We are studying ancient history this year and I must say we are enjoying it. I’ve always liked reading about ancient history and it’s nice to see Parker enjoying it too! Sophie doesn’t always seem to be paying attention during the lessons but I’ll catch her later incorporating some of the terms we discuss in her play such as her toy dinosaurs climbing ziggarauts and sailing down the Nile river. We use Susan Bauer’s Story of the World for our history curriculum and it is really easy to use and has lots of good information in the student activity guide. I teach an ancient history class at our homeschool co-op and this is where we do the majority of our hands-on history projects. This past week we made sarcophoguses and mummies. It was a big hit!
I’ve been quiet lately, but we have been plugging away at our studies! One of our favorite things to do is play math games, most are from our Right Start math curriculum but not all.
Sarah likes to try to find the missing number. I lay out two rows of cards from 1-10 exactly the same. She hides her eyes and then I take one away and move all the cards together to fill the empty space. She then has to figure out what number is missing. We also do this game with only one row which she and Sophie like to play together.
Sophie has really caught on to odd/even numbers. I found this printable game online (can’t for the life of me remember where)! I printed it out on cardstock and we use a die and playing pieces we had laying around. One player is even and the other plays the odd numbers.
Parker likes to play a game called Corners. It’s really helped him with his math facts, you have to match like colored numbers together so they equal a multiple of 5.
And what math game would be complete without a snake belt?
In trying to encourage the children to be creative in their drawing, I’ve been drawing some with them. Today was very interesting. Sophie and I were drawing away quietly while Sarah sat across from us chattering away and scribbling. Then I started actually listening to what she was saying …
Exhibit 1:
This is a two-tailed hippopotamus that bit Sarah. Note the tears coming from the eyes and the unhappy expression.
Exhibit 2:
Sophie eaten by a hippopotamus. While Sophie doesn’t look thrilled to be inside the hippo, she isn’t crying …
Exhibit 4:
Mommy eaten by a hippo, notice a trend?
Exhibit 4:
This picture started as a large circle with a blob inside it. As Sarah was drawing it, she was narrating a little story in a shrill, high-pitched voice as only little girls can do. And I quote: “This is a baby in a jar. Now I’m pouring the baby into the toaster. Oh! It’s sooooo dark in here!!! Wah! Wah!”
My children cannot get enough of boxes. They absolutely LOVE them. They are used for all kinds of things from making boats and cars to helmets and spacesuit to storage of toys and kids.
I just love impromptu lessons! I think the kids retain and enjoy a lesson more when it’s spontaneous and even better, something they think of all on their own. One day recently, Parker was looking through some landmark cards that we got in the dollar bin of Target last summer. Each card has a picture of a famous landmark and a description of the landmark. The card also shows what country the landmark is in. After looking at the cards for a few minutes he decideds to get out his Leap Frog Globe. With the globe, he could listen to music from the country, learn it’s capitol, and even how far by plane the landmark is from Virginia. Pretty neat!
There’s a park near us that has a little pond-type thing. This time of year it is full of tadpoles, frogs, and other squirmy, crawly stuff sure to delight little ones! We’ve been tadpoling several times in the past few weeks. The last time we went the ground was covered in tiny little frogs! It’s a homeschooler’s dream: recess, science, fresh air and fun all rolled into one!
Sarah REALLY got into it!
It took me FOUR washes to get the smell out of those pants!!!
My children LOVE commercials. I’m always being told, “Mommy! You need <fill-in the blank>. It’s only $19.99 and then you get a free ice scrapper!” Last year it was all about Pixos. Pixos, Pixos, Pixos was all I heard. And no amount of talking could get them to think that Santa would bring them anything other than Pixos. In fact, when Parker was sitting on Santa’s lap, he was too shy and giggly to say anything, but eventually he did lean into Santa’s face and blurt out rather abruptly, “PIXOS!” Poor Santa didn’t know what to think!
Anyway, don’t tell them, but Santa actually brought them a cheap knock-off called Magic Beads, which got even better reviews than the Pixos did on Amazon. The Pixo frenzy on Christmas Day went exactly how I imagined it. They were excited beyond belief to get the Pixos, they jumped up and down and squealed while Mommy and Daddy opened the extraordinary amount of packaging. Then the creative juices began flowing … and along with that the bleeping beads flowed all over the floor! Not only that, Sophie is the only one with the attention span to complete even one design. Needless to say the Pixos don’t make it out of the closet very often.
Today was one of the rare days that the Pixos made an appearance. All went well … until the bleeping beads went all over the floor! Sigh. It’s too bad they don’t make refills. Shhh…
At the Davis house we are learning about symmetry. One simple little project we did involving symmetry was to fold a piece of paper into fourths, draw a design on it, lay it on a folded towel and punch around the design using a giant pushpin (but not so much that the design comes out). When done, unfold and see the symmetric design. This has been a popular activity around here and much requested.
