Everyone who knows Sophie knows that she LOVES reptiles.  Any kind of reptile will do, she’s not picky.  Dinosaurs, dragons, lizards, snakes, turtles, it doesn’t matter.  Yesterday morning she watched youtube videos of iguanas.  Who knew iguanas could be so funny and entertaining?

After the iguana video marathon, Sophie started off making a mobile of her favorite reptiles but then decided it was good enough to save as a Christmas tree ornament.  I can’t wait to see how it looks on our tree this year!

Sophie proudly displaying her ornament:

A dragon:

A snake:

A T-Rex

And of course, an iguana:

All taped to yarn and fastened to an elastic band:

I ordered the book Team Challenges for use in the Odyssey of the Mind classes at SEE co-op this year.  It’s a great book and has lots of fun activities.  There are verbal activities, such as:

• Name kinds of space: outer space, space for rent, space heater, personal space, etc
• The answer is cheese pizza.  What is the question?:
  What is my favortie dinner?
  What could be used as a tire if it were overcooked?
  What can be round of square?

There are also building activities, which my kids love!  We had some friend over the other day and did one of the bridge building activities.  The kids were divided into two teams.  Each team received the following items to build a bridge:

• 2 chairs
• 1-12in piece of masking tape
• 5 straws
• 2 index cards
• 15 paper clips
• 1-3ft length of string

After building each bridge the teams could test the bridge out by seeing how many beans it could hold.  There was lots of discussion and lots of building and remodeling of bridges.  I think it’s safe to say everyone was pleased with their handiwork!

Wow!  It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog!  I hope to get back to it regularly, I’ve missed blogging!

We’ve been doing ’school’ off and on all summer but started the school year officially this week.  Every other Wednesday afternoon Parker goes to a friend’s house to play.  I think I am going to take that time to do art with the girls.  We did our first project this past Wednesday.  I saw this idea on another blog I like to read.

Behold, our stained glass window:

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.

Parker likes order as is evident by these pictures …

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!!!

One of the prize catches!

Changing into a frog!