Warm As Wool

This has been a tough week to homeschool. Last Saturday, my dad passed away. My kids lost their Papa. We move through each day a little bit in shock. I'm so thankful for the friends that have offered help. A., one of my old core group girls has been coming over to help most Fridays. With her school schedule, she was able to come both Monday and Tuesday for a few hours. On Monday, she read to the kids and did math with L. On Tuesday, the kids built another log cabin, as the Ward family was another early America family. We talked about how drafty the cabin would be by looking at the cracks between our Lincoln logs. In Sunday School, the kids learned about David - the shepherd boy. I couldn't have planned that if I tried. Here's L's sheep craft.

And T's "woolly sheep" face.

The first time we read WAW the kids saw the similarities and differences between the Ward family and ours. The same: They had 2 boys and a girl like us. The family worshiped God. Different: The Ward children's teeth chattered because they were so cold. My kids have never known that feeling. I'm sure the fact that they've never experienced snow has a great deal to do with that, but it goes to show our affluence (we have no unmet needs) and their desperation (using rags to keep their feet warm).

The second time that we read through WAW, the boys used stuffed animals to represent each of the sheep. Subtracting when one died, and adding when there was a lamb born.

Since the "woolly" part of WAW spoke to the knitter in me, I focused on that this week.

The kids twisted the fibers to form a string. Then we plied with some plain wool I had in my stash. We talked about the time it would take to spin enough fiber to begin to weave.

And then we practiced weaving with bits of fabric and yarn on a piece of an old gate. I love this ART! The kids really got the hard work of frontier life.