Weekend Highlights

...playing with sound on the keyboard.


...looking at a book about Ancient Egypt with Daddy while waiting in line for the ballet to open.


...seeing dancing ladies and Ferdinand, the flower-smelling bull.

The Story of Ferdinand

This week we've been reading The Story of Ferdinand. It's the first book we've "rowed" from the Five in a Row curriculum. I chose it because The Nashville Ballet will be giving a performance based on this story at the library on Saturday. We also watched this clip about bullfighting from National Geographic. After watching this, Gerrick decided he thinks it's an awful, mean sport.



I'm still trying to decide how I feel about lapbooking. Many that I've seen online just seem like the compilation of a bunch of busy work. I decided to try one with Gerrick based on this book after printing drama cards and wondering where we would store them. I printed most of the material from Homeschool Share here and tried to use only things in which Gerrick actually showed interest.


Here he is working on coloring Spain's flag. He's really into flags and maps and spent a lot of time getting them "just right".



For the cover, we used part of our book's dust jacket. (We hate those and always take them off anyway.)


This is the inside. He loved the drama cards that are stored in the top left pocket. They have different parts from the story to act out.


Here's a second view of the inside.


On the back, we have pictures I found online of a vulture and vulture skeletons. Vultures are never discussed in the story, but they are in the illustrations. We read more about vultures in Animal Encyclopedia and looked at lots of pictures and video clips online. I wrote Gerrick's dictation describing the birds of prey.

While we were working on the lapbook, he kept saying, "This is so cool." So I guess we'll try a few more. :) If you're a homeschooler (or unschooler), how do you feel about lapbooks?

WALL-E Treasure Race Game

We printed this free WALL-E game here. The pawns are from raisin boxes, but of course you could use anything. :)

Ice Glass Jewels

After seeing this activity here, then here, I've really been looking forward to trying it. The next Unplugged Project happens to be Color. This morning the snow was falling pretty hard, so I decided to start the process. I thought for sure we might get a couple of inches that would stick around for tomorrow, and we'd be able to play with our ice jewels in the snow. We started with water balloons, which were a total disaster. We gave up on those and used regular balloons, which worked much better. By the time we had them in the freezer, the snow had stopped...but it occurred to me that they would also be a lot of fun in the tub. :)

Snow!

We had a tiny bit of snow today. Gerrick spent thirty minutes in the backyard armed with a magnifying glass and a spray bottle of water & red food coloring. He had a blast, while I watched comfortably from the kitchen window. :)

Marble and Ball Painting

Several people did some form of marble painting for this week's Unplugged Project. I thought it looked like fun and suggested we try it today. The 6"x9" construction paper he got for Christmas fit perfectly in the bottom of one of his toy storage baskets. He chose white paint/blue paper and yellow paint/white paper. He squirted some paint on the paper, then rolled two marbles and a hard rubber ball around--spreading the paint. The yellow painting is Sandstorm; the white painting is Snowstorm.

...And yes, he was The Joker today. He's loving those face paint crayons that were in his Christmas stocking. ;)

Plant Root Experiment

On the day we moved (in late Sept.) Gerrick stayed with a nice lady we know from our church. She helped him pick a bouquet of flowers from her BEAUTIFUL back yard. This plant was part of that bouquet! We have kept it in water all that time watching roots form. Once we accidentally let the water evaporate, and the roots died, but we just trimmed it and started over. :) Today we decided to plant it in soil. We talked about the fact that we were able to keep it alive with just water and light, but we can tell that it isn't healthy because it's so much more pale than it used to be. Hopefully, it will take to the soil well, feed on its nutrients, and recover to its previous vibrant state. We'll see...

Oh...and does anyone know what kind of plant this is?

Homemade Squeeze Balls (...or eggs)

The theme of this week's Unplugged Project is BALL. We decided to make some homemade stress balls, or as we call them, squeeze balls. We basically followed the instructions found here, but we filled each of ours with something different: rice, lentils, and corn starch. I didn't have an appropriate sized funnel, so I used a utility knife to cut the bottom out of a medicine cup. Our balls ended up looking more like eggs, but they're still cool. :) Gerrick says they look like painted Easter eggs.



Later, we used them to play Simon Says and practice letter recognition. (i.e., Simon says put the blue ball under the letter C.) He's already decided that Daddy will be testing his juggling skills with them when he gets home this afternoon.



We had some leftover balloons, and Gerrick is looking forward to playing a lot of indoor balloon volleyball with those. :)

Shape Builders

Yesterday, I bought this Shape Builders stencil kit on clearance at Wal-Mart for $2. The stencil is really thick, transparent, and has grips to keep it from slipping--it alone is worth the two bucks. Gerrick really likes it and spent about 30 minutes before church this morning and about 45 minutes during the service working on pictures. Of course this is only promoting his already obsessive, perfectionist tendencies and is in no way encouraging his free drawing (which right now is close to nonexistent), but at least he's using a pencil and strengthening visual perception. :)

S is for Star Sunglasses

This picture was taken by Gerrick as part of his photo project.

Snail Eggs

This morning while cleaning the aquarium, we discovered that we have snail eggs!

A Day in the City

Today Gerrick and I went to Nashville. We saw the library's presentation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. We picked up the books I had on hold, and Gerrick checked out a documentary about Ancient Egypt (his latest obsession) and a copy of Little House on the Prairie.



Afterwards, we had lunch in the courtyard, and Gerrick played in the icy fountain.



It was about 60 degrees, so we decided to walk the 7 or 8 blocks to Rick's office. Along the way we checked out all the cool buildings, the newsstands (where Gerrick picked up a free Trader Showcase catalog), moss growing on the sidewalk, and a few feathers (which were carefully tucked away in his bag).



Click on the photo below for a closer look at the 3-D mural painted on this building.



He borrowed the camera and took this picture for his photo project. (F is for fire hydrant.)

When we got home, we watched the Egypt DVD, marveled at all the pictures in Stacking the Deck: Secrets of the World's Master Card Architect, and then I read aloud over 70 pages of the Little House book...I'm exhausted!

WALL-E and EVE

Gerrick made WALL-E and EVE toys and took these pictures for his photo project.



E is for EVE.



W is for WALL-E.




We really enjoyed this movie. If you haven't seen it, here's an introduction:

Valentine Crayons

We recycled old crayons and made new heart-shaped ones.

We peeled the wrapper from old crayons, broke the crayons up and placed them inside metal cookie cutters on a foil-lined baking sheet, and melted at 275 degrees for about 9 minutes.



Gerrick is going to give them to a cute little toddler girl that he knows from church. :)

Gerrick's Field Bag

Well, today's the day that I finally took on the sewing machine. It wasn't fun, but I made it work! I managed to finish Gerrick's field bag (which I discussed here). Even though the stitching is uneven and ugly, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

Here are the contents: journal, pencils, flashlight, magnifying glass, sturdy spoon (for digging or whatever), mini bug jar, and (inside the front pocket) a ziploc bag. He'd love to toss a great big knife in there too, but we'll wait on that for a little while.

The Neighborhood Ball

We had our own in-house entertainment during The Neighborhood Ball! :)
(How 'bout that green beard?)


He sat and watched with serious focus as President and Mrs. Obama took to the dance floor. I wonder if he'll remember watching this when he gets older and comes to understand the significance of this day...

Feelin' Patriotic!

Apparently he's feeling patriotic after viewing this morning's inauguration. He dug his "American stuff" from the bottom of the dress-up boxes. :)

Inauguration Day

Next to the firing of the cannons and the flight of the helicopter taking the Bushes away, this performance was Gerrick's favorite part of the inauguration coverage.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Beginning Sounds

...sorting picture cards under their appropriate beginning letter.

Catching Snowflakes

We had a very light snowfall this morning, so we went out to catch and observe snowflakes. Almost all snowflakes have six points, and in fact, all the ones that we saw, did. I tried to take pictures, but my little camera just couldn't pull it off well. :) After we came inside, we found an assortment of magnified snowflake photos at snowcrystals.com. Gerrick picked the ones that look most like ours, and I've included them below.

Pink Feet

Have you ever just been in the mood to paint your feet pink? :)

Think! Challenge--City of Cards

This week's Think! Challenge:

Place a deck (or more) of cards on the table. Tell your student to build a city. No other instructions.
When done, check this out.

Gerrick immediately moved his cards to the floor because the carpet would help them stand. He started building "teepees" and said he was going to build an Indian village. I particularly like the waterfall. :) When we visited the recommended site, he was amazed. We've placed a copy of Stacking the Deck by Bryan Berg on hold at the library, and Gerrick can't wait to get it.

Nature Collection Makeover

If you haven't figured out by now, I'm a big fan of Lori over at Camp Creek Blog and In Heywood's Meadow. If you're interested in project-based learning, they're the blogs to hit!

She has inspired us again today with some nature collection photos. When Gerrick saw the first one he got really excited and said, "oooohhhh, I want to do my nature collection like that!" He went straight to his cardboard drawer and started pulling out shoe box lids. He soon realized that his rock collection was too big for one shoebox lid, so we pulled out all the trays we have around the house until we got it just like he wanted it. :)

I didn't think to take a before shot of the whole shelf, but here is a photo I took a few days ago that shows part of it. The plastic boxes behind Gerrick held his rock and shell collections. There also was a vase on top that held sticks and dried grasses that he recently collected and arranged. I never liked that he couldn't reach them.

BEFORE:


AFTER:




We cut some of the dried grasses short and placed them on a tray.
We moved some of his tools down to the bottom shelf (eyedropper, tweezers, flashlight, etc).
The basket on the bottom shelf holds his bug habitat (currently empty), a big pan we use to make play dough & such, egg cartons, empty jars, etc.
The thing that has a penguin picture is his journal. He keeps it open to his latest favorite page, propped in a wooden easel.