September 9-13: Moon

Monday

This week is Cedar City week.  We've been down visiting all our family.  Grandma Thompson was in the hospital for Pneumonia and we're glad we could be down here to help out.  

We'll be doing half day school for this week.  In the morning the kids got to play with Grandma Rowley and Carson.  They always love that.  We then were able to go visit Grandma Thompson in the hospital and the kids squirmed over seeing the IV in her arm.  

Next we came back to the Rowley's and had our lessons.  Today we talked about the story in the Book of Mormon when Christ came to the Americas and the sun was darkened.  Christ asked for the little children to come to him and he blessed them and talked to them.  

We then read about eclipses, and how during solar eclipses the sun gets darkened for a short time.

Next we went outside and played a "duck duck goose" game but with sounds of a word.  We'd choose a word like cat, and then the person who was IT would walk around and tap a head and say "c", "a", "t", and then say the whole word to the next person and that person had to chase the person who was it.  It was really fun for the kids, and watching them think about the sounds.  

Next we read a chapter of "Wind in the Willows" outside. We made predictions, told what we would do in a situation, and discussed the story as we went along.  We discussed how Toad is always wanting the latest and coolest things.  We drew a picture in our journals about something we wished we had.  We talked about how things are neat and fun, but people are more important than things.

Tuesday

Today we started out watching the Old Testament video of Enoch and the City of Zion.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.  Then I let them have computer time for a half hour.  Annabelle played Deep Sea Phonics and was loving it.  She was doing so well, and advanced to "really hard" level.  It was fun to listen to her feel proud of herself.  Evan played a game that matches uppercase and lowercase letters.  Now I can't find the game, but it was cute.  

Next we talked about the relation between the Earth and the Moon.  We attached two balls together (with duct tape of course) one to represent the moon and one to represent the earth they were connected by a rubber band.  We discussed the orbit of the Moon around the Earth, and why the Moon doest just fly off into space.  The rubber band represented the gravity of the Earth pulling the Moon towards it, and the movement of the Moon circling the Earth pulls it away from the Earth.  The delicate balance holds it in just the right place.  We played with that for a little while until it fell apart.  

Next we played Uno, because I justified it will help Evan with his numbers.  It can't hurt anyway.

After that we did a couple pages from our workbooks on math and language arts.  While I read little snippets from the Reader's Digest.

Next we continued our reading of "Wind in the Willows" and talked about things we are afraid of.  The kids drew pictures in their journals and told about them.

Wednesday-Friday

We did not have any formal lessons these days, but here are some special everyday learning experiences that occurred: 

• We visited cousin Ethan and he showed us his frog, "Monsieur Frog".  We got to touch him, and help get him back in his cage when he tried to hop away.  Ethan taught the kids a little about the habitat of the frog. They observed the eyes of the frog and how they stick out so he can look all around him.
• We went to Image Pro and visited friends and family who work there.  We went in the press room where daddy used to work.  Annabelle said she remembered the smell of the room (all the ink and chemicals).  I printed off some phonics books and the kids were able to punch the pages of their books and help coil bind them.  They thought that was pretty awesome.
• We played around the city lighthouse, which is probably the only one that was not built around any water whatsoever.  "Why did people build it, if there isn't any water here?"  Great question, Annabelle.  I researched and found that it was a real lighthouse that was disassembled and brought from Europe to "light the way" to the retail complex called Providence Center.  Pretty good way to get attention!

• The kids played more educational computer games.
• We saw a grasshopper and watched him hop around.
• The kids got to spend lots of time with Grandparents and cousins.  They played on the swings and slide with Carson and Grandma Rowley, got "air-plane rides" from Grandpa Thompson, played hide-and-go-seek in a forest-ie backyard, and played at the school playground; where Annabelle had her first success at crossing the monkey bars.
• Katelyn had her first experiences with cats.  She learned that they are super cute, but also have razor sharp claws.  She still loves them though and every times she sees one points and smiles and makes the cutest "ooooohhh" sound.  I wish I'd have taken video.

These are just a few of the many fun times we had.  We will probably still plan on "making up" three days worth of "school" but I am so glad that my kids were able to experience these unscheduled learning experiences.