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!

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. 

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

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!

Herr's Field Trip

Jan. 2, 2014

Some of our awesome homeschooling friends offered to take Seth with them to tour the Herr's Factory in Pennsylvania. 

He had a fantastic time and asked the tour guide all kinds of questions about the factory and the workers. He told me he definitely doesn't want to work in a potato chip factory, even though the chips were delicious.

Thanksgiving Feast

Nov. 21, 2013

We finished off our unit about Thanksgiving with a full-on Thanksgiving feast! Seth helped me plan the menu (I made him write down any extra things he wanted). 

Making Rice Krispies* Treats turkeys

*(this is for my husband, who insists it's "Krispies", not "Krispie"--and here's his link to prove it).

Enjoying our meal!

We even found Seth a new favorite fruit--pomegranates! 

Turkey Math

November 12th, 2013

I made this super easy number line to help Seth recognize what addition and subtraction looks like. He had a great time playing with it and mastered the concept quickly. I let him use the number line to do the problems I made for him in this turkey math game: 

Each turkey has a number written on it. Seth had to do the equations on the feathers and then match them to the correct turkey. He actually had a lot of fun doing this! 

Can't leave the toddler out, of course! Once Seth was done Catherine had her turn--she sorted the turkeys and feathers into piles by color (and did a most excellent job, too). 

Candy Experiments & Gratitude Leaves

November 4th, 2013

We put some of our Halloween candy to good use for school! First we did an experiment about whether the candy would sink or float in a bowl of water. First Seth wrote down his hypothesis (above), then performed the experiment: 

After observing the candy, he would go back and write down his conclusion and see whether his hypothesis was right (FYI--pretty much everything he got floated). 

Next we opened our M&Ms and Skittles and sorted them by color. Then we made a bar graph to compare the colors and did a little math using the graph. It was easy for Seth to recognize when the bars were equal, and to see that a bar with two more squares meant that there were two more yellow candies than blue ones. But he had a hard time translating that to addition--instead of comparing the two columns and just adding one or two more, he would try to re-count the entire column. 

To kick off the Thanksgiving season, we made gratitude leaves and hung them around the house. I drew leaf shapes on construction paper and Seth would cut them out and draw a picture of something he was grateful for.  

And then we hung them all over the house to remind us of all the things we're grateful for! (Seth is apparently very grateful for broccoli soup). 

Halloween School Activities

October 28-30th, 2013

We finally got some use out of our number magnets and used them to make subtraction equations! We used some of the candy we got from our trunk-or-treat as manipulatives. "Seth got eight pieces of candy and ate five. How many were left?"

I also got brave and let the kids help make Halloween sugar cookies. They had a great time cutting them out and decorating them later with their friends.

We also had a lot of fun at our co-op Halloween party! We decorated cookies, sang songs, and wrapped each other up like mummies!

Pumpkin Patch

October 14th, 2013

We had beautiful weather for our co-op field trip to Lohr's Orchard. It's a great deal--$3 per person and you get a hayride, an apple picked from the orchard, a small pumpkin from their patch and a small glass of cider. 

Seth was lucky to have his grandparents there. Grandpa helped him pick the best apple.

Seth and his co-op friends!

We love Lohr's and they did a great job making this educational. They taught the kids about how each of the plants grew and answered all the questions put to them. We'll definitely be making this an annual trip!

Independence Day

June 29th-July 4th, 2013

There were so many great ideas for Independence Day projects that I had a hard time deciding which to do! Since Seth isn't really into anything too artsy, I picked some that were simple and interesting.

First, we tried puffy paint fireworks: 

Despite what it looks like, he really enjoyed this!

Our fireworks after getting 'puffed' in the microwave.

I definitely like the black paper better, even if it did leave black puddles in the microwave.

We found some red, white, and blue marshmallows at the store and decided they would make a great math manipulative. First we sorted by color, then counted, then 'graphed' them. This was Seth's first time graphing and I was amazed at how quickly he understood the concept.

(Yes, he ate them all shortly after this was taken)

This one was a lot of fun and didn't end up being NEARLY the mess I was expecting! I bought sponges from the dollar store, cut them into (passable) star shapes, and pulled out the acrylic paint. 

I put a cutting board inside each shirt to prevent the paint from seeping through to the back and then let the kids go to town. And by that I mean I carefully restricted access to the paint and sponges, but still let them do whatever they wanted on their shirts:

I think they turned out pretty cute!

Normally at this point I would iron them with a paper towel on top of the paint, then wash and dry them inside out. But I ran out of time, so they just got to wear them after the paint dried. 

Two cute kids!

Our last project was kind of a sneaky one on my part--I wanted to see how Seth's scissor skills were progressing, so I found a great flag project that he would have to cute and glue.

Much to my surprise, there was no complaining about the cutting. I did have to help him hold his scissors correctly (and fix the position once or twice mid-cutting), but he did it all himself!

Happy 4th of July!

Fire Trucks!

June 27th, 2013

Best thing about homeschooling? Learning can happen even when you don't expect it. 

This was technically Seth's day off school because we were going to my husband's work party. Little did we know that this year Seth would take a sudden intense interest in the firetruck they always bring for the kids to investigate.

I let him pester the firefighters with questions for over an hour. One of them jokingly remarked that Seth is now fully trained to operate the truck. 

A fantastic and completely unplanned lesson on firefighters from a bunch of actual firefighters while sitting inside an actual firetruck. So cool!

Future firefighter?

First Field Trip!

June 20th, 2013

The great thing about having homeschooling friends is that they can inform you of great opportunities for activities you'd miss out on otherwise! Like our very first field trip to Annapolis:

We got to ride on this boat (The Harbor Queen) for a 40 minute informational cruise around Annapolis. Not sure how much the kids got out of the narration, but they loved the boat ride!

Ships from the Naval Academy practicing in the water

Completely enthralled by the whole experience

We'd never been to Annapolis before, so this was a great experience for all of us!