LHFHG - Unit 5

This curriculum just keeps getting better!  Yes it has been almost a month since we started back in Unit 4 of LHFHG, but we've definitely been enjoying our journey!  In late August/early September we ventured into potty training for Sophia (which was very successful I might add), camping and the beginning of our extracurricular activities.  But, we're still weird!  Not unsocialized, but definitely still weird!  ;)

Annabelle has ballet on Mondays, Community Bible Study (for ALL of us) on Wednesdays, choir on Wednesdays (at night) and an art class on Friday.  While Annabelle attends choir on Wednesday evenings and Sophia gets to play with Ms. Becky and Ms. Eva (she LOVES them), I get the privilege of making our very own Jesse Tree (to help us celebrate advent this year) through a workshop at the church.

Annabelle is truly enjoying everything, though I am convinced that the Community Bible Study is by far her favorite!  And even Sophia is enjoying herself as she sings her Bible verse right along with me and her big sister.  Sophia talks constantly about her teachers, "Miss Manda and Miss Awison (aka Ms. Amanda and Ms. Allison).

Annabelle was coloring with colored pencils while I read the Bible Story of Pharaoh chasing the Israelites and God parting the Red Sea (Exodus 14:5-8, 21-31).  And when the story said, "Then the pillar of cloud went behind them and stood between the Egyptians and the Israelites," I grabbed the colored pencils and used them as props.  The white colored pencil is the pillar of cloud that went before the Israelites after God parted the Red Sea (blue colored pencils).  The brown colored pencil is the path of dry land.  The silver mechanical pencil is the Israelites.  The gray colored pencil is the dark pillar of cloud in front of the Egyptians.  And, the Hello Kitty pencil in the very back represents the Egyptians.  She really enjoyed the props, and the story lines regarding the pillars of cloud made a lot more sense to me when I illustrated the story using these props!

During this unit we made our own golden calves using edible peanut butter play dough that we made from scratch!  And, yes, we even ate them!  This was the artistic expression activity to go along with the people making idols out of gold while Moses was on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32:1-4, 19-20, 30-34).  So since Moses melted the gold and made them drink the gold, we ate ours too.  Though our golden calves did not taste bitter.  As we were making the golden calves, Annabelle asked if we were going to put them in water and drink them (just as Moses made them do).

Katydid

I LOVE the great outdoors!  Though it is often very difficult for me to enjoy the beauty of nature with all of life's distractions.  But when we let loose, and we are released from the pressures of our everyday, God makes Himself known to us!  And it even feels good to get a little dirty and stay a little dirty for 5 days straight.  It makes you appreciate a hot shower with plenty of soap and shampoo! 

"To meet a Katydid in person is to experience an amazing event, definitely on par with sighting an elusive lizard or small exquisite bird."  http://www.drycreekgarden.com/science/entomology/katydid.cfm

While camping for four nights, we spotted a black bear, a coyote, many beautiful caterpillars, wild turkeys, a yellow necklaced snake, inchworms, and a Katydid (which I originally thought was a grasshopper until my friend just recently posted on Facebook that they had also just sighted one at their house)!  And Andy also had a brown snake swim through his legs in the river!  I'm glad I missed out on that one!  We spotted the coyote approximately 20 feet from our campfire one late evening around 11 p.m.  I am pretty sure he smelled my pound cake smothered in chocolate, marshmallows and butterscotch.

And our Katydid that we found in the evening actually hung around until morning as well!  So both girls got to enjoy the beauty of the Katydid!  I am pretty sure he was attracted to our lantern in the evening.  I am not sure why he didn't leave before dawn though.

Sophia was excited to see the black bear in the tree until he moved his head!  Then she clung to me and said, "I don't like him!"  She told everyone she knew later that when the bear moved his head she didn't like him and she held onto mommy.  I am guessing she expected the bear that everyone in the campsite was running to see was a big stuffed bear.  Bless her little heart!  She was definitely a trooper!