Camping out

Daddy wasn't feeling well the last few days, which for various reasons necessitated a shift from the upstairs to the downstairs for the rest of us. After brainstorming various ways to make it work, I came up with this:



A camp-out in the family room! So much fun. We actually have 3 more tents/forts that we could have put up, these are the smallest 2. The kids each slept in their sleeping bags in their own tents, and I slept in my sleeping bag on the couch (not a good trade for my bed, but better than the floor!). The kids loved it. They do not want to move back to their beds! I highly recommend it for beating back some of those January blues, too. We are longing for spring and camping at this point, so this has been a nice diversion. Maybe tonight I'll build a fire in the fireplace so we can toast marshmallows....mmmmmm, s'mores.

Seeds

We finally got to our seed lab this afternoon. I thought we would get to it this weekend. We didn't. We needed the down time after a week which had us sick, and therefore simply tired. I thought we would get to it earlier in the week. We didn't. Extra kids, a day at the zoo, the Works, all limited our time. And admittedly, I was blocked for this particular lab. Most of them seem easy and fun, the last two (the flower dissection and this one) didn't seem as easy. I had to get past my own reservations and just do it.



The kids enjoyed peeling off the seed coat of the beans to discover the cotyledons. Finding the embryo inside when the cotyledons were separated was a treat. Measuring the wet seeds and comparing them to the dry seeds was a great lead in to talking about what the seeds need to begin their growth.



It wasn't a hard lab, so why did I procrastinate? Who knows. It is done now. Next week we get to talk about Seurat to explain why leaves are green. Art and science all mixed into one. Looking forward to it!

Straw Rockets at the Works

Another homeschool day at The Works! Today we crafted straw rockets, which were a huge hit. The discussion points were air, pressure, and how air movement can move things.



The pieces for this project were so simple. I often think "sheesh, I coulda done that!" after a day at the Works, but the beauty of the Works is, I don't have to. They do it for me; 9 times a year I can take the kids in for a fun experiment.

So what did we use? A Kool-A*d Burst container, two straws of differing diameters, a bit of clay, a bit of paper, a bit of tape. That's it! I wouldn't have had the Burst containers lying around, but the rest of it? Yeah, the rest of it is all in my house, somewhere. You can sort of tell by looking at the pictures how they are constructed. The smaller straw goes in the bottle, held in place and sealed by the clay. The other straw is sealed off with tape.

We spent quite a bit of time launching the straw rockets. At times they had to be tweaked, but over all they work really well!

Other fun we had today at the Works:

Building a maze for the Bee-Bots. These are so much fun. This might be the first time we actually managed to get all of the steps in without issue!


Playing in the "dark room." They have all sorts of color and light things in this space. Kutey loves it, and today Kiddo enjoyed it, too!

We also had fun successfully picking up the blocks in the robot area, too!

The hits just keep on coming!

January really needs to just end already!

Hubby came home from work sick.

That makes 3 Wednesdays in a row that someone has been sick, along with one random Monday.

And yes, I realize the first of those was not technically in January. I'm taking it out on January anyway.

I have never used this much Lys*l (which I dislike immensely, but when you are trying to avoid passing a crappy illness around the house again, you call out the big guns) in this short of an amount of time.

I want to throw open the windows and have us all breathe different air! But this is Minnesota. And it is winter.

All I can do is sigh. And walk around with a disinfecting wipe in my hand.

Our Classroom Today--January 11

Did you know today is all ones? 1-11-11? I didn't think about it until a friend was going to a wedding, because of the date. Huh.

Anyway....

Today found us bundling up (though the high was in the low 20's! Still, bundling weather) and heading to the Zoo, where we held class here:



Again. The kids love this spot. And we love watching them here.

Other highlights of the day:
-A new baby De Brazza's monkey. Born on Friday Dec. 10, this was the first time we had seen it. So cute. It looks not at all like the parents! It will be fun to watch it grow and change. There is another one in the family group that is just over a year old, and it looks just like the adults, if a bit smaller.

-Watching the Colobus and De Brazza's monkeys play chase. The Young De Brazza's and one of the Colobus monkeys ran through the exhibit, ending with the Colobus monkey crashing into the glass just above the log there and sitting down, looking out at whoever happened to be standing there. The first time it was T and I, and it was a bit startling, but so fun!

-Seeing a leopard shark egg in the aquarium, unfertilized of course. Kiddo discovered it. He was bold, too, and went to ask the volunteer to come and see it so he could find out what it was. It is fun to see him becoming a bit less dependent on me for things like that! And it was a very cool discovery!

-New information on the floor by the python exhibit that tells how long the python is in a very visual way. This is really fun, since it is usually all wound up, leaving one to guess just exactly how big it might be. 14.3 feet, which we discovered is 18.25 of Kiddo's feet, roughly 3.5 of him, and roughly 4 Kutey's. Yep, that is a great addition.

-Seeing how much the baby dolphin, Taijah, has grown! We needed to go much more often to see her in the baby state!

-Hearing the Japanese Macaque vocalize. I have been going to this zoo since I was a kid, the monkeys were there then, and I think this is the first time I have EVER heard them. It was just one lone monkey, who looked really cold, making a lot of noise.

-The grizzly bears all snuggled in their den. They looked so soft and warm!

-Playful sea otters! They really seemed to want to play with us. They bobbed up and down in the water, followed the kids walking along the glass, and seemed to look right at us when we came in. So much fun!

-Fresh air, though this is one of those good and bad things. I love being outside, but this is Minnesota. And it is winter. It took my fingers and toes hours to thaw out (I have poor circulation, which makes it worse). I am still wearing a hat (yes, I am inside) in order to feel warm. So fresh air=good! Cold=bad.

There were a few things that weren't great today, like the high school groups that seemed oblivious to the fact that there might be others around them (one of them cut directly through our conversation, with plenty of room to go around. sigh.), Kutey getting overly tired and having a few meltdowns, and forgetting the camera (so the above picture is the exact same one form the last time we went. Oh well!) but in all, it was a great day at the zoo! I'm looking forward to going back with the camera to get some pictures of the baby monkey!

Where was your classroom today?

Books for Ashurbanipal's Library

I loved the idea of making books for Ashurbanipal's Library to go along with Chapter 16 in Story of the World, Vol. 1. We have talked about libraries before, when we studied Ben Franklin last spring we learned about the invention of the lending library. Learning about how libraries in general came to be was another piece to the puzzle.



We made our books on Monday when I had extra kids, so I put together five books. If it had been just my kids, I likely would have made kiddo do more of the folding and punching. In the interest of flow, however, I did that part first, while I was sitting at the table with the older two doing their math and writing.



Because the other 3 aren't there when we read the chapter (usually), I summarized who Ashurbanipal was and why we were making books. We also explained that he was the first to pull writings together into one place, or to compile a library.



Then I gave the kids each a book and they had at it. The younger kids were done quickly. The older kids spent a bit more time. S wanted to leave a few pages blank so she could add to it later. L folded his book into a tiny square because it was a secret book with a page for you to sign each time you read the book. Kiddo made a dragon manual*. Kutey's book was about machines.



I LOVE that this activity had Kiddo actually writing something. Yes, his writing needs work. Yes his spelling needs work. But he actually wrote it without being asked. Everyone else just drew pictures. He wrote in his. I made sure to compliment him on it, to tell him how much I loved it, especially the first page where he took his time and wrote a lot.





I also LOVE that Kutey was excited about this activity! She really put some thought into what she was drawing. She can tell me all about the 2 machines in the book, but I especially like her drawing of a person reaching for the machine.



*We recently watched How to Train Your Dragon. Hence the interest in dragons. A nice break from Star Wars! It was a fun movie.

Random

• L (5) arrived this morning (I babysit him and his sister and brother) not at all himself. I think he is getting a cold, and is therefore a little "flat," as his mother described it. He got better, but is still not himself.
  

• Kutey must be going through a growth spurt. She had an accident in the bathroom today, all over the floor, which only happens when she is growing. The floor had to be cleaned and Kutey got a bath a bit earlier than she might have liked.
  

• Her accident resulted in a magnificent scream, which woke C (3) from his nap. He was extremely displeased to be awakened thusly, and had to go to the bathroom, too. He dislikes the downstairs bathroom, but I was still trying to get the upstairs one cleaned up (and Kutey was still there). I sent him downstairs with his sister (7), but he protested and ended up peeing on top of the toilet and in his pants. Sigh. Another bathroom to clean...again.
  

• I let them all watch Bob the Builder, because I needed to persuade C to calm down (he was unable to breathe he was crying so hard and long) and persuade him to put on the dry clothes I had for him (they weren't his. He has a thing about having his own clothes). It is the first time in the 5 months I have watched them that I have resorted to this tactic.

• Kutey has been in AT LEAST 6 outfits today. I can't figure out where each of the previous ones has gone. That will be fun later.
  

• My hands are so dry that they hurt. Washing them 40 times today has not helped.
  

• January is my least favorite month. This is not endearing it to me any more.
  

• Also, it is snowing. Again. Those of you who like this should be here. I'll trade spots with you if you are somewhere warm and sunny.

• It can only get better, right?