Easter Egg Addition

Apr. 17, 2014

We're currently working on cementing Seth's addition and subtraction facts. I try to throw in a bunch of different games to keep things interesting. Since it was a few days away from Easter, I thought I'd try having him match Easter Egg equations.

I wrote one equation on the top half of an egg and another (different equation, same sum) on the bottom half. For example: 5+5=? on the top and 7+3=? on the bottom. Then I separated all the pieces and had him match up the correct equations.

He actually caught two eggs that I somehow messed up (they didn't have matches--not sure what I did).  And yes, he enjoyed this activity about as much as it appears in this picture. Eggs or not, he still knows "work" when he sees it!

Landis Valley/Hands On House

Apr. 16, 2014

Our co-op took a field trip up to Landis Valley (Lancaster, PA) to tour a living history farm. They had displays and demonstrations of what life was like for the German/Mennonite/Amish community there 200-300 years ago.

It was a little over Seth's head for the most part, but he did love the Blacksmith (anything with ore is interesting, thanks to Minecraft). He also loved the sheep and was disappointed that this was as close as we got:

After a couple of hours of boredom (and a screaming baby), we decided to cross the parking lot and try out the Hands On House (a children's science center). Wish we would have done that from the beginning! 

Making the pinwheels spin using a pump

Following the instructions to assemble a "Thingy"

Self face-painting

Seth's creation

The kids had a great time killing germs, delivering mail, sorting corn and assembling flying birds. They would have stayed much longer if given the chance!

Science Center

Apr. 11, 2014

We scored a great deal on a membership to the Maryland Science Center and decided to put it to good use. Seth had been there once before for a Mummy Exhibit, but this time we just saw all the regular displays. It was a bit crazy with a bunch of older kids running around, but Seth had a great time.

Excavating dinosaur bones

Pulling himself up using a pulley

Pretty proud of himself

Assembling a path for the ball with his friend, Brie.

We were there for three hours and still saw less than half the displays. Can't wait to get back again and hopefully have a chance to see the rest of the Center.

Cherry Blossom Festival

Apr. 10, 2014

We braved the Metro by ourselves to take a trip down to D.C. to see the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a perfect day for the trip.

Waiting to ride the Metro

(their favorite part of the entire experience)

Seth and the blossoms

Gorgeous cherry blossoms!

I wish we had more time so we could have seen some of the monuments and museums, but it takes a LONG time to haul three kids and a stroller through the Metro system and D.C. We'll have to make another trip later. 

Tallying

Apr. 4, 2014

A simple way to practice tallying! I gave Seth a pile of multi-colored fuzzballs and had them sort them by color:

Then he counted each pile and tallied his results: 

Simple and easy!

Measuring Volume

Mar. 24-25, 2014

Next up on the measuring agenda--measuring volume. We started with measuring rice and using this worksheet (I simplified it a bit for Seth).  Not sure how much he really understood, but at least it's an introduction!

Then we moved on to measuring with water. I had Seth pick 5 containers of different sizes and fill them with water. Then we dumped the water into a measuring cup and saw how much there was: 

Then I had him line the containers up in order from least to greatest volume: 

He was surprised by order of a few of these. Just because they're taller doesn't mean they always hold more!

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Mar. 17, 2014

I'm not usually a big holiday person, but it's kind of fun to have a holiday theme to plan school around! I decided to put together a treasure hunt for Seth (to find a leprechaun's treasure, of course!).

Here's what I threw together that morning (yes, I plan REALLY far in advance):

(Note Seth found in his school drawer):

A leprechaun left his treasure somewhere here.

I can't tell you where, but it's very, very near.

To find where he hid it, a rainbow we must make.

We'll figure out the clues and then his treasure we will take!

You must solve a problem before you get a clue.

Here is problem #1, let's see how you do!

Problem #1: If you have 1 dime and three pennies, how much money do you have?
Clue #1: Mine is the color of a bright stoplight. I'm something Catherine takes a drink from every night. (Catherine's red waterbottle)

Problem #2: Count to 100 by 2s, 5s, and 10s.
Clue #2: There are five of us together, so yummy & so sweet. You'll find us near the mixer in the room where we eat. (5 orange Clementines)

Problem #3: Set a clock to 10:30 and 7:15
Clue #3: I'm squishy and foamy and float in the tub. I'm big enough to hold a baby Chub-a-lub.  (Aaron's yellow bath mat)

Problem #4: Find a sphere, cube & cylinder
Clue #4: Mom always brings me when she goes to the store. I hold her keys, wallet, phone & more. (My green purse)

Problem #5: What is 20+20?
Clue #5: Here is where you put your clothes at the end of the day. They always get so dirty when you jump & run & play. (Their blue laundry hamper)

Problem #6: What is 15-4?
Clue #6: Mom uses me to exercise because she wants to be strong. I live by the fireplace down where it's cold all day long. (Purple handweight)

Problem #7: Write '37' in tally marks.
Clue #7: Did you make a gorgeous rainbow, with six colors oh, so bright?
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple--that's right?
Because you made a rainbow, to the treasure you'll be led.
It's hidden in a treasure box under Catherine's bed!

The completed rainbow:

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (all items from around our house)

Enjoying the leprechaun's"treasure": green ring pops and gold (yellow M&Ms)

For fun, we also wrote our own St. Patrick's Day story. Seth dictated, I wrote, and then he illustrated. Who knew leprechauns had access to so many tanks, guns and explosives? I put it with our other St. Patrick's Day books so we can enjoy it for years to come: 

Measuring Weight

Mar. 10, 2014

After measuring length & height, we started learning about measuring weight. We used our bathroom scale for big items and our kitchen scale for small items.

Finding out how much the baby toy basket weighs

To help him visualize the differences in weight, I had him fill out this worksheet: 

We found a Han Solo toy that weighed one ounce, our Kindle weighed one pound, and the baby toy basket was a nice, even ten pounds. And guess what Seth finally found that weighed 20 pounds? 

See? Little sisters ARE good for something!

Mammoth Follies

Mar. 5th, 2014

We originally planned to see this play in January (when we were studying dinosaurs), but due to an itty-bitty snowstorm (less than 1/2 inch), the play was postponed until March. The kids were thrilled to finally get to go to the "dinosaur show".

Mammoth Follies isn't going to win any awards, but the kids were in heaven. They loved the giant puppets and the music. Catherine has been asking me to go back ever since we left!

Our group, after the show

Being dinosaurs

St. Patrick's Day Art

Mar. 4-17, 2014

We had some fun doing art projects for St. Patrick's Day. I started them off doing one of the classic elementary art projects: wrapping tissue paper around the end of a pencil and gluing it onto paper. We cut out green tissue paper and glued the paper onto a shamrock shape:

Obviously my kids lot interest WAY before they managed to fill in the entire shamrock: 

We also painted some watercolors: 

Two rainbows.

The one on the right has a pot of gold at the end of it.

And for extra fun on St. Patrick's Day morning, we made rainbow toast: 

This was such a big hit that we've had rainbow toast for breakfast several times since!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Seth's Body

Feb. 2014

Seth spent the month of February learning about his body during co-op. He made this Seth-sized model of the inside of his body that he got to bring home when it was all done. His favorite part was the large intestines (of course). 

Tribulation Math Board Game

Feb. 28, 2014

Jon grew up playing this game and decided to find it for Seth (had to look on Ebay). We don't play by the rules yet, but we'll play by calling out a number and having Seth find two adjacent numbers that add to that number. I can see how it's going to be useful for lots of different math skills in the future!

Beginning Measuring

Feb. 25-Mar. 4, 2014

Our next unit was on measuring! We started off playing a fun game using non-standard units of measurement. I had one pile of things to be measured (rug, trampoline, shoe, etc.) and one pile of things to measure with (cars, popsicle sticks, pencils, etc.).  Seth would draw one from each pile and measure!

Measuring the rug with popsicle sticks

Measuring the trampoline with cars

From there we moved on to standard units of measurement. We first talked about measuring length in inches. I had Seth roll out playdough snakes and then told him how long to cut the pieces. He would have to measure using the ruler and cut each piece correctly: 

Next we talked about measuring length and height:

Our dino is four inches long...

...and about 6 inches high!

More measuring to come!

Valentine's Day!

Feb. 10-14, 2014

Holidays are always fun at school! We had lots of fun with Valentine's Day this year. First we painted Valentines to send to our family members:

Then we made our Valentine boxes for co-op (a giant Lego):

We started learning about estimation with Conversation Hearts: 

And we graphed our hearts by color (graph found here):

Happy Valentine's Day!

Airplane Sight Words

Feb. 6, 2014

Another sight word game--this time I scattered them around the room and Seth used his jet to swoop down and pick up the correct word. 

Skip Counting Finale

Feb. 3, 2014

For our last day of our skip-counting unit, I had Seth practice all the skip counting he had learned. We started off counting beads by 10s:

Then we counted marbles by fives:

And gems by twos: 

Then we recorded our findings: 

Next time I'll be smarter and cut down the numbers significantly. I let Seth decide how many beads/marbles to pull out, but it takes a LONG time for a little guy to count 231 beads, even by tens!