FIAR Vol 4: Cowboy Charlie

This was our last co-op with our FIAR volume 4 this year.  We all had a lot going on in the month of May so ending early seemed like the best thing for all of us.  We are going to pick up again in the fall and finish off the remaining titles before moving on to Beyond FIAR.  :)  I'm glad we did that as I find that if I'm tired and overwhelmed with other things, that I just don't have as much to give to our FIAR studies.  I want to really enjoy these books and our time together as it really is sweet and fun!

So, our last book of the year was Cowboy Charlie.  This is a true story about Charlie Russell.  Its a fascinating look at a boy who was captivated by the Wild West and then went to visit and work there and ended up staying.  He worked as a cowboy, but his true passion was art.  He painted beautiful pictures of the west.  You can see them here.  

There are so many great topics to explore in this book!  We touched on a few of them in our co-op.  We learned more about buffalo/bison.  Did I mention that here in North America that we don't have buffalo?  What we have are bison.  You can read more here about the differences.  

The kids did an activity where they had slips of paper with various parts of a buffalo listed on it.  They learned that when the Native Americans hunted them that they used all of the parts of the animal.  Then the used were listed and the kids tried to figure out which part was used for that.  Make sense?

Here is a look at the picture with the parts and the uses matched.  Its truly amazing how resourceful the Native Americans were!

These are incredible creatures.  Our field trip to the farm just prior to the co-op to learn about them was wonderful!  If you are local, you should go visit!  Sunset Ridge Buffalo Farm

 They learned some of the history of the area of the country where the story took place.

 In particular, they compared the states of Missouri (where Charlie was born) and Montana (where he lived as an adult).

 They also learned about some of the Native American customs.  For their craft, the each made a teepee/wigwam.  They could each choose to decorate in any fashion that they wanted.

 Here are some of the finished products.

 Here is Daniel showing off his creation.  Pretty neat, huh?

This is a fun book and so many avenues to explore and learn about.  

Enjoy your day!

Blessings,

Leslie

FIAR vol 4: Grass Sandals

This is another co-op where I don't have many photos.  I think its hard for me to get them when I'm teaching.   Oh well, I'll share what I can and hopefully it is helpful and encouraging.

We started with talking about Japan and I asked them some questions to see what they knew about the country.  For example, do you know that Japan is comprised of many islands?  Do you know how many?  There are 4 large islands and over 3000 small islands.  This is a site you can explore to learn more.

I enjoy using this site (Operation World) to learn more about the people of a country and how we can best pray for them.  We did a devotion chosen from the ones in the manual.

Our next lesson was on writing.  We discussed some of the differences in the Japanese style of writing (see the manual).   I found a site that would translate your name into Japanese.  I did this for each of the children.

 They then spent time either trying to write their names or draw one of the characters from the story.

 This is a matching/concentration style game made from the characters in the book.  I copied two of each and made the cards.

 Our last activity was to paint a hat.  The man in the story writes on his hat.  Some wrote characters and others their name.

 I didn't get a photo of them all finished.

Our snack was some of the foods from the book - banana, eggs, rice, soup and gummies.

Another fun afternoon of learning with our friends.  :)

Blessings
Leslie

FIAR Vol 4 co-op: Albert

I'm continuing our March wrap-up.  I fell behind this week as we travelled to Virginia for Rebecca's college orientation.  We also celebrated Daniel's 10th birthday!  More on both of those soon!

Our next book in FIAR volume 4 was Albert.  A very sweet and funny story about a bird and the man who is forced to stop and spend time with them.  

All of this study on birds has really kindled an interest in Daniel to learn more about birds.  He has spent time watching them at the feeder (and taking pictures and videos).  As well as feeding them and listening for them outside.  I love that he is beginning to be able to identify their sounds!  I've never been very good at that.  

 During our co-op, the kids learned about cardinals.  They colored and labelled a picture.

 And listened to a neat video.  (See link below.)

This video explains how cardinals make music using 2 sets of tubes coming from the lungs in order to make 2 different sounds!  An amazing look at the intricate design of the Creator.

 Next, they each got a bowl of berries and crushed them up as best they could.

 Then strained them to get a nice (and not lumpy) liquid.  Now it was time to paint.

 I loved seeing their creations and isn't this a great painting that Daniel made?

 Our snack was obviously berries.  For some reason, they weren't interested in trying some of the other foods that the birds in the story ate ... like bugs.  Can't blame them there!

I don't have many pictures from this one, but we still enjoyed our time with this delightful book!

Blessings
Leslie

FIAR vol 4 co-op: Angelo

A new fun book to explore and enjoy!  A delightful story with many layers of lessons and well worth the read!

We began with a devotion discussing Col 3:17

We then discussed the setting of the story (Italy).  We spent some time praying for Italy using the Operation World website information.  

The first lesson we covered was one on restoration which was the job of one of the main characters in the book.  We learned more about plaster from this site.  And one tidbit that was mostly interesting to the adults is the origin of the name "Plaster of Paris".  Is this something that you have heard?  I never had and found it intriguing.  Paris was known as the "capital of plaster" in the 1700s because plaster was widely used to coat the wooden walls of houses. This helped protect against fire. Gypsum plaster became known as "plaster of Paris."

We did our own wet fresco painting following these instructions.  

When Plaster of Paris is mixed into a paste, it hardens into a smooth solid with a soft  malleable surface.  It hardens quickly, before the water in it evaporates, so it does not shrink as it dries.  In our story, stucco or plaster is used to repair buildings.  It can also be used as an art form.  We discussed fresco painting and then did our own following these instructions.

Snack time with ideas from the book.  Pasta which they made into "nests" like the last picture in the book.

Daniel showing off his nest.

Everyone gathering around for food.  LOL

 We learned about pigeons in the form of a quiz.  I asked questions to see that they knew.  Here are a few if you want to test your knowledge.

1.  Are all pigeons black like Sylvia?

2.  What is a young pigeon called?

3.  What is the life span of a pigeon?

4.  How many babies does a pigeon have?


Answers:
1.  No, they come in many colors

2.  A squab

3.  10-15 years

4.  They usually have 2 eggs per clutch and can have up to 8 clutches per year.

And did you know that pigeons are able to recognize all 26 letters of the English alphabet and can be taught complex actions and responses.  They can remember large numbers of individual images for several years!  This next fact fascinated me.  During World Wars 1 and 2, they saved thousands of lives.  Here is one site with more information on this.

And also how to draw a cartoon one from this site.

We ended with a bird's nest treat.  Note the 2 eggs as was typical for a pigeon.  These are made from rice krispies.

Here are the finished fresco paintings.  All interesting and unique.

We enjoyed this book and learning about a lot of different topics.  Such a fun way to explore our world.

Blessings
Leslie

FIAR Vol 4: Snowflake Bentley

Well, I've debated on what to do with my blog.  Do I just skip over all that has happened in the many  months that I didn't blog?  Or try to do a quick catch up?  I've had friends mention that they enjoyed my posts about our co-op times so I thought I would try write about those.  So, a quick catch-up it is!

This is a delightful book, a true story, about a man named "Snowflake Bentley".  He is the first man to photograph a snowflake.  It was fun learning about him and especially this year when we had several good snows!  

At our co-op we learned more about snow and how various factors affect the types of snowflake crystals that are formed.  

 A look at snowfall over the previous 7 days and we made the map!  (I know its no big deal for some of you, but we don't get much of the pretty white stuff here.)

 They also learned about symmetry using various shapes.

 Then some hands-on time figuring this all out.

 Some snow saved was fun to examine with a magnifying glass.

 The snow was put on frozen paper so that it would not melt so quickly.

 Snack time was  make your own snowflakes from tortillas.  They folded and cut them.

 And decorated with powdered sugar.  Yum.

 Lastly, they each made their own crystal snowflake.  Here are directions if you want to try it yourself.

 During the week, we tried another art project making snowflakes that his older brothers had done.  We used florist foam and Daniel drew in the design of a snowflake.

 You have 4 sides to work with if one doesn't turn out the way that you like too.

 When finished, press the block into white paint and then onto darker paper.  Its looks pretty.

 We made a sensory tub of "snow"using corn starch and baby oil.  Daniel made a snowman and went the extra mile in making him look really great!

 We finished off our study with the delicious meal from the FIAR cookbook.  Don't you love our beautifully decorated table too?

As always, this was a fun book.  One you could enjoy any time of the year too!

Blessings

Leslie

FIAR Volume 4: Hanna's Cold Winter

We had fun with this story as we do with all of the FIAR books!  This one is set in Budapest, Hungary during World War II.  Its based on a true story.  What a great way to learn history too!

During out co-op, we spent time learning more about the country and people of Hungary.  I found this great resource from Operation World to use for praying for people around the world.  You can print out prayer cards too.  http://www.operationworld.org/country-lists

We watched a Rick Steve's movie about Hungary.  It was fun seeing some of the sites from the pictures in the book also included in this movie.  You can watch it here.

We used some of the great resources from Homeschool Share to complete what we had learned about Hungary.

I made up a game with facts about Hungary.  Each child had a zoo animal to use to move around the board.  The goal was to be the first to reach the zoo in the center of the board.  When you landed on a square with a picture, you drew a card.  Some would tell you to move forwards or backwards for various reasons (ex. hippo ate your shoes, go back one space).  Others were questions about Hungary.  If you answered correctly, you were able to move forward.  If not, hopefully you learned something new!

The kids seemed to really enjoy this one.  If you have questions about this, I'm happy to try to answer them!

The pictures on the board are either zoo animals or famous sites in Budapest.

We learned a little about paprika.  Did you know that it is made from peppers and that there are two kinds?  Sweet and spicy.  Hungary is known for its paprika.  My mom brought some to me one time when she visited and it was really good!  Snack included peppers, hummus with peppers, cheese and crackers and grapes.

We also learned about hippos.  I had questions that I asked them.  We also looked at pictures from the San Diego zoo site.  There is a lot of great information here.

We also watched a video clip of a hippo running underwater which I thought was amazing.  You can check it out here.

We loved the food for this book!  Two fabulous Hungarian meals on two different nights - Hungarian Goulash and Chicken Paprikish!  YUM!  Here is a picture of one of them.

Like my other children, Daniel also enjoys cooking!  I'm so glad and hope this will be a blessing to them throughout their lives.  

Both meals were yummy which certainly helps motivate you to want to cook more!

Here is my pinterest board if you are curious about anything else I may have found.

Fun book and well worth the time to spend finding it and enjoying the activities.  I love learning this way!

Blessings
Leslie