Sick Day

The entire student body of the Academy was diagnosed with strep today.  We did manage to squeeze in lots of read-alouds (Templeton's rotten egg exploded in Charlotte's Web today!), sewing time,

journaling (including the introduction of a frequent word ring - after this entry was written)

more work on 10's and 1's...deep cleansing breath...

and some math review with Daddy!

Science Day: Rainbow Connection

We started off the day with some copywork, rhyming puzzles, and spelling, followed by Zoe's very first spelling test!

Lucy and I gave each other very tricky words to spell!

Then, our favorite fellow homeschoolers come over for rainbow science day!  Everyone got a rainbow journal, and we started off by drawing different sources of light.

Then, we each took a flashlight and figured out how to make shadows and made an illustration of it in our journals.

Next, we had to find 3 things that light shone through (color paddles, stained glass, clear plastic, fingers)

...and 3 things it didn't shine through, like this cup.

Then, we found a rainbow somewhere in the house and drew a picture of it.  

Lucy uses Zoe's rainbow light to make a rainbow hand!

Finally, we went to the very dark garage.  

We used flashlights and a prism to make our own rainbow!  We experimented with how to make the rainbow bigger and brighter.  Then, we had a shadow show!  What a fun science day!

10 1's and 1 10

Today was a math heavy day.  We had victorious moments and some difficult ones.  Tears were shed by both teacher and student, and neither is a crier.  Math is tough.

Zoe led the school in counting to 100.  Way to go!!!

We played "candy factory."  Thank you, amazing Vandy math ed professor Paul Cobb.  So many kids have learned about the candy factory from me!  

After you have 10 pieces of candy, you have to make a roll (which stands for the 10's place). 

I catch this look on Lucy's face all the time - always watching, that one.

Then we used the notation in the book: straws.  Lucy did her next box while Zoe and I labored over the few problems in the book.  

It was very, very difficult to translate the concept to paper, even with me doing example after example with her.  Sigh.

We took a sewing break after math and some snuggles.  This is every bad homeschool cliche, but I thought the girls would enjoy it, and they really did!  Good fine motor skills, plus, think of the husbands they will get someday!

"Do you like my hat?"  "I do not like your hat."  

"Good-bye."  "Good-bye."

Hilarious.

This makes up for the sewing lesson: the book I wish I'd written!  It's so good!  In today's story, the princess goes looking for a prince, rescues one (using admirable horse-riding skills) who falls in the mud, rejects one whose mother keeps putting peas in the mattress: "I don't want peas on my plate, much less in my bed!" and refuses to kiss a frog just to get a prince.  Love it.

PE Class: Pinkalicious

We finally started the long-awaited neighborhood girls soccer team. They are 3. And they like pink. A lot.







Can you spot our athlete?

Let's go fly a kite!

In an attempt to confuse the students, we studied winter (our Scholastic book order finally came in...after the snow and on the first nice warm day!)







I catch Lucy watching Zoe read and copying her all the time. Here she is reading her own book.







While Zoe finished her reading, Lucy went to the season picture cards and pulled out all the winter ones. Nice job!





Then, after dance class and art, we enjoyed the not so wintry weather by flying Avery's beautiful Ariel kite!

Color Study: Red Dinner

Happy Valentine's Day!

We started the day with Valentine's Parties at Spanish School:

And ended them with Red Dinner at our house with Carson and Ella.  

The menu: heart shaped pizzas, watermelon hearts, twizzlers, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, Doritos (almost red), Kool-Aid, and Cookies.  Healthy, no.  Fun, yes!

Be my valentine

 Our favorite exchange student came to spend the day yesterday (and my auto-focus wasn't working!)
We played in the color and light box - lots of good fine motor skills by filling up kaleidoscopes with single grains of rice.  This is a great example of a learning activity I would never think to try!  They were salt shakers for the restaurant.

Lucy finally got the hang of seeing "lots of mommies!"

We played Valentine Bingo and graphed the colors of conversation hearts.

Then, we made lots of valentines for people we love.  It is painstaking, hard work.  

Zoe was careful to choose each picture and sticker based on what each person likes.

Making Paper

Again with the snow!  It was freezing cold and icy, so no Spanish Schoolhouse Valentine's parties for us!  Zoe spent the night at Anna's, so Lucy and I went and spent the day there together.  We had lots of fun playtime but squeezed in a bit of homeschooling too.

We learned about reusing and recycling paper!  Each person tore up paper towels and colored paper and added a cup of water and blended it to pulp.  Then, we used screens and rolling pins to squeeze the water out.  Needless to say, taking pictures of the process wasn't possible.

Our (somewhat lumpy) paper.  Not bad for a first try!

While our paper dried, Professor Noah read a book about recycling to us and we each talked about a way we could reuse a product (like using foil to make a shiny crown!), reduce the amount of trash we make, and recycle things.   Then, we had more play time, more movie time, and a big bowl of steaming chili with Pinkalicious cupcakes!  Not bad for a snow day.

Snow Science

Today was Day 4 of being trapped indoors.  It's crazy!  But we had 5" of snow which was a nice change (or addition to) the sheets of ice.  So we made the most of it.  We found every snow or winter related picture book we could find and read them all.  Then, we did some snow science!

We predicted how many minutes it would take a cup of snow to melt in 3 places: by the fire, on the kitchen table, and in the refrigerator.  Zoe predicted 1, 5, and 6 minutes.

First, we carefully measured one cup of snow.

Then, we put it in the proper place and started the timer (there's an app for that!)

 My little scientist recording the results.  Pay no attention to the margarita mix.  

It's been a long week.

The results: fire: 26 minutes, table: 48 minutes, refrigerator: still waiting.  Zoe thought it might never melt because the refrigerator was cold like outside.  We will check in the morning!

After all that work, we were hungry!  So we invited Berkley and Allie over to make snow ice cream!  It was easy and yummy (1 gallon snow, 1 cup sugar, 2 T vanilla, and about 1 cup milk (evaporated is good but regular works too).  Stir and add milk until you get the consistency you want.  It was very sweet, so less sugar would be fine.

YUM!! 

(Lucy had a very serious injury on her cheek.  

It had nothing to do with discovering a new box of band-aids)