Thursday, April 17th "Half" Day

So one of the biggest arguments against homeschooling is the "lack of socialization" that kids get. Well, today we proved that wrong! We probably had a little TOO MUCH socialization :/ . We actually didn't get to a specific reading, writing, or science lesson today. WHOOPS!

Here's what we DID get done...

Connor's first piano lesson!! Thanks Alaina!

Where are the states? He's doing really well!

Amelia's first attempt at scissors. Scary!

Connor taking his chapters 1 & 2 test. He only got 1 wrong. Way to go!!!

"Mommy and the Beanstalk" By Connor Rice

Last week I posted about a story Connor had written, but I kept forgetting to bring his notebook with me to the library so that I could type it on the blog. Well, without further ado...

"Mommy and the Beanstalk"

   Once upon a time there were two people named Connor and Amelia. They loved their rabbit named Luna. And one day Momma gave Luna away for five magic apples. And then she planted the magic apples. And then it grew into an applestalk. Then momma climbed up the beanstalk (not a typo) with everbody. With everybody we found a giant fish. And it had Papaw's gold and Mimi got the gold back. Then they killed the fish giant. Then they lived happily ever after.

The End

Wednesday, April 17th "Experiment FAIL!"

I had Connor take a chapter test in math and he got a 100%! So excited for him. Tomorrow I will give him a chapter 1 and 2 review test. Moving along and building up his portfolio!

We went to the library again today for story time. Here is Amelia doing her little "Hokey Pokey" dance:

So in science I tried to do another magnet experiment, but this one didn't work AT ALL! BOO! I think I have to get a different magnet, so we are going to try again another day. Poor Connor was pretty dejected.

In art we sculpted shapes out of our modeling clay and we talked about what it means for something to be 2-dimensional verses 3-dimensional.

I know, not very many pictures today, but I was really tired and so we moved through our subjects really slowly. But when I got up this morning, Connor informed me that he had already gotten dressed, made his bed and brushed his teeth. He absolutely LOVES homeschooling. It is so much fun for all of us. For the first time, I feel like a REAL mom. I am 100% in charge of teaching my kids and I take the responsibility very seriously.

On a side note....I met two more homeschooling moms today at the library. It is like an underground club you didn't know existed, but once you become a part of it, you can pick out the other members in an instant. What an amazing network!

Tuesday, April 16th- "Magnetism" continued...

I promise we do other things besides science in our homeschool lessons...

But for today's experiment, the kids put on a "puppet" show using magnets, paper dolls and a shoebox.

I also worked with Connor on sentences today, helping him to understand that capital letters are special. You don't have to use them with every word :)

For Spanish we played a memory/matching game. He's doing really well with his colors.

For social studies, we are still practicing our "United States" song and learning where all of the states in the United States are. Our goal is to have the song memorized by the time my mom comes into town on Saturday so that the kids can sing it to her. I can't wait to post the video of that one!

Another SUPER cool thing we got to look at today was a hornet's nest that Jason pulled out of our bird feeder. What was particularly awesome about it was that it still had the larvae inside. So, too bad for the larvae, but we enjoyed dissecting it! Check out our pictures...

If you look closely at the larva in the middle, you can see the eyes are already formed. It was the one that looked the most like a hornet.

In this picture, you can actually see the various stages of larvae. The two on the bottom are much less developed than the ones above them. The one at the very top had two eyes forming. You can already see the body formation in the upper right larva. Close up, you could see its wings starting to form along with little legs. All in all, pretty cool!

Monday, April 15th- "Magnetism"

On Sunday morning before church, Connor discovered that magnets can stick to things. Aiming to capitalize on his excitement for the new said discovery, I decided we would study magnets this week in science.

(Our supplies)

(She might not like everything we do, but Amelia NEVER misses a day of science experiments!)

Look at that face! Is it any wonder why I LOVE homeschooling? Look what I would be missing out on every day!

We worked on colors some more in Spanish and I had him complete a timeline for the Book of Mormon stories we've read so far. Believe it or not, creating and understanding the use of timelines is one of his kindergarten benchmarks.

But the special treat of the day was for Family Home Evening. The library held an event called, "Wonders of Nature," and we had front-row seats! There are a lot of videos below, so since I know all of you missed it, you can enjoy our fun!

When I said front-row seats, I meant it. Here is Jason and I almost getting attacked by a hawk. The presenter actually joked that Jason would be getting a new hair style that night!

(Opossum)

Flying squirrel! Except it doesn't fly, it glides. So really it should be called a "gliding squirrel."

(At least that is what we were told ;) )

I can't remember which type of bird these are, but they were pretty smart. He had them trained to wait until he told them to fly to him and then they opened their cage and away they went. Wish I had my children so well trained :p

What WAS awesome about these birds was that the presenter talked about camouflage- a term we had discussed JUST that afternoon when we read a book about Tiger Sharks. Once again, accidental reinforcement of a concept!

This next sequence of videos is SO awesome! This parrot was so cool!

Then there was the squirrel...our presenter's favorite animal. I wish Papa had been there to set this guy straight!

And then there was this crazy bird...

Connor's favorite part was the talking parrot. Amelia's favorite part was the Flying Squirrel. I think Jason's favorite part was leaving with all of his hair!

'

Friday, April 12th

We had sort of a low-key learning day today. Of course, I say that, but I'm pretty sure Connor wouldn't say the same thing. He worked really hard today on breaking down wholes twice. Poor guy. It really is a pretty difficult concept for him. So I introduced the "thinking cap" to him. Now he asks to wear it every time I ask him a question.

So here he is trying to break down whole numbers:

Can't  you tell just how excited he was to do this exercise :) I'm telling you...pure torture! Later in the day I had him practice a couple more and he got them. He is such a smart kid!


The library had a "Motion Commotion" activity today. It's really more for Amelia's age group, but Connor partially participated. Here's Amelia doing "I'm a Little Teapot."

After viewing our attempts at the parachute experiment, my sister suggested that we launch them off of our staircase. This worked SO much better! We talked about gravity some more and experiment with throwing the dough off the staircase without the parachute. Boy did it flatten!

We ended the day with some painting. They are becoming quite the little artists!

Another Day in Paradise

Boy did I wake up on the WRONG side of the bed this morning! But, like Connor yesterday, I had to tell myself to put on my big girl panties and get going!

I absolutely kicked Connor's butt in math today. He is really having a difficult time with parts and wholes. He wants to use his fingers even though he has pasta pieces in front of him. He just doesn't see that no matter how you split up the pieces, they will always equal the whole. We'll be practicing this a lot more.

We continued with our study of air today by making parachutes.

Question: What makes a parachute float?

Hypothesis: The wind.

First we collected our materials.

Then we designed our parachutes.

Then we made little clay men and attached them to our parachutes.

Then it was time to go outside and try out our experiment:

(You can tell by the sound of my voice that I was just not into this today.)

Results: Our hypothesis was SORT OF correct. It was air pushing against the inside of our parachute that helps it to float.

So we tried it again in the house:

But we didn't stop there. We talked about how gravity works on an object and used a balled up piece of clay to show what happens when it is dropped at various heights. The kids enjoyed watching it get flattened!

For Spanish I had Connor label index cards with the names of the colors and tape them to corresponding-colored items in the living room.

Since I wasn't having a super day, we read books together for reading and read scriptures. We worked on directions (north, south, east, west) for social studies and identified the states that our relatives live in. I have started teaching them "The United States" song so that will be fun to record and post :)

I am continually amazed at how many times I hear Connor ask, "Is it time for homeschool yet?" or "Is it 9:00 yet?" He can't wait to get going and learn. It is just so fun for us. The learning never really ends because there are constant questions and explorations to be made. I'm rightfully exhausted, (as I haven't built up my teaching stamina again yet) but it is so worth it!