The Museum

We had a great trip to the museum. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but I'm going to try to get some pictures from one of the other homeschooling mothers.

When we first walked in we were a little taken aback. We were confused as to where all the 'engineering' activities were. Then we realized they were set up all over the museum (which is temporarily housed in a smaller building while the museum is under renovation). There was a station for building a block tower, a free standing paper tower, a run for ping pong balls, a paper 'helicopter', paper airplanes, catapult, and a couple other stations we didn't get to visit.

We were, also, able to play in the 'pretend' section with a little grocery store, house, blocks, and dress up things. There was a space section with activities to simulate working in space. You could even attempt 'going to the restroom in space'.

The last section we visited was the Cowgirl Exhibit. The kids weren't terribly interested in that except to sit on the fake pony, but it looked pretty neat. I did see a plaque that talked about how the women on ranches did more then keep the home fires burning. When necessary they were out there herding, roping, and branding cattle alongside the cowboys.

In the end, we really had a great time building things and playing with our creations. The boys spent a lot of time rolling the ping pong ball down the tracks we made and flying their helicopters. I'm so glad we got the opportunity to go.

The last two days have been productive and busy. Yesterday was bowling fun for homeschoolers. We went to the park afterward and then to the kids club at my gym. The kids had gotten their work done quickly before we left. Aria worked online, proofreading and reviewing addition facts. She read her Junie B book for 15 mins and learned about our word of the day which was "poultry".

Casey did some lessons with me in our Shiller Math which is turning out really good for us so far. The lesson was reinforcing his knowledge of opposites and left and right. We, also, did some work with the Materials Bank. It is, basically, teaching place value and counting with manipulatives. I read to him from the book "Buddy" again.

Today, Aria finished her book and completed a math worksheet reviewing addition and subtract using our manipulatives. She, also, completed another lesson on place value. This time reviewing the one hundred thousands place. She completed a worksheet reviewing nouns and adjectives and learned our word of the day, "survive".

I began to implement my idea to incorporate more history into our days. I talked very briefly about early hominids and early man coming out of Africa. I showed her a timeline I had drawn and told her that I plan to have them do some kind of project for each time period we are talking about. We will hang drawings or essays under the appropriate portion of the timeline. I plan to have a timeline hang near the ceiling along the top of the kitchen. So, we shall see how they take to this idea.

Casey completed a lesson from mindsprinting.com reviewing words that we have learned over the last few weeks. We went through Lessons 1-51 to 1-54 in his Shiller Math which teaches rows verses columns. He practiced drawing the number 4.

To cover a little bit of science, Aria watched and episode of Bindi about wild dogs. Casey watched the Magic School Bus which was about dinosaurs. I love to see the genuine interest in these learning shows.

Aria gets to start a Hip Hop Dance class next week. We are both excited for her to have something like that to do.

We've been playing Tennis with our friends, too. Fun!

Busy Times

We've been busy lately. I haven't as much time as I used to have to blog. We've started bowling with local homeschoolers every Tuesday. The kids really enjoy it. We are also spending time on Fridays with other homeschoolers that are becoming good friends. Those times are welcome breaks from our academics and help keep us from too much cabin fever.

Aria's schoolwork, today, included writing an email to Grandpa, filling in a place value chart to the trillions, math worksheets practicing place value, reading to herself for 15 minutes, and watching Bindi the Jungle Girl. She is making good, steady progress in all categories.

Casey's schoolwork, today, included word review worksheets from mindsprinting.com, writing some of his review words and watching Bindi with us. He, also, became familiar with the concept of odd and even. He decided that our family's number is odd, but he verbalized it as "our family is odd". To which I heartily agreed.

The word of the day today was "urge".

We are scheduled for a field trip to the science museum at the end of the week. They are having engineering activities this week. We will get to build things of our own. It should be a lot of fun and all our friends will be there.