India September 30, 2011

This week we explored the country of India.  We tried to build a paper model of the Taj Mahal, but we got tired of our sticky fingers, so we actually gave up on this one.  Cool project though (papertoys.com).

Parker’s favorite activity?  Painting his face in Kathakali theater style.  Dylan and Tristan weren’t quite sure what to think when they woke up!

We also made some Lassi (a popular traditional yogurt drink).  Steve said it tasted like melted wedding mints – strange, but good.  To wrap it up, we’re planning to enjoy some Indian food with friends this weekend!

In other areas: We talked about and created silhouettes and sunsets.

Favorite science project: the “hovering” butterfly (We used a strong magnet from a hard drive (of course!) and a paper clip taped to a tissue paper butterfly then played with the string to see how far we could pull the butterfly away from the magnet before it would not be pulled towards it).

McCall September 26, 2011

10 Adults + 12 Kids = Fun Family Weekend

Papa & Grami treated us to a fun family weekend in McCall.  We kept very busy and stayed up way too late visiting.  It was so fun to have everyone together.  Thank you!!

Heading to the beach…and apparently I was very excited about it…jazz hands and all!

Wouldn’t it be fun if I had brushed my hair, put on some makeup, and gotten dressed for some of these pictures?

Nothing beats a campfire when you’re a 6 year old boy.

We even had a foxy visitor our first night there :).

And now I can’t seem to pick between all of the fun pictures…so here’s a slideshow of everything else!

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Japan September 22, 2011

This week was a bit short and rushed as we were getting ready for a fun-filled family trip to McCall, but I captured a few moments.  Our country of focus this week was Japan.  We did some origami and made a Karesansui mini-garden.  The best part was going to a Hibachi grill with the Gill family (Thank you for joining us!).  A very expensive educational endeavor, but it was fun for the kids (and the adults!) to watch the food being cooked and onions turning into volcanoes.  Those Hibachi chefs are really quite amazing!

Other highlights throughout the week:

An elephant “finger puppet”

Parker actually coloring nicely instead of scribbling to sort of satisfy the request to color something.  I should have taken another picture of his completed page – he finished the whole thing.  I know you may be thinking, “so what?”  But this is monumental for my non-coloring boy.

Tristan painting the paints – yes, I meant to type that.  He was much more interested in mixing the paints than painting on his paper.

Riley got to come play for an afternoon.  He and Parker caught fish and built rivers, dams, and roads in the sand for hours.  I finally got them to concede to a couple of science projects.  Parker and Riley experimented with what designs made the strongest structures.  Tristan made a snake 🙂 .  We also experimented with static electricity – making pepper “jump” to the top of a plastic container.

Thanks for a fun day, Riley!

Science All Around Us September 18, 2011

This week our social studies were centered around Korea.  We ended the week by sharing a Korean meal with friends – including, but not limited to, some very fishy tasting seaweed paper.  Not. A. Fan.  (Sorry, Maria).  But the rice and veggie dishes were good (and I hear the Korean BBQ Beef was good too!).

Of course there were some planned science “experiences.”  We did an experiment with sound vibrations that was actually really cool.  Just tie a string around a fork and bang it against a table noting the sound.  Then twist the ends around your fingers, touch your fingers to the little flaps on the outside of your ears, and bang the fork against a table again.  Pretty cool.  Parker loved it, but unfortunately I forgot the camera…so Parker posed his amazement for me!  His look of shock cracks me up.

We had balloon rocket races.

Then there was some “real science.”  The boys were taking a break outside while I got lunch ready.  The bug catching container, complete with built-in magnifying glass was left sitting on the picnic table bench.  I brought lunch out and fortunately noticed smoke coming from the other side of the table…strange…upon further investigation, the sun was shining through the magnifying glass and was actually burning a hole in the picnic table bench.  Of course I know that you are supposed to be able to start a fire with a magnifying glass, but I never thought it would actually work if you needed it to!  Anyway, so glad we caught it before it actually got anywhere!  And Parker learned a survival skill!

The highlight of Parker’s week: finding minnows in the creek.  He has been quite busy catching them ever since he discovered them hiding in the shadows of the grass.

The highlight of Tristan’s week: building a wrecking ball tractor.  He has been asking for quite a while to go to the tractor store and buy a wrecking ball tractor.  One morning he woke up and said “I’m ready to go to wrecking ball tractor store, mom.”  I told him we’d see how the day went and maybe we could try to find something.  “Our day is going fine mom, let’s go.”  I didn’t really want to go anywhere, so he conceded to let Parker, Steve, and I try to build him one.  It turned out pretty good for an unplanned project.  He and Parker had a blast building and wrecking sand walls.

Exploring China September 11, 2011

We “traveled” to China this week for our first adventure around the world.

We built The Great Wall of China.

We made Chinese lanterns and fried rice and ate Chinese candy and fortune cookies.  Parker loved the edible paper on the candy most of all!

After reading The Story of Ping, Parker made a Yangtze River scene for his art project.

We learned a few Chinese words and wrote our names in Chinese characters.

Tristan busied himself throughout the week with puzzles, play dough, and trucks & beans.

And the last photographed notable event…the foaming monster experiment. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar at least a hundred times, but somehow it is always exciting.  Tristan decided to style his hair with the dish soap while he was waiting for the foaming monster to work…nice.

Survival Report: First Week of First Grade September 3, 2011

This week marked Parker’s first week of First Grade.  I was a little nervous.  After an entire summer of planning and anticipating, I’ll admit I was afraid of the disinterested, “Do I have to?” response.  I’m happy to report it was NOT terrible.  Yeah!  Here’s a peek at what I managed to capture from our week.

Steve built some new shelves for my school closet, so I should be able to avoid the hairy scary piles that inevitably happened last year – yeah!

We’ll be “traveling” around the world this year using the Expedition Earth geography program from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  This week we just reviewed some geography basics.  Here Parker is labeling the continents.

Parker really enjoyed our experiment in optical illusions.

We watched “Hidden Treasures” from the Moody Science Series and experimented with salt and sugar crystals (we started the salt crystals last week so we could see what would happen this week).  The salt crystals climbed clear out of the glass – kind of cool.  Not so sure the sugar crystals are going to work at all – I’m pretty sure we’ve tried that before and I’ve never gotten it to work.  Oh well.

Parker experimented with different ways to create 3D “artwork” and made Lemonade for some practical life work.  Tristan quite liked that part – “More lemon juice, please!”

Most likely the favorite for everyone was break time!

Parker built a boat (and a ladybug for a passenger!) for his woodworking project.

Don’t worry, we did some math, reading, and writing too, it’s just not very interesting to take pictures of.  Overall it was a really good week.  Parker said his favorite part was learning that the Bible tells us that Jesus is holding the world together, that it’s not just a cute little Sunday School song, but Jesus really is holding the whole world in his hands (Colossians 1:17).  (We are going through a Bible study called “Long Story Short” – I think it’s going to be really great.)

See you next week!