Monday
What a great day! We started it out by making cinnamon rolls (because I accidently left a whole bag of Rhodes Rolls out on Sunday). I showed the kids all the different measuring spoons and cups and I had them experiment with them. It wasn't long before they realized that it takes four 1/4 t. to equal a whole teaspoon, etc. It really clicked for them, and we even talked about how 1/4+1/4=1/2. It was so simple...a whole lot simpler than trying to learn it from a worksheet or something like that.
Sorry for the crummy pictures.
Evan loved cutting the cinnamon rolls with floss!
Our matching shirts :)
Annabelle's tooth became dangerously loose.
And later fell out when I was wiping frosting off her face
I sure hope the tooth fairy remembers to come!
For devotional we talked about Heavently Father's plan for us.
For story time we read from "Greek Myths." The kids absolutely love the stories, and they've learned the meaning of many new words.
Math time
After math we needed a break, so we played tag out back and had lunch and delicious cinnamon rolls.
Then we made hand shadow puppets and traced our face silhouettes for art. They turned out so cute!
So I should probably at least get the picture frames in a straight line, but for now I don't really care, they're just cute.
Tuesday
We started out with a devotional about the Plan of Salvation. The kids colored pictures while I told a story, which we had a great discussion about. While the kids finished coloring, cutting and gluing I read another story from their recent favorite book, "Greek Myths," a story called "Three Golden Apples", a story about Atlanta and how the Olympic games first began.
We then played a game that the kids loved. I had two fly swatters, and I put a picture of the alphabet on the projector. I would say a letter or a sound and the kids would try to hurry and swat the letter. It was a good high energy activity for them. It was also fun to listen to Katelyn mimic the sounds that I made. She's learning too!
Next Evan had a turn on the computer while Annabelle read to me from some leveled readers. Then they switched and Evan read while Annabelle had computer time.
Annabelle and I also played a game of checkers....which she won. I wasn't being easy on her either!
After lunch we began working on our solar oven. We talked about the rays of the sun passing through the plastic and getting trapped in the "oven" which makes it heat up inside. We also painted the inside of the box black to make it get hotter inside. We talked about how black is "greedy" and absorbs all the light, while white is "generous" and bounces the light off. The kids actually came up with an interesting analogy about white and black and good and evil. I had to stop and think about that for a little bit.
We then played a game that the kids loved. I had two fly swatters, and I put a picture of the alphabet on the projector. I would say a letter or a sound and the kids would try to hurry and swat the letter. It was a good high energy activity for them. It was also fun to listen to Katelyn mimic the sounds that I made. She's learning too!
Next Evan had a turn on the computer while Annabelle read to me from some leveled readers. Then they switched and Evan read while Annabelle had computer time.
Annabelle and I also played a game of checkers....which she won. I wasn't being easy on her either!
After lunch we began working on our solar oven. We talked about the rays of the sun passing through the plastic and getting trapped in the "oven" which makes it heat up inside. We also painted the inside of the box black to make it get hotter inside. We talked about how black is "greedy" and absorbs all the light, while white is "generous" and bounces the light off. The kids actually came up with an interesting analogy about white and black and good and evil. I had to stop and think about that for a little bit.
Here is our solar oven. We used some boxes that were used for packing the projector that already had the clear plastic on, which made it handy. We're excited to try it out tomorrow on mini pizzas and s'mores.
The solar oven took a while but the kids had a great time helping, and I think they learned a lot. You know, it's amazing how happy they've been these last couple days and have hardly fought at all. That's saying a lot! I think it helps that they get mom's full attention for a chunk of the day, and we have so many things to do.
Wednesday
We started the day out with a bike ride
But first we had to change a tire. The kids helped me do that, and then we were off. They absolutely loved it, especially Katelyn...oh and Macy our dog was ridiculously happy as she raced along beside us. Annabelle exclaimed, "this is the best day ever" and Evan: "I'm going to remember this forever all night long!" ok...whatever :) Anyways, it does feel good knowing we're building some fun memories. I asked the kids to be thinking about what we're grateful for, while we rode along. When we got back home we had devotional and talked about the things we were grateful for. We also then talked about prayer and how Heavenly Father really does hear us and help us. We then watched a video clip from the Old Testament story about Daniel in the lions den, and discussed it. We were then ready for lunch. We made our pizzas and placed them in our solar oven outside in the sun, and watched a science video about light and energy. We then ate our pizzas and then had desert...s'mores. Delicious!
Now at this point I was pretty bushed, so I put Katelyn down for a nap and then I took one too. The kids watched Veggie Tales. About a half hour later I felt much better. We proceeded to do our Math lesson which was on place value. The kid's attention span was pretty short so I don't know if they actually grasped the concept today, but I'll reintroduce it again soon. We then did some canning and talked about the different types of energy, such as light energy being transfered to heat, or electricity being transferred to heat.
The kids were dying to go out and ride their bikes...
Katelyn wishing she was big enough
Well overall we did not get everything I would have liked to get done academically speaking, but there's always tomorrow...we sure enjoyed the day!
Thursday
Today we went to the park with some other homeschool families. I forgot to bring my camera, but the kids found a dead snake that they thought was pretty interesting. They studied it and all the little features. On the way home we again talked about how darker colors absorb light more than lighter colors as Annabelle walked barefoot on the road. We stopped to take a break and talked about how all life needs the sun.
When we returned home we ate lunch and took a break. Evan worked on his language arts, and was so excited that he has now made it all the way through the alphabet part where he practices writing the letters and learning their sounds.
Annabelle wanted to work on her math, which she says is her favorite right now. We worked on counting by tens, thanks to some good old schoolhouse rock. We used the math manipulatives to make groups of tens and groups of ones to make two digit numbers. I could tell she was understanding it well.
I am also looking into My Tech High (which I previously thought was just for high school aged students, but turns out it's for ages 6 and up). I'm pretty impressed with it, and it will be accredited through a private charter school. Annabelle (and Evan in two years) would be able to still participate in public school extracurricular activities. I'd need to submit weekly learning logs, and the kids would have to take end of level testing, but I think that is good anyways, just to track how things are going and make sure we don't get too lazy.
Anyways, that's about all to report for today!
Friday
We had a devotional about being friends and talked about how to make friends by sharing. We talked about the story from the New Testament when Jesus fed five thousand people all from the meagre offering of a boy who was willing to share. We watch a video clip of the story and then sang and danced to "Give Said the Little Stream." They're so cute!
We then had a had a lesson on measuring by inches, and we all measured each other. Annabelle was proud that she is one inch taller than Evan. But Evan's feet are bigger than Annabelle's so I'm sure he'll pass her up eventually.
Next we wrote in our journals about the things that we love and drew pictures. I was hoping I could get them to write a little more, but their attention spans are only so long. We'll work on that later. While they drew I read to them from our Greek Myths book.
After that we moved on to our unit study on the sun. We discussed how light can bend when it goes through water or glass and the light separates to make a rainbow. I took down two of the glass plates from our chandelier and we polished them up, and took them outside to see if we could see rainbows. We were able to get little rainbows that were hard to see, but it worked. Next we sprayed the hose and saw the rainbow in the mist. Rainbows never cease to amaze me!
Then we watched Reading Rainbow about the legend of the Indian Paintbrush flower. The kids were fascinated by the Native American culture, and we've decided we have to try making clay pots.
Next we wanted to apply what we learned in devotional and took a box of tomatoes to our back door neighbor. Her tomato plants didn't produce at all, so she was pretty disappointed by it. We learned that by sharing we feel good inside, or as Annabelle described it, "Inside I feel not to hot and not too cold, but just right." haha...so cute.
Once we got home the kids decided they wanted to have a water party
Katie bringin' out the big guns
Annabelle and Evan were practicing "being baptised"
