Sewing Machine Day

Yes, it is actually Sewing Machine Day!
The sewing machine was patented in the United States on September 10, 1846 by Elias Howe.

It was fun to read about, and will be more fun to celebrate this evening! Sewing machines are declining in popularity now (boo!), but I'm determined to use mine regularly, and teach my kids how to sew their clothes and some decor, crafts, etc.

Today is also my Dad's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

He's been traveling a lot lately, and will be leaving again next week, for Europe, so I'm hoping to get a mini celebration in this weekend.
Dad and me,

posing with the kids on Pier 19,

at South Padre in July.

India Unit Study

My Dad ("Poppy," as the kids call him) just returned from a business trip in India.

He brought us all kinds of souvenirs: t-shirts for the little boys, an Indian outfit for NatureMan, beautiful embroidered,embellished shirt for TheArtist, and a sari (also spelled "saree") for me. I haven't figured out how to put it on yet. You would not believe how much silk fabric is here!!

We've been looking at pictures, hearing the stories about the culture, cuisine, dress, and travel.

I've decided to spend a few evenings creating a unit study that we can go through. Started by checking these books out from the library. I'll go back in a few days for the others I'm interested in.
And I made this for myself with some zucchini that Papaw brought over from his garden. Yum.

And will follow this plan again, from Heart of Wisdom, to create the unit study:

Phase 1: Pray and seek God's wisdom and guidance.

Phase 2: Decide on a topic.

Phase 3: Decide on a schedule. (I plan to study India for two weeks)

Phase 4: Create the list of lessons. (current culture, animals, food, government-- and a lot of mini lesssons within these)

Phase 5: Make a list of resources. (My Dad, internet, library books, a video I checked out, the clothes and other souveniers)

Phase 6: Create vocabulary lists. (I'll compile a list from our library books, and Wikepedia's info on India)

Phase 7: Create four steps for each lesson.
~~Step 1: Make it interesting! (start with a field trip, video, interview...)

~~Step 2: Examine. Find out the facts. (internet, reference books, historical fiction and/or biographies...)
~~Step 3: Do something with what was learned. (make a book or a game, cook a dish, create a photo journal, design a costume, make a travel brochure, write a book review, or s song or news report...)
~~Step 4: Excel. Put it all together. (Add corrected work, map, illustrations to portfolio, use each word or term in a sentence, add to your vocab notebook any new words or terms used during the lesson, along with definitions...)

If you've already created or used a unit study on India, please let me know!

Joy in every day

In family news, Amy got her biopsy results back yesterday. The tumor is malignant. With a 90% chance of this, we were prepared for that kind of news. Actually, she doesn't have "regular kidney cancer," she has Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma, which is a pretty rare form of cancer (only like 5% of RCC patients have this form.) Go figure. Amy is special and had to get a special disease. Right, girl? ;-) Surgical removal of the kidney usually leads to a good prognosis. Just keep praying for fast, smooth, and complete treatment and recovery. And pray that her baby Ransom stays healthy and happy while she deals with these extra things on her plate. We could use continued prayer for peace, too. The "c" word is just scary. Staying busy helped me focus and breathe, usually an involuntary thing but I start holding my breathe if cancer stays on my mind too long.

In school news, I'm lovin' this year! It's like I hit my groove and realized just how FUN I could make everything. Our history and science studies have whetted my own appetite for the subjects.

We made this huge timeline for our dining room, that goes across two walls. Now to transfer our history notebook page info.
We're "supposed" to be studying about earth-y stuff right now in science but, in light of recent family events, we have skipped ahead to the human body. Now this is fun and interesting stuff!! After reading about skin last week, we made pages of our fingerprints and then added more body parts to Dash's outline. The kidneys were one of the first things we read about and added to the body. Amy's disease has prompted me to study kidneys more than I ever dreamed I would! For more pictures of the kid-sized human body, click here.
After "official school" (ha), we did royal paintings inspired by Deep Space Sparkle's plan, using a deck of cards for visual aids. Then finishing up the Mouse and Wizard fable lapbook. More pictures here.

I have to share one of our new favorite computer games, Crayon Physics. It is so much fun. The kids love making their shapes come to life. We just have the demo right now, but they've been taking 10-minute turns with it. Gotta love games that are fun, artistic, and teach!

Side activity: Lego Trojan Horse. Gotta love it. :-D

In spite of (or maybe because of,) all that has been going on, I know this will be a good week. We're not taking things for granted. I know my little sister will be okay. I believe that she will see a great doctor, get the surgery she needs, and she will recover quickly. We have a hedge of prayer and protection around her, and any one of us would drop everything and rush to her aid. But still. This makes me realize how fragile we are. And how much I need to focus on things that matter: relationships, quality AND quantity time with the kids, and my husband. We need to live life to the fullest and take JOY in all that we have been blessed with.