Q is for Quarter collecting

This week's painting project

I am usually a paint/draw-whatever-you-want-to-without-a-certain-end-in-mind kind of teacher to my children. I saw these really cute bobble heads at Target a couple weeks ago, and I was saving them for a rainy day. Well, today wasn't rainy in the weather-y sense but rather in terms of everyone's moods...so we pulled this activity out. The boys love painting, and I love to see their different personalities in a different light.

Exhibit A: Justus - J is our "I don't want to get my hands/shirt/shorts dirty, and I will do whatever I need to in order to avoid a mess" boy. You can imagine how this would play out when we are painting.




Exhibit B: Titus - I would say Titus' attitude towards paint varies. He either paints his picture/project and then wants to run off and play, or he paints his entire body and practically ignores his paper.




And then there's Exhibit C: Eli - Talk about opposite personalities in one family. Eli couldn't be more different than Justus. If you give Eli a paintbrush and paint, he WILL make a mess, guaranteed. He will completely coat his hands, and if you're lucky (or not, depending on how you look at it) his arms and belly.



(oh and FYI, Eli's hands are completely stained...I couldn't get that paint off no matter how hard I tried.)

I thought after giving the boys these bobble heads and showing them the pictures of the painted animals on the box, they might want to paint them the intended colors. I was wrong :)

It's Raining, It's Pouring

And play dough is never boring!!

All in a Day's Work

I love reading homeschool blogs for inspiration, ideas, and encouragement. However, when those blogs muddy up my own ideas and teaching style, I need to separate myself from them and figure out what is best for me and the children God has placed in my life to teach. I was starting to feel so overwhelmed lately by all the (WONDERFUL) ideas I read on blogs that I seriously couldn't even hear myself think about my own ideas. The biggest joy of homeschooling, in my opinion, is that I get to decide what to do, when to do it, where to do it, and how to do whatever it is we are doing!!

Why did I concern myself so much with what everyone else was doing with their kids? Well, I don't really know. Our system is working quite well (for the moment anyway :) ), I have a LOT less stress, and my boys are having a great time! Here's a glimpse into our morning...

Good morning, Monkey!! :)

Some baseball in the playroom

Washing play dishes...just for the fun of it!

Hide and seek!

Fighting soldiers

Doing chores from our job jar

Time for school






Made some brownies


(ate lunch)

Had "recess" ;)



And finally, at 2:00, we had quiet time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lately...

Art on the driveway

Science in the backyard




This past week, we observed, touched, and tried to catch a grasshopper, a toad, colorful birds, and many butterflies. You know what they say...It's true...The world IS our classroom!!

P is for pasta

- by Justus :)

P is for Popcorn and Penguins

Tonight, we've decided to pop some popcorn and watch "Happy Feet." I think the big boys watched this once when it first came out, but of course they did won't mind watching it again!

Don't worry, we read about real penguins this morning and talked about the fact that they don't really sing and dance in real life!! :)

...and just in case you're starting to think there is no real learning going on around here...

We discussed these questions from this website:

• What kind of animals are penguins? birds
• Do penguins fly? no, they can "hop," slide, swim, and waddle
  
• Are penguins found south or north of the equator? (or more simply for the boys, where do they live?) There are cold-weather penguins and warm-weather penguins, but they always live near a lot of water.
• How long can a penguin hold its breath under water? about 3 minutes (Justus loved this fact, because he always likes to time himself holding his breath under water at swim lessons and in the bath tub.)
  
• What do penguins eat? fish
  

We did a very simple science experiment also from the same site
(freeze flat sheet of ice...Bring in various objects from around the house. Will it slide? Use cotton ball, beans, etc.)

We also made rubber eggs (directions here)
(J made a chart for us so we would know when the eggs were "done.")

I didn't feel like taking pics of everything today, since I took so many of the pizza-making yesterday. Hopefully, we can take pictures of our rubber egg experiment when it is complete!

Finally, we watched some YouTube videos showing how penguins get around, how they protect their babies, and how the babies get their food. It was all VERY interesting, and penguins continue to fascinate me. I am itching to watch "March of the Penguins" again :) Maybe next week...