Mt. Redoubt erupted last week. The volcano is way south of us (nearer to Anchorage), but it did disrupt the airlines who couldn't fly because of the ash. Mt. Redoubt has blown before....over a decade ago it was really bad. I was about to fly out of Alaska to go to Argentina, but all planes were grounded. Here is a video of the eruption from last week.
Redoubt Eruption March 27 2009 from Bretwood Higman on Vimeo.
For April Noah will be doing two units from Five in a Row Volume 4, Angelo and The Hatmaker's Sign. We will study Rome, personification, Roman numerals, and inventions with the book Angelo. With The Hatmaker's Sign, we will cover the Declaration of Independence, colonization, sailing, clouds, and some simple concept in economics.
The boys now have their red stripes! After this they need to get their red belt, then their black stripe, and then test to be black belts!
I have a heart for South America ever since I visited there (on three different occasions) in the early '90's. One of the books that I read as a teen was Bruchko, a story about a 19 year old, Bruce Olson, from Minnesota who travels to Venezuela all on his own and against his parents' wishes to become a missionary to a stone age tribe (the Motilones-the Spanish name for the tribe. The tribe calls themselves the Barí) in the heart of the jungle on the Colombian/Venezuelan border. His story is so inspiring because he uses their culture to lead them to Christ. For example, the Motilones have the belief that God would come from a banana stalk. When Bruchko (Bruce) realized that the stalk of a banana tree looks like the pages of a book when it is cut open, he showed the tribe a Bible and explained that God truly does come to them through a banana stalk (in the form of the Bible). I recently reread Bruchko and thoroughly enjoyed it the second time around. Tim then read the book to the boys and they were fascinated about the stories of the jungle, how the Motilones lived, and how Bruchko told them about Christ. 
Yesterday, I just received in the mail the second book by Bruce Olson, Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle. Although I haven't finished reading it (I am on chapter seven), I am enthralled once again with the story. The second book catches everyone up-to-date on what Bruchko has been doing in the jungle since the last book was written. Once again there are stories of the cultural differences and how the Motilones view the outside world (some of these anecdotes are quite humorous!), and tales of Bruchko's adventures. We are planning on reading this book to the boys too. I can't recommend these two books enough...they will change the way you look at missionaries, native people, and our awesome God! Because of their content (violence towards Bruchko and the tribe), I wouldn't recommend this as a read aloud to your younger children. I would think 8 years and up would be a good age. However, you may want to pre-read the books. Here is Bruce Olson's website.
About this time every year I started to feel burned out. I can't wait for the kids to finish their subjects so that we can take a break from school for part of the summer. I normally attend our homeschool curriculum fair towards the end of April and that helps a bit. This year I decided to buy the book, Add Two Cups of Laughter by Cyndy Regeling and Tammy Duby. These ladies give creative ideas on how to spice up your homeschool. They talk about how to motivate and encourage your students. We started implementing some of those things today and already there is increased motivation to get things done instead of the normal dragging of the feet. I love their ideas because they are so simple and don't take a lot of organization or time. One idea that I want to start implementing is writing them notes of encouragement that I can leave in their schoolwork or even mail to them! One of my goals in the past few months has been to build up my kids and this sounds like a great way to do that! Here are just a few of the other ideas that are in the book:
*Rewards (that cost no money) to motivate a child to get their work done
*Calling a relative to help with schoolwork over the phone a few times just to break up the monotony of the lessons.
*Creating lessons in which your child is the "star" of the lesson. For example, making up word problems based on your child and his interests.
*Using educational games.
*Taking a P.D. (Particularly Daffy) day, explained in detail in the book.
*Doing a workshop day in which the whole day surrounds a certain topic.
*Having characters (played by mom) visit during lessons...there are some fun ideas for this in the book!
Anyways, I am hoping to add some life to our school days for these next two months before we take a break. I will be referring to this book often to get my ideas!
Great Grandpa at age 3.
Great Grandpa on "Black Mountain", the pony he bought for his grandkids to ride.
Here are the reading lists for the boys for next year. We will be doing Ancient history and zoology so their readers will loosely follow those themes. The letters at the end of each book mean the following: L-located at the library, H-at home, O-order this book. These lists will be linked on my sidebar.
Zach
Early Ancients
The Sumerians L
The Revenge of Ishtar H
The Last Quest of Gilgamesh H
The Babylonians L
The Assyrians L
Egypt
Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt H
Shadow Hawk H
Tirzah H
Israel
Victory on the Walls H
Ancient Greece
D'Aulaires Greek Myths H
The Children's Homer or Theras and His Town H
Detectives in Togas H
The Golden Fleece H
Ancient Rome
Vinegar Boy H
Ides of April H
Beyond the Desert Gate H
Mystery of the Roman Ransom L
Cleopatra H
Galen and the Gateway to Medicine H
The White Isle O
Animal Stories
The Jungle Book: The Mowgli stories L
Little Britches H
Rascal H
There's an Owl in the Shower L
My Side of the Mountain series L
Noah
Ancient History
The Last Quest of Gilgamesh H
The Revenge of Ishtar H
Tut's Mummy, Lost and Found H
You Wouldn't Want to be an Egyptian Mummy H
Dance, Sing and Remember L
You wouldn't want to be an Assyrian Soldier H
The Aesop for Children H
The Trojan Horse H
Usborne Greek Myths H
Cleopatra H
Great Wall of China H
Grain of Rice L
Long is a Dragon L
Zoology
Benny's animals and How He Put Them in Order L
Warton and Morton L
Bears on Hemlock Mountain H
Ralph S. Mouse L
The Littles L
Tornado H
Shadrach L
Misc.
Third Grade Detectives series
Emily's Runaway Imagination H
Spring is the time I plan for what we will be doing next year. I will be typing up my plans and creating links for them in the sidebar. For science I work off a rotation between the following subjects: one year we do chemistry, the next physics, the next biology. The coming school year we are scheduled to do biology, but I thought I would narrow it down a bit to zoology. We will be using several sources for our year in zoology....
Lyrical Life Science Volume 1-We will use only the first part of this book.
Lyrical Life Science-Volume 2
A few lapbooks from In the Hands of a Child: Animal Classification, Invertebrates, Ecosystems, one of the habitat lapbooks
Animal lapbooks from Homeschool Share. This is where we will get the majority of our lapbook materials. All free!!!!
Zoology Schedule
LLS-Lyrical Life Science unit: includes song, reading, and worksheet
HOAC-Hands of a Child lapbook
HSS-Homeschool Share lapbook
Week 1: LLS: All Living Things, Animal Cell Jello Model
Week 2: HOAC: Animal Classification lapbook
Weeks 3 and 4: LLS: Invertebrates, HOAC: Invertebrates Lapbook
Week 5: LLS: Cold-blooded vertebrates, Glow in the Dark Fish activity
Week 6: LLS: Birds, Pick a bird, draw and write about it.
Weeks 7, 8, and 9: LLS: Mammals, LLS: Marsupials and Monotremes, HSS lapbook: choose platypus or marsupials
Weeks 10 and 11: LLS: Carnivores and Pinnipeds, HSS lapbook: choose tigers, wild dogs, wolf, meerkats, panda, cheetah, bears, or raccoon
Weeks 12 and 13: LLS: Hoofed Mammals, HSS lapbook: choose pigs, camels, zebras, giraffe, rhino
Weeks 14 and 15: LLS: Primates, HSS lapbook: Monkeys
Weeks 16 and 17: LLS: Rodents, Read Capyboppy
Week 18: LLS: Rodent-like Mammals, Draw and Write about an animal in this category.
Weeks 19 and 20: LLS: Bats, HSS lapbook pieces from Stellaluna unit or HOAC bats lapbook
Week 21 and 22: LLS: Insectivores, HSS Hedgehog lapbook
Week 23: LLS: Toothless Mammals, HSS Sloth lapbook
Weeks 24 and 25: LLS: Whales, HSS lapbook: choose whales or dolphins
Weeks 26 and 27: LLS: Sirenians, HSS Manatee lapbook
Week 28: LLS: Single Family Orders, Draw and Write about an animal in this category
Weeks 29, 30, and 31: LLS: Biomes, HOAC lapbook: deserts, forest, grasslands, mountains, oceans, polar, or rainforests
Weeks 32, 33, 34: LLS: Ecology, HOAC Ecosystems lapbook
Weeks 35 and 36: Extra weeks to complete tasks
very soon!!!! Just got word last night that it will be up on Homeschool Share in the next few days! I will post when it is officially on their site. Remember that this isn't just a lapbook, but there are mini lessons to go with each topic. I have been using this with my sons as a review and they are really enjoying it! See a picture here of Tim working with Noah on the lapbook. I am hoping that it will bless a lot of other families!
Candace, over at His Mercy is New, is having a great giveaway of homeschool materials. Here are some of the materials that you could win if you enter her contest.
*Rocket Phonics
*Heads Up Frames
*Critical Thinking-Building Thinking Skills book
*Math Tutor for Algebra one
*Zone Cleaning charts
*Spears Art curriculum
So check out her site for all the details!!!!
These visitors aren't quite as small as the leprechauns that visited last night (See previous post)! These are pictures of the mama moose...I wasn't able to get a good photo of the baby. They were right on the street in front of our house.
Tim stayed home yesterday to try to recuperate from his accident. So he helped with school. Here he is working with Noah on the Spanish lapbook.
Every March we go see the World Ice Art Championship that is held here. Sculptors from all over the world (China, Japan, France, Romania, Mongolia, Russia, etc.) come to Fairbanks to enter the competition. I love looking at the detail that can be put in ice. There are abstract and realistic sculptures. Although I have to admit that I am not fond of the abstracts as much as the realistic ones. Here are a few of the sculptures we saw and you can see more of them...just click on the above link. Continue reading at the bottom of the post to hear about Tim's accident there.
Alaskan animals in a band.
King Kong
Sea Turtles
Sarah Palin in ice (minus the lipstick!)
This year is Alaska's 50th birthday....50 years of statehood!So we are still two months away from gardening season here. We normally can't plant until sometime in mid-May for seeds and then after Memorial Day for plants. But the sun is shining here and it is beautiful out and when I went to the grocery store today I saw that their seeds are out. Here is what I am planning to grow this year.
Carrots-We love carrots here!!! Alaska is great place to grow carrots. I can't stand the carrots in the grocery stores because they tend to be bitter. So I can't wait every year until our carrots are ready to be harvested!!! I am going to grow Scarlet Nantes (which I have grown every year since I first started gardening in 2001), a rainbow blend of carrots (we did these last year and they turned out great!), and a new type of carrot, Parisian Market, which grow like balls instead of the normal stick-like shape. I am hoping to put the Parisian Market carrots in containers to save on space in my garden.
Cilantro (and maybe a few more herbs) and beets-I love cilantro so we are going to try to grow it this year since I learned how to freeze herbs for future use. I might try basil, too. In the past few years I have also done beets. I wasn't really fond of beets, but Tim loves them. I have come to enjoy them (fresh...never canned). We are going to try this variety this year...more cylindrical than regular beets.
I am going to attempt to plant bell pepper plants again this year in containers. They didn't do well last year because we had a cold growing season, but I am hoping for better results. I will also do maybe two zucchini plants in very large containers. I am so excited! Now if the snow would just melt so that we can get started!
I recently found a great recipe called Magic Mix from the Everyday Food Storage blog. You mix this up and store it in your fridge. It makes a great white sauce, cream of...soups, and pudding. I have done mixes before that you can store to make your own white sauce or cream soups, but honestly they don't work! I have made alfredo sauce, soup (a creamy veggie soup) and chocolate pudding with the Magic Mix and it has worked everytime!
Here is the recipe for Magic Mix:
2 1/3 cup powdered milk
1 cup all purpose flour
2 sticks butter at room temp.
I blend this in the Kitchen Aid with the wire whisk attachment. Should resemble cornmeal when it is completely mixed. Store in the fridge.
Here are some recipes to use the Magic Mix with...
White Sauce
2/3 cup Magic Mix
1 cup water
Mix the two ingredients in a saucepan. Stir with a wire whisk and put on medium heat on the stove. Stir constantly. Cook til bubbly and thick. I tend to double this and then add parmesan cheese for alfredo sauce.
Condensed Cream Soups (cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, etc.)
1 cup Magic Mix
3/4 cup liquid (you could use water, chicken broth, liquid from can of mushrooms)
Mix the two ingredients in a saucepan. Stir with a wire whisk and put on mediaum heat. Stir constantly until thick and bubbly. This will make the equivalent of one can of soup.
Magic Pudding
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups Magic Mix
2 cups water
1 tsp vanilla (Optional)
Combine in a saucepan: Magic Mix, water, and sugar . Stir over medium heat until pudding bubbles. Add vanilla and beat. Cover and cool. FOR CHOCOLATE PUDDING: Combine 3 TBS cocoa with the sugar and follow the original steps. Makes 2 cups pudding or 4 1/2 cup servings.
Some of the gals on Homeschool Share were asking about Atelier art. I decided to post a few pictures to show what we have done this year. We only do Atelier art once a week with another family. This is really the way to go since the program is a bit on the expensive side so you can share the cost. Besides, for us, it is a great way to build relationships between the kids and the moms. We use it as a social outlet. We always tell the kids they get a bit of playtime afterwards. Atelier is great because it teaches theory (color theory, perspective, overlapping, etc.), different media, and artist/picture study. We did one level (level 3) this year all three modules, and we are currently starting level 4. But I really think that one level a year is a good pace. We love Atelier because it is clear in its instructions, has supply lists for each lesson, and it is a DVD program in which the creator of Atelier teaches the lessons and then show a classroom of kids doing the art project for that lesson. Showing off other kids work is a great way to get ideas and to show kids that we are all on different levels when it comes to art ability. This year with Atelier has been great enrichment for my boys...they have learned so much...color theory, perspective, depth, mood, etc. in paintings, and about artists such as Matisse, Van Gogh, Picasso, and several lesser known artists (there are 8x10 prints of the artists' works with discussion questions for each print).
Above, is a work done in clay depicting our family.
A koala done in chalks.
This was a lesson in overlapping, basic shapes, and bright colors.
Paper tearing...a farm scene.
My son had to mix all the colors in order to paint this scene of a scarecrow in a field. In the process, he learned about primary, secondary, tertiary colors...warm and cool colors, complementary colors.
I normally use fresh milled whole wheat flour to make bread, but at times we like to have the artisan-type bread which includes white flour (nice crunchy crust on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside). Well, a couple of months ago I found this book at my library...Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. 
It may sound like a hoax, but this is for real! The basic idea is that you mix the dough and let it rise at room temperature. You then put the dough in the fridge. Whenever you want to bake bread, you take out some of the dough, shape and let rise. Then put it in the oven. The "five minutes a day" is in reference to how much hands-on time there is on baking day....and they are right that it amounts to about five minutes. However, there is rising and cooking time which comes to about an hour and a half. I love the fact that I can have dough in the fridge and pull it out and use it any time! This dough is very wet and needs to be to work right, but I have found that even when it is wet because it is cold from the fridge it isn't hard to work with. Here is a picture of a newly formed loaf before rising:
Here is the risen dough that has just been slashed and is ready for the oven:
Here is the final product! So yummy! And yes, this came from my oven and not the store!
We made these kimonos using the instructions on Art Projects for Kids. This week we are rowing Grass Sandals, so I thought kimonos would fit the theme since the book is set in Japan. In the instructions it said to use oil pastels...we did it a bit differently. We used oil pastels for the designs and then painted the whole kimono with watercolors. The watercolor won't stick to the oil pastels so we didn't have to be careful to go around the designs with the paints. You will notice that one of my sons did a rather unique design on his kimono...yes, that is a chicken kimono!
My Kimono
The Boys' Kimonos
Today we started rowing Grass Sandals which is a book in volume four of the Five in a Row curriculum. We did a little on Japan today and also on bananas. We are currently reading The Biography of Bananas, which is one in a series of books from Crabtree books. I recently order Study Starters, which are basically notebooking pages for different subjects. We did the plant page today in which Noah drew a banana plant and its flower and fruit and then wrote some description about the plant.
The boys participated in a TaeKwon-do tournament this past Saturday. Here are a few pictures.
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