Bears, Whales, and Bodies

 It's been about 3 weeks since I've posted and we've been busy. Colin and I have an ongoing project in his room to make art letters. We make the letter into something that starts with that letter- Alligator, Blue/Buttons, Cat, Dalmation Dog. Since this picture we also have an Elephant, Feathers, and Grass.
He's never had a problem learning shapes and numbers, but something about letters stumps him. It's probably that the other two got so much attention on that and he being the third child just hasn't had enough personal time on it. But this is helping him along for sure. He's very proud to recognize letters now.

 Our first week back we read Another Celebrated Dancing Bear. It was a good tale of friendship and also introduced us to Russia and the circus. The kids learned and read about Russia and already had some familiarity since our church has a lot of Russian speakers. We listened to Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. I decided instead of trying to hit every subject, the kids would benefit from planning a project beginning to end. So they put on a circus. It had its ups and downs for sure!

 On the first day, they planned their acts, with some tweaking from mom. The next day we worked out the details. They chose their own costumes and decided on snacks for our guests (Dad, Nana, and Byron the dog). Each day we had rehearsals (we even sneakily tried to teach Bryon to jump through a hoop- no luck) and the final day, we chose the circus music and decorated the living room! I had a final dress rehearsal with them before Nana came. I wasn't sure if this was a good idea because they might be a little too overwhelmed with preparation, but I want to instill in them that if you're going to entertain someone, it's good to prepare with care rather than throw something together- that's the musician in me : )

 When they time came, they marched out to their circus music proudly, and then our clown broke down. Colin burst into tears and announced he was too shy. Oh no!!! We backed it up and had a little talk. The girls were really sweet to pat him on the back and keep the show going. He eventually got back in the swing of things but the show wasn't as clear cut as it was in rehearsals. That's how it goes haha  Here's Colin pulling handkerchiefs out of his sleeve.

 They did some limbo, balancing, and animal impersonations. And the final act was a magic show. Hannah made a ketchup packet mysteriously float up and down in a water bottle- pretty cool. Chloe mastered a slight of hand trick with some beads- she worked really hard on that. And the circus wasn't complete without a Disappearing Colin. Overall, I think they got some valuable lessons out of the whole thing.

 For art that week, I printed out shapes from the internet we colored and cut and assembled into our own Russian cathedrals. The girls worked really hard on these. Mine is above. I couldn't resist doing one myself.

 Hannah's

 Chloe's

The next week we read my favorite childhood tale Amos and Boris, and Ant and Elephant-type tale, but in my view with a lot deeper characters and bigger vocabulary. The last page of that book makes me tear up every single time. Amos the mouse begins his journey by building himself a boat and packing for a long trip. We discussed what one would actually take on a solo boat trip. For instance, bringing along food to cook wouldn't work without a stove. And bringing Candyland wouldn't be much fun when you're by yourself. The girls each made their own list under certain categories. It was fun to see what they came up with..and how they spelled it : )

 

Boris is a whale that ends up saving Amos when he loses his boat and floats in the sea. Amos is able to save Boris when he is beached several years later. We learned about whale migration, watched a few videos on whales and of course heard their sing-song communication. Hannah labeled a few of the different types of whales. In the book, Boris goes to a whale conference off the shores of Ivory Coast, so we read a book about that country and a couple of African tales. The kids didn't connect as much with that, but most importantly, they were exposed to a completely different lifestyle and once again realized how much they have and get to do in their own lives.

 

 This past week, I went off the path again and decided to do Part 2 of our body series. Early own we explored all the different parts or our face and the 5 senses. This time we focused on bones, muscles, and blood. Here the girls try out their elbow joints and biceps with some arm wrestling.

 I bought a two-sided body puzzle awhile back. I got a little impatient with them taking too much time and playing around rather than working on this, but eventually we got it done. One side is the skeleton. The other side is organs and bloodstream.

 

We learned about the layers of skin, follicles, melanin, everything. I doubt they'll maintain the vocabulary, but at this point simple introduction to function and appreciation for science is good. Here Colin is testing to see if Hannah can feel his super light touch with a paintbrush.  

Testing more muscles. Or has Hannah learned levitation?

 

 They learned about red blood cells and white blood cells.. and bacteria (the black). We watched a video of a white blood cell chasing bacteria and consuming it- pretty incredible under the microscope. The kids wanted to know when we'd have our own. Maybe a future Christmas present! Hannah suddenly got very upset in the middle of our discussion. We had been talking briefly about how certain diseases break down the body and the amount of white blood cells decreases.  I kept it simple and didn't at all mean to be upsetting. After many tears and calming down, she admitted she was worried about those things being n her body. We talked it out, but also talked about how biting your fingernails and eating the contents of your nose (both things I never realized I'd have to talk so much about) is not a great idea. Chloe's eyes got very big- she's the biggest culprit- and she vowed never to do it again! We'll see..

 

Hannah created her own skeleton for an imaginary animal. She named it Tritosopus. 

And they colored a skin diagram. We read plenty of books and could have read many more.

 

 

Finally, we made our most important project. They are finally old enough to grasp the concept of Lent, and I wanted to make it very visual. Since they loved Mary's Starwalk during the Nativity Fast, this will work well, too. It's a calendar marked with important events and days during Lent with a representative icon. A girl of Hannah's creation will walk her way through Pascha (Easter) all the way to Pentecost. I plan on learning a lot during this time, too.

Next week, I decided to let them choose their own topics to learn about- in the meantime, they can earn a Quest badge for their work. Colin chose to learn about pizza- his favorite topic and food. Hannah wants to learn to cook. And Chloe chose watercolor. I think we'll have fun, but it will take quite a bit of balancing of children on my part. 

Activities Galore

 

Hi all. It's been 3 weeks since I last posted? Well, our last book of the 6 Weeks was a lovely one, but only offered a pretty light week of school. We read Miss Rumphius about a lady who grows up to travel the world and finally settles in a house by the see where she spends the rest of her life fulfilling a promise to her grandfather- to make the world more beautiful. She plants lupines all over town. 

The kids painted pictures of lupines using their thumbprints. We painted on cloth since the illustrations use that as a canvas. We also examined seeds in some of the fruits we had at home. They made little seed packets and stored their seeds. Apologies for my computer being stubborn and refusing to rotate this picture. 

 

At the end of the book, Miss Rumphius' niece makes the same promise to her- leaving that part of the story open. Hannah and Chloe wrote their own continuations. Hannah named the niece Zidya- she always prefers made up names to real ones.

 

She followed the plot of the original story and had Zidya travel the world. She had to choose 2 countries we've studied so far. She picked India and had Zidya dance with belly dancers. : )  Then she traveled to Japan and wore a kimono. Eventually Zidya settled by the sea and made the world more beautiful by raking everyone's leaves.

We read several books about plants and a few fiction books that involved children doing something good in their lives.

Our homeschool co-op has decided to focus more on outings, service projects, and general play rather than the planned group lessons. Already I'm sensing this is a great change. Our first field trip was to the local roller skating rink. This was the first time for our kids. Hannah was super determined to do it, but had the roughest time since she has the longest limbs! Chloe figured it out soon and liked her independence. Colin used a trainer the whole time even though I caught him successfully scooting along without it several times.

                       The next week we gathered to sing for a Retirement Home. Each family had practiced selections from The Sound of Music on their. We met for a quick rehearsal and headed over. I was quite impressed with the kids. They really projected and sang the songs quite well. One boy even brought his tin whistle and played Do a Dear. We chatted with the seniors for quite awhile, and I met one particular man named Lenny who kept making me laugh with his dry sense of humor.
The next week we simply had play time after Thursday Liturgy. We'll head to the Planetarium in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to that!  In other news, Hannah has begun lessons with a new piano teacher. We love her and Hannah is advancing well, but it's quite a day of driving long distances between that and Chloe's school. When Chloe is out for the summer, she'll begin piano too, but I went ahead and got her started on Hannah's old books. She's pleased to have mastered quarter and half notes. She's a great little student and very eager.

 

 The next week we had completely off. My dad came into town to attend Lone Star Wind Orchestra's rehearsals and meet the visiting composer. We had a great time that weekend, and I was also thrilled to spend time with one of my best friends who came into town to join the horn section. It was a wonderful concert! I wish I had a picture of Hannah and myself at the concert- it was her first time to see me on stage and she was excited to be there! It was difficult to plan much school for the next week since I was so busy. So we kept things extremely light. By Wednesday, I felt the kids were driving me a bit crazy and I put them in charge of themselves (if you read Facebook, you'll know). So I basically took care of what I wanted and they fended for themselves with a list of things they needed to take care of. Hannah was so sweet and decided to work with Colin in a workbook he loves. I heard her helping him in the most patient and enthusiastic way!

Taking baths and bathing Colin was on their list for the evening, but they get it done at about 9am. He was pretty pleased with all that attention.

They made themselves lunch at 10:30 and included vegetables! Way to go! 

Doing all of laundry was a main element to their list, complete with detailed instructions. I heard plenty of discussion amongst them about how to do this or that, but they got it all done! Here's Chloe's opinion on laundry.

Colin being resourceful. : ) Other things they took care of were general cleaning and reading. But they also had a lot of fun playing together. All in all, it was a great day!! It made me realize that perhaps they are a bit micromanaged sometimes and can really do a lot more than we give them credit for. Of course there's a fine line between that and them ruling the roost, which they certainly try regularly. This experiment was to give me a break but to also help them realize they don't need my help and attention for every tiny thing. And that if you're bored, bugging Mommy is less fun than coming up with something new to do.

Today, I went in the opposite direction and filled the day with activities. I was curious about the difference in peacefulness throughout the day. Since we weren't doing a Five in a Row project this week, I also took advantage of the countless Pinterest pins I had under education. While Hannah practiced piano, Chloe went through word tiles and organized which words she could read and which ones were too hard. This gave me a good idea of her progress, which was much improved.

I tried to keep them each busy at all times- a lot of work!  Colin worked on counting and identifying numbers with his favorite snack. Eating it was the bonus.

While Chloe worked on piano, Hannah completed a sticker story. She draws stickers out of a bag and has to write her story based on the images. I almost wanted to try this myself.

The kids are beginning a program I'm really excited about. It's part of the Flower Girl program (much like Girl Scouts) but it's separate for homeschoolers and doesn't include joining any kind of troop. The students just follow certain guidelines to earn patches and awards called Quest Club. I'll order them vests and when they complete requirements, I'll order their badges to be pinned on. At least one other friend will participate in this with us so far. Hannah's chose the Horse Badge as her first. I felt like the Level 1 requirements could be a little tougher for her, so I added a couple of steps. She has to learn about safety around horses. Read a non-fiction book and fiction book. She also wrote horse facts she learned from the book and drew a horse bubble chart. She did a great job remembering facts and really understanding the animal. In a few weeks she'll visit a stable and take a horsemanship class with her friends where she'll learn a lot more. They each picked out notebooks at the store and we're filling them with their work! 

Chloe chose to earn a butterfly badge. She's learned all about its life stages and drew them all.

She'll have to learn to identify 3 different butterflies and she also drew a bubble chart. We also read a fiction and non-fiction book. I'll probably also have her watch a video. Colin hasn't chosen a badge yet, but most likely it will be the Pizza Badge. : )

 

While the girls worked on that, Colin completed a shape puzzle I drew with objects from around the house. It took me longer to draw it than for him to complete it, but he had fun.

 I've been meaning to do this project with them for awhile and originally it was slated to be a co-op lesson. Before we started we read Something Beautiful about an inner city girl surrounded by so much negative she was on the lookout for something beautiful and ended up cleaning the trash and graffiti out of her littered courtyard and learning from friends what they found to be beautiful. This originally went with Miss Rumphius, but also went well with charity and making the world a better place.  IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) has need of school kits. We went through each item for each child's bag and talked about what it represented- Notebooks (God allows us to write our own lives) Pencil Sharpeners (we sharpen our minds and hearts by praying and learning about the Saints and reading the Gospel) Scissors and erasers (We cut sin from our lives and erase the bad and replace it with good choices and ask for forgiveness). Rulers (God' love cannot be measured) Crayons (We color our lives by being kind and helpful selfless and by loving those around us). We completed 5 bags to donate. Now if I can do my part and add the velcro without procrastinating too much, they'll be on their way.

 Along with a few other activities that will be completed another time, I made an obstacle course in the backyard for them today since the temperatures felt like spring! They went through once and then again timed. Chloe won first place with her efficient ball dribbling : )

 Finally we did some marshmallow painting. Hannah had a very hard time dipping hers in paint since she would have much rather eaten them. They each got to eat one and were pleased with that : ) Their goal was to create a rainbow but I only gave them primary colors to work with. They remembered the term secondary colors and did a good job remembering the mixes. I even heard Chloe talk through her decision to use too much red in her orange and how that didn't work so well. Of course that girl talks about everything. I wouldn't change it at all!

Next week we'll get back on track with Another Celebrated Dancing Bear. I'm really interested to see what the kids will do for a certain project I have in mind.

Moons and More

 This week we continued Owl Moon and explored the animals and moon more in depth. We read a book called Where Are All the Night Animals? We learned the words nocturnal and diurnal as well as echolocation. To talk about that more, we tried an experiment I'd read about in several places. Place rice grains on a stretched piece of plastic across a bowl and loudly hit a pan over it to see how sound waves can move objects. It totally didn't work- and we tried many variations. Here are the kids yelling at it!
 (please forgive my blurry iphone pictures this time around)

Then I remembered that often when I practice, my horn sends all sorts of things into vibration mode in the house. So we tried that.

 As you can see from the video, it worked great. They had a lot of fun watching individual rice grains turn while others stayed still. They also saw that the higher in pitch I played, more grains danced.

 Since it's been cold and rainy here lately, there's not much chance for outdoor play. Dax and I are participating in an online fitness group, which motivated me to find these videos on YouTube for the kids. Cosmic Kids Yoga- They loved it and I was entertained the whole time, too.

 We learned that bats eat about 1/4 of their weight in food each night. I thought this was a good opportunity for math since Hannah has been learning simple fractions. It backfired a bit since their weights had to be rounded down for even numbers and the tally marks I tried to use to find the right numbers totally lost their attention-  and not a lot of food would fit on that scale at a time. They still loved getting to raid the pantry and fridge. Here, we came up with what they would have to consume in a day to equal 1/4 of their weight.

 This guy weighs more than Chloe now. And his default outfit is indeed a velvet vest and plaid pants Nana made him for his fancy Christmas outfit. I often find him in it when I wake up.

 Hannah also filled out a worksheet about nocturnal animals and did some cut and paste work after we learned about categorizing mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.

One of my favorite things we did was find audio files of all the nocturnal animals in their book. We tried copying the sounds and assigned each other animals- then depicted a forest night when we all howled, hooted, and chirped at once. : )

 Another fun idea I found online was to study moon phases with cookies. This again was less productive than I imagined. We read a great book about the moon, watched the moon landing, and watched tides pulled by the moon's gravity. But as soon as the oreos came out, all was lost! haha It was quite difficult to get them to only eat half or one-quarter of the icing. And the results were much gooier than the fancy photos I saw. In any case, they liked comparing the phases and when we saw the bright moon out this afternoon, they immediately applied everything they learned and made guesses on the phase it was in!

 We also tried the classic ball and lamp experiment to see the moon's phases. Looks like Barbie had a late night back there.

 We shined the light against blocks to check out the varied length in shadows and how that causes the craters to look so dark on the moon. Hannah had the hardest time remembering the word craters! I heard all sorts of crazy variations.

 We tried this fun experiment with plaster of paris. We flattened a few cups of it in a bowl and dropped small and large pebbles from different heights to create craters. We sprayed it with water and waited for it to dry.

After an hour, it wasn't quite ready so they took it upon themselves to speed up the process. :)

 

Of course it broke when we took it out of the bowl, but we just called them quarter and crescent moons. They painted their moons gray....and now I'm not sure what to do with them...

 Today, I tried to get Hannah out of her math book and into more thinking skills, so I asked her to write ME a math test. Boy was she excited. She used her book for reference but wasn't allowed to copy any of the problems exactly. She had me solving word problems, telling time, doing subtraction, fractions, and matching words to numbers. I thought she did a great job and was very thorough. I earned a smiley face for my 100% : )

 This was our final art project. I saw it on Pinterest and knew it was a great opportunity to talk about color mixed with white and black as well as the use of light and dark to create a glow. Here's mine above. It's the moon in the night sky.

Colin did not participate as he spent the whole time stubbornly not finishing his lunch :/
The girls did a nice job. I got onto Hannah a little for working so hard on her moon and then nearly covering it up, but it actually works quite nicely the way it glows through the tree, so what do I know?!

For our last week of the 6 weeks, we'll read a beautiful book called Miss Rumphius.