Unit 11: Insect

Unit 11 was all about the letter Ii and insects. Caleb learned how hard the ant works to find, gather and store food. In fact a lot of insects works hard. They are not lazy. This was a great intro to why working hard has it's rewards. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 NIV. What a promise to hold onto and keep.

 Now here is where I have to admit we are so far behind. We seem to do a little work, take a few days off, do a little work, take a few days off, and on and on it goes or life happens. Sigh! But then I have to remind myself this is not like regular school and when we do take a few days off the information he is learning soaks in a bit better and then he is ready to learn something new. Therefore, I've concluded this is perfectly acceptable as he is increasing in his ability to sit still and listen.

Caleb working hard in his Singapore Math book identifying shapes: circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, cylinders, spheres, and cones. This book gives a lot of practice and is setting a good foundation. Of course, I laugh because when he is on the computer playing math games he is accomplishing addition, subtraction and multiplication facts.

Another insect that works hard is the honey bee. Caleb showing off his honeycomb and inside are eggs (rice), larvae (painted pumpkin seeds since I didn't have any beans) and food (brown paper). In doing this activity Caleb learned, The law of the Lord is perfect . . . The rules of the Lord are right . . . They are sweeter than honey that is taken from the honeycomb. Psalm 19:7-10. A wonderful age to learn the Lord's word is sweeter to the soul than honey is to the tongue.

We finished Unit 11 reading The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco. A wonderful book about a little girl who complained about having to read so much. So her grandpa said oh really, you don't want to read, you want to go run and play? Then I think it's time we find a bee tree. What's that? The little girl asked? Well, grandpa gets a jar and they go outside and he ever so carefully places three bees inside the jar. He let's one bee go and they start to chase it. Along the way the towns people ask what is going on and ask to join the fun. If they loose track of the bee another one is let out until finally the tree with the honey inside is found. After collecting enough honey for everyone to enjoy grandpa pulls the little girl aside and places a bit of honey on top of her book and is told to taste it. Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are difficult to obtain, but you must seek after it like the words in this book. Beautiful and priceless.