He's Got High Hopes

Yep, and so do we! We really laughed learning this song today. We listened to a few different versions with Frank Sinatra and some kids, an old character on Sesame Street and a strange digital ant singing in a high pitched voice. All I know is I have " high apple pie in the sky hopes" for this lesson. Just say it, "nerd". Funny, I did not even know that this was a real song; it just reminded me of The Goofy Movie, when I was a little girl.

Anyways, we sang the "Ants Go Marching" and Hannah about leaped out of her pants getting so excited for this song. It was so funny :) Aesop has a fable entitled, " The Ant and the Grasshopper". This was read and then dramatized by Jay and Austen. I was very proud of Austen, he actively participated as the "ants" instead of sporting a sour look. This is something I have been praying about a LOT lately!

The boys than wrote/dictated their own fable. Jayden's was about a lazy ant, a hardworking ant and a praying mantis who, in the end, devours the lazy ant. Austen's was a more "round robin" approach. I began the story of a cow eating grass in the pasture and a mouse scurrying around getting ready for winter. Again, he did very well with articulating and telling a story- two of the goals I have for Austen this year.

We read Proverbs 6:6-9 and discussed as well as worked on memorizing this passage of scripture. Also, we read a bunch of Ant books today and discussed the four senses that they have, how they are used, the different types of ants in the colony, how a colony is formed ( did you know the queen ant mates with male ants in the air and then they all die, except the queen who flies down, rubs her wings off and then begins laying eggs-rough life guys). Also, we observed a cross section of an ant nest and the different chambers and finally the boys drew pictures of an ant from memory, then studied a labeled ant's body for 1 minute and did their best to recreate it accurately.

Austen was able to remember the thorax, abdomen and head. Jayden drew these three circles on top of the ants head and I asked what those were and he said, "its simple eyes" and sure enough, that is what they are called because they only detect lightness and darkness.

Tomorrow, we will observe an ant hill, make some observations and conclusions and hopefully, HOPEFULLY our ant farm will arrive tomorrow!