Home Brothers

Johnathon and Graham go WAY back.  I first met their family when I was pregnant with Graham and Johnathon was a new baby!

Johnathon, Oliver, Graham + Aiden at Trunk or Treat

Johnathon celebrated his 10th birthday last week and Graham will be 9 next month.  Though completely different in personality, these boys are so awesome together.  Jill and I laugh that it's like watching two little old men interact, and it's been this way since they were little!  They almost anticipate each other's next idea or thought because they know each other so well.  Now they call each other "home brother" and love talking about how they will design their bachelor mansion with a bowling alley, giant pools, movie theaters.  Their plan is to play all day long in their bachelor pad leaving no time for anything else.  Like a job. :)  So funny.  Today, I snapped a pic of Graham's birthday sentiments for his home brother:

Mom, lets talk.

These are some of the topics of before-sleep discussions.  I love our bedtime chats!

Which holiday is more important, Thanksgiving or Christmas?

Why did they choose Christmas to be Jesus' birthday?

Which is more powerful?  God or Jesus?

Why did they call Christmas, "Christmas?"

Louis Zamporini

Last week, Louis Zamporini spoke at our church.  What an extraordinary man!  Graham is our resident history buff, and he has even read portions of Unbroken on the Kindle.   There were over 4,000 people at church that Tuesday evening, some had flown in from other parts of the country.  Louis is 96 years old.  I asked Graham to type a few words about Louis and the parts he'd remember most from Louis' talk.

"Louis Zamperini was a HERO.  Louis fought off sharks survived many dangerous situations he was amazing."

Egypt Day

Graham goes to a school that implements Core Knowledge.  Core themes are woven into the disciplines, even the basal readers.  Graham comes home excited about what he is learning.  This makes me (a former teacher) very happy.  :) We have really enjoyed the opportunity to extend his learning at home.  It has been so enriching, for ALL of us!   The series of books What Your ----- Needs to Know,   written by Hirsch, is the basis of the Core Knowledge program. 

One of the topics studied in first grade is Ancient Egypt.  A couple of weeks ago, the entire grade culminated their studies with "Egypt Day".  Each classroom was a station and the students enjoyed Egyptian food, played Egypt Bingo, made an Egyptian collar and had a wonderful time.  Here is our "mummy" sporting his best mummy pose.  :)

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"I learned about mummies, and people put the mummies inside sarcophagus'.  Babylon and Egypt both had gods and goddesses.  They were just Egypt gods, not the real GOD.  :)  King Tut was also named Tutankhamen.  Tutankhamen was one of the most famous kings of Egypt.  Queen Nefertiti was one queen of Egypt, too.  Queen Nefertiti was also a very famous queen.  And the people that lived in Egypt also thought that every night a man rose out of a flower on his flying boat and every night he picked the moon in his boat.  People that lived in Egypt had to catch fish to get food.  The people of the Nile river that lived in Egypt shared the Nile river with the people of Babylon.  King Tut died a long time ago and was put in a sarcophagus.  Also, he turned to a King when he was nine years old.  People that lived in Egypt had only pyramids.  The people of Babylon only had Zigurats.  A Zigurat is something that looks like a pyramid except it has bumps and it looks like it has steps.  Only the kings of Babylon and the queens of Babylon could go on top of the Zigurat.  The people of Babylon that were not royalty could not go on top of the Zigurat.  I felt very excited to learn about Egypt.  Learning about Egypt was the best thing I've ever learned about since I started in first grade."  -Graham

My Field Trip to the Greenway

I went to the pumpkin patch. I went to make my own bag. I drew a square. I drew me giving my friend a candy apple. I went on a tractor ride. I played ABC Bingo and when I was done I got to eat all of the fruit skittles, after the bingo game. When the tractor started going, it was like a bullet shooting the tractor. I saw horses. People were riding the horses! I got to look at the animals that were real, but the animals that were real were not alive. I got to see a snakeskin.

I got to see a hay maze...and I got to stand on TOP of the hay. And it was so fun.

I got to color a leaf and make my own necklace. To make the necklace, I got a cookie branch, I put beads on the string...there was a tree on my necklace. I saw the HUGE beehive...I saw the huge drawers in the forest. I got to the field trip by riding the bus, it was fun. My favorite animal was the owl. And that was dead. I'm all done now.