FIAR Volume 4: The Hatmaker's Sign

Doing Five in a Row is so much fun - and having an eager student just adds to the joy!  This is Daniel's favorite part of our school day!  I love this and I am really having fun with him.

We gathered with our friends for a co-op.  I didn't get a lot of pictures as I was holding a little sweetie.  They talked some about Ben Franklin and some of the different things that he did.  I loved that she used a variety of props to give clues about some of the jobs he has held.  He is quite an amazing and interesting person.

As you can see, they chose hats to wear and then started working on making signs for their own business.  This story focuses on a man who made a sign for his shop and thought he had gotten it just right but he then got input from many different people as to changes he could make so that it would be even better.  Thankfully, there was no such input today and they just had fun making signs.

 Daniel made one to advertise his painting business.  He even painted some while we were there and sold them with the money that they had each received when money was discussed.

 They used their money to buy snacks of their choosing.  They all had a great time with this!  It was another delightful afternoon!

 We did some fun things at home with this too.  One was learning to write with a quill pen.  Daniel enjoyed trying out his hand at this.

 I love his note!

 Of course we cooked the meal from the FIAR cookbook too.  This was a traditional meal from the colonial period.  Daniel is a good cook and loves to help out in the kitchen.  All of my children have liked to cook and I know that is a blessing - both now and in the future too!

 In addition to cooking, Daniel helped to set a pretty table.

 This meal even came with a yummy cake for dessert.  (Nuts on one side only to appeal to all tastes.)

 These are some of the additional books that we read while doing this study.  And Daniel also watched a lot of Liberty's Kids.  These are great shows which share a lot about our nation's history!  I highly recommend them!

 Daniel made several Lego creations during this time too.  I loved his Hatmaker's shop.

 The militia is gathering.

Between the painting, the discussions, watching Liberty's kids, food and more, Daniel has decided that this is his favorite book thus far!  We had a great two weeks and look forward to out next story ... Hanna's Cold Winter.

Blessings

Leslie

More Shakespeare - Co-ops 2 and 3

I'm going to combine 2 co-op meetings in this post.  We continued to work on various scenes from The Comedy of Errors.   We are all really enjoying the story too.  We covered Acts 1 & 2 through discussion, student readings and viewing different versions of the same scenes.  

 The students also has a lesson discussing ships/navigation of the Elizabethan times.

Additionally they learned about compasses.

And spent some hands-on time with making them.

 Afterwards, some of us went to the deli across the street for lunch.  Yum!

 In the next co-op, we covered Acts 3 and 4 from the play.

I loved the interesting ways the discussion of the book was held using questions, props and input from the students!  Great job involving all of them!

Next was an acting exercise.  The students took turns counting to 20 (I think) and were to use different emotions as they went through the numbers.  Emotions ranging from happiness to sadness to anger and more.

 There was a lot of laughter as they took turns and watched each other.

 I think they learned a lot from observing each other too!

 I thought it was a creative way to get them thinking about how they express emotions - with their voices, facial expressions and bodies.

More opportunities to act out various scenes in small groups.

 This was an opportunity both for the students to find roles that they enjoyed as well as to help in casting them for a future performance.

 It has been delightful seeing how much they have enjoyed all of this too!  I'm so thankful as my boys would have totally missed all of this fun if it had been up to me as I've never before (until now) found enjoyment in Shakespeare.  Thankful for friends who have shared their love of it with me and my boys!

We also had a lesson about Pentecost.  And learned the meaning of a covenant.  I wish that I could more clearly explain the significance of the things that were shared, but I'm sure that I would miss many of the details.  There is so much to be learned about our awesome God in studying the details He has laid out for us in the scriptures.  The feast provide great lessons.

They learned about the sacrifices and the significance of these.

 All of this from a friend that is very passionate about this topic and enjoys and opportunity to share it with others.

 I love this co-op and the many opportunities we have to share and learn from each other.  This is just what a co-op should be in my mind.  Each of us using our strengths to give and all benefiting and being blessed.

It was another fun day with this special group.

Blessings
Leslie

College Visits

How can it be that time again?  My sweet daughter is in her final year of high school.  She has worked really hard and I'm so proud of her.  I loved the sweet girl that she was and and I love the beautiful young woman that she has become and I am excited to see what God is going to continue to do in her life.

After pondering and praying about what she might like to do after high school, she has decided to look at 2 colleges.  Each of them for different reasons.

She is interested in majoring in theatre.  She feels that it would be best for her to learn this in a Christian environment.  For that reason, she has applied to Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.  Its a beautiful school!  We drove up for a 3 day visit called College for a Week-end.  There were a lot of other people visiting then too!

Rebecca stayed with some students on campus and went to classes of her choice.  (She went to theatre classes.)  She also had the opportunity to eat on campus, tour buildings and attend a variety of seminars.  One of the highlights was attending convocation which was packed!  The parents visiting were seated on the floor.

 Music at convocation was David Crowder.

 And the speaker?  Willie Robertson.   You know, from Duck Dynasty!  He was a great speaker and I enjoyed hearing him share with us.

 While we were there, we had an opportunity to see a student production of Les Miserables.  Wow!  It was amazing.  All of it.  The acting, the singing, the stage work.  I know this was exciting for Rebecca to see and consider being a part of in the future.  We were both very impressed and excited.

 I didn't take a lot of photos while I was there (surprise!), but did enjoy a lot of the artwork around campus that was done by students.  Aren't these saran wrap sculptures amazing?

We also saw work done by a comic book artist.  I know that I have some boys that would have loved to see this too!

 Rebecca had a great visit and completed her application soon after the visit.  And she heard back quickly too that she has been accepted!!!

Her second college visit came just a month later.  This time to a school that is familiar to us because her oldest brother goes there.  NC State!  We visited during the Open  House which was a great day to be there.

We were able to walk around campus, learn about several different majors, eat in the dining hall (with Christopher!) and learn about some of the campus activities.

 A running list of tweets about the Open House was playing in several of the meeting rooms.  This is fuzzy, but Rebecca has a tweet on the list.

 We spot a familiar face on the Cru poster in the Brickyard.

 Loved meeting Christopher for lunch and hanging out with him for a little while too.

 He gave us a tour of the new library.  Can I just say that it is amazing!

 And a beautiful view from the deck on the top floor.

 We had to get some of the delicious NCSU ice cream before leaving.  Well, two of us did.

She is still waiting to hear back from State, but should hear before Christmas.

And now it is time to wait, pray and begin to make decisions.  In the meantime she is being recruited by some other colleges to come and visit and a couple have offered her some scholarships.  Its a lot to take in and is a huge decision.  We would love you to pray along with us as she chooses where she will be going next year.

We will share the news once there is something to share.  :)

Blessings
Leslie

Field trip to Harris Lake County Park!

Do you recognize the name?  Yes, its the same park that we visited for Isaiah's birthday and we went again for a field trip with our FIAR group.  I really do like this park.  Its about 30 minutes from our house, so we don't go too often, but enjoy it whenever we do.

For this outing, our group was split into two groups.  The younger group (prek-5) learned about Reptiles.

What a reptile is and what makes them special.  (Eastern Box Turtle)

And how they are different from amphibians.

Great visuals and hands-on learning too.

Just loved this shot of my two youngest!  Aren't they cute?!

So much to see and learn about in this beautiful world that God has made.

Can you just see the fascination?

And delight.

And not sure what she is thinking here, but it made me smile.

While the younger kids were learning about reptiles, the older ones were learning about Orienteering.  They were split into several groups and we occasionally saw them walking by our shelter.

 Park staff had set up an orienteering course including basic compass instruction, map orientation and course layout and safety instruction.  

Some of the hands on items were easier to touch than others.

No fear of the Corn snake here.  This reminds me of a sweet memory.  I remember when Christopher was much younger and he saw a corn snake.  He liked it and asked me what my favorite snake was.  I told him that I didn't really have one, but asked which one he liked.  He told me that he liked the corn snake ... and all of the other vegetable snakes too.  :-)

The older ones had to work together to try to figure out where each marker was located.

And then set out to find them all.

It was fun to be able to see some of what they were doing too.

We all had a great day.  The weather was gorgeous too!

Rebecca and I left shortly after the programs ended to make a college visit.  I'll post more on that in my next blog post.

Blessings
Leslie