Snow Play 2009

Baseball season is just beginning....

Spring training is almost in full swing in our household. Sport has begun to have practice twice a week. His opening ceremonies are at the end of this month with games beginning first week in March.

We have been so thankful for the rain but we have had a lot in just a short amount of time which can be a BIG problem. Since I wrote last we have had two large storm sytems come through with another large one expected to hit this Sunday through Tuesday. Rain has put a big hinderance on baseball practice and for Sport this is just devastating. He just wants to practice.

God has heard our cries about baseball coaches. As you may recall me sharing this last year Sport had one tough coach last year. He just made it miserable for all of us. This year Sport's coach appears to be a real gem. He is encouraging and helpful. A big difference from last year.

Practice should also begin soon for Racer. This will be his first year in T-ball. He is very excited and even more so that his Dad will be his coach. Luckily his practice is just once a week with a game on Saturday mornings.

I hope to post pictures soon of my ball playing boys real soon.

God bless,
Amy

Thank you for all your prayers we have been having steady rain since last Thursday. The storms have now past and beautiful white powder is everywhere on our local mountains. Another storm is expected later this week.

Spring flowers

There are signs of spring in our garden already. I know for those of you it may be hard to believe. Especially after hearing the ground hog forecast calling for six more weeks of winter. Here are some spring flowers to cheer all those cold spirits to all those who read my blog.

Southern California features two distinct seasons spring and yes, summer. I just love spring but it would be wonderful to have beautiful fall trees during fall and not winter as it is here in most cases.

Today in our Nature Studies I told the kids to find something of color and sketch it. Dancer chose to sketch these beautiful flowers that are now in bloom.

Sport chose to sketch our dying red bell peppers. They did not survive our freak hail storm we had a few weeks back. What we did find interesting is tiny aphids crawling on a bell pepper leaf. Those nasty little critters. We looked them up and read about them in our Nature Handbook by Comstock. They are nasty but very interesting. The kids learned that there are two different type of female aphids. Those that have wings and those without. The ones with the wings give birth to eggs and the ones without wings give birth to live aphids. Sport wasn't too sure if they could still be called an insect but maybe they should be considered a mammal. After close examination of the legs, counting six, it is definitely an insect.

I just love the small purple blossoms on the Rosemary.

Daffodils and tulips are one of my favorite flowers. Daffodils always seem so happy. Shinning for spring and reminding me of Easter that is soon to come.

Take care my friends spring will be here Real Soon!

Egyptian Lapbook

Here are the pictures from our Egyptian lapbook. The resources we used were Evan Moor's History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations, homeschool helper website and homeschool share just for some paper folding tricks to display our own ideas. Our spine books that I taught from was the Bible and Ancient History: Adam to Messiah from Heart of Wisdom.

The coloring pages shown above were found in the Evan Moor book. We primarily just used this book for the Egyptian coloring pages.

A detailed map of Ancient Egypt.


We talked about the different styles of pyramids found in Ancient Egypt with a picture and description of each.


Agriculture and the Nile was a big part of our study because the Egyptians were so dependent on the Nile.


What type of jobs were there in Ancient Egypt and what were the canopic jars used for.

Tools that were used during that period in Egypt.

Picture timeline of Joseph's life from the Bible. We did talk briefly about Moses but will focus more on him in our Tabernacle unit.

Dynasty timeline which we used as copy work. We spread it out over several days.

Quick narration on Cleopatra. When I say quick, it means it hasn't been edited.

Crossword on Joseph's life. I think I found this from the Calvary Chapel kids pages.

We did talk about the 10 plagues that the Egyptians faced. We learned that each plague was referencing to a different Egyptian God that was worshiped. God is simply amazing in how he was reaching out to both the Egyptian and the Hebrews that there is only ONE GOD. All these other gods do not measure up to ME! The Great I am!

I hope these give you some ideas and inspiration for your Ancient Egyptian studies.

Enjoy,

Amy

Our Egyptian Unit Wrap Up Night....

Last night was a big success! The kids were so proud and excited to share their projects with their Dad and Grandma. Here are some photos to share with all of you. I encourage all homeschoolers to host a wrap up night to end their units they are studying. It is a great way to put closer on a unit and for the kids to feel proud of what they have accomplished. It also gives them a chance to recall what they have learned and practice their public speaking skills.

I hope to share with all of you our Egyptian lapbooks that we made during this unit as well. I can't get to it now so stayed tuned until next time we meet. Enjoy, Amy

Preparing for Our Egypt Night....

Hello Everyone!

Just a quick blog entry to update you on our Ancient Egyptian night we are having tonight.

The game hens are now in the oven and the house is being filled with the fragrant aroma of apricot, garlic and pistachio nuts. Let me share with you a recipe that I came up with. I purchased 4 small game hens from a local market. After rinsing them I stuffed each of them with cooked long grain rice with pistachio nuts in it. I placed two birds each into Reynolds oven cooking bags and drizzled each on top with olive oil, minced garlic, sea salt and pepper. Finally, I prepared an apricot glaze using dried apricots, sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, paprika and water by cooking it on the stove. Once the mixture was a little thick and soft, I poured it over each of the hens and sealed the bag shut.

For a fresh salad I just sliced up some cucumbers, red onions and poured vinegar, water, sugar and lemon juice over them.
We plan on eating all of this with pita bread, or special prepared crackers for Dancer and an Apricot pastry dessert I picked up.

It should be quite a feast and a chance for the kids to show off all that they have learned about Ancient Egypt. I hope to share some pictures with all of you next time of our special night.

Blessings,
Amy