Week 7 - Volcanoes, Linear Motion and More Greek Mythology

 In full disclosure,  we did not have our best week this week. I am not sure exactly why things fell apart but they did. There were tears and frustration and anger but we moved through it together and maybe even learned a few things along the way. The kids really are doing a nice job transitioning to something completely new to them. They don't complain about missing their "old school" or beg to play with friends and they have taken things in stride. I didn't take as many photos this week but I know next week will be better. 

Jonah (preschool) worked this week on tracing letters and working on the letters he already knew. He's doing a great job recognizing A, B, H, J, P, M, and I. He enjoys tracing letters so we worked on that some. He also has his address memorized including the zip code! Wow, good job buddy! Norah and Jonah also went to the dentist this week. We missed our cleanings in March or April and so we were well past due. It was a little nerve wracking to have masks off but they were troopers. 

Norah has been asking to do "ool". We played with the shape sorter this week. Both putting shapes in with labels and also stacking. She has no trouble with either and asks to do it over and over. She also likes to do calendar with the boys and so we often go back up to the school room later in the day so she can have a turn to put on the day of the month and change the weather. 

Micah Man (1st grade) did a great job with subtraction this week. He is also working on mastering some sight words, and practicing his writing. He loves to draw and color and has made several cool drawings on the Olympians. 

Emmett (4th grade) had a cool science lab with the substitute teacher, aka dad, on Monday morning. Linear motion was the subject and they made a great parachute to try and slow the descent of a small Lego build from a third story window.

I am looking forward to a slightly less emotion filled week next week! 

Bye Soon - 💛

 

Week 6 - Pumpkins, pulleys, and Greek Gods, Oh My!

 Week 6 was another fun one! We had three days of pouring rain which made for even more fun outdoors! Rain jackets and bare feet are the best. 

Micah Man's (1st grade) week included 

* Math - counting on, number sentences, and equal pairs plus one more. 

* Language Arts - he jumped over full tilt into Emmett's subject, the Greek gods. He drew all of the Olympians several times and has listened with amazement at all the stories. He has chosen his favorite goddess, Artemis, the protector of children and animals. He loves that she can turn people into animals. 

* Science - it's an earthquake week! Micah read about, watched videos, and tried his hand at making a small earthquake demonstration. He rubbed two rocks together and watched as the wood chips and pebbles jumped around on the surface. 

* Music - he continues with piano lessons and begged for an extra lesson this week. He has been drawn to the piano and decided to compose a song or two. He created the music and then I helped him write the notes on the music staff. Wow, that bass clef made this tired momma have to stop and think for a hot minute. Ha.

Earthquake for earth science!

Jonah James (pre-K) had another great pumpkin week! 

* Math - graphing and patterns! We made a pumpkin dice from a printable and then he rolled it and graphed the results to see which character would win! Patterns are trickier but he is beginning to understand the concept when kept simple! I am so proud of his hard work.

* Language Arts - So many books about autumn, changing seasons, and pumpkins. He also did lots of fine motor work with tracing and writing letters. P and J were letters this week because of "pumpkin" and "jack-o-lantern" of course.

* Science - Jonah got in on the pulley action as part of Emmett's science experiment (more below)

Emmett - 4th grade

* Math - Emmett continues to work on story problems with tape diagrams and large subtraction. This sometimes frustrates him but with encouragement he continues to move forward. Great job sweet boy. 

* Language Arts - we are deep into the Greek gods and goddesses. We have finished Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief (staying up way too late a couple of nights) in order to read "just one more chapter mom".  The unit of the Greek gods has given us a really nice opportunity to talk about our religion, faith, and church as well. The kids have had lots of great questions about the men and women in the Bible and Emmett has begun to dig into the Bible he got last year as a third grader in our church. He also continues with a super secret project given to him by his friend Steve K in Omaha. Shhhhh, more to come later. 

*Science - Opposing forces for physics and simple machines for engineering. On Monday morning I left "lesson plans" for the substitute teacher. Dad stepped in and with videos cued up, a small list of lessons, and the instructions to teach the boys about equal and unequal forces using tug-of-war, I left for an hour and a half for an appointment. I have no pictures from the tug-of-war but I hear that Jonah fell and hit his head and that dad has more force that all the kids together. Hmmmmm. 

The pulley lab was super fun. Emmett wanted to know why they never get to climb trees in public school science lab. HAHA. See the video below. 

ART! for everyone - 

We have been reading and talking about Leonardo daVinci. An interesting character to be sure. Did you know that he wrote all of his notes in mirror writing? Apparently, scholars aren't sure why but one theory is that because he wrote with actual ink and was left handed, he did this so that the ink didn't smudge and smear. He was much more than an artist, he was a scientist, an inventor and a true Renaissance man. Our last activity of the week was to make tempera paint like Leonardo would have. We separated the yolk of an egg into a bowl and added a tiny amount of water to the right consistency. We then used natural sources to color the paint, turmeric for yellow, paprika for red, blueberries for blue. After that, we cheated and added blue food dye to the blue and blue and yellow to make green because the kids weren't super impressed with the colors. We had the opportunity to talk about why the colors of his time were different than the colors we see in paintings today and then we.... PAINTED! 

And now... I spend a couple of hours on this beautiful Sunday planning their lessons for the next two weeks! Have a lovely week and enjoy the fall (or spring) weather wherever you are. 

Week 5!

Welcome to the recap of week 5. Yes, I am a smidge behind but we are all doing the best we can, right?

This week brought all sorts of fun. We learned about math, physics, engineering, greek gods, and Leonardo daVinci! 

Jonah took an m&m counting outschool class! He was pretty excited about it and his teacher was great!

We also got out the box of Halloween paraphernalia. Jonah and Micah had a great time with the. Where's Waldo outfit from 4 years ago. 

Jonah now! 4 years old.

Emmett now - 10 years old!

Halloween 2016 - Emmett 6, Micah 3, Jonah, 10 months

Norah continues to learn through osmosis. She has been running around saying "B - Bat - Buh"

One day we spent a couple of hours feeding the birds and squirrels. I just put the birdseed out for them and let them play. It was a beautiful fall day and the kids were so relaxed and had a lovely afternoon. 

We were studying potential and kinetic energy in real situations this week for physics. Our peak lab was marshmallow shooters. These were super fun and easy. I cut the bottom out of yogurt containers and cut the end off of a balloon. I taped the balloon on the wider end, gave everyone a pocket full of mini marshmallows and instructions not to point them at people, and they were off. Emmett explained how they worked and then they all switched to acorns, more mass equals more velocity, so says Emmett. 

Emmett also continued with simple machines for engineering. He made the beginning of a set of gears using a box lid, gum drops, up-cycled lids and a hot glue gun. Lesson here - the gun drops have to be in EXACTLY the right spot. 

Hope you enjoyed a sneak peek into our lives this week. 

More soon! 

Ciao!

 

Week 4 - October

Happy October this week! We finished up the apple unit this week and welcomed October with a very, very careful trip to the apple orchard! The kids were so excited to be out of our house and the leaves were gorgeous as we drove through New York state. 

On Monday, Jonah did an Outschool class call Apple Circle Time. He really enjoyed it and then went down to make a play-doh apple complete with a stem and a leaf. Impressive Jo Jo!

Emmett continues to study energy in physics and so we had a game of superhero bowling in our living room. He explained to me that he contains potential energy which he then turns into kinetic energy that he transfers into the ball which then bumps into the "pins" and they fall into the door transferring more energy in multiple forms. Close enough.  

We had a VERY sweet friend who offered to print out the math curriculum for us. God BLESS you, my friend. I am not sure that the boys are quite as excited as I am. Ha. 

This is one year of math lessons for 1st grade (left) and 4th grade (right). Phew.

Micah managed to step on a yellow jacket this week. We are glad to say that he is not allergic. On Thursday before we left the house we found a yellow jacket nest in our yard. The kids were not at all afraid and found it very interesting. 

He also lost a second tooth!

Week 3

 Week 3 - 

We have had a busy week! To start, Norah transitioned smoothly to her big girl bed. There has been a whole lot of bickering and fighting amongst the boys. I have to think that some of it may be because the kids are together all the time. All The Time. They even all shared a room. I decided, much to Patrick's dismay, that it was time to move rooms around. We moved Emmett into the room that had been our makeshift office and then switched Norah and Micah's spaces. Patrick informed me that if he was moving the rooms and had to take the crib apart he was not putting it back together ever again. HA. So, ready or not, time for a big bed for the littlest Collins. She has taken to it with no problems. I imagine it might be more comfortable than her crib and crib mattress. Jonah tells everyone that he has "a new roommate". 

She spent her first night in her bed on Saturday and on Monday she turned 2! Yep, another birthday at our house. She had a sweet butterfly birthday and the boys were her biggest fans. 

A homemade vegan, vanilla cake.

Yay for frosting!

Micah studied the Autumnal Equinox and the changing seasons for science this week. We read loads of books and did leaf rubbings! He also managed to get stung by a yellow jacket on Saturday. He stepped on that little sucker with bare feet. Needless to say, the insect did not like that and Micah had a very sore foot for the rest of the day. 

Leaf rubbings

Dinosaur slippers were the least painful footwear after the wasp sting.

Jonah's unit is currently all about apples. These stained glass apples were a fun project that (miracle of miracles) all 4 of them seemed to enjoy! Ah, the fun of contact paper. 

Jonah also continues to work on his letter sounds, identification and formation. 

Emmett wrote all of his vocabulary sentences as they related to Pokemon this week. He needed something to make this more interesting and it took him about 5 minutes to come up with them! I was impressed! His physics wonder this week was related to energy and his engineering wonder was all about levers. I tasked him with making a lever to lift something heavy. Here is the video of him showing me how the lever and fulcrum work. 

One pinkie!?

He also had the pleasure of hanging out with our friends' dog Sunday morning! A huge thank you to Danny, Rory, and Bonnie for making his day. Emmett took wonderful care of Clover. He's petitioning hard for a dog. Oy. 

And Norah girl, she is learning through osmosis I think. She wants to do everything the brothers are doing and I had a moment on Thursday that blew my mind. Emmett and I were sitting at the table working together and Norah brought me the bag of Bananagram tiles. I unzipped the bag and gave it back to her. She went over to the far side of the room and dumped them out. I was not paying any attention to her, other than to make sure she didn't put anything in her mouth that she shouldn't. About 10 minutes later she came over and placed a pile of tiles on the table at my elbow. I flipped all of the tiles over and realized that she had gone through the entire bag and plucked out all of the Rs. I looked at her with amazement and she looked right back at me and said "R" as if I should already know that. Ha. She had been 2 years old for 3 days. Osmosis I tell you. 

The letter R

Norah also has this church thing figured out. 

Our friend Andrea dropped off two honest to goodness fireman's helmets for the boys. 

They are in love.

Thanks Andrea!!

And, just because Norah is excited about the last day of the regular season...

Baseball for life.