooden picture frames and some fake "jewels". We painted the frames and then glued the "jewels" onto the frames. The kids loved decorating their picture frames and then drawing pictures to put inside them.





We then decided to make some homemade jewelry! The girls collected clam shells all summer and saved them up for this project. Their grandfather helped them drill the holes and we worked together to get them strung on some elastic threads. I think they will be a special keepsake from our summer in Kentucky!




I would love to hear what your family did as a craft for My Father's Kindergarten Unit 20: "J is for Jewel".

Friday, October 16, 2015

MFW Kindergarten Unit 19

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We are on to My Father's World Kindergarten Unit 19: "R is for Rock".


I had a bit of trouble coming up with a craft for this week. I mean....a rock is a rock. I couldn't think of anywhere to visit or anything fun to do. I asked on a message board and we came up with the idea of making pet rocks. I purchased some googly eyes and raided my father's pond for some rocks.


The kids loved getting to paint the rocks and make them into pet rocks!





I would love to hear what your family did for MFW Unit 19 "R is for Rock"!


Friday, October 9, 2015

MFW Kindergarten Unit 18

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Time for another fun My Father's World Kindergarten unit! This time we are covering "Z is for Zebra". One of our twins happens to be in love with zebras. We combined "K is for Kangaroo" and "Z is for Zebra" with a trip to the drive through safari!


During the drive through portion of the safari we were able to actually feed and pet zebras!!!



I have never in my life fed or touched a zebra so this was a treat for me as well! The kids were thrilled with the drive through safari! I just wish it was closer to our home we would be there every weekend for quite a while.

We would love to hear how your family completed MFW Kindergarten unit "Z is for Zebra"!

Friday, October 2, 2015

Financial Friday

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It is that time again! Another Financial Friday post! This month I decided to read a book concerning children and finances. I picked Raising Financially Fit Kids by Joline Godfrey.

I have to say I loved this book! I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I started reading this book. I was quickly won over however. The author has been teaching financial maters to children for decades. She takes all of her experience with children of all ages to write a "how to" book for ages 5-18. She breaks down financial literacy into 10 steps and then focuses on teaching those financial steps in age appropriate ways through out the child's life.

She begins with a simple three jar system and progresses to checking accounts and having the children be in charge of purchasing their daily needed items.  The one point she makes very clear is that an allowance is NOT an entitlement or a salary, it is a teaching tool. It can, and will be, taken away if the child proves they are not ready to handle the responsibility. This helped me greatly. I have always said we would never pay our children for completing work attributed to being in a family. This helped me to make the separation in my brain from allowance for labor and allowance for learning. After all I would have no problem paying $6 a month for an app that teaches my child financial independence. It makes much more sense to pay that $6 a month to my child and help her handle the money in the way we feel is appropriate.

The author gives quite a few hands on activities for each age range. These include ideas for starting investment clubs, scavenger hunts, and charity circles. While attempting to think of financial activities for our girls I came up short.  This book definitely helped me in that regard! We are in the process of starting an investment club and a charity circle among our homeschool friends.

I loved this book so much I finished it in 2 days and immediately put her words to action. Our 11 year old daughter now has her own checking and savings accounts. She is responsible for budgeting and paying for her rabbits monthly supplies. She also is in charge of paying for her own new shoes and clothes. I move the money over into her account at the beginning of the month and she is responsible for handling the budgeting and doing the comparison shopping. After teaching her how to use her bank account, ATM card, and budget I am moving to a totally hands off method. She is extremely responsible so I am not seeing too many hiccups in our future. I always stand to be corrected however! 

I highly recommend this book to any parent at any stage of raising their children. The author has a straightforward approach and makes the process very easy to understand and implement. I plan to search out the rest of her books in the very near future!

I would love to hear what you have been reading this year! Come on...you know you have been reading something!
 

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