Bible Poverty

I am privileged. So is the rest of my family. So are many of you. We can know the One True God and we have his book in our very own language. Actually, we have numerous translations in our very own language. Go ahead, go count how many bibles you have in your home. What about all the ones you have easy access to?

So, the point of this is that I am beyond thankful for knowing God and having access to the book through which he can speak to me in such a personal way. And I can give that gift to my kids. In addition to reading the Bible, I can hide the words in my heart through meditation and memorization. I feel this is an integral thing for me to do in my own life and to help my children do to. For the Word of God is living and active and able to help me each and every day.

Our family has several ways that we hide God's Word in our hearts. We have a memory box that we review from each day around the breakfast table. We have some scripture CDs in our car that we listen to. And, this year, I memorized Romans 8. That is 39 verses. Well, I mostly memorized it. I can recite it using the first letters as a prompt, but that counts right? :) I am still working on it. Olivia memorized 39 verses from the book of Matthew this year. She read the entire book of Matthew and then she memorized (and copied) select verses as a part of the My Father's World-Exploring Countries and Cultures curriculum. Below you will see the videos of her and I reciting. Olivia, unlike me, needed little to no prompting. It is amazing what she can memorize. We included Emma in my video, hoping her cuteness will give you reason to watch. :)

But there are many people in the world who do not have access to the Bible at all and there are many who do not have access to it in their heart language. My friend, Katrina, wrote an amazing blog post last September that inspired us. Go read it but come back, please. :) We are going to get involved by donating $78 (that is a dollar for each verse O and I memorized) to The Seed Company for their One Verse campaign. For $26 dollars you can translate one verse of the bible for a people group that don't have access. Our family will get to translate 3 verses for the Vidunda people in Tanzania (my friend's chosen group).

 Will you join us? We did the memorizing and we would love for you to give in response to that work. (like pledges) Or you can certainly take the challenge to memorize too and then donate based on your memory work.  Here is the link to donate. Thank you!

Wrapping Up Our Journey Around the World

We finished out our journey of exploring people and animals around the world with a wrap-up and celebration night. Olivia reviewed her notebooks and we remembered the various projects completed this year. 

This is an animal height chart that we used this year. First, we placed her and our dog Sarah on the it. Then as we talked about each animal we added it. This was one of the resources from the Winter Promise company that I added to our MFW-ECC curriculum.

Then we put on our Wee Sing album and had a flag parade and dance.

Marshes and Swamps

Olivia and I have been studying marshes and swamps over the past 4-6 weeks and have had a fun time doing it. This is the final ecosystem that she has learned about this year following others like deserts, forests, mountains, rain forests, lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. For each one there have been tons of activities that we did in the "Burrows, Beehives & Beds Journal" from WinterPromise. We took several trips to local wetlands like the Bog Garden to observe the animals and insects that live there.

We saw dragonflies "playing tag"

a Great Blue Heron hunting for food, (if you look closely, he has a turtle in his beak.)

Painted Turtles,

more turtles sunning themselves

lots of fish and tadpoles

ducks, both big

and small,

along with other birds, like this nuthatch, taking advantage of the abundant food in the swamp. We watched him beat the tar out of that caterpillar for a good 5 minutes. He was determined...

We learned a lot about the benefits of swamp ecosystems, which help with flood control by giving rivers and streams somewhere to overflow, cleaning up water pollution by filtering it through soil, and providing refuge and nutrition to hundreds of animal species.

Olivia learned the proper water-to-dirt ratio for making good mud.

"not too much and not too little."

We attempted to open a "bug dessert bar" but the rain washed it away before we could get any customers.

We mashed together some brown sugar and overripe banana and smeared it on a tree.

mmmm...

One of Olivia's favorite books that we read was "Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle". We studied the differences between frogs and toads and made a couple of attempts to find and catch a toad, but we were unsuccessful. However, one ill-fated trip actually let us see a swamp in action. There had been a major storm earlier in the day and when we got into the Bog Garden, it was almost completely flooded. The boardwalk was just barely above the water level, when it's usually mostly over dry ground. there was evidence that earlier in the day, it had been underwater - a difference of 3 to 4 feet from normal levels!

Our Last Two Continents

We finished out our world travels this last week. Well, at least for now. :) Both continents are found entirely below the equator but are very different. First we spent time in Australia. That included studying Coral Reefs. Then we headed to Antarctica. Here we reviewed both polar regions, comparing and contrasting them. 

This is Olivia's model of an undersea volcano that would eventually become an island surrounded by different types of  coral. 

Here she is using her observation journal (this was one of the resources I added and it came from the Winter Promise company) and reading from her One Small Square Coral Reef book.

Dot Art: The top two are scenes from Australia, the left one being Sydney and the right one be Ayer's Rock and the desert. Then there is the map shape of Australia below in the center.

Aboriginal bark drawing

Olivia learned that there is no government in Antarctica and therefore no flag. She was to design her own. Throughout the year she has learned about the significance of the flags of the countries we have visited. She chose yellow to symbolize the light of summer, black to symbolize the darkness of winter, the white to symbolize the ice, and the picture is to symbolize that the continent is primarily for scientific research and exploration. I'd say she did a good job thinking that one through. :)

learning about the insulation provided by the fat on penguins

Iceberg

We learned about explorers and she had to tell me what she would need for an exploration trip to Antarctica.

Olivia was to give me a presentation of sorts on the two polar regions. She took it quite seriously and did a good job. :)

Here she is giving me a presentation on penguins:

Here is the nest.

The parent penguin is regurgitating food for her chick.

Here is the mother penguin teaching the baby to fish for krill. The rottie dog on the right is a seal predator. :) 

Aquarium Visit

It seemed fitting to take a trip to an aquarium considering Olivia's recent science focus of the ecosystems of rivers, lakes, swamps, estuaries, oceans, beaches. It was encouraging to hear Olivia use the vocabulary she has learned and have a better understanding of what she was seeing because of her studies. We will be doing coral reefs coming up. And of course this was great fun for all 3 of the big kids.

Rivers:

Identifying scales and fish skins with the ones in the tank. Olivia had no trouble with this. Ezra was reaching for my camera. He is very hard to get a picture of because he just wants to come get the camera from me. He is into buttons and loves taking things apart and messing with them. :)

Swamps:

This was Olivia's second favorite animal of the visit. She was standing there watching him when it snapped at her and totally freaked her out. Gabe thought that was quite funny too and enjoyed telling people that the crocodile had snapped at his sister. :)

Waves and Sand:

Oceans:

Gabe and Ezra loved this part of the aquarium because they were "in the water with the fish" in Gabe's words.

Olivia thought she wanted to touch the rays but quickly changed her mind. She did say this was her favorite animal of the day.

Gabe was the one that caught on to what was happening in these displays. I thought that was funny. He said right away, "Look that Turtle is laying it's eggs in the sand. And the babies are coming out." :)

turtle nursery

Once we got home we watched, Turtle, The Incredible Journey, which is a documentary about the sea turtle and how it survives incredible odds.

Outside observing the Bay:

Sometimes I look back at pictures and wonder what i caught them doing at that moment. Their body language and facial expressions are too funny. I am not so good at posed shots if you haven't figured that out. ;)

Jets flying over. A big hit with the kids. Very loud though too.

Trying hard to convince me that he must have the camera. He likes to say, "I need it" or "mine"(in a very matter-o-fact way).

And Finally:

It was an exciting (and tiring) visit. She didn't have a lot to say about it (well, at this moment anyway). :)