We are HERE!!

Well, it has been a LONG, LONG time since I have updated anything on this page. Life has been busy, wonderful and full with homeschooling my fourth grader and kindergartener. We are loving life and enjoying learning, exploring, and experiencing things together!

I will be returning here though as I will be online more often. My kiddo has requested setting up her own little corner in the blogging world to share on -- and in my mind I see creativity, computer skills, writing, editing, planning, etc. She is currently working through her 'plan' and presenting her ideas to us soon and then with that I will be monitoring her work and guiding her through some basic skills to publish. We'll see how it goes!! In the mean time, here are these two little people enjoying something they both love -- science!

Hudson, Kindergarten

Holly, 4th Grade

Week In Review

The first week of school here was fantastic!! Both kids worked really hard this week, explored a ton, enjoyed many hours of more free flowing learning and had fun!

 

Hudson had a great time learning with his preschool week. This week his theme was centered on apples. He practiced colors, letters, numbers, counting and creating in sets of ten, reading short vowel a words, learned the life cycle of an apple, taste tested eight varieties, looked at an apple tree through a magnifying lens and observation, baked apple hand pies, did a load of art, mastered some fun puzzles, watched a video on apple orchards and the harvest, spent some time on Starfall.com and read a lot of books with me!! An excellent week that he loved with full rich days of learning and playing... he could not get enough of!!

 

Holly also enjoyed an amazing week of third grade! She started the week off with brand new curriculum and a mix of some familiar curriculum too. The week starts off in review for math as she masters some skills learned last year, a book study was kicked off with Little House In The Big Woods, she finished up her chemistry unit with a final project in baking bread from a cold yeast start and a warm yeast start and a review test which she rocked, loads of art, many great books, a look at ancient civilization, learning about history and how we learn from it as she created a history pocket and notebook project, learned about becoming an archaeologist, watched a video on archaeology, jumped into the country of France as we start year two of Expedition Earth, she started a poster from her new health program and did some reflection writing. It has been a full week with so much more than listed... a wonderful week!!

 



Inspired Art

We have been looking at various artists from children's books this past few weeks. This week we enjoyed some time with Eric Carl, Leo Leoni and Lois Ehlert. While they are different, they are pretty similar. It was great to pull out books and really take a look and compare the styles, uses of materials and design.

To finish up we read The Tiny Seed (which also ties into some planting we have recently done) and the kids both created flowers. Hudson's was modified as he isn't cutting in round form yet, so he created a rather square flower but a flower none the less. Their art is colorful, full of texture, creative and perfect to have up this time of year! Holly even created a another small project where she made a hummingbird. So pretty!!

Rain Forest Lapbook - 2nd Grade

I let Holly choose a couple of subjects to do special projects on each year. And, for this school year she chose Rain Forests and Coral Reefs. We wrapped up the rain forest unit a couple weeks back - it was a lot of fun! I created the objectives I had in mind for her unit and then planned around them with tons of books, documentaries, art work, games, online resources, mural, and a lapbook.

Holly chose all the elements she put in her lapbook. We did not include every little project or study in it as there is just no way we could do that and keep the sanity and fun in lapbooking. She did include some pretty key elements though, so that is good. She kept lists of animals, plants, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects and foods from the rain forest that we learned about and researched. She also included a couple of art projects and drawings, maps, work packs, vocabulary review, layers of forests, comparisons between tropical and temperate, locations of forests, small projects and more! She had a great time designing her lapbook as she went along. It is all her work, a representation of how she enjoys being creative and a wonderful end product that stores easily.

Making Chocolate

For part of Holly's rainforest unit she learned about various products we consume from there. We looked at different foods, spices and medicines we all use. However one particular item was the most popular... chocolate! What seven year old wouldn't find chocolate to be the most exciting.

We started with a tasting of dark and milk chocolate to see if she preferred one over the other. Holly enjoyed both but preferred the milk chocolate. With that we used a kit I had ordered to make chocolate. She used a cocoa powder, sugar and cocoa butter to make the chocolate over the stove top, then had to temp it and make the little chocolates with treats in them (peanut butter, nuts, cranberry and marshmallows. They turned out fantastic!

The kit also included a few real cacao beans for her to explore - she rubbed them in her hands, smelled them, tasted them, cut them open and sampled it a bit more. She didn't like them at all - 'too bitter' for her. A good experience!

Peter & The Wolf

This past week we took the kids to see the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Peter and The Wolf. It was wonderful and well recieved by both kiddos!!! Hudson is a little musical lover, he is slightly obsessed with music and instruments, so this was a perfect fit for him. For a two year old, he sat perfectly through the entire performance and asked to come back again. Before the show started you could arrive early and try instruments out in their Instrument Zoo, they both really enjoyed trying out real instruments and seeing how they feel, work and sound. It was great. They loved it so much!!

 

 

Mushroom Farm

Earlier this month we visited an organic mushroom farmer with our Nature Club. This small farm, Provision Mushrooms, was such a joy to visit. They did a wonderful job with our kiddos and their various ages. Everything was hands on and all questions were answered well! The kids learned how mushroom grow (pretty sterile conditions, who knew?) and the process - then they proceeded to start their own mushroom kits of blue oyster mushrooms. Our kit is doing really well!! The kids had a great time and we learned Hudson likes enoke mushrooms - Yay!!

 

New Year!

The holidays have been wonderful to our family! We enjoyed many great outings, activities and quiet moments together. With the closing of the holiday season I thought I would share a few items we enjoyed before we head into the new year with school! While on vacation Holly enjoyed the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker, Seattle Children's Theater's production of Wizard of Oz, a family trip to Leavenworth, her first Christmas Choir Concert with Tacoma Youth Chorus, the new Olympia Children's Museum and many fun times with friends. Many firsts this month and much enjoyment!