Pinterest Win - Ziplock bag painting!

We found a Pinterest pin that worked perfectly for a cold rainy afternoon in mid October.

Ziplock Bag Painting

The Moon and the Oreos that go with it

During this last full moon we had a big fat moon unit study.  I tried to take decent pictures but since most of our work that was picture worthy was done outside at night you can imagine how that went.  I did get a couple pictures of the full moon… but even with a tripod and a timer you get this:

Or this:

Pretty… but not looking like this:

Via

However, we spent the next three days happily studying the moon in all her glory!

These were all the books we had from the library.  The one on the top labeled simply “MOON” was one of the best for fun facts and cool pictures!  Did you know there was such a thing as a ‘moonbow’?  I didn’t either!  But the shot in this book of the moons light reflecting off some mist near the horizon certainly looks like a rainbow and is clearly from the moons light!  How neat is that!?!

After this we talked about the different shapes of the moons light and what each portion was called.  They learned this well and fast… cuz I used Oreos!!

Thank you Pinterest!

After that we watched a video and had ‘eclipse toast’.

This video was amazing!  Simply done, so Logan could really understand it, this video explains all kinds of facts about the moon and it’s rotation as well as facts about what we see when we look at the moon.

After that, we switched gears to perspective of the human eye.  We talked about how when the moon is low it seems SO much bigger but if you look through a TP tube (which we did when looking at the full moon) you could see that it isn’t any bigger than it is in the center of the dark sky… there is just something to measure against.

Then we moved on to drawing with depth perception.

We are working through Commander Mark’s Draw Squad and the kids LOVE it!  If you have never seen this, it’s super duper old.  The dude has a mullet and everything… but he is just a great character and he is good at explaining things like foreshortening and depth perception with easy, kid friendly language.  Plus, he draws cartoons.  What could be better than that?

Our moon study was super fun… but we are moving on to photosynthesis! 

God’s Eyes and Apple Eating

This morning’s handwork was making Eye of God and/or a woven spider web.  The kids enjoyed it so much they continued to make them for most of the afternoon, especially Cyan.  She has made 4 so far.  All more beautiful than the last!

This is Alex’s:

Isn’t it lovely!?! I just love how he used the blue in the midst of all these drab colors.

This afternoon was dedicated to using up the last of two laundry baskets of apples we had gotten from a dear friend.  I made batch after batch of applesauce.  And after I was done and tired of it, Cyan took over and made yet another batch.  We now have 18 quarts in the garage and more in the kitchen and still had enough left over for some for dinner tonight!

In Logan’s last workbox today was ‘make fresh apple pie with mommy’ and he just loved helping me prepare a pie for the family.  We made the whole thing from scratch and fresh apples.  No store bought dough or pie filling in this baby… Logan really honed his rolling pin skills!

With the left over dough he got to make his own little ‘pielette’. He just LOVED that!

As I put the kids to bed this evening I realized that even my ‘treat’ to myself tonight was apple:

Tis the season!

Happy FALL!!!

Art on a June Afternoon

We had some friends over for a fun afternoon of learning about artistic texture.  Cyan drew Samson, our marmalade tabby cat.  She was very proud of her progress!

The start of the month of Thankfulness and the letter Ii

Box #1: Get Ready for the Code

Box #2: Worksheets for math and the letter Ii from Homeschool Share.

Box #3: the beloved Ecojournal!  Today in the adventures of Trickle Creek we read about feeding the birds in the fall and winter and when a full grown turkey came to Trickle Creek and got chased by their cat! 

We decided to fill up our bird feeder and count how many birds visited in the next 10 minutes:

Box #4: Cutting practice from Thanksgiving Pack from Our Little Monkeys

Box #5: a glue and grains activity to make pictures with beans and split peas from the pantry:

Cyan and Logan:

Box #6: Beginning Sounds game!  He loves it… the orange level was a bit hard for him (contains Ss and Zz on the same list!) but the other three are loved and played often.

Box #7: Nomenclature cards from the same Thanksgiving Pack above. 

Box #8: Handwriting activity with Hh and Ii

Box #9 Dot to Dot count to 10.  This time he did it with a yellow highlighter and a ruler!  It was fun.

Box #10: Feeling Faces board game and a piece of Hh is for Halloween Candy! 

Review day - This lesson was brought to you by the numbers 1 - 10 and Aa - Ee

We have been sick.  It wasn’t bad, just a cold, but it was one after the other after the other and then Don, me and the baby all at the same time which ended in a cascade effect of tired, grumpy mama. 

We are finally past that now and everyone is on the mend, but a full week of school was missed.  So some review started off our week this week.  And for Logan that meant numbers and Aa - Ee!

Box #1:  A tracing numbers activity from LaTeeDah.

Box #2 is a matching numbers game which he loves!  Can find it here (it was on the clearance table at Barnes and Noble last week).

Box #3 was a letter matching game that helps him remember how to spell his own name.  This time I added in “Mama” too.    Inspired by this pin.

Box #4 was the LeapFrog fridge letters.

Box #5 was a measuring rice Montessori activity.

Box #6 was a counting down from 10 book called “Ten Dogs in the Window” and even though it was not supposed to be for me, I cried!  The last page with the doggy all alone in the window just made me tear up something fierce.  My oldest came in and asked what was wrong.  lol!

Box #7 was a Ee tracing exercise inspired by this pin.

Box #8 was a “Rough and Smooth” Montessori exercise with a blind fold.  Those are still not his favorites but he is getting better and better at them!

Box #9 was a few kid yoga moves with Oops and Oopsie.

Box #10 was the I Spy preschool game.  This is the third time we have played this and honestly I think he was way past it when we started.  It is now down right easy.  I think it has been all that work with the older siblings on their level I Spy books (which they love and we have like 12).  Whatever it is, I think this one is getting packed away for Luke really soon.

After school we had a refresher in Wet on Wet painting.  Logan LOVED being able to paint as last year this was an activity saved for when he was down for nap.    He thought being included while Luke was napping was pretty much the best thing ever….  also, Wet on Wet is just really fun!