Mouse House

I thought some of you might enjoy this...
Josh built a "mouse house" out of a cardboard box. He furnished it with legos and cotton balls. As he was giving me the tour of the house, he pointed to a small "room" with some of Liv's plastic food stacked up in neat piles.

He said, "That's the food storage room."
HAHA! Even a mouse needs a food storage room. :)

Score one for indirect teaching!

Homeschool: Passover

I forgot to post about the lessons we learned about Passover and the Plagues of Egypt.
I found a really fun site with "videos" to help teach about these events.
Maybe someone could use these as well?

http://kids4truth.com/chosen/plague.html
http://littlelambsministry.freeservers.com/storytheplagues.htm
http://littlelambsministry.freeservers.com/storythepassover.htm
http://www.jesusandkidz.com/MosesFrees/Page1.htm

Homeschool: The Wizard of Oz Field Trip

A local homeschooling mom told me about a play in our area put on by other homeschooled children. We were "itching" for a field trip, so off we went. At 10:00 today, we sat down to watch a great play of e Wizard of Oz. I was very impressed. Liv sat so well during the whole thing. I think I was most impressed with that part of it. :)
The cast was made up of youth who participate in the Masters of Fine Arts Academy.
How's that for home schooling? :)

Happy Easter!

Homeschool: Owl Moon, Thunder and Tornadoes

I recently bought a book that helps teachers use Caldecott Medal winner books in the curriculum.

We chose to start with Owl Moon.

What a fabulous book.

For art

We talked about the art in the book (of course) and discussed how the artist made each scene look quiet and very still in the winter snow. We felt as though we were really there.

For science/zoology

We learned about different kinds of owls and found that the Eurasian Eagle Owl has a wingspan of 79 inches, while the Elf owl only has a wing span of 15 inches. We used yarn to measure the different wingspans and labeled each string. Then we hung our findings up on the wall to compare them all.

Eurasian Eagle Owl Elf Owl

We listened to owl calls and tried to imitate them.

For Language Arts

We talked about similes and found a few similes in the book.

Then, we each wrote our own poem about climbing tress and used simile (or something close to it).

To add to our study in simile, we decided to describe the super cell thunderstorm we had last night.

Here is what the boys came up with...

• The rain was like tiny hands clapping.



• The thunder was like a bear yelling.



• The lightning was as bright as the stars.



• The rain was like hail hitting the roof.



• The thunder was like a dinosaur stomping.

For more science
and to continue with the flow of the day, we learned what causes thunder and lighting. We checked to see where lightening was striking in the US today.

We learned what causes tornadoes

We watched tornado videos.

As a censor note...I muted this because I did not care for the language used. The video is awesome, though.


This video is much better as far as listening pleasure. lol.


This one shows a Hay Devil (gentle whirlwind)

Home School Happenings

So, I found a fun little game on line for practice in counting change.
http://justkidsgames.com/play.php?MakingChange

Also, the newspaper carried a small headline telling us about the earthquake in Italy yesterday. I decided that we would base some school around that. Here is what we did...

First, we know that we are told...
Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

79 Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—

So, we will teach

• things in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth (science, geology, biology, geography, theory)
• history (things which have been),
• current events (things which are)
• prophecy (things which must come to pass).

We talked about the earthquake in Italy and learned *And there shall be heard of wars, rumors of wars, and earthquakes in divers places.* (current events/prophecy/geography)

We talked about the seas heaving beyond their bounds and Hurricane Katrina and Tsunamis (history/propehcy)

Then we learned about what causes earthquakes and found a very educational free video here(science, theory, prophecy)

We learned that when the Savior shall come again, the Mount of Olives will cleave (vocaublary word) into halves and that the whole world will feel THAT earthquake (prophecy/geography).

I also found this to be of interest...

In the Book of Zechariah the Mount of Olives is identified as the place from which God will begin to redeem the dead at the end of days. For this reason, Jews have always sought to be buried on the mountain, and from Biblical times to the present day the mountain has been used as a cemetery for the Jews of Jerusalem. There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount, including those of many famous figures.

Go figure.

Geography ... the white oval is the Mount of Olives

A beautiful Olive tree from the Gethsemane Gardens

Little sisters

I should actually have titled this YOUNGER sisters (remember, I cant use quotation marks on my keyboard now)....

I am so grateful that Janet is my younger sister. I would give you all link to her blog, but it is private and so the link would do no good. But, if you could see her children, you would know just how cute and wonderful they are ... because of their mother. I am so grateful that Jan had the first girl because she is really teaching me how to doll up my little princess. Jan has a love for fashion and for cuteness from which I can glean.

Thanks, Jan ... keep the ideas coming!

Here are some photos of Olivia and her new piggy tails (imagine quotations marks here).

I also (ummm) put mascara on her light, light eyelashes. Man, does she have some beauties?!

Enjoy!

General Conference

How many blog postings do we see about our eperience with General Conference? Isnt is awesome that we can instantly record our thoughts about Conference? Technology is great.

Even better is the fact that we can view Conference archives instantly after the broadcast.

For our family...

We made a big bowl of candy and a (long) list of key words to listen for during Conference. Once a key word was said, we took a piece of candy. We also spread blankets and had our own blanket time (I would use quotation marks here, but someone spilled cranberry slush on the keyboard and half of the special keys dont work...not even the apostrophe for the contraction dont). How did it work for us?

We went into sugar shock after the first two addresses. Calvin called it quits after the first talk, and Josh decided he would just stock pile his candy instead of eating it right away.

Piano Help and a Popcorn World

We can't afford piano lessons for the boys right now, so I borrowed my mom's piano key labels and bought a VERY simple book for the boys to play with. Basically, the book shows big fat black notes with the letter of the corresponding key inside of the note. This book makes playing very easy.
The boys are having a good time.
Calvin has memorized how to play "Silent Night". In fact, he played it for us during FHE this week. While his timing is off, he gets the notes right.
Today we listened to someone sing the song, and Calvin sang along with it . . . this is what I heard from Calvin:
"G, A, G, E.
G, A, G, E.
D, D, B
C, C, G
A, A, C, B, A
G, A, G, E...."

He went through the whole song like that.
Does anyone know music?
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
How do I work with that?

Help?


-----------------------
In other conversation with the boys, here is what we talked about over dinner:

Josh: I wish the whole world was made out of popcorn. I wish everything in it was popcorn.
Me: Even chocolate?
Josh: Well, okay, everything but chocolate.
Me: What about pizza? I sure like pizza.
J: Okay, not pizza.....and not water. But everything else.
Me: Ice Cream?
J: umm, okay NOT food. Food is food and Water is water. But everything else is popcorn.
Me: What about our house?
J: Okay, a house is just a house, but everything else....even cars and our road and if we ever got hungry we could just eat a piece of the road . . . or the seats in our car!
Me: So, are you telling me that I wouldn't have a diamond wedding ring? I would have popcorn on my finger?
J: Oh, No! A diamond is a diamond, of course! (That's my boy)
Me: Would it rain popcorn? Would it snow popcorn?
J: (with a gleam in his eye) Yes! We could make popcorn snowmen!
at this time Calvin chimes in...
Calvin: Nope, can't happen because you said that water is water, remember?
J: (looks confused for a sec) Oh, that's right....man!

(And THAT is what we call the water cycle, people)
Poor Josh - and he had such a good idea, too.