Friday, October 5, 2007

Highlights from our week ...

We had a pretty good week, even though Tom Sawyer had a fever of 103 degrees for 48 hours; Goldilocks lost her voice for the better part of the week; and Little Red Ridinghood had the 24 hour stomach bug.  Count on my kids to get three different things at the same time.  Since two of my little ones spent one whole day lying on the sofa watching TV, I thought I would try to make it a liitle bit productive.  So they watched Lady and the Tramp in English, Spanish and French (actually, we did not make it all the way through the movie in French, because my kids lost interest since they could not recognize any words in that language).  They loved it in Spanish, though.  Right now it is all about
hearing different languages, so it will be easier for them to learn languages when I get serious about teaching them.  Little Red Ridinghood seems to show an aptitude for languages and even does her own fantasy play using many Spanish words. She didn't get that skill from me!

Our FIAR book this week was The Glorious Flight Across The Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Martin Provensen.  This book was fun because my little ones all love to watch airplanes.  We learned about the process of invention and talked about having determination, even when things are hard.  Thanks to my big teen and this website, we got to make some great paper airplanes.  We had a few duds and found out that the airplane I've been making for years is considered the "worst paper airplane ever".  I guess that's why all those past planes never flew.  LOL!  Here is some of our better flyers.





The big teen loved his math assignment this week.  Oh dear, I hope none of the people who know him just fell out of their chairs!  Sorry for the shocker, but he really did have fun!  So what did he do?  Drum roll, please ... he did Transparent Relational GeoSolids.  First, he recorded the base, shape of base, number of faces, number of edges and number of vertices.  Then he learned about volume by measuring and filling the different shapes with noodles.  He estimated how many vials of noodles would fit in each shape and then tried it out.  The little ones got involved, too, and it was so much fun.  What I thought was going to be a 45 minute activity stretched into almost 2 hours. 







Since the dining room was a mess with noodles everywhere, we decided to do some noodle art.  The kids noodled their names and favorite shapes.  They also loved playing with the shape puzzles.



We finished the week off by making cootie catchers.  Remember those?  We used them to review important information about oneself such as address, parents' full names, and spelling of their names.  We also made one to review our FIAR books thus far.



Lastly, the big teen finished his project for International Night!  We are ready a whole week early.  That's a first!!  Pictures will follow next week from Homeschool International Night.

Have a great weekend.  I better go bless my house (boy, does that sound nicer than saying "clean my house")!  My Dad and Stepmother are coming Sunday for two weeks!

Blessings,
Dawn

14 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear that your children were sick! Thanks for the idea about playing their shows in other languages. I never thought about it. I accidently bought a Barney in Spanish from Big Lots, I should get it out for my little one. He loves Barney and I doubt he would care what language it was in.

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  2. I agree too about watching videos in other languages..that's a great idea! We are going to incorporate spanish this year so I will need to remember to do this. Using the 'cootie catchers' for remembering info is clever too, now if I just remembered how to make one hmmm?

    Anywho...lots of great stuff. Have a great weekend!

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  3. homeschoolingmommaof4October 5, 2007 at 4:51 PM

    I hope your kids are starting to feel better. It sounds like it was a great week even though they were sick.


    Have a blessed weekend!

    JoAnn

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  4. I'm sorry to hear everyone was sick. I hope they are feeling better. It looks like you had a great week. I love Five In A Row!


    Have a blessed week!

    Shawnee

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  5. Yes, I'll try the prickly fruit and report back to you all! :-)


    You've had a busy few days! Fun stuff!


    Bless your house! That's cute. I do consider cooking as blessing my family. :-) I made fried peach pies and cinnamon raisin bagels this morning! Oh, and homemade mac and cheese. Big blessings. :-)


    I didn't quite grasp the math activity. But it looks awfully cool! Anything messy must be fun, right?


    Oh, listening to movies in other languages is a GREAT way to learn, especially if you already know it in English. My daughter has certain movies she prefers to watch in Chinese. Funny.

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  6. I hope everyone is feeling better by now! It sounds like you had a great week. I, too, love the idea of watching movies in different languages. I think we'll do some noodle art today; thanks for the idea!


    Have a great weekend,


    Denise

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  7. One of my favorite things about homeschool blogger is all the great ideas I get from people like you! :) My kids love cootie catchers...I forgot that's what they were even called until you mentioned it. My chitlins call them "choosy" games cuz you have to choose a color or number :) That's a great idea about using them educationally. Our children use them to bless someone by the end flap being a kind word, a Bible verse, or a "coupon" for a kind deed (ex...I'll do your morning chore tomorrow or I'll let you play with my truck all afternoon ect...) :)

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  8. I just wanted to let you know I stopped by and I will be shipping your t-shirt out this week. I love your blog. You know I have to admit, I don't like to cook. But to think of it as being a blessing to my family is a great way to look at cooking. Thanks for sharing your home with us what a great inspiration.

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  9. Love those ghosts. Hope your kids are all feeling better!

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  10. For a week with sickies, you have done some amazing stuff! I love the cootie catcher idea. I haven't made one of those since Jr. High!


    I managed to make an aerodynamic paper airplane last week--but only by copying another one made by my son's AWANA leader. They fly! They really fly!

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  11. LOL Looks like a fun week! The cootie catcher thingy was a total flashback. hehe Have a great week! Thanks for commenting on my blog about my sickie son. =0)

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  12. We'll be doing A Glorious Flight next week!! Thx for the website... looks good :)

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  13. It's always fun to get comments! I love the art studies photos in your slide show. We are studying art now and I'm trying to get them to do "something" for each artist.

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  14. What a good idea to watch familiar movies in another language! I'll have to try that.

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