School, week of 12/15/13

We took it easy this week. Mama had a cold. 

Arts

Crafts

And money math using chocolate coins. 

We also built a farm from duplos and practiced money math by buying and selling farm implements and animal byproducts. 

We finished up the week with a trip to the Discovery Center. I think this place will make a regular appearance in our lessons. S was facinated by all the electrical experiments.  

The girls really enjoyed the wind simulators. 

All the kids got to make a kazoo out of three rubber bands, two Popsicle sticks, and a drinking straw. 

I took video of us doing the experiments but I apparently can't upload that to blogger from the iPad. Oh well. 

I'm looking forward to Christmas break and reorganizing our structure a bit. When we start back in January, I'm going to do a unit on electricity, since S is so facinated. 

Tuesday, December 9th, 2013

Playing with clay at the end of our day. The kids finally won the battle on "Nephite Facepaint" today. Thanks, church activity. Now my kids think this is ok. Ah well.

S spent most of the morning tearing through a money math activity book.

 He really loved the pages that gave the cost of an item, and he needed to decide what coins equaled that amount. 

Six months ago, he didn't want anything to do with this type of math so we shelved it. Now, it's like cake. His brain just needed those few months to develop the synapses for money math to make sense. 

We also spent quite a bit of time on Spelling City and another app dealing with money.

Mom was feeling under the weather, so we phoned it in on science and watched a Bill Nye you tube on the properties of air. We've done quite a bit with gases so it just reinforced stuff we've learned previously, but there's nothing wrong with spiraling occasionally. 

Heres another Nephite playing with clay. 

And a kitty saying, "cheese". 

Can you tell I learned how to blog from my iPad? My only complaint is the horrible pictures, but since that's no different than before, I decided to roll with it. 

Book Work Day

We don't love book work days, but practice is how we get better. Journal writing!

Today we also did money math, spelling city, reading, and a time telling worksheet. 

It's amazing how we can fit a whole day of school in an hour or two. 

Zsa Zsa Turns Five

My sweet girl turned five today. 

She's such a riot. We've been planning her birthday every day for a solid year because her favorite thing to talk about is her birthday. 

Today she got to go clothes shopping with Grandma, choose a book and a cupcake at Barnes and Noble, play with friends, cousins, and go to Organ Stop Pizza (if you haven't been, go. It's fabulous.), and get ice cream sundaes. In short, she's had an absolutely marvelous day. 

Favorites List

Color: purple 

Clothing:skirts/dresses

Fictional Character: Doc McStuffins/Sofia the First

Food: Mac n cheese 

Ice Cream: chocolate

Hair style: pig tails

Toy: string

Zsa has really blossomed as an artist. Her pictures are so detailed. I love to watch her draw and color. 

She's a fantastic older sister. She often goes out of her way to be pleasant with CJ. The Boy can still really push her buttons, though. 

She says some of the most outlandish things I've ever heard, and I absolutely love it. Today she told my mom that she liked the birthday card Mom sent "one hundred and thirty one, which is the biggest number". 

On Sunday, we were all gathered at family dinner and she thanked the whole room for coming to her birthday party. One of the aunts walked in with cupcakes and Zsa was just certain they'd been made specially for her. 

Happy Birthday, sweet girl. You're my favorite. Don't tell the others.