Multiplication by Noah

Multiplication is hard.  There is a whole lot to remember.  It's like 1x1 is 1, 2x1 is 2.  If you have a problem like 4x2, then that just means you have 4 sets of 2 or 2 sets of 4.  So, you just add the sets and then you have the answer.  I don't have them all memorized yet but doing the sets really helps me learn them.  Mom gives us things she calls manipulatives like beans and stuff to help us work our problems.  Today we used marshmallows.  That was the best manipulative of all :)  I know it is going to get easier the more I practice.  Mom says we will always need to know multiplication even if we aren't bankers or something.  Mom uses multiplication all the time.  So I guess I have to learn it too!

Lewis and Clark by Isaac, Noah, and Isabelle

Lewis and Clark were sent on a journey by the President, Thomas Jefferson, (he's the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence.), to find a trade route through the practically unexplored lands of the Western United States by water.  He wanted them to reach the other ocean.  Merriweather Lewis and William Clark were good friends.  William Clark had been Lewis' commander in the war and they really liked and respected one another.  Their expedition took them a year and a half.  It was a hard, long journey.  Along the way, they met Sacagawea who was married to a French Trader and she went along with them.  She did it all with a baby to care for.  She was a translator for them.  Sacagawea saved the most important items on their boat when it turned over.  She also helped them get horses from the Shoshone because she was a Shoshone who had been captured earlier in her life and had been taken from her family.  She was reunited with her family on the journey.  Lewis and Clark's expedition changed the United States.  Their expedition was the very first transcontinental (from one side to the other, from ocean to ocean) expedition ever in the United States.  It didn't turn out good for the Indians because this meant that white people would be coming behind them.  Only one person died during the expedition and we thought alot would have died, but they didn't and we were surprised by that.  Merriweather Lewis committed suicide three years after the expedition and William Clark named his first born child, Merriweather Lewis Clark.  Sacagawea died six years after the expedition and William Clark provided for her child who was born during the expedition.  During their expedition, they saw many new species of plants and animals.  Merriweather Lewis found one new animal that he said barked like a dog.  He named it a prairie dog.  We watched a really good movie about them and the expedition.  If you'd like to see it, Mom is including the link.  We really liked learning about them.  We thought it was really interesting and would have been fun to do, except for the part where they had to go around the waterfalls carrying everything.

Part One of Four

 

Part Two of Four

 Part Four of Four

Adverbs by Isabelle

Adverbs describe a verb.  A verb is an action word, like jump.  So an adverb in a sentence would tell us how someone is jumping.  Like if I said, Isabelle jumped off her bed quickly.  In this sentence, jumped is the verb.  Isabelle is the noun and quickly is the adverb.  Lots and lots of times an adverb ends in "ly."  That makes it easier to find an adverb in a sentence.  I like adverbs, I just don't like learning all this grammar stuff.

Little House in the Big Woods by Noah

There are lots of things that have happened so far in the book.  They smoked their meats in a big hollow tree so the meat will last longer.  They went to their grandpa's house to have a party and to help get maple sap which is the tree's blood after Christmas during the Sugar Snow. There was a party and their grandma got snow from the ground outside and put it in their plates and then they put the maple syrup hot from the stove onto the snow and they ate it like candy.  There was plenty for everybody.  The Sugar Snow meant that the trees would make more Maple Sap.  On funny part was when Pa was coming home and it was dark.  He didn't have his gun and he saw what he thought was a bear in the road.  He yelled at it and yelled and ran to hit it with a log but when he did, he saw it was just a log.  The same night, Ma and Laura went to feed the cow and Ma thought their cow was out, so she slapped it to make it move away from the gate.  But she actually slapped a bear.  He was so surprised he didn't even move.  The bear was like, "Huh?"  She took Laura back to the house.  Today we read about them going to town.  Laura was excited because she was old enough to go to town. Laura had never seen a town or a store before and she was so excited, she couldn't talk.  She went to the store her Pa usually goes to to trade his furs.  They traded for hours.  Ma got fabric to make clothes and underwear and Pa told Ma to pick one to make a new apron with.  She picked one with flowers on it.  I really like this story but we're almost done reading it.  Next we get to read Huckleberry Finn.  I love this part of our day, when Mom reads to us.

Daniel Boone by Isaac

Daniel Boone was a great hunter and explorer.  He had a lot of children.  He was a soldier in the French and Indian War.  He tried to tell the British General, Braddock, that there were French soldiers nearby but Braddock didn't listen and the British troops were defeated.  Daniel Boone survived.  He had a daughter who had been playing by the river with some of her friends and she and her friends were captured by Indians.  But she was very smart and she broke branches and leave marks for her father, Daniel Boone, to track her.  She knew he'd come and rescue her and her friends and he did.  He went on hunting expeditions and he'd be gone sometimes for months from his family.  But he explored the Kentucky frontier and built a settlement there. Daniel Boone was captured by Indians and impressed by his hunting skill, the Chief claimed him as his own.  For a months he remained with the Indians until he escaped.  He later went to Missouri.  He lived with his son Nathan and later he died there at Nathan's house.  I really like Daniel Boone's story, especially the part of his life where the Indian chief claimed him as his own because his hunting skills were so great.  I think it's cool that he wasn't afraid to go those places that hadn't really been explored much. 

Back to School by Mom

After a nice break for Christmas we are back at work.  Learning our states, digging deeper into the American Revolution, learning about adjectives and adverbs, working on our reading, seeing what God's Word has to teach us, working with fractions and really getting down our multiplication tables, practicing our sign language, reading about great poets and composers, finishing up Little House in the Big Woods and beginning another great piece of Literature, getting immersed in the Westward Expansion and the life and times of the Pioneer.  Can't wait to share with you all what the next few months have in store for the children.  It won't be long before we are camping again, learning about the stars and learning about the plants and wildlife that are indigenous to our area.  We will be getting our new chickens soon and are adding to our bunch this year by taking on the task of learning to care for turkeys.  Our gardens will be planted in a few months, which the kids will help to tend.  2012 is going to be a great year.  I hope you and yours are blessed with a wonderful year.  God Bless you all!!!

 

 

Working on US States Puzzle

It's nearly complete.

Noah's is working on identifying the Mountain States

He's almost got them all.

She has them all figured out.

The Mountain States by Isaac, Noah, and Isabelle

The mountain states are Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming.  The Mountain states have the highest mountain peaks in the United States.  They also have plains and desert lands.  The word Mountain refers to the Rocky Mountains that run through all those states.  Mom says Colorado and Utah are beautiful.  We've never seen real mountains, but hope some day we can.  We think they would be real pretty.