U--US

U--Us...God made us Wonderful.  This was our theme this past week from My Father's World.  Our Bible verse was Psalm 139: 12, 14: "For you created my inmost parts, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  (a side note...I really think that if my girls memorize and understand this verse it will help them through some of the difficult times later in life that girls often face.  If they understand the truth that they are fearfully and wonderfully made...that they are specially created by God, then maybe...hopefully it will help them through those perilous teenage years where girls often feel ugly, inadequate and wrongly made.  Lord...let this verse penetrate the hearts of my children so they know they are perfectly made by you, even when the world tells them they are awkward, ugly or undesirable).

So, this week, we studied the Five senses; sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.  We had a lot of fun learning about how God made our bodies to experience the world, playing games about our senses and learning how to read when we are blind, or speak when we are deaf.

Touch: I blindfolded Nicole and gave her several different objects that she felt and had to explain and then guess what it was.  Then, I took the sense away by putting socks on her hands.  This activity helped her learn how important her skin is to her sense of touch.

Hearing: I had the girls turn their backs on me while I made a noise with an object (a ball bouncing, a spinwheel spinning, an object opening, etc.) and they had to guess what was making the noise.  We also walked around the house and listened for noises we often don't "hear" because of how cluttered our sounds can be.  Throughout the rest of the week...Hannah made me a little crazy with all the *gasp* "Mommy, did you hear that?  A sound!"  and Nicole made me crazy with all of her (very good) questions about how sound travels and why can we hear sounds that are outside when we are inside.

We talked a lot about how our ears are made and how sound travels through our ears.  I wanted to make a large ear model...but never got around to it.

Finally, we also talked about people who can not hear at all.  I taught them the alphabet in sign language.  Nicole actually has picked up on several letters...this seemed like something she would like to learn more of.  Hannah just makes all kinds of crazy movements with her hands...probably shooting gang signs like the best of them:)


Sight: Although I should have...we did not walk around the house blindfolded and give directions....I probably should do that.  But we did learn about Braille and Nicole had to decode a message "written" in braille. 

Nicole's braille worksheet from Enchanted Learning

Smell: Again, the kids were blindfolded and they had to smell different items form the kitchen and guess what it was.  They smelled pepper, onions, marshmallows, apples, peanut butter and other objects.  Then, I had Nicole eat a slice of apple, while I held an onion under her nose.  This was to introduce the concept that our sense of smell and taste work together.

Hannah smelling a marshmallow

Nicole smelling pepper

Nicole smelling peanut butter

Nicole smelling an onion while eating an apple

Taste: Finally, our sense of taste...again, we blindfolded each other and tasted different foods.  Cake, cotton candy, raisins, sugar, salt, lemon juice.  They had to use the words; sweet, sour, salty or bitter to describe the taste.  When the lesson was over, I asked Nicole what the bumps on her tongue was called, she said, "Taste Dudes" :)  Close enough I suppose.

Nicole tasting something...maybe a potato chip

Hannah insisted that I played too...so I am tasting a raisin I think.

I got some good worksheets including the worksheets on braille and sign language from Enchanted learning.  Of course we also worked on our math and phonics.  It was a fun week filled with lots of hands on learning activities.

But....I'm really excited for next week:-)  Stay tuned.....