Friday confession

Friday confession. These cookies may or may not have been intended for a Colonial times afternoon tea party. But someone ate them before we finished the Felicity American Girl series. Someone who truly 'hearts' them.

 

Even the boys were interested in "spa science"... Counting how long the bath fizzy 'bomb' would react with water.

We made a birthday countdown chain from last month's Family Fun magazine. (Thanks Carrie Hintz). I am always proud of us when we actually do one of the ideas we have saved, or pins we have pinned.

The kids have all asked to have their own affirmation chains for their birthdays too.

 

Patterns in poems and stories and songs. Clapping rhythms. Drawing patterns in art and spotting patterns in fabric. Using stampers and stickers and magnets. Making beaded jewelry and "fruit rounds" cereal bracelets.

 

Practicing addition with dominoes, playing cards, and dice

Measuring ourselves...area and perimeter

 

Alphabetizing with puzzles

Meeting up with brother and sister for lunch at our neighborhood school. Meeting friends on the playground. Learning how to walk down the hall without touching the walls or running into people, and staying with the class.

Q and U always together... Queens and quarterbacks at a fun day in first grade.

 

Bathtub science

While reading Curious George Rides a Bike, we found the directions for making paper boats. We tried these out in the bathtub, seeing how much cargo (marbles) different kinds of boats could hold. We were surprised to find that our newspaper boat could actually hold 29 marbles before sinking to watery depths. We tried other shapes from clay and tin foil, as well as recyclables such as margarine tubs and foam vegetable trays and egg cartons. This became a great counting exercise for our first graders too as the numbers climbed beyond 100. We sorted the marbles into cups by tens.

I have enjoyed watching N, who has previously declared that she doesn't like science. She has been very enthusiastic, and that makes me happy to see the light turn on and the wheels turning.

Sink or Float predictions

 

Following the hurricanes....where is Louisiana?

 

What to do in the carpool line?

 

Read the odometer...place value to the hundred thousands

 

Dry erase boards for practice

Money flashcards, books on CD while following along with the book,

Making up math "stories" from the characters in the book.

How many legs on two elephants and three flamingos?

Making predictions....how many cars on this train? What time will it be when we get out of this traffic?

What place are we in line? Forty-fifth

 

 

after school snack cursive writing practice

 

 

 

 

Keeping it fun...planning dates on the weekend where I am not Mom or teacher

Latest groupon: What percentage/ hit or miss ratio did Taryn shoot in her skeet shooting adventure date? (5%... I'm no Katniss and now understand more fully the phrase "moving target")

 

Stuff around the house

In our first days of school, we are using whatever we have around the house to double as math manipulatives. ABC blocks/magnets double as graphing towers...

Which color has the most? The least? The same amount? How many more yellows would you need to equal greens? How many altogether?

 

Older children can use them for division and symmetry

American symbols and famous presidents

 

Classifying coins in as many groups as you can...by country, by denomination, round, straight edges, color, size, silver on gold or gold on silver?

Building Lincoln Logs...following directions, symmetry, engineering, tie in to Abraham Lincoln on the penny

 

 

 

And, if you don't have an international coin collection on hand, you may use the humble package of Oreos in the carpool line on the way home from school.

Estimate/guess how many mini oreos are inside? Open and count. Compare with the others in the car. If you got 9 and your brother got 10 and your sister only got 8, what's the average number you can expect to find?

Our first day of carpool was one hour and 45 minutes. The second day was one hour and 30 minutes, but by then, we had learned and brought flash cards, books, books on CD, American folk songs, and whatever other educational materials we could find to bring along. We can't afford to lose that many school minutes driving, so now we learn as we go too.

We pulled the plug on cable this week, much to the dismay of the littlest Disney fans. However, as the ashes of disappointment have settled, they have newfound time for Lincoln Logs and other interactive things that have been stuffed up in the closet for years. And although we will not be hosting ESPN parties for our SS class this year, I am happy to have one distraction eliminated.

More reading, more family walks, more board games, more cooking.... I hope.

Book two

Book one

 

 

 

School Days

Several of our friends met us in Charlotte for what we are calling "bring a large family to Carowinds Day". We enjoyed our last hurrah at the amusement park, the lake, and a pool party with friends before starting the new school year.

We had always taken a first day of school picture outside.

But this year, as L starts middle school....it's too dark!

 

We changed our back-to-school tradition a little this year. Each child used to make a large cookie and decorate it with the new grade they were entering...but five large cookies was a little too much. This year, we made one cookie and decorated it with the four new grade levels.

 

P is for pirate....Aargh!

C is for counting Cheerios and classifying coin collections.

 

B learned about couponing, shopping sales, and estimating what we spent at the store.

 

Sometimes the only quiet spot in our house is in the garage.

N likes to read in the car where no one will bother her.

 

 

Yes...we're calling this the force and motion field trip like the fifth graders do!

First trip to a water park

Hitting the "books"

Biscuits and wackenbunkie

Summertime...and the living' is easy.

Fish are jumping and the cotton is high.....

My Mom remembers pulling a chair up so that she could reach the counter to help make biscuits for dinner when she was a little girl. She is passing the tradition of good cooking' to my girls by having Mimi's cooking school and sleepovers. They made "wackenbunkie" (that's macaroni and cheese to anyone outside of our family), biscuits, and fried chicken, and took some over to my sweet in-laws' house on a night when they had spent all day at the doctor's office.

I am so thankful, not only for my Mom and great in-laws, but for the fact that everyone loves one another. There are crazy aspects to all living fairly close geographically, but there are also very tender ones, such as being able to do life alongside one another as one big close family.

Speaking of one big family, here's what the kids are up to:

Rosetta Stone lessons...their English skills are so amazing. The IT guy who helped us install the program noted that if you select "under 14" in age, the computer works at a much more accelerated rate, as it knows that adults are much slower than kids at absorbing new languages. I am daily truly impressed with their communication skills.

Measurement and estimation skills. We play with the recycling before we toss it into the bin. "How many 500ml bottles of water would fit into this 2L?"

How much will our tank of gas cost this week if we're almost on empty?

How many seeds in this cantaloupe?

Which is bigger around, the circumference of this watermelon or Natalia's waist?

How many kilograms is this watermelon? How many pounds?

Using bottlecaps as markers to cover consonants and vowels

Chalk number lines...hopping back and forth for addition and subtraction

The big kids even enjoyed the batch of homemade play dough that Will put together.

 

 

We try to "move it move it" each day...no skills required. Tonight three went on a very long walk with A, and two elected to lay low on the couch.

Saying thank you to those who help our community.

Banana or blueberry smoothie? We're now a two-batch family, so we can offer options. Add a little paper umbrella and you have some healthy family fun.

We now have fresh haircuts and pearly white teeth for the new school year...next week!