Plating Lima Beans

We did a little Lima Bean project.  It was fun and really easy.
I bought some Lima Beans and we germinated them in plastic bags then later planted them. 
I also got her a new investigation drawing journal so she could keep track of the progress of the seeds.

Here is what we did over the course of a week:
Step 1:  I checked out books about seeds and germination and we read them for a few days.  Talked about them and I drew a diagram of the stages of the life of a seed.

Step2: I bought some Lima beans and we drew them in our investigation journal.  Along with the plastic bag and paper towel.  Then we added water to the paper towel and put it and a seed in three bags.
We kept two bags in the sun, and put on in a dark place.

Butterflies Part II

 We got our live Caterpillars in the mail and got to see them come out of their Chrysalis's.
It got lost in the mail for a while, so when we got them they were already in their cocoon stage starting coming out as butterflies the next day.  So I was unprepared to see butterflies emerging on my kitchen counter.  But we made them as comfortable as possible.
The kids got to hold them...they loved it!

Butterflies Part I

 We started studying butterflies and caterpillars.
But before we got our live caterpillars, we looked at some books from the Library and borrowed.
We read about them.  I showed her pictures on line.
We even found some outside one day and held them.
One afternoon we drew and painted some butterflies.  It was also a great chance to talk about God being the Creator.
Here are our paintings....

I drew the butterfly and told her that we were doing to create our own butterflies like God does!

So I showed her how I could make any shape I wanted inside the wings.  Then she did the next one.  

I love that she put ears on her butterfly....

Bible Drill

Did you ever do Bible Drill growing up in church?  I grew up Baptist so Bible Drill was always a nervous/fun experience.  As well as performing "Father Abraham" on stage with an audience.  Eek.
Well, on most mornings when I have my devotional after the kids are up, we have a "Reading Time".  I read the Bible and the kids read books quietly ( quietly is key) in the room next to me.
Well that almost always bombs.
They are always interested in my Bible and coffee.  Or they want to sit in my lap and draw in my journal.
So a way to help them to obey and stay in the other room, AND get to join in what I was doing, I started a Bible Verse box for Ella Reese.

If there is something that we are working on that day or week.  Like being patient, or kind etc....we would find what the Bible says about it.  Then on some index cards I would write out the verse and then she would draw a corresponding picture to help her remember the verse.
We do not do it every morning.  It becomes boring to her if we did it every day.
But here are some of the ones we did.

And as the day continues, or later that week...I will remind her of the verse we studied and I have found that it has helped her to remember God's word better.  As opposed to it just coming out of my mouth.

 This is Ella and Dean in the picture.

 Whenever I draw people or Bible people, I will draw a cross on their heart to help explain that when you Love God Jesus is in your heart.
So Ella Reese put crosses on our hearts.  That is our family if you can't tell.  We all look more like zombies....

Ouch!

I knew it had been a while since I had posted anything on this blog.  But since May 9th...ouch.
But since summer has hit we have been more lax with doing projects and lessons.  We have been out more, doing VBS, and enjoying hosting people at the house.
Here in the next week or so I will have more time to post.
We have germinated lima beans, grown them, saw butterflies merge from their chrysalises, made puppets, painted butterflies, writing almost the entire alphabet,....and making a huge mess all the while.
It has been tons of fun watching them enjoy these little projects.
I will post them all here soon....

TInker...

For the past week I noticed that my pages above were not showing up.  So the non-tech person I am...I ignored it hoping it would fix itself.  Nope.
So I just tinkered around and fixed it!  Call me tinker bell...minus the very short skirt.

Temple Grandin

Ryan had watched a movie a few weeks back called "Temple Grandin".  It is an HBO movie production about an autistic girl named Temple Grandin.  Ryan raved about it and told me I had to watch it.  It did not sound exciting to me at all.  He loved it so much that he even said he wanted to own it.  And folks, we only own like 6 DVD movies and 4 of them are kid movies.  So I knew he was for real loving this movie.  So he had it for me to watch last night.

Let me tell you, it is awesome.  I agree...I want to own it and watch it with my kiddos.  It is such a great movie.  For me, what strikes me even now is how this girl was able to work with her autisim, and with the help of others, she found what methods helped her excel in learning and life.  She is now in her 50's and is widely known in the Autistic community.
Here is a link to a trailer to the movie. But, it kind of gives some of it away.
I usually am not one to recommend movies, but this is a must see.
For me, it has inspired me to study my kids and learn what teaching methods will help them excel.
It is truly an inspirational true story!  Go check it out..you will not regret it!