This year, Mr. Athletic is studying Animals in Science (his choice) A few days ago, he had the joy (sarcasm) of dissecting a frog, which is what he had been studying. He learned a lot about the anatomy of a frog was able to see it first hand. LOH was wanting to see it too and brought, Traveller in to watch. LOH came upstairs to get a plastic model of a frog (anatomy) that we had gotten at the dollar store and he put that together while we did the dissection. Here are picts from that day.



He was a little skiddish, so first object was to make sure that the frog was REALLY dead, lol. BTW he wouldn't touch it but I did to prove to him it was dead



All three of the boys looking at the heart of a frog.



Ribbit! THE dissected Frog

Catching up here on a few things.

Our Field Trip to the Titanic Exhibition.

About a week ago, a group from our church went to the Titanic Exhibit here in Atlanta. We really didn't know if we were going to go and decided at the last minute. The one that we were waiting on was our very own LOH. Knowing that this exhibit had actual artifacts was an issue, because he had convictions that the money spent visiting would go towards other expeditions, further breaking down the ship. We have been to a few displays (which I will call, because they weren't exhibitions, because they were "fake" artifacts and not the real thing), in TN and SC at different Aquariums. He wrestled with it and decided to go because this exhibition, unlike the others, had REAL LIVE items and he knew that it would be something he needed to see.

For someone that doesn't know, my ds, fell in love with the Titanic and ship wrecks at the age of 7, and his obsession, I mean passion began. He now is 13, and had about 30 Titanic books on his shelf and that doesn't include the many many books that have been read and depleted from so many libraries. He has written a book with illustrations to document his passion (done on his own, not my doing) and watched countless numbers of films/documentaries(he didn't watch the Hollywood version, until many years later when it was on the TV, edited and some parts that a young man shouldn't see taken out, etc) (Robert Ballard) and what not, so this is truly
something that he is convicted about. (btw his bedroom is nautical, and he wants it to look like on of the suites on the Titanic ($)c, but we have nixed that and will try to come close to what he wants)

So we went ahead and went, with mixed emotions, but he is so glad he did. All of that information in his head, was popping like popcorn, to the point it was overwhelming, but where people from our church were asking HIM questions, lol. We weren't allowed to take pictures in side, and when I pressed them as to why, they said, because there have been "copycats" (other exhibits) that have copied their ideas, etc, and that is why and after being to those other exhibits I can see why but we got two outside of the exhibit and there is one at the top and and other group shot.

I haven't been able to get back here much, due to being busy. I am headed out to piano in a little bit, but wanted to update you on what has been going on here.

Last Saturday, My husband's company had a large corporate formal event at the High Museum of Art and the Louve exhibit. We were fortunate to be there on the first night of the new exhibit's opening. For those of you who don't know, the Louve is a museum in Paris, France. They have partnered with our Art Museum, over the next 4 years, to bring over their prized artifacts and real art, alternating every so often. They had an exhibit before and they changed it out to the "Art of Kings". Basically, this was art and statues that were in the possession of many Kings around the World. I started to take pictures and was told I could unless, I didn't use a flash. I got upstairs and was told that I couldn't take ANY pictures, so I am glad I got what I got. My parents took the boys for the night, while we went and we picked them up Sunday afternoon, after church. It was weird being at church without them, for sure, and quiet. We will go with the boys as a family later on, but this was just for my husband's company. BTW for those of you who don't know, LOH, has been studying Greece and Mr. Athletic has been studying Rome.


Here is a picture of Napolean


This is Homer (The Illiad and the Odessey) and my sweet (but silly) dh, who decided to get in the picture.


This is in the regular collection in the Art Museum, but it is a pencil drawing by Henri Matisse

The Tale of TWO lapbooks

Our littlest one, Traveller, Finished up two of his lapbooks. He finished up one on the House Wren and the other on Knights/Castles/King Arthur.

On the House Wren, We are still reading one of our favorite read-a-louds, Thornton Burgess Bird Book. Traveller has locked in and LOVES a character in there, who's name is Jenny Wren, a House Wren. When he told me that he wanted to do a lapbook, I asked him if he wanted to do a "Bird Lapbook?" His response, was, "NO, I want to do a Jenny Wren Lapbook, and he was very emphatic." So, we have a fairly small, lapbook , because it is all about the House Wren.

Here is what the outside looks like. Notice we painted the outside, blue and cut off the top to look like a bird house. I also printed a picture of a house wren, from the computer, and he colored and glued it:


This is the lapbook open. The left hand flap, is a picture of a house wren, with copywork of what he learned about it. The center of the lapbook has the following:
The top is 21 days to hatch a chick from Considering God's creation, a small pocket with what the egg looks like, about the nest, etc, and the right, is a booklet that is called "All about the House Wren" (more copywork):


The center flap opens as an additional flap is added. To the left is a layered book, with the Animal name classifications (kingdom, phylum, etc) of a house wren. He had to look these up and identify them. The next booklet is a Bird in Flight and talks about a bird's wings. We also glued a feather that we found in our yard to the back of the booklet. The Bird in flight was also copied from Considering God's Creation.



Next is his Knights/Castles and King Arthur Lapbook. Now, it is a large lapbook, but this is ALL he has wanted to do all year. He is still reading books, etc, but we ran out of ideas and things to put into the lapbook, so we decided to put it together. We started this LAST AUGUST, so we have worked on it all year. There are three additional flaps to the lapbook.

Here is the outside of the book, closed. I folded the lapbook, regular way. Cut the notched out of the top. Took Gray paper and cut it in 1/2 for the gate, and with a black pen, drew the gate bars (portcullis) and then took a piece of brown, the same size as the gray, and taped it to the back outside of the folder. So the gate folds open. We spray painted the outside silver gray (what we had) and the inside gold.



Here it is with the outside gate down:



Here is the lapbook open. On the left hand flap, is top, our family coat of arms, and bottom left is a small pocket book with the character qualities of Chilvary. The center, is a map of camelot, bottom center left is a small accordian book with pictures from when we went to the Renaissance festival and he told about it. The bottom center right, is his drawing of a map of the inside of a castle. The right inside flap, top right is his Knights vocabulary, and bottom right is a small pocket book with characters, and he named the characters of the King Arthur Story.



Center flap, out folded to the left. The top left is copywork from the Bible, Ephesians of being a Knight of the Faith (Helmet of Salvation,etc). I got the paper from www.donnayoung.org for the copywork, btw). The bottom left is one of 7 booklets. We copied pictures from a Castle book (McCaulay), and they were pictures of the different people that built the castles. He had to read about them and write what their jobs were. The center flap, is a pyramid of government during that time period. Below it is a biography of Joan of Arc (who is one of his favorite knights, btw). The right flap is as before (vocabulary, characters, etc):




Here is the lapbook, completely folded out:



Here are the left two flaps. They are mini books (a sheet folded 4 times but makes 2 booklets. They have the builders of the castle with their responsibilities inside.



This is the center back of the lapbook. The top is a mini book with Poetry from Alfred Lord Tennyson (my grandfather's name was Alfred Tennyson, btw). We have a book from the poet, and there were pages and pages of poetry about King Arthur. Our little one did some copying of the poetry in this booklet. The bottom center left, is the responsibilities of a knight and the bottom right is his written narration of the story of King Arthur.



Here is his copywork of his poetry from his minibook. Paper from www.donnayoung.org:


Back of Center flap:
Top one is booklet on how to be a knight (page, squire, knight and their responsibilities) and the other is the Round table with the names of knights.



This is the back of the lapbook, closed:


We are very proud of the progress he has made, and with all of our boys.

Today was a good day. We did school, but mainly are preparing for their international night with our Homeschool group. The oldest two are doing pottery with clay and writing handout reports, etc for their presentation, and the youngest was reading for his paper. The youngest is also doing Astronomy and we have molded some planets out of Model Magic from Crayola (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!! We got it with a 40% off coupon from Michael's). We put craft wire in the top and he is painting them now. We will finish them with glow in the dark paint!

Have a great day!
Southern Belle