October 22 2012

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.  ~Logan Pearsall Smith

This morning after devotions I discovered that my camera batteries were dead.

Sadness.

Onwards and Upward.

So the day began with:

Animae drawing

Diego matching board game

Kreo building

Foil art

Piano playing

Beethhoven listening

Recorder playing

Much discussion about the history and lives of the different characters in these short stories

African stew eating

Counting by 5's and 10's with the game Boom-O!

Human Body puzzle and study

This book was a fantastic book to spur on learning.

This book has mammals from all around the world. We built our Geopuzzle of the World Continents

Then as we read the book, we looked for the continent and country the animal came from.

This book also include fun facts like how long the tongue is or nose. Out came the tape measure and we spent a great deal of the time giggling over the length of an anteater's tongue.

Exploding toads and other nature videos

Scratch art

Shooting star explanations

Spanish playaway book. I try it. I cannot talk like Jose.

Bible character 

 

This book inspired all sorts of learning today.

We grabbed a funnel shaped pop bottle and made a tornado

Attempted creating waterspouts

Then visited this site and made a tornado in a jar

Followed by making rain, and creating lightning.

The lightning experiment didn't work so well for us, but it was fun trying

Then some rousing discussion about the tales and wisdom of Aesop

Tuesday October 16 2012

My Lord loves me and Oh a wonder I see

A rainbow shines through my window, My Lord loves me

The morning started with this glorious sight

And then there was much singing of this song:

I cry every time I sing this song. I still hear my Dad singing this to me when I sing it.

It's World Dictionary Day! Show the Dictionary some love!

Games of Apples to Apples amidst reading, chores, math and copywork

We're listening to the Judy Blume audiobook called "Double Fudge". The book's main character is obsessed with money. So we make our own money and play several games

And then spend a gazillion hours playing Monopoly

H is for Hippo

Hip hip hip hippopotamus

Hip hip hooray, God made all of us

Hip hip hip hippopotamus

Hip hip hooray, He made us

-Mary Rice Hopkins

My son and I had a lot of fun making a home for his hippo. We used the netting from an onion bag and then dipped it in different paints to create textured water.

Then he glued his hippos down and added seaweed and fish

Hippo books that we read:

Hot Hippo

How Hippo

The Happy Hippopotami

How to be a Happy Hippo

Five Hippopotamuses

We decorated the letter H

And then we fed the Hungry Hippos

If the pumpkin fits, wear it. -Unknown

As previously mentioned, we are in love with 3-d shapes of late. It's all we can talk about. Spheres, Cylinders, Square based Pyraminds...it's all the rage over here.

We are loving shapes in a big way. Perhaps due to the hexaflexagon madness that inspired us from youtube.

Have you seen it?

No?

Well, let me share this with you.

And this:

We spent the remainder of the day saying, "Really, it's not that hard."

"No, diagram." 

           

3d sculptures

Then we grew bored of that and decided to try a spelling game involving contractions.

We rounded up the usual suspects (markers, crayons and dice)

made up some nifty words that needed to be contracted

and took turns rolling the dice and spelling the contraction.

I loved the game, my eldest said, "Once is enough. Really."

(followed by more jokes of "No, diagram!)

Then off we went to do various learning of 3-d shapes, art and science while listening to the fourth installment of Elizabeth Enright's Melendy family. Have you heard the Four Story Mistake or The Saturdays? You should. We love the Audiobook.

 I, being in a goofy mood, decided that perhaps some frivolty was needed. Oranges gone wild.

And since we needed to cut up a pumpkin for pie making, why not make it an event. ..

 involving faux Rice Krispie pumpkins.

Oh, the culinary art that can be done with a decent batch of Rice Krispies.

And masking was a necessity before fully cooking our pumpkin for pie!