Homeschool Weekly Wrap Up - Kenya week 3

It was really hard to get back into the school routine after 2 weeks off for Christmas break!  We're still not functioning at top homeschool speed, but we did manage to get through the entire spelling week for all 3 students, which is a challenge at the best of times, so I feel somewhat accomplished.

Kenya is one of our Little Passports countries.  

The kids wish that EVERY country was a Little Passports country.  

The "treat" included in this package was a notepad.  Which is not very special at first glance, but I'd have to say this has been a popular one after all.  This paper is made from ELEPHANT POOP.

They had a great time handing it to the teens when they got home from school and then telling them what it was.  

This week we made clay safari animals.

This is Jack's, um, rhino? hippo?  I honestly can't remember.

He took the picture himself.  

Not sure why they pouty face, Eli was pretty happy with his lion.

The clay was a Christmas gift from grandparents, and ALL the kids enjoyed creating with it.  

This is Annaliese's elephant.

And the rear view.

Samuel had a silver anteater going.

Making our Africa collage on the inside of a grocery bag.

And the finished product.  Now I know why the teacher's guide says to collect magazines and photo-heavy junk mail.  World Vision and Voice of the Martyrs publications have been helpful for this one.

Shhh!  Don't look now, but Brianna is helping Sam with a cooking homework assignment, and they appear to be getting along for the moment.

Back away slowly.

Eli is writing Brianna's spelling words on her back, and she's guessing them.

Hannah is off track until February, so she's been spending a lot of time playing with her new Christmas presents.  She has a great imagination, and it's pretty funny to hear her chattering away in her room while we're doing schoolwork.  

What's this?  The flag of PERU??  In Kenya week?

Well, if you remember the single-origin chocolates I picked up from Trader Joe's before Christmas, it makes a little more sense.  I printed the kids packets to learn about the various countries represented. They finally got tired of waiting for to eat the chocolate and asked if they could start without me! 

So I let them do the Peru pages and eat the Peru chocolate.  It was a hit.  I imagine they'll be working on Ecuador soon.  

Have I mentioned that I really like our Spelling Curriculum?

We've made our words out of Cheez-its crackers, letter tiles, and Wikki Stix.
We've drawn them on siblings, written them in sidewalk chalk, typed them on the computer, written them on white boards, and made them into crosswords.  It sure beats the "write your spelling words in a sentence" every single week that I grew up with.

Next week, we're on to Saudi Arabia!
We may take a little detour into Qatar, as Zachary has been there, and we think Zach is pretty cool.
I wish there had been more than ONE African country represented, but I know we'll get plenty of Egypt next year when we do Creation to the Greeks.

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