Bird Unity Study: Week 1, Day 3 (Wednesday)

Emma has been doing so well with her internet research. Her reading skills have just shot through the roof and I am so impressed that she can read the National Geographic and Wikipedia articles. Yesterday we researched Anhinga, Flamingo, Spoonbill, Hummingbird, Roadrunner, and cormorants. The above video shows how Japanese fisherman use the Cormorants to fish for them.

We were supposed to head to the nature preserve to birdwatch, but we are being beaten by whatever this virus is. Chloe said she needed a "4 hours nap" and John was grouchy too, so we skipped it. We were all really bummed, so we are going to try to head over there soon to make up for it.

We worked more on our reading, grammer and math. Even though we missed the nature preserve, it was a great catch up day for us.

KONOS Bird Unit Study: Week 1, Day 2

Ummm, today was pretty much a bust. We had scouts, and that was awesome. We learned about manners. But we didn't do anything "birdy". After scouts we spent a good 2 hours at the doctors office and now I am on some antibiotics, and hopefully will be feeling better. Downside of homeschooling = there is no substitute teacher to call in when you are sick!!!

Bird Unit Study: Week 1, Day 1

Today was our first day of our new bird unit. We introduced the idea of a report on beaks and bills. Its interesting how fun that sounds before you realize what it is... Then Emma did some internet research on red robins, toucans, hawks and pelicans. We had planning on going on a nature walk today, but I am so sick and there was just no way i was going to make it on a walk without a stretcher. So we drove to Kemah, near the docks and found Pelicans to watch. Then we came home and painted our bird houses. Emma's so proud of her birdhouse because she built it herself at her scouts!!!

During out trip down to Kemah I was excited to see that my local fish mongers are back in business YAY!!!! I LOVE getting my shrimp from them!

Next Week's Lesson Plan: Bird Unit Study Week 1

Lesson Plan March 9-15

In addition to the math, grammer, and phonics/reading we do each day....

MONDAY:

• Introduce idea of report on beaks and bills
• look at bird bookmarks on web
• Let Emma learn how to browse/research on the web for: Red Robin, Toucan, Pelican, Hawk, Anhinga, Flamingo, Spoonbill, Hummingbird, Roadrunner, Nightjar, Woodpecker
• Use a raw chicken to see parts of bird and look at skeleton of bird online. (where is the most meat and muscle? are bones heavy?)
  
• Go on a nature walk to find as many birds as we can
• Look online for anhinga and how they eat, weaver birds and their nest, Egyptian vultures and how they crack eggs, cormorants and how they fish for Japanese fisherman, humingbirds and how they fly backwards
  

TUESDAY

• go online to compare the eyes of an owl (front of head), a sparrow (side of head) and a woodcocks (in back). Why the differences..? (the owls hunt, sparrows spot danger and seed, woodcocks who feed in mud have to have eyes to see danger in the rear)
• go to observe some birds on the lake - watch how they fly: Look at position of feet, head and wings.
• Scout meeting: manners and social skills
  

WEDNESDAY

• Baytown Nature Center Field trip
  

THURSDAY

• research vultures on the internet
• art class
  

FRIDAY

• cover one cloth with shortening, and leave the other shortening free. Spray water on the two cloths to demonstrate how a duck waterproofs feathers.
• Compare a chicken bone to a cow bone.
• fill/create bird feeders, sew peanuts on a string to create edible garland for birds
• model bird feet out of clay
• try to sketch birds
• eat a bird lunch: ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins), sunflower seeds, nectar (soda) through a straw, snakes (hot dogs), fruits.
  

Kandinsky Circles, art class, and clay

Before we left for Art class I caught Emma reading a Junie B Jones book to Chloe. I love sneaking up on these moments between the sisters.

Then we left for art class where we used a brand new exciting medium of oil pastels and clay. We did Kandinsky circles with the oil pastels.

Art Class: Sonia Delunay

Our spotlight artist today was Sonia Delaunay. (ah, even though I forgot my laptop and couldn't' remember her name). She was an awesome abstract artist who was most famous for they rhythm and use of color in her work. Here is a quick synopsis of her work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Delaunay .

This top picture is the completed student picture.

• First we drew the circles using various lids.

• Second we made a line bisecting the circles.

• Third the children used colors to fill in their circles, each color needed to be used in at least three areas of the picture.

below are more examples of Sonia Delunay's work

Love Dare: Week 1- Love is Patient

Okay, I know that this book is meant for marriage strengthening. But when I read through it, I had a bit of a light bulb moment. See, I think sometimes the sibling relationships closely mock a marriage, and to some extent, I think that as parents we have excused bad, mean behavior by saying things like "oh that's just how siblings are". Or, we have said things like "be nice to your sister/brother" without ever following up with specific teachings about what that would look like. I have a view of parenting that its my job to train them how to treat other people.

So I decided to take the love dare challenges, and adapt them to our whole family, including the sibling relationships. Now, I kinda sorta started this back a few months ago, and then the holidays hit. Back then we were trying to do it the way the book is written, one dare for each day, lasting for 40 days. Well, I don't like that, since I am doing this with the kids in mind, I don't think it "sinks in" that quickly. So we are going to do each dare for at least a week (or longer if we need to).

So onward and upward.....

Love dare #1: Love is patient

Ephesians 4:2 "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

Dictionary definition of patience:

• good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence

• is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties.

Biblical Examples of Patience

• The story of Job exemplifies patience. Job endured near apocalyptic calamities with patience, never once reproaching G-d.

• The story of Micah, for example, is that he suffers many challenging conditions and yet endures, saying "I will wait for the God who saves me." Patience in God, it is said, will aid believers in finding the strength to be delivered from the evils that are inherent in the physical life.

• "The patient man shows much good sense, but the quick-tempered man displays folly at its height" (Proverbs 14:29, NAB)

• "An ill-tempered man stirs up strife, but a patient man allays discord." (Proverbs 15:18, NAB)

• "A patient man is better than a warrior, and he who rules his temper, than he who takes a city." (Proverbs 16:32)

• "Better is the patient spirit than the lofty spirit. Do not in spirit become quickly discontented, for discontent lodges in the bosom of a fool." (Ecclesiastes 7:8-9, NAB).

• "be patient with all. See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek what is good for each other and for all" (1 Thessalonians 5:14-15, NAB)
• "everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger" (James 1:19, NAB).
  

Stories about Patience

• Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Suess

Love is the most important, powerful force in the whole universe. Love always wants to do what is the best for others and it can help us to overcome our greatest problems. We are all born wanting to have love in our lives. Our hearts need it in the same way our body needs food and water. Being loved can change who we are, just as certainly as not being loved can warp and twist who we were meant to be.

The two most important ingredients in love are patience and kindness. That is where we will begin, with patience.

When you choose to be patient, you are choosing to bring something positive and good into a negative and bad situation. Patience is not easy, it means that you have to control your anger. Patience helps you to extend mercy, and not react out of anger.

Being impatient makes you say and do things that are angry, foolish, and hurtful. When you choose to be angry, you will create even more anger. It becomes a cycle that builds upon itself. Anger rarely makes things better.

It is a choice you can make to control your emotions, and show patience instead of responding right back to someone who hurts you in anger. If your family(sister/brother/mother/father/wife/husband) hurts you, do you automatically try to hurt them back? Do you immediately become angry? If you do that, instead of giving the good medicine of patience to the problem, you are poisoning your relationship.

Patience makes you smart, wise. Patience doesn't automatically try to "get back at" the person who hurt you. She tries to hear what might be going on for the other person. Patience give you and the people around permission to be human, to fail. When a mistake is made, patience gives time for the person to correct it.

What do you think our house would be like if we all practiced patience? How would you feel if people were more patient with you? How could you make others feel if you were patient with them?

None of us can be perfect, or perfectly patient. But we can practice it, and work at it. Try to make it a part of our family and our relationships.

So your challenge for this week: For the next week, resolve to demonstrate patience with your family. Go one week without saying anything hurtful to your family. If the temptation arises, say nothing, go for a time out, count to ten. Its better to hold your tongue than to say something you would regret.

Each night we will check in at dinner and ask the following questions (of mom and dad too).....
Did anything happen today to cause you to be angry with anyone in the family?
How did you handle that?
Were you able to be patient?
If you could go back, and change how you handled it, how would you do it differently?