Family Olympic Games

We had a small unit on the Olympics because of the Summer Olympics held in London. It was a lot of fun and the kids want to do it again. Here are some pictures of our day.

We can't have Olympics without a torch.

V's flag.

P's flag. His was double sided so it will look different in other pictures. 

The athletes with their flags. 

Daddy made a family Olympic flag. He made a  "W" with each of our names in the the colored parts. Then three leaves on a vine above which represent the 3 babies we lost. I think it was a very sweet and creative idea. Thanks honey!

Our flags all together. 

Hurtle race with our homemade hurtles. 

Here is a close up of V's rainbow hurtle. She did a great job!

Some of the events.

Opening Ceremonies

The events...

Art - creations and field trips

Art is absolutely their favorite subject right now. We have a lot of fun creating. We went the the Museum of Nebraska Art the first time on a Monday and of course they were closed. So we crossed the street and got to meet an artist, Russell Hansen. He is a well known photographer and he also paints. I am sorry I didn't take pictures. He spent about 30 minutes with V and gave her art pointers. She seemed to enjoy it. 

This beautiful piece is made with felt. It is amazing!

Here is a close-up of it.  

We have been exploring lines the last few weeks. This is one that we liked, not just because of the lines, but we read the Little House on the Prairie, when Pa has the men help with the threshing and these are probably what the machines looked like.

More cool lines. 

P painting his hurtle for the family Olympic Games.

V, very intent on paint her hurtle.  

V's Olympic art. 

More of V's Olympic art.

P's Olympic art. Mixing all the colors creates black. :)

V's version of Van Gough's  Starry Night painting.

Learning lines by drawing cartoon characters and painting with water colors.

Of course mommy had to try her hand at it to.

More of P's black art! 

This was mommy's drawing of dimension and lines.

V's drawing of a city with dimension and lines. 

And more of P's art. He sure likes to mix his paints. 

Writing

I am so proud of V for this writing. She did it all on her own after reading a story about a little girl whose mother died in child birth. She, her father, the baby and an Aunt and Uncle went west. When they came to a certain place the Aunt and Uncle wanted to go to California and the Father decided the baby was to go with them. This little girl was heart broken, after loosing her mother now she would never see her sister again. She made a special book for the sister and the Aunt promised to keep the book for the baby. Well, this girl went to school and became a teacher. She was offered a job in California and it ended with her baby sister standing in front of her desk on the first day of school clutching the book her sister had made her when she was baby. I feel terrible that I didn't write the title down. It was a moving book.

So V sat down the next day and for a half hour worked on this masterpiece all by herself. 

Translation: The Pioneers traveled a long way to different lands long ago. Because they wanted to obey God. They had a difficult time. But they were happy they obeyed God. They always traveled by wagon. And many were sick. They had to eat many foods They had to walk by foot.

I love her story. It is amazing the insight she has at 7 years of age. I love this girl!!!

First day of school

We decided to take picture on our first day of school too. We also decided to start school on the first day public school started. We felt it would take some time to get in the swing of things and this gave us a little more time to do that. Next year we will probably start after labor day like most homeschoolers do.

V working on her daily writing assignment.

She loves writing and she is amazing at it! 

P loves to read! He could sit and read or be read to forever.

My cute kids ready for the first day of school.

Of course we had to have the crazy pictures too!

So silly!

P has to try and copy V in everything, even when he doesn't really know what is going on. 

Recess! Breaks are needed, even at home!

We took the plunge...

Well, we have decided to home school Victoria again this year. After spending 1st grade in public school we have decided we feel better about having her home with us. Stay tuned for some of our adventures.