Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Disney Letter

Apparently, if your child has a favorite Disney character, letters written to this address will result in an autographed photo being sent straight to your mailbox!

Walt Disney World Communications, P.O. Box 10040, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

We'll have to try that this summer.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

End of the Year

Our last day of school was last Friday!  Yay!  We did our normal morning routine then spent the afternoon at the park.  We have one close by that has a "splash park" next to the playground.  We had so much fun.  The rest of the day was spent packing up all the homeschool stuff in boxes, to await moving day.

This summer we plan to do a little bit of academics.  But we are taking a full break at least until we get settled in the new house.  The girls think it is hilarious that I tell them that they are not allowed to learn anything during vacation.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Mommy: The Official Book Reader

The kids and I read a lot of books. We love books. If the kids are going to get a bedtime story, it is going to be from me. If I'm at a meeting in the evening and Hubby puts them to bed himself, he will tell them that I'll come and read them one as soon as I get home (he really should stop doing this because they almost always fall asleep before I arrive, and they remember in the morning and somehow I'm the bad guy.)

Tertius doesn't have a very big attention span, though, and doesn't always snuggle up and listen with us. But apparently he has payed attention enough to know that Mommy is the official book reader.

Yesterday while I was reading to the girls, Hubby happened to be sitting nearby listening while Tertius played. I needed to blow my nose or something so when I put down the book, Hubby picked it up and kept reading in my place.

Apparently Tertius thought this was ridiculous. He started making gestures and saying things that obviously communicated that Daddy was silly and that Mommy was supposed to be doing the reading.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Already looking ahead to next fall...

I am so ready to be done for the summer.  (This Friday is our last day!)  I LOVE homeschooling, but we definitely need a break (maybe it wasn't such a great idea to work through Spring Break, after all...)

That said, I am already thinking about next school year.  I can't remember exactly how it came up, but I promised Primus we could do a unit about pirates in the fall.  She is so excited!  She even told her gymnastics teacher about it.  So next time I go shopping for curriculum, I've got to keep my eyes open for a fun workbook or something.

The other new unit I want to incorporate next year is something about birds, specifically learning to identify several different types.  I can tell you what a handful of birds look like.  Mostly the exotic ones, and that's about it.  I'm not even sure if I could tell the difference between a raven and a crow.  The other day the girls were talking about the blue jay they saw.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't a blue jay.  But it was blue, and I had no idea what the real name was.  That's pretty sad.  So we're going to learn about several of the birds that are common to our area.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mothers' Day Crafts

Here's what me and the girls made for the Grandmas for Mothers' Day:

1. First, a basket to hold everything. 
Cut one paper plate in half and staple it to a second plate.  Cut a half-circle out of the second plate for the basket handle.

2. Our favorite easy treat gift:  Chocolate Dipped Pretzels.  

We like to use these yummy big pretzels from Sam's Club and dip them in Almond Bark.

3. Flowers cut from construction paper and glued on green-painted popsicle sticks.


 4. Thumbprint Art-ala Ed Emberley.  We did them on 4X6 index cards with the thought that Grandma would use them as postcards. 

5. Acrostic poems using each of the Grandmas' names.  (Sorry, no picture.  Just trust me that they were really cute.)

Finally, this is what the kids made for me in Primary today and I love it!  It's just a paper clip tied onto a ribbon with a bead for a head and another bead (it kind of looks like a gear) for a halo.  It's an angel!  How cute is that?  Attached to the necklace is this quote from Abraham Lincoln: "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

Friday, May 11, 2012

Life Cycles Book


 Today I all of a sudden got motivated to do school (is it summer yet?) and came up with this great idea at the last minute.  While the kids ate breakfast I did a quick google search and found a bunch of photos for all these different life cycles.  The following are pictures from Primus' book.

I cut out the photos and put them in bowls (1 for each of the girls) and they had to sort through them and decide which living thing the picture belonged to.  The only thing that confused them was the frog, butterfly, and beetle eggs and the apple and pumpkin seedlings.























For the final page of their books, the girls had to draw pictures for their own life cycle.  At the top is me, very pregnant.  Next comes baby Primus.  Next is grown-up Primus.  Finally is adult Primus.  Note that she is wearing a wedding dress and holding a bouquet of flowers.  It's very hard to see, but she also tried to draw a wedding ring on the far left side. 

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Does Money Grow on Trees? (Experiments with Paper and Cloth)

We did a fun spur-of-the-moment investigation.  Ask most people, and they will probably automatically tell you that money is made of paper.  But we discovered why it's a good thing that it's not!
Supplies to gather:
*deep plate
*bowl of water
*big spoons and eyedroppers
*toilet paper
*scratch paper (white computer paper with something printed on it)
*construction paper
*cardboard
*glossy paper (pizza advertisement)
*washcloth
*dollar



One object at a time, we got them wet and then discussed how the water effected them.


Some discussion questions: 
*How easy is it to tear now? 
*Which one was easier to tear?
*Is the ink running?
*What happens if you crumple it and then try to straighten it out?


The second to last thing we tested was the washcloth.  We talked about the difference between what the others were made of (paper, trees) and what the washcloth was made of (cloth, cotton.)  The washcloth definitely reacted differently than all the papers!


Finally, we studied the "paper" money.  When the dollar got wet, it's ink didn't run, it didn't rip any easier than when dry, and it could be crumpled up without harm.

Conclusion:  the money must be made of cloth!  And it's a good thing, too because if your money was ruined every time you left it in your pocket and put it in the wash, that would be pretty sad!



We busted out the magnifying glass and were able to even see evidence of the cotton (blue and red threads.)  As a bonus, the girls recognized the Great Seal on the one dollar bill.  Yay, connections!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Free Math Games

As I said before, I decided to hold off on doing anymore math lessons from our Modern Curriculum Press book until Primus has mastered her addition and subtraction facts. 
That means she is doing a lot of math wrap-ups and games.  Flash cards don't seem to be working for her, and only make me frustrated.  So instead I can just set her up with a game, step back, and let her practice without undue pressure.  To give her some accountability, she has to write down her score at the end of each round so I can see if she is improving. 

Here are a few free games we have found that she's been doing:

*Math Facts, Math Games for Kids  http://www.javascripter.net/games/math/  
This first one is very low-tech.  No frills here.  But it's nice because it times you and has you check your answer before you move onto the next problem.

*Are you a Math Magician?  http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/mathsadd.html
This one is nice and big and has a very easy to understand count-down timer.  Once you finish the set number of questions, it tells you how long it took you and what percentage you got right.  If you get 100%, then it allows you to print out a certificate.  The downside is that there is no way of knowing which problems you got wrong.

*Sheppard Software  http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm
These games are really fun and colorful.  Primus' favorites are Fruit Shoot (fruit with numbers on them bounce around the screen and you shoot the one that is the answer to the problem attached to your cursor) and Pop-up Math (you have to feed the penguin that has the correct answer to the problem given.)

*OCSD Interactive Games  http://resources.oswego.org/games/
We've been playing Ghost Blasters 2 a lot.  You select what sum you want to be looking for (example, 10.)  Then ghosts with numbers on them appear two at a time.  You blast when two appear that add up to the number you chose (example, 5 and 5, or 3 and 7.)  It is supposed to be a two player game and you play until someone gets 10 points (you lose a point for wrong answers.)  But Primus often plays alone just for practice.  Downside is that it doesn't give you any kind of score or feedback at the end.
(With this site, it looks like you can even create your own games.  But I have not experimented with that feature.)