Addition

O(4) was very proud of this addition sheet she completed at school a few weeks ago. She said she used the beads to make and solve these math problems. She LOVES math!!!

Enjoying Our Giant Chalkboard

We've been spending A LOT of time outside lately.  The weather has been beautiful, and I recently read a Charlotte Mason book (Charlotte Mason's Home Education in Modern English (Charlotte Mason Series Paraphrase)) that emphasized the importance of spending many hours (not just one or 2!) outside each day.   We always really enjoying our outside time, but sometimes it just feels like too much work to get out there.  It's definitely easier now that the baby is older, and I am committed to being outside as much as we can. 

We've started taking kayak rides in the lake several times a week.  I was always afraid to take them out by myself because I didn't think I could paddle and hold onto my squirmy baby (and I was afraid that she would stand up and topple over the side of the kayak!).  However, she is really good about sitting still in the kayak.  She understands that she must not stand up, and we have a great time.  It's so much fun to sneak up on the turtles, and we recently saw 5 baby turtles on the base of a Cypress tree. 

 In addition to our additional kayaking experiences, we've spent lots of time walking in the woods, playing on our swingset, and drawing on our giant chalkboard.  O is VERY interested in writing and drawing, and this is the perfect large space for her to do this. 

A Beautiful and Simple Science Experiment

This is a science experiment that we do every year when the white Camelias bloom...

First, O poured water into 4 test tubes (I bought these on clearance after Halloween...they were filled with gummy body parts in candy jelly, which we threw away).



Then, she squeezed LOTS of food coloring in to each test tube.  The tubes were red, yellow, green, and blue (the food coloring was so dark that you couldn't really tell which color each tube held at first).



Our last step was putting one beautiful white Camelia into each test tube. 


Within about 3 hours, the petals were already starting to turn colors. This was SO exciting because this is the FIRST year this experiment has worked (and it's our 3rd year doing it!). I realized last year (too late) that it wasn't working because we weren't using enough food coloring.




All of the petals fell off the blue and green flowers after only one day.  Luckily, the girls didn't mind.  I'm so glad this project finally worked!


Thanks to Nonie who inspired me to use the test tubes for this experiment.  They worked perfectly...you should try it!

Candy & Cereal Bracelets

One of the activities in O and E's February Box of Fun was making candy and cereal bracelets.  I put a ziploc bag with fruity cheerios and twizzlers (pull and peel) in the box.  O was VERY excited when she saw it since she had never even seen "color" cheerios or pull and peel twizzlers. 











O and I had a lot of fun making (and eating!) our bracelets! 

Other activities included in the box of fun were Valentine's day cards to color, heart doilies, a blank canvas to paint, twisty straws, a mini sticker book, a felt board activity, and heart headbands.

Learning to Finger Knit

O and I (and sometimes E since she has to do everything her big sister does!) have been learning to finger knit for the past 2 weeks.  I was surprised by how easy this has been.   We followed the directions here.













Before we started learning to finger knit, we watched the History of Yarn.  O loved this!  We watched it twice in a row, and she wanted to watch it a 3rd time.  Thanks to Amy at Early Bird Homeschool for sharing these fun links!

Studying Africa

O has been studying Africa at school, so we've been focusing on Africa with several of our activities at home.  I checked out several cds from the library...AFRICAN PLAYGROUND, WOMEN OF AFRICA (this one was my favorite),  North African Groove, and  South Africa.  We LOVE the Putumayo Presents cds...my all time favorite is ISLANDS , and we also really like Dreamland: World Lullabies & Soothing Songs.  (in the interest of full disclosure...these links to amazon are all affiliate links!)  Luckily, we have been able to find most of these cds at the library!


In addition to listening to African music, we've looked at lots of pics of Africa on the ipad.  O was really impressed by a picture of a women who was carrying many loaves of bread in a large basket that she had balanced on her head, so we practiced balancing baskets and bread on our heads. 

We've also finger walked from our house to Africa using the google earth app on the ipad...it is truly amazing!






We've read the Magic Tree House books that take place in Africa, Magic Tree House #26: Good Morning, Gorillas and  Mummies & Pyramids (Magic Tree House Research Guide).   We both really enjoy the research guides...more than the books.   I think I've learned as much as O by reading them!  E is into repeating lately, so she's been repeating words like "mummy, tomb, and Pharoah!"

We've also read a few picture books about Africa, and we've listened to stories and music on the ipad via the Tales 2 Go app (our all time FAVORITE app!).   In addition to playing with our African musical instruments (a thumb drum and shaker from Epcot's Africa), we have played a thumb drum on the ipad. 

I also printed pics of African children from Activity Village for O to color.  She's started to enjoy coloring more lately, but she was only interested in coloring the girl in the picture. 

While I don't like for the girls to have too much screen time and technology in their lives, I am continually amazed by the things we can do on the ipad.  I especially love the Montessori apps, and I'll review a few when I can find a minute :)

I can't wait until O is in 1st grade and is homeschooled full time!  We are going to have so much fun!!!

SO Proud!

O is SO proud of the money she raised for the children at St. Jude's Hospital through her charity read-a-thon a couple of months ago.  She read 20 books, and we paid her for each book that she read.  All of the money will go to St. Jude's Hospital. 

We paid her with one dollar bills in order to help her understand the concept of how much money she raised...fives, tens, and twenties are just too abstract.  She was so excited as we counted the money, and she asked that we count it again and again.  After we counted it a few times, she ran to her room and got her piggy bank.  She struggled to open it and dumped all of her money on the bed.  She said "We can give all of my money to the children, too!"  With the 20 dollars from her piggy bank, she raised 100 dollars.  Good job, O!  We are so proud of you!



Although we gave O the money as one dollar bills, I actually made the donation through paypal.  I donated the money to St. Jude's Hospital via Catie's Wish Foundation...please take a moment and read more about this foundation.  Thank you.

Snowflake Matching Work

Snowflake Bentley is one of our favorite winter books, so when I saw this snowflake matching work on My Montessori Journey I was very excited.  I love activities that are directly related to the books we read.  Thanks to Laura for emailing me the file!

The pictures for this work are actual photos of snowflakes, and they may be the photos that Snowflake Bentley took many years ago (we like to think they are anyway!).


O likes to sort the snowflakes into 2 groups before she starts matching them ("pointy" and "not pointy").  She looks at the tiny pictures of snowflakes through a magnifying glass in order to match them to their larger matches.  This is more difficult than I anticipated!


I put star stickers on the backs of the cards to facilitate self-checking. 

Our February Poetry Basket

February has been a busy month, and we've only read our poem from our poetry basket a few times.  I couldn't find a poem that I liked on the internet, so I decided to just get one from one of our children's poetry books.  I love Wild Beasts by Evaleen Stein, and it's perfect for acting out (although the props don't fit in our basket!). 


Baby E likes to point to the words while reciting her version of the poem. 


O has had fun acting like a lion "beneath a nursery chair."