March

March Madness!!! One of our favorite parts of March is St. Patrick's day. The children love setting a trap for a leprechaun. Even though they have not caught one, it is so fun to get a note and treats in the morning. This trap was a hat with tissue paper on it. They hoped he would fall through when trying to get the treat. They got little hats and gum! 

Eli and Valerie took swim lessons at the Ozark Community Center. Both of them learned how to really swim while on our vacation to North and South Carolina. They still need to work on their skills, but so glad that they know how to swim now!

Lily went to the Springfield Little Theater to study theater. The theme for the day was "snow". They read books and made fun crafts. The best part was that Lily learned a song and dance routine that all of the children performed. They also were split into two group and Lily's group did a poem that they recited with each one having a different part! It was so enjoyable!!

As Easter came, we did fun crafts and we made bird nest cookies. I love teaching the children fun baking and cooking skills. I love spending time with them too!

We also went to the Discovery Center. There was so much to learn and do there. It never gets old. There is always something different that we can focus on when we go there!

At Classical, we have been studying great artists. We really have enjoyed this!

When our unit of great artists finished, we moved on to Orchestra. We even were able to go to go see Drury's performance of Peter and the Wolf! Such a great way to learn about different instruments and how the orchestra works. Daphne was very afraid of the wolf though and talks on and on about it!

At New Life, we learned to churn butter. What fun!

We took a little trip with our friends to Honey Heaven. We used this experience to work on our etiquette again and to learn about bees.

The Nature Center has also been putting on fun learning classes and we love going and walking the trails!

February

February flew by! We had a great time making Valentine boxes. We made an angry bird one as a family and then Lily made a pink angry bird one all by herself. I am so proud of her ability to try things on her own!

We also had fun with President's day. We had friends over for a fondue party and to learn a little about George Washington. The kids had a fun time with a craft as well.

I am sure there is more to say about February, but this is all the pictures that I have to share! 

January

January Fun!

Having great friends is one of the best gifts in life and Lily definitely has been blessed in friends. Boston is a great best friend!

 Lily loved her cake decorationg class. She learned so much and did such a great job!

 Lily loves learning at New Life on Fridays. Here they made funny characters and wrote about them!

Daddy took the oldest three children to the Springfield Little Theater to watch Seussical the Musical!

 Also at New Life, we do so many activities to work on really learning our classical memory work. Here the children are putting the mountains with their continents to help memorize them!

 Lily and Eli worked on a huge puzzle to work on critical thinking skills.

 The children have a geat babysitter who also does activities with them like building a whole village of paper people and castles!

November and December

In November and December, it is always a very busy time of holiday fun. However, it is also filled with leanring. Classical Conversations had many great learning experiences for us. Here is Katelyn and Jelaina dissecting and owl pellet.

Here Ms. Amy Martin and Ms. Melissa Smith are teaching Lily's class about the Earth's rotation.

 We also went to a wonderful museum where we learned a great deal about the tools and lifestyle of the American Indians.

 In Bible, we focused on the book, What Would Jesus Do? The kids learned so much and enjoyed their time.

We also learned about the government and voting as we helped friends with their poling locations and giving out information on the candidates.

Lily has really become a great artist! Enjoying this age!

Lily again at CC. This time she is using playdough to make a flower and then labeling the parts.

For one of Lily's presentations, she taught about Indians. She learned about how they wrote using pictures and about their life and shared it with her class.

Lily was a China Princess for halloween and so we learned a little about the culture in China.

 I just love this. Lily drew these pictures of her best friend and her.

 Playing with clay!

Lily learning how to use a bow and arrow!

 Lily had a big recital. She sang in front of a large group. She sang, A Whole New World, from Aladdin. She did an amazing job! What a beautiful voice!

 Daddy is very proud!

 Lily has been doing a beautiful job on her writing. We are really working on neatness. She is a fast writer and can sometimes get messy!

We had friends over to make holiday cookies and to learn about how each tradition teaches us about the Lord.

We went to Silver Dollar City and the kids got to participate in the Frosty the Snowman show!

 We made Christmas trees using ice cream cones and m & m's  and frosting. Yummy!

October

October school fun! We got to participate in the Branson Belle's advertisement for on their website. We had dinner and watched a show. We learned about how the boat runs and about how the photographer and producer advertise a business. It was a great learning experience and lots of fun!

 Lily bought her first American girl doll off of craigslist. She saved up for it and learned about money in the process. She also loves reading the American girl books.

 We had a fun day doing Fall activities with friends. We counted pumpkin seeds and made art using them. We also did an estimation activity.

 We learned about spiders also.

We did a fun craft to decorate our house. We did handprint art to make a spider.

Lily and Boston have really been into making pictures and selling them.

These are just some fun crafts and field trips, but Lily has also been busy learning to skip count all the way up to 15 x 15 and learning to borrow and carry when she adds and subtracts. She has also been working on grammer usage and much more.

September

When I first started looking through the pictures for September, I thought "Wow, Valerie is having a lot more fun in kindergarten then Lily is having in third grade!" Luckily, I kept looking and realized that third grade is pretty darn fun too!

 Lily took up tennis lessons at the Cooper Complex! Tennis is officially her favorite sport and she improved so much over a month period. She looked so forward to her tennis lessons that were twice a week. I just wish it wasn't a 40 minute drive to get to the Cooper Complex!

 

We had a fun field trip to the air show in Camdenton, Mo. Lily loved looking at all of the air planes.

My favorite project that we have been working on so far this year is her Story of the World Journal. We listen to these cds that are called Story of the World and they tell all about history. As we listen, we draw pictures to help us remember what we are learning.

Another awesome thing about Story of the World is that it matches up with our Classical Conversations memory work so Lily is constantly making connections.

We also had a great field trip to the Wonders of Wildlife that is connected to Bass Pro. I guess it was actually at the learning center. We went on a scavenger hunt and Lily wrote down all of the animals in either the invertebrate or vertebrate categories.

We also had a wonderful speaker teaches us about invertebrates and then we did art projects to go with it. Here Lily is with her jellyfish. She also made a crab and a worm farm.

We love having friends over so we invited our lifegroup friends over for a day of pumpkin fun. We made pumpkin pie scented.

 We also sent all of our friends home with a snack of pumpkin poop! :)

At Classical Conversations, we are having so much fun with our presentations. The other week she did a presentation on her favorite animal which is a horse. These presentations really motivate our writing lessons. We love that! She also did a persuasive presentation the other day where she convinced everyone that garage sale shopping is better than regualar shopping!

Lily loves her best friend Boston. Boston often comes over after CC on Mondays and lately they have been drawing together. Then they set up a table in the front yard and they sell their work. I am shocked to say that in two weeks they made almost $5.00.  Very proud of these awesome girls!!!