Week 8 - Community Helpers

After a great week of learning about fire safety last week, we decided to continue and expand our learning by studying more community helpers.  This week we focused on the police.  We read lots of books about police men and women and why they are so important to our community.  On Thursday, we even joined our homeschool friends for a field trip to the local police station!  Big K was pretty disappointed that we didn't get to go see the actual jail, but we did get to check out the garage where they keep all the police cars!

After the field trip, we went with another homeschool family to the park for a picnic lunch and some playtime.  All of a sudden we started seeing something in the sky - SKYDIVERS!  Apparently this park was located right next to an airport and skydiving school so as we played we got to see several planes take off, people jump out of them, float down, and land right on the other side of the park!  Talk about an unexpected treat for the kids! 

One think we also learned was how the police catch criminals.  We learned all about how unique our fingerprints are.  We even made our fingerprints on paper to look closely and see how Big K's and Little E's fingerprints were alike and different.
 
The kids were also really interested the learn about the role that animals play in the police force.  We learned about how police K-9 units work, and how dogs help the police.  We also learned that some police use horses in their work! 

In math this week we have been learning about place value and have been working on numbers up to 1,000.  We are getting really close to finishing the first book of our math series, Life of Fred, which is really exciting!  One day we played a game using UNO cards.  We picked three cards and then tried to make the biggest number possible as well as the smallest number possible with the three numerals.  We also worked on the less than and greater than signs with three digit numbers.  Big K breezed right through it! He's such a smart guy and math is definitely his forte!


This week was also the September edition of Tail Waggin Tutors at our local library - always a favorite with the kids!  This month they  had a ton of books by Big K's favorite author, Mo Willems for the kids to pick from. 

Happy Learning,
Momma C

Week 7 - F is for Fire Safety and Field Trips!

What a busy week we had last week!  So busy that it is Monday morning and I'm just now catching up on our end of the week things, like blogging!

This week we learned about fire safety.  We read books about firemen and fire safety, we talked about what to do if we had a fire at our house, and even had our own fire drill!  Most of it wasn't new information to Big K and Little E, but I still wanted to drill it into their brains a little more.  We also expanded by talking about the fire triangle and what a fire needs (air, heat, and fuel).  We did an experiment where I lit three candles and tried to put out the flame by taking away one of the needs.  The kids were amazed at how putting a glass over the fire would make it go out, and they really enjoyed squirting the flame with a spray bottle and sprinkling baking soda on the flames to extinguish them.  Apparently I'm raising a couple fire bugs, so it's a good thing we learned about fire safety! 

We also did a few fireman themed math activities this week.  One day we played a game called Roll and Count where we had to roll a dice, count the number of dots, and then find the numeral on the firetruck and cover it up.  Little E is getting really good at identifying her numbers and counting with one-to-one correspondence! 

We also took a field trip to the fire station with a homeschool group we are in.  The kids had the chance to see the firetrucks up close and personal as well as talk to a fireman about fire safety.  Big K's favortie part was seeing the living quarters at the station.  The fact that they had a kitchen and a big bedroom with lots of beds was pretty cool! 

  

This week also marked the start of weekly play practice! Big K is going to be in a production of Around the World in 80 Days.  He is a character named Thomas Flannigan and is also going to be a British police officer.  The kids read through Act I this week and also got an acting lesson where they learned how to move their bodies on stage to portray different modes of transportation. 

Our big treat for the week was a day trip up to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  We had never been there before, and the two hour drive was just perfect for a day trip!  The kids (and us grownup) had a blast!  

Big K liked the train tunnel!

We acted like paleontologists and practiced digging for dinosaurs

And then we dressed up like dinosaurs!

It wouldn't be Indy without a kid friendly race car.  Big K wants to be a race car driver when he grows up, so this was a particularly special treat! 

Then we took a trip to China and learned all about what life is like on the other side of the globe.

Little E practiced her pretend cooking skills making a traditional Chinese meal

And learned the proper way to serve tea

Of course, Baby W just enjoyed a day full of snuggles!

Looking ahead we are going to transition our fire safety project into one about our community and community helpers!  We are even heading to the police station for another field trip!  

Happy Learning, 

Momma C

Week 6 - On the Go!

What a busy week!  This homeschool business sure keeps us busy.  So much learning, so much time together.  I LOVE it! 

We had several big events this week.  On Tuesday Little E had a tooth pulled.  Her tooth has been bad since it grew in, and finally needed to come out.  She was such a brave little girl, and our dentist office was amazing with her.  We took that opportunity to learn more about our teeth and how to keep them healthy (Little E's tooth was bad all on its own - she takes good care of her teeth!). 

On Wednesday we went to a program put on by our local parks department.  We learned all about squirrels and how to identify the different types of squirrels that live in our local area.  We learned about what squirrels eat and what happens to the nuts they don't eat.  We also learned what animals in the area eat squirrels.  The kids then made squirrel magnets for our fridge!

Since it was such a nice day to be at the park, we decided to go for a hike down the the creek.  It has been a very dry summer, so the creek bed was the perfect depth for taking our shoes off and splashing around a bit.  We found lots of rocks and even a few shells!  There was lots of discussion about how and why those shells were there.  The highlight of our creek experience was seeing a little crayfish.  Big K and Little E were amazing watching it duck in and out of the rocks. 

 Friday the kids had their first tumbling class.  A local gym does a Homeschool class the first Friday of the month, and I think it is safe to say we will be going back!  I was impressed with how many boys there were in Big K's age group.  He worked on some forward and backward rolls, cartwheels, and some trampoline skills.  After the hour long instruction, they kids were allowed to explore and practice for an hour worth of free gym time.  After a while, the practicing turned into fort building with the mats, but it was great to see Big K being able to have some free exploration play time with a group of boys his own age!  We made quite a few new friends and got some great exercise while we were at it. 

On Fridays Big K generally writes in his journal about something he really enjoyed that week.  And Tumbling class made the cut for this week's entry! 

"I did flips and jumps at tumbling class.  I did roll overs at tumbling class.  Max was there at tumbling class."

Week 5 - FAIL

Well, I guess we will just consider week five as our early fall break..... 

Between Labor Day on Monday, and me and Little E coming down with stomach bugs, we really only had one day of sit-down school stuff!  No one had the motivation or desire to do much except lay around reading books and watching movies. 

A friend of mine introduced us to a great book series for kids.  They are called I Survived! and Big K is really into it!  This week we finished up I Survived!  The Sinking of the Titanic 1912 and started a new one called I Survived!  The Shark Attacks of 1916.  They are great historical fiction novels.  I love that they don't really sugar coat the awful-ness of the event (in fact, one chapter in the Titanic book actually made Big K cry a little!) but are still really kid friendly.  The chapters are short and the books are easy to follow along.  Big K and I usually read a chapter or two before bed.  He is perfectly capable of reading them, but most nights he just likes to listen.  That's fine, too!  We have gotten them from our local library, but you can find them on amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/I-Survived-Sinking-Titanic-1912/dp/0545206944/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410208241&sr=1-1&keywords=i+survived+titanic

Big K also spent some time learning on the computer this week.  We really like www.starfall.com and the Umi Zoomi games on www.nickjr.com! 

We have a FULL week planned for week 6, so we will make up for lost time for sure!  It all evens out in the end!

Happy Learning,
Momma C