2008 Portraits

Portrait Innovations outdid themselves as usual this year!

From portraits 2008

From portraits 2008

From portraits 2008

From portraits 2008

From portraits 2008

Andrew's 4th Birthday Party

 

A good time was had by all! We shared a party with my nephew Jeremiah, who is turning six on Thursday. We had chicken barley soup, chili, cornbread, rolls, salad and chips for lunch, then cake and ice cream after presents. What a cutie!

Frazier International History Museum

I *finally* uploaded our pics from the field trip we took earlier this month. The museum's Survivor Jamestown interactive exhibit was lots of fun and really tied in with our WinterPromise American Story 1 program. What fun!

Here's a link to the album in case you can't see slide shows:

history museum

My Three Men

We recently went on a trip to Ohio... (interrupted by Hurricane Ike wind storms). This was Sunday morning, and the guys are SO handsome.

Air Force Museum

We visited Warner Robins Air Force Museum in Georgia when we were on vacation. Here are our pictures, finally.

Our Field Trip to Native American Memorial with Mounds and an Earth Lodge.

While we were on vacation in Georgia, we took a little side field trip to "Indian Mounds". We viewed an excellently well preserved earth lodge, which has been reconstructed at the top, and hiked to the top of a huge "Temple" mound. Enjoy the slide show! This field trip fit in very well with our American Story 1 study, particularly since we just read about pre-Columbian cultures.

File Folder Timeline

As promised, here are photos of the File Folder Timeline I designed for early American history.

It's far from perfect, but it will suffice.

We started school.... early, but that's the way we like it.

Here's a long awaited update! I've been playing with our new camcorder. Forgive the poor recording skills.

Our school year generally starts in late July to give us an early spring finish date, but this year we have other plans in late July so we started earlier. Joshua had been begging for about a week.

The theme this year is "American Story 1", which is a literature based history theme from WinterPromise covering the exploration of the New World and going through the early 19th century. There's a special focus on Native American tribes, which is so exciting to Joshua and to me.

Here's a Youtube peek at our first big project of the year.

I've been doing Prep Work!

Now that we're officially finished with our first grade year, I've busied myself preparing materials for second grade, which will start June 30. I'm quite proud of my homemade Early American History timeline.

Primary Level Timeline for Early American History - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Primary Level Timeline for Early American History

Once it is complete I'll edit this post and add a picture of the color-coded final product. I have printed it in: Tan for prehistory, Blue for Early Exploration, Green for Colonization, Purple for Colonial Conflict, Red for the Revolution, Yellow for the beginnings of the US, and Orange for Westward Expansion. Now I just have to paste it on file folders and form it into an accordion. The beginning is looking pretty good!

Yes, I've been neglecting my blog!

I predicted I would, and how well I know myself. I still have great intentions of starting a weekly update process, complete with Wordless Wednesdays and End of the Week reflections. Likely not though!

I have a picture that is just too good to keep to myself. Nathanael, the boy I babysit before school 3 days per week, had a snow day from school last week. We just happened to be making Snowy Owl crafts that same day as part of our Polar Habitats unit study. So here is a picture of our arctic looking winter and our Snowy Owl craft, complete with shivering boys!