Show and Tell

You find all kinds of things as you go back through the work your kids have done for the past three months (that’s how far behind I was in organizing their stuff). Personal notes from your kindergartener, vocabulary cards chewed by the toddler, hard pencil scratches and scribbles by a frustrated fourth grader. But mostly what you find is a whole lot of effort and a whole lot of progress. And you also notice and make note of the gaps that you need to fill in during the last 10 weeks of the year. (Yep, we're starting to count down already!)

I had to share a couple of my favorites from my filing today. These are all from my fourth grader’s pile o work. I’ll share some of B’s work another day this week.

This is a flag he created to represent the country of Narnia. We looked at flags from other countries to see that they are symbolic and symplistic. So, he infused it with symbolism and I am proud of him for doing it so well. The triangles are Aslan's teeth, the birds are the four thrones and the colors all mean something too. But I am also pleased because no where on this flag is there a tiny stick man falling to his death or impaling a second stick man. Even though the battle scene in the book would have made these additions totally appropriate he determined on his own that these typical inclusions wouldn't have worked for this particular project.
Speaking of stick men...this is a memory verse technique they enjoy in which they draw parts of the verse. It says, "Draw the four things this verse says to remember." The four things are...the wonderful things He has done...His miracles...how He judged our enemies... and what He has done for you people of Jacob. I hope you can see some of these stick figure details... the ghostly "God" hand, happy dancing and big WOW eyes! It cracks me up! I love his happy interpretation.



This was a make-your-own-word search he did online and it included a secret message...which is what the first 12 letters actually make. Straight out of his own heart. It is a secret message I will cherish always in mine.



So, I made good progress in my stack today and moved into planning our last two units of study: Parables of Jesus (which entail a lot of thinking about agriculture and then also money) and Footsteps of the Messiah (geography and geology). J has just enough math to take him to the end with some breathing room (fractions are up next). B will plow ahead into his first grade math book when we start back again. And somewhere in there J needs to write a real report too.... how many weeks are there? No winding down here. We have a lot to cover yet!