Homeschool Weekly Wrap Up - Week 11, Brazil

Brazil is the first country we've spent 3 weeks on.  This week we learned about Mission Aviation Fellowship, which coincided with our reading (and sobbing through) the last chapters of our Nate Saint biography.  We're going to watch End of the Spear now that we're done with the book.

Cardstock planes included in the MFW student pages.

MAF supports missionaries by air in many countries around the world.  

Hard to tell, but the kids are watching a video about MAF on my iPad.  

I was told no study of Brazil was complete without sampling some brigadeiro.  

So, of course, we had to try some!

It was yummy!

More milky inside than I expected.  I guess I was thinking more "truffle-ish."  

Eli is painting a feather with vegetable to illustrate the way ducks produce oil for their feathers to help them shed water.  

I love homeschooling.  I love having these guys around and watching them play throughout the day.

Even when they're supposed to be getting ready for lunch.  ;)

Another craft failure.

It kind of looks like a cross between a worry doll and a mummy.

It's supposed to be a carnival dancer.  

My cute boy hole punching his Brazil flag to put into the South America section of his binder.

And my kinder-twins.  I pulled out the autumn shaped foamy beads and had them sort them and make bracelets.  Kept them busy for a while.  

Hannah's at that in between stage, where she doesn't need a nap EVERY day, but she needs one often enough that she's tired without them.  One day, she decided she'd had enough and she went upstairs and went to bed all on her own!  

The dress hanging on her dresser is something I just finished, but it's been too hot for her to wear it (it's corduroy).  

When studying the Amazon rainforest (or doing math), you just have to eat Jungle Animal cookies, right?  

It's all about the food around here.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please click the picture below to vote for us!
 

 I hate to keep asking, but your click on the above link may help drive more traffic to my blog.  Which means more people who will see our Fundraisers Page and may make a purchase.  Which is an easy way to help support our adoption.  You can click once a day.  Thank you!

 Linking up with: and

Happy Homestudy Draft Day To Me!

Happy Homestudy Draft Day to me!  Squeal!  Finally some forward progress!

Now, once the corrections are made,

and our placing agency approves it,

and we get the completed, notarized copies in the mail,

we can apply for preliminary immigration approval!

More fingerprints, here we come!  :)




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please click the picture below to vote for us!
 

 I hate to keep asking, but your click on the above link may help drive more traffic to my blog.  Which means more people who will see our Fundraisers Page and may make a purchase.  Which is an easy way to help support our adoption.  You can click once a day.  Thank you!

Boys Can Sew, too.

Yesterday, I got the rare chance to putter in the sewing room.  What usually happens when I go in there is that I get an audience.  Yesterday was no different.  At one point, I had 5 kids hanging out in there with me.  Sassy Girl regaled us with tales of how she knew how to make shirts and pants and such all by herself at her grandma's house.  We hear a lot of "stories" lately.

Eli got the chance to finish his self-drafted game boy pouch, which only needed a button hole.  

Sassy Girl seemed a little surprised that Eli could do such a thing.  He's now contemplating making a pouch for his Kindle, too.  I'll encourage him to go with a heavier weight fabric next time.  

After picking up a bit, deciding to toss one of my mending projects, and repairing a hole in Annaliese's squishy pillow, I pulled out some autumn colored baby wale corduroy to make Hannah a dress.

Only Eli wanted me to make him another kilt.  See, when he was in kindergarten, the kids were supposed to dress up for international day, and he asked me to make him a kilt so he could be a "Scottish dude."  I even went so far as to fashion a sort of Sporran and sock flashes.  It breaks my heart that the pictures of him in that are gone in the hard drive crash.  :(  He was so stinkin' adorable.

But he's still pretty cute now.  

I pleated and ironed and came up with this yesterday.  I think he needs another Medival Wooden Sword to go with it.  Maybe I'll add that to his Christmas wishlist.

Now, back to that dress idea!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please click the picture below to vote for us!
 

Homeschool Weekly Wrap Up - Week 10

Although we're still learning about Brazil, a thoughtful friend of mine sent us a package of goodies from CANADA!  So we backtracked a little and got to put flag stickers on the different provinces and territories.

Any project with stickers is an immediate hit, right?  

Now that Hannah and Mr Jingle Pants are in school, they have HOMEWORK.

I brought the little table upstairs so they could work in the school room with us.

I'm really feeling the urge to redo the school room.  What we've got going here isn't working for the volume of people using the room.  While I LOVE the idea of a room full of books, I think we may need a room full of work surfaces and chairs even more.  Still percolating on ideas.  

Jack Jack doing his spelling.  He's outgrowing this seating setup.  

The "desk" is actually the base of Annaliese's old high chair.  

Eli doing his math.  This is my desk.

In case anyone wondered, I'm not crazy about the idea of homework for kindergarteners.  

Yes, they look cute together.

But getting them through their homework each morning (they're PM K, so we do it after we drop off 4/9 of the kids at school) is "interesting."  They're willing, but their abilities are questionable.  

Another "didn't wow me" craft.  :(  This is the drinking straw flute.  

The book talks about how varying the length of the straw will effect the pitch.

Bri went short, and decided it was actually doll sized.  

Uh huh.  

Since we backtracked into Canada, I picked up some Maple Leaf Cookies at Trader Joe's.  

Enraptured with maple?  

Trying to get us back on track, Brianna made ambrosia from scratch.  

None of us were impressed.  

Is it just me, or do homeschoolers usually have weird stuff going on in their kitchens?  

Learning about phloem and xylem.  

I finally had a chance to go through the kids' color coded school folders.  Kind of like a cumulative file, only they'd accumulated way too much.  So I pulled all of last year's tests out.  Somehow, looking at the 3" stack made me feel better about how much we accomplished last year.  

I also loved finding cards, love notes, mom appreciation poems, etc in their folders.  :)  

It gives me the motivation to keep going.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 Your click on the above link may help drive more traffic to my blog.  Which means more people who will see our Fundraisers Page and may make a purchase.  You can click once a day.  Thank you!

Christmas Shopping?

A few days ago, I mentioned on Facebook that we've earned over $30 last month from people using 

Our Amazon Link.  If you're going to be doing any Christmas shopping on Amazon, I hope you'll consider clicking through our link, too.  

Another neat idea is a linkup of fundraising families, and the products they are selling.  

http://mycupoverfloweth.blogspot.com/2012/10/christmas-frenzy.html

After you make your Christmas list, check out the linkup and see if you can support an adopting family.  :)  If you're in the process of adopting, join us with your fundraising efforts and spread the word!

And just as a reminder, here are ways you can shop and help us earn the funds for our adoption:

Wild Olive Tees
http://store.wildolivetees.com/adoption-fundraiser-tees-c6.aspx

Please use family code BERNARD719 when ordering so we get credit.  Thank you!  

Just Love Coffee

https://justlovecoffee.com/grtlyblesd

Jubilee's Jewels

Click here for Beautiful hand crafted necklaces designed just for us! The blue stone is a reminder of the "God wink" of Katie's birthday being in September. 















Your Adopt Shop
http://www.youradoptshop.org/store/grtlyblesd
Homeschool curriculum, hand made clothing, hair bows, bow holders, diapers, Baby Legs, and more.  This is a bunch of random stuff I'm trying to sell to raise funds.  There are other adoptive families selling here, too.

Adoption Bug T-shirts
http://www.adoptionbug.com/grtlyblesd/

Our Soul Purpose Necklaces
Mention Shecki or Grtlyblesd with your order from the Our Soul Purpose Etsy shop.

Flip Flop 2 Adopt
flip flops, sandals, shoes, rain boots, watches, and more
Mention "Bringing Home Katie" as the fundraiser group name.
http://www.flipflop2adopt.com/?code=BHK

Our Amazon.com affiliate link:  http://www.amazon.com/?&tag=greatbless-20&linkCode=wsw

100 Good Wishes, a donation site

Also, Our Amazon Wish List

http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/1EGQ255LNY8V0/ref=cm_wl_act_vv?_encoding=UTF8&visitor-view=1&reveal=

Thank you for your support!  

Any Suggestions For Water Free Meals?

My kitchen.

My dishwasher.

Okay, so the dishwasher is in the garage.  But this is where the dishwasher is supposed to be.  

My sink.

Notice the faucet?  

Me neither.

Sigh

The sad thing is, the whole stinkin' island needs to be ripped out and re-done, due to water damage and poor construction.  There's just no possible way we can afford that right now.  So Paul is trying to patch and fix as much as possible to hold things together the best we can.  

Guess I'll be getting my Little House on the Prairie mode on.

Feeding 9 kids 3 times a day with no water?  

Bring it on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 Your click on the above link may help drive more traffic to my blog.  Which means more people who will see our Fundraisers Page and may make a purchase.  You can click once a day.  Thank you!

Mr Jingle Pants Goes To School

People have asked me what it's like to be a host family.

This is a snap of the very hardest part.

Mr Jingle Pants was sobbing when he came back from a visit with his mom.  

He crashed out on the couch, emotionally drained.

Try as we might, there's no way to comfort a hurt like that.

Other than the fact that they miss their mom, it's rapidly settling into a routine.

And today was Mr Jingle Pants' first EVER day of school!  

I am SO grateful he ended up in a p.m. K class!  

The fact that he got Hannah's track and Hannah's teacher is a great bonus, but more than anything I'm glad we don't have to be at the school FOUR times a day.  

Just 3 times, lol.

(Dropping off Sassy Girl at the bus in the morning, dropping off the K kids at mid-day, and picking them all up in the afternoon.)

Seriously?  Have you ever seen anything so cute??

It's a little bit like having big twins, especially when they both want to sit on my lap while we're watching a movie.  :)  

I so wish I could show you some of the other adorable pictures I took of his birthday dinner.  He's such a sweet boy.  :)  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A huge THANK YOU to those of you who've clicked the image below!  We're #31 right now!  I'd love to get under 26 so we can be on the first page of the list.  I appreciate every click!

 

 Your click on the above link may help drive more traffic to my blog.  Which means more people who will see our Fundraisers Page and may make a purchase.  You can click once a day.  Thank you!