Weekly Wrap-Up: The Mummification of The Little Mermaid

 
We have been blessed with glorious weather this week. In fact, we're going to make our first stop the park when we leave to run errands later this evening. The kids played outdoors as soon as they finished their breakfast both yesterday and today. They ran out the door after completing each school task. We read our read-aloud and practiced Bible quizzing on the patio. We went for a nice, long walk to the local elementary school playground yesterday (the school is currently closed and scheduled for demolition, but the playground is still usable). I'm not forgetting that it is still "winter," but I am surely enjoying these warmer temps while I can! 

This week began with Valentine's Day. I created a fun, simple craft that we used for family devotions on Monday evening. Using construction paper, we made flower pots with heart shaped flowers growing from them. We looked up several Bible verses about God's love for us and then chose our favorite references to write on our flowers. Lukas had the idea to write a full verse on the pot, and I was so proud of him for this because we've been talking a lot about not doing the "bare minimum" that is required of us. The fact that he did more than was asked of him was fantastic, especially since I know how much he loathes writing. Eric and I also completed the project (this always thrills the kids). It made for a unique way to spend our family devotional time. Here are the kids' projects:

The new vocabulary study that I mentioned last week is going well. Looking up the Greek words that Lukas had previously been studying took him anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Seriously. There were 5 words. Writing the sentences with those same words took almost as long. This week? The five vocab words I gave him took him about 20 minutes to accomplish, and the sentence writing was quick and painless as well. Lukas actually said, "Wow. This went fast. I guess I'm getting better at using the dictionary." YES!!!!

The favorite project of the week? Mummifying Barbie. I got this idea from A Book of Artrageous Projects by Klutz that was recently given to Ava. My kids have been waiting to complete this project for a couple weeks. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I'm looking for ways to spice up our study of history. This project definitely fit the bill. Here are several pictures for your enjoyment.

First, the kids decorated the coffin.

Next, we added jewels and food items so that Ariel would be well supplied (the kids chose all these items themselves, and I found the food choices to be humorous).

After that, we embalmed Ariel. Much to our delight, the manufacturer had already removed all her internal organs, which saved us a lot of time (heehee). We rubbed her body with embalming oil (uh-hem...baby oil), and then we were supposed to pour salt over her, but someone forgot that part (uh-hem...me). I skipped this picture as Ariel was rather inappropriately exposed. 

After Ariel was properly prepared for burial, we wrapped her in the finest linen cloth we could find.

She was solemnly placed into her final resting place.

The kids tried really hard to put symbols on the coffin that matched those they saw on the photos in the book we were using.

This was probably one of the craziest and most fun projects we have done all school year. The kids LOVED it!

That's a wrap on this week's happenings. For more creative ideas, words of wisdom and general info about the ins and outs of homeschooling, visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.