Our Hawaiian Unit-- First Update

Last week we had a great time. We began our unit by learning the traditional Hawaiian clothing, and luau clothing (as you can see from their uniforms). We also learned about Hawaiian food, customs, and values.

We decorated our house with different types of fish, and we made an "Endangered Animals of Hawaii" coloring book.

We learned about Hawaiian music and the Ukelele. Emma loves Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Even Jordan Moline was able to teach my girls some real Hula dance moves.

We studied the geography of the Islands. We ate at Young's Hawaiian BBQ (twice). We went swimming in my mom and dad's pool and let Emma dive for sea creature diving toys (snorkeling practice).

We learned some Hawaiian words, like "humu humu nuku nuku apua'a" --- awesome!!! We found out that both the girls hawaiian names are basically the same: Ema and Maile. My name however is interesting: Palanaki. Dustin's name is Kukine.

Today we studied the Coral Reef and the Humpback Whale. Here are some great links to amazing and entertaining videos we watched, before I let the girls get artistic and creative by coloring their own reefs and sea animals.

Hawaiian Coral Reef

Song of the Humpback Whale

This week we will learn a little about Hawaiian history, including famous Hawaiians, missionary/Christian influence, and Pearl Harbor. We are going to study volcanoes and I even have a little volcano toy that we are going to erupt!!! We are going to learn about Hawaiian agriculture (taro, pineapple, sugar cane, guava, etc.) And we are going to finish the week with a lesson from a very special guest instructor, Dustin Harrison. He will be teaching a lesson called, "Surfing: Yesterday and Today."

I tried to post some pictures I took of their work, but for some reason my photos wouldn't upload. I will ask Dustin later to help me post them.

Our Hawaii Unit

Last week we began school (kinda)

It isn't much like school, but we are learning so much!!!

Because we are going to Hawaii in a couple weeks I decide to start school a little early and do a two week unit study on the Hawaiian Islands.

But they needed new school uniforms . . .

And we needed to decorate the classroom . . .

They had seriously JUST woken up in these pictures. They couldn't even wait to brush their teeth and hair before getting all dressed up!

I will be posting updates on what we are learning.

Graduation

June 17, 2011

Emma Graduated Kindergarten

The Family

Emma and her friend Nicholas

Emma and her diploma

Emma and her friend David

Sophia, Hannah, and Emma

Emma and Rebecca

Hannah and Emma

Emma posing:

Analytical

Silly

She was going for serious . . .

Scholarly

I am so proud of my puppy

Friday School Family

Here are some pictures of our Friday School.

The girls love to sit on the steps an eat their little treats.

Here is Emma's math class

Having fun

Playing jump rope

Emma and Hannah

treats

my girl

Emma's Five in a Row class

on the patio

Miley and her best friend Julianna

Emma's class

I LOVE Friday School

Our church homeschool ministry is such a blessing to our family.

The last days of school

To be honest the last couple months of school last year I was so tired and busy that I never got around to writing about it! But after a few months of rest and relaxation I am ready to show everyone how it ended!

Here is my classroom area, all cluttered up.

Emma has a silly face here (I think she was talking),

but she is holding our little memory verse board.

We finished the year by memorizing Psalm 46

Here is Emma doing her schoolwork, finally finishing her 3rd Explode the Code book

We look ready for summer!

A-Share

"Most of us are tactful enough with other adults not to point out their errors, but not many of us are ready to extend this courtesy (or any other courtesy, for that matter) to children." - Holt

I really like this. I enjoy the sweet mistakes of my children.

When my Emma was still in preschool, they had show and tell every Friday. Each week they had to bring an object that began with a certain letter of the alphabet. For some reason my daughter thought it was called "A share" instead of "share" (and she didn't pronounce it as the article "a" but as the capital letter A).

Each week she would say, "Mom, I need to take something that starts with a __ for A-share this week!"

It was so cute.

My girls call high heel shoes "heel high shoes"

Emma used to call my chapstick "leetstock"

Miley still asks me to "holdge" her and she still calls my hair her "taggies."

Instead of counting how many days until some event, they count how many "naps" until that event. And the naps aren't even real naps; she means how many full night sleeps. Recently we counted how many naps until our talent show.

These are all beautiful examples of things that I don't want to correct, just yet. My children will learn them as they grow. I don't want go around telling them that their pictures don't look just right, that their dance moves aren't perfect, that they sing the words wrong, etc. I want to celebrate that she rolled the bowling ball down the lane, that she kicked the ball somewhere, and that she tries to pull her bed sheets up to her pillow all by herself.

I want to let them just be children.

Twenty and Ten

We finished this book a few weeks back and I just had to post about it.

This book is stunning!

Twenty school children hide ten Jewish children from the Nazis occupying France during World War II.

During the German occupation of France, twenty French children are sent to a refuge in the mountains. When 10 Jewish children are brought to the school, hiding them seems like a game -- until the Nazis arrive, and ten lived depend on the cunning and courage of twenty. An astonishing, beautiful tale based on a true story.

Emma's Phonics Workbook

Emma was working on her phonics workbook today and I found her answers quite interesting. She was supposed to read a question and then circle the answer (yes or no). She technically got half of the questions wrong, even though she did the work right. She cracks me up with her cute little reasons for her answers.

Question: "Can Jane drive home?" Emma read the question out loud and then circled no. She said, "Well, I don't know how old Jane is, so I don't want to put yes because that might not be safe."

Question: "Can you make smoke with fire?" Emma read the question out loud, circled no, and explained to me that you should never play with fire. I explained that the question didn't ask if you should, but if you can. She thought about that but then concluded that because of safety implications, she is still answering no.

Another question asked, "Will you get a snake as a snack?" She read it out loud, and then answered yes. She explained to me that people in Africa do eat snakes, so she wanted to answer yes because of them.

She would never survive in school!!!! She is definitely not cut out for taking standardized tests!!! LOL

But she is a bright and spirited young girl.

The Orange County Zoo

We were so excited to go the Orange County Zoo.

But leave it to me to go to the wrong place.

Here we are at the Santa Ana Zoo.

At least we were not the only ones!!! We were so happy to have our friends make the same mistake and then help us find the zoo we were supposed to be at!!!!

Even though we missed the group tour, we were still able to enjoy the park and visit all the exhibits.

Below is a screech owl,

which is featured in Isaiah 34:14 and is actually the word "Liyliyth" in Hebrew -- לילית.

David Guzik says of this verse, "Old Jewish superstitions make Lilith a beautiful demon of the night, who seduced men and killed children. It is possible that Isaiah uses the term to describe the demonic habitation of Edom after God’s judgment."

Am I saying this is a picture of a demon? no. But it is still . . . . creeeeeeepy!

: )

The Orange County zoo is small but very nice. The regional park is beautiful too.

We had a great day with our homeschool group and God's creatures.

Our memory verse song for this week

Our Gross Day Today (studying cockroaches, feces, and stinky feet)

This is our poem from today : )

Cockroach

Is there nothing to be said about the cockroach which is kind?

Praise or admiration is impossible to find.

No one seems to care for it or welcome it's approaches.

Everyone steers clear of it except for other roaches.

If people treated me that way, I know that I should mind.

Is there nothing to be said about the cockroach which is kind?

Is there nothing to be said about the cockroach which is nice?

It must have done a favor for somebody once or twice.

No one will speak up for it in friendly conversations.

Everyone cold-shoulders it except for its relations.

Whenever it is mentioned, people's faces turn to ice.

Is there nothing to be said about the cockroach which is nice?

Is there nothing to be said about the cockroach which is good?

I can't avoid the feeling that it's quite misunderstood,

But all that I can tell you is that it does keep very quiet,

And if you've got some bedbugs, it will add them to its diet.

I'd like to be more positive; I really wish I could.

Is there nothing to be said about the cockroach which is good?

--by Mary Ann Hoberman, The Llama Who Had No Pajama

So that was an awfully cute poem (pun intended).

We had a rather gross school day today! Well, it was both glorious and gross; as we studied the wonders of the human body, one of the segments focused on digestion. Let's just say that our vocabulary today included words such as "feces" and "rectum."

But Emma LOVED her Mother Goose reading today as she was surprised by the fact that one of her favorite rhymes belongs to Mother Goose:

"Moses supposes his toeses are roses,

But Moses supposes erroneously;

For nobody's toeses are posies of roses

As Moses supposes his toeses to be."

When I began to read this to her she smiled so big, "Hey! That's from Singing in the Rain!!!"

Eww!!! I just realized that this rhyme is about a guy who wants to sniff his feet!!! Yet another example of our gross day today!!!!

Update

I haven't posted in a long time! We took a break for the holidays, and then when school started up again I was really busy and it slipped my mind. I would love to tell you that we planted a garden, began quilting, and took up pottery. But nope, we have just been doing the same old stuff, and nothing super exciting!

I do have a few things that I want to mention. Emma has really taken to drawing lately, so I am trying to work more art into our lessons. We also just brought my mom's piano into our home and we are going to learn how to play it. And, like everyone who uses the Math-U-See program, in the primer level your child learns to solve for the unknown. But this is especially exciting for me; I love to watch Emma do basic algebra in Kindergarten. There is a lightbulb that is shining above her little head here at home, and I get to be the one to see it. I am so lucky.

I want to mention this book, called In Grandma's Attic. It is amazing. Each chapter is a short story from the life of the author's grandmother. Each story is not only rich in humor but in Christian character development.

We have also begun reading Little House in the Big Woods in the evenings. Emma is obsessed with Little House right now. She even asked me to sew her a calico dress, an apron, and a bonnet. She must think that all moms are like Caroline Ingalls. Oh well, at least she is out of her Camp Rock phase!