The Secrets Beneath~Review

I had the opportunity to review The Secrets Beneath  by Kathleen Fuller.  It's the second in her The Mysteries of Middlefield series for the tween set.

I was intrigued by the book because I have a huge interest in the Amish culture and my daughter is a big mystery buff.  It seemed like the perfect thing to check out for my book-aholic daughter.

The story is about Bekah, a curious, young Amish girl who often gets accused of being noisy.  Add in a mysterious new neighbor and a moody cousin who suddenly moves in with the family and you've got an interesting tale.

The girls, who struggle to get along, find themselves bonding over the strange goings-on at the neighbors house.  They learn about the power of prayer and the importance of obedience when Bekah's curiosity lands them in a dangerous situation.

During the first couple of chapters I wasn't sure if I was going to like the book.  I was having a problem with the language.  The really modern English mixed with the Amish terminology seemed really random.  I've read a lot of Beverly Lewis' books and the language in this book just didn't seem to flow as well.

However, as the story picked up, the language didn't bother me as much.  Looking back, I think the more modern English was meant to make the book more readable for the intended audience.

Overall, as an adult reading a book meant for tweens, I enjoyed the book.  The characters were likable and the storyline was interesting and engaging.  The suspense made you want to keep reading.  It gives the reader a glimpse into the Amish culture and provides some good lessons regarding obedience, gossip, and the power of prayer.

I'm excited for my daughter to read it as I know she will enjoy it and want to read the whole series.  This was the first book that I've read by Kathleen Fuller and I'm looking forward to checking out some of her adult fiction for myself.

Tot School

Kayleigh is 33 months old

It was a rough week this week.  Both girls were trying my patience a lot.  It's a miracle we all survived.  Despite the misbehaving we did a few things and went on a field trip.  We didn't do any theme or letter activities.  We just played with some toys and did a few montessori-type activities.

Tot Trays

I put out some feathers and a foam block.  Kayleigh enjoyed pushing the feathers into the block.  It took a little muscle on her part so I was surprised with how long she did this.  I saw this over at Shannon's Tot School.  

We attempted some marble tonging that I saw over on My Montessori Journey.  It didn't go exactly as we planned, as we didn't have the right kind of tongs, but she enjoyed using her fingers to place the marbles onto the suction cup pad.

I got out an old color matching game that I had from when I used to teach PS. It's a few years older than my almost ten year old.   Kayleigh did much better than the last time I brought it out.  LOL  She's not as into choosing all the wrong options then she used to be.  

We did a couple more pages in her Kumon Coloring Book.  She really likes that and thinks she a big kid with school work.  Just like Big Sis.

She played with her pounder and her stacking pegs.  That hammer gives her such joy. LOL

We had a surprise skill building activity courtesy of Daddy.  Daddy spoiled her and bought her Baby All Gone.  And boy does getting that spoon in and out of the bowl and into baby's mouth take a lot of fine motor control.  That was a nice surprise.  And does she love that baby.  She's been feeding it non-stop and telling it  "I yuv you Baby All Gone!"

We also went on a field trip to an art museum.  And boy was Kayleigh a piece of work.  LOL

I've been reading her these art books that have a touch and feel aspect for toddlers.  And boy is she good at recognizing the paintings in the book.  We saw a reproduction of Van Gogh's Starry Night at a mall a few weeks ago and she really impressed the store owner by telling her the name of the painting and the artist.  She also asked if she had "Van Goats bedroom"  also in her books.  LOL

She was amusing and horrifying the museum.  Amusing because she'd scream "Mary Cassatt" when she'd see a painting of a woman or a child.  Horrifying because she wanted to touch everything.  Uhhhh, maybe books that encourage touching of art are not such a great idea.  LOL  Thank goodness for strollers.

Here are some of her highlights.  She was fascinated with a statue of a girl and her broken tambourine.  "Why is she happy?  It's broken."

We finally did find a painting actually by Mary Cassatt.   That made everybody happy as Big Sis just studied her.

We heard Kayleigh shouting "na na!"  (Her old term for nursing.) Look what she found.  LOL

Here are a couple of shots that just make me laugh.  

Be sure to see what the other tot's are up too by clicking the Tot School button at the top of the page.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Famous Art

I'd like to start off this wrap-up by stating, while we got all of our school done and went on a nice field trip, it was not a good week.  My kids are driving my nuts.  I might start requesting brochures for boarding schools.  In Europe.  They have lost their ever-lovin' minds this week.

Good.  I feel better putting that in writing.  It's probably a good thing I'm going out with the gals tonight.  Without the ankle-biters.  

Now on to the actual schooling.

We're still studying "Go-Getters" in The Landmark History of the American People .  It's amazing at all the great innovators that our country has seen.

We also played a great American Inventors card game that I got from the Winter Promise American Achievements Activity Pack. (I use it to add some hands-on to our Sonlight studies.)  It had a couple of errors in it though.  Of course, they're they same errors being taught in PS so I guess it won't make anyone behind most of America. LOL  I did email them the corrections though.

We're finishing up Caddie Woodlawn and Old Yeller  and are excited to see what's next.

In Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 we're studying egg laying and bird "parenting".   Mackenzie has been very interested in how the chick develops and really liked the "air sac" activity that we did with an egg from our fridge.  She was thrilled to see almost all of the parts of an unfertilized egg.

LA is going well.  She moved up a level in her Spelling Power.  And she continues to learn about conjugating verbs in First Language Lessons.  Her only really hurdle in LA is summary narration.  We are using Writing with Ease  for our third year and she still hasn't really mastered a nice, concise summary.  Every once in a while she'll knock it out of the park and I'll say that is what you need to give me every time.  Then it goes right back to too many details, no mention of the main ideas or plot.  I still have to really hold her hand through this.  Sigh...

On the flip side, she really is a good writer.  She can write a nice sentence unless it involves something she read. LOL

We went on a field trip to the Chrysler Museum of Art and got to see some awesome stuff!

Mackenzie tried her hand at sketching some of the art.

We got to see a Mary Cassatt which was really exciting because we just finished studying her.

There was a bust and a photograph of Abe, who we also just finished studying.

Some gorgeous marble statues.

And some more big names like Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Matisse.

Be sure to head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and see what everyone else has been up too.

Operation Christmas Child

The Christmas season is, despite the cold weather, my favorite time of the year.  It's a time of tradition, family, history, celebration, giving, and receiving the best gift that one could imagine.

Operation Christmas Child, sponsored by Samaritans Purse, is one the favorite Christmas traditions for me and my oldest daughter, Mackenzie.  It's a wonderful chance for us to share the blessings, that God has so graciously bestowed upon us, with someone else.  And, more importantantly, we get to share our Greatest Gift, with someone who might not know the love of Christ.

Mackenzie LOVES shopping for OCC.  Every year she looks forward to that trip.  One wouldn't think it would take long to fill up a small shoebox but Mackenzie carefully considers every item. She wants to make sure that she picks things that another child will love.

This year I took a some pictures for some scrapbooking that I plan on doing but I thought I'd share them here and help spread the word about the project.

 

While Kayleigh liked the packing she didn't quite get the giving.  Maybe when she's three. LOL

If you'd like to know more about OCC, click any of the links or watch the video.  And, FYI, our local Chick-Fil-A is also promoting OCC.  You can pick up a box at any location, fill, and bring it back for a free chicken sandwich.  We were there for lunch last week and when Mackenzie saw the boxes she was so happy.  She said it's definately her favorite fast food place.

Tot School

Kayleigh is 32 months

We didn't really have a theme this week but our Letter of the Week was I and we did a lot of the inchworm stuff from over at Confessions of a Homeschooler along with a mishmash of this and that.  

Literacy Activities

We tried our our Scholastic Alphabet Mats this week.  The mats are in random order, so there wasn't one that had just the letters that we've covered.  So I just picked one and had her match capital letter to capital letter as I told her the names.

We sorted capital and lowercase Ii, did some inchworm "spelling", an Ii poke page, and an I is for Inchworm magnet page using our pom pom magnets.  All from COAH.

And we caught up on some of our ABC book.  We did G is for Gold (glitter) and H is for Hearts.

Math and Fine Motor Activities

She sorted inchworms from largest to smallest.  This was the first time we've tried this.  Up until now we just sorted big/little or small/medium/large.  Kayleigh did a great job and was very pleased with herself.

She played with a Geoboard for the first time.  I tried to show her how to make shapes with the bands but she was not interested.  So it was more of a fine motor activity than a math activity.

Kayleigh practiced her writing skills in a varitey of ways.  She worked in her Kumon My First Book Of Mazes, on an inchworm pre-writing sheet that I made for her, and did this adorable number maze from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Learning Toys and Other Stuff

She played with her Lauri Toys Shape and Color Sorter, her Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Cookie Shape Surprise, and a did a gem balance activity that I saw on Shannon's Tot School.

Be sure to click the Tot School button at the top of the page and see what the other tots are up too.