A Week in Review April 26-May 2

Our week started last Sunday with a nice drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house.....we took the long way.  I wanted to see what nature we could find. Everyone wasn't pleased with this round about way.  But I was happy, especially finding this pilleated woodpecker

and a log full of sunning painted turtles....photo credit: Mark

I learned to make these "best ever" bookmarks.  Myself and everyone around me is now stocked up with book marks!

Last Monday we have begun our plant unit.  The kids made these cute see through planters at a Lowes Build and Grow clinic.  They are offering another "Mother's Day Planter" clinic for Mother's Day...all for free.

We also sprouted our seeds in ziploc bags....we have never done sprouting this way before, we always used a paper towel and a jar.  I love the compactness of this technique. 

We are kind of amazed at the amount of growth from Monday to Friday...

The bean plants ever burst out of the ziploc bags.

Luke is dissecting a daffodil....

I think daffodils and tulips are the best flower for success in finding all the parts of a flower.

Luke--Triple AAA Ball

Baseball and softball will keep us very busy for the next couple months....

We have 4 kids on 3 different teams. 

Grace--HCA softball

Mark-HCA softball  

Kimberly-girls minor league softball....yes, the temperature for this game was 31 degrees at the start, end at a sultry 38 degrees....Spring sports in Central New York is often closely related to winter sports. 

Danny helped us start a pole bean tee pee.

He got the poles tied together.

Kim and Luke got the ground ready for the seeds.

We also have been working on a lapbook about all things "India"

I will have a full post about the resources I used for this India lapbook within the next week....hopefully.

I keep thinking we are about finished and then one of the kids will send us down another rabbit trail,  At that point I just add another folder to the lapbook and continue. 

Right now we have 4 file folders glued together....and we have just begun the subject of Indian elephants.

I hope everyone has a great week. 

Keeping kids busy....Baking Soda Art

 This is a great way to keep the kids busy, and you have everything you need in your cupboard.

Fizz art. 

Baking soda art.

 Simply

 pour baking soda onto a cookie tray with sides.

 Each of the kids used about 1/2 cup of white vinegar 

 mixed with several drops of food coloring.

 Using medicine droppers...drip the colored vinegar onto the baking soda.

 It fizzes and bubbles.  We used primary colors---so it was fun to watch the colors mix and make secondary colors.

 Each of the kids spend quite a long time "fizzing".

 This is a great idea for a rainy day....when you are done, used boiling water to wash the goop down the kitchen sink drain.  It helps keep odors away.  

I'm not sure what Gracie was thinking at this time....but I couldn't resist this photo!

Weekly Wrap-up

We started our week out with some fun science

with fire. After science experiment day, we sort of fell into the February doldrums.
Boring workbook pages were filled in, and spelling words were learned, but other than that, we stayed inside and watched it snow....and snow....and snow.......we are really tired of the snow! ( so you know I am not just being a whiner---I am entitled to whine....we have received over 151 inches of snow so far this season.)

We have discovered a new favorite tv show---A Minute to Win It. It is a fun, family show that challenges the contestants to perform certain tasks in under a minute. All the challenges use household products.

We have been practicing the cup stacking game.

Luke just loves this.

I also bought 20 ping pong balls (which are now bouncing all over the house) to perform some of the many "ping pong ball" challenges.

It is great family fun and leads to many hours of good, old-fashioned fun.

A new educational stage has been reached this week.

Kimmy can read. She cruised through the first set of Bob Books
and the first Faith and Freedom reader.
Luke is also progressing nicely with the Bob Books.

My two babies are growing up!!

For art appreciation we are learning about Grandma Moses . I love folk art and the kids are enjoying learning about this amazing woman and her art.

A new learning tool has entered the house this week, and we are all having a ball with it.

My wonderful husband brought me home an IPad with week.

Above, Kimmy is playing FirstWords:Deluxe.
She slides the letters into place below the picture on the screen and then she wanted to write them in her notebook. (She filled up two pages with words)

Other favorite educational apps have been Bob Books and Little Explorers ABC Music.

I am finding more apps I like for school everyday.....I believe I may be in trouble! LOL

Weekly Wrap-up 2/4/11

It looks lovely, but between the snowstorms and subzero temperatures we are in the middle of the winter doldrums---but we keep marching forward.....
Many picture books have been shared during this past week, which you can see in our reading challenge post.
All four kids enjoyed the Lowes Build and Grow project---a ball toss.
Next week's project is a musicbox, just in time for Valentine's Day gifts.

This is a great science kit.
The big kids tested acid and bases with litmus paper and

we all enjoyed writing with invisible ink. The full post can be seen here.

We made beautiful jeweled hearts for Valentine's day.

I love to have the kids make a lot of decorations for days of celebration.

The full post of our jeweled hearts is here.

Our picture book corner.

We did manage to get outside to enjoy our several feet of snow.

We are lucky enough to have a perfect sledding hill right in our backyard.

We celebrated Saint Brigid's feast day, making Saint Brigid wrapped in her starry cloak.

Kim and Luke are learning the concept of addition.

I brought out the counting bears and made simple index cards to work with.

They are catching on to this concept quickly.

We have begun making our Valentine cards/gifts.

Kimberly was the first crafter.

I prepared cardstock that Kim stamped with hearts and flowers.

coloring in the stamped balloons

I bought little gift bags, Kimmy put Hershey Kisses in each bag and then we stapled them shut with the cardstock, stamped cards.

Beautiful!!

Playing card garland

You can see this post here.

My favorite tool of February is my heart paper punch.