Bridge Building

We started an exciting new science unit this week -- bridges!  I had originally planned to cover this topic with just the boys but due to a delay in resources Lily has been able to join us. Lily completed a unit on electricity at the TLA Surrey campus and as I don't have any specifics planned for her this month she's joining in.  We had so much fun on Monday that we decided to invite Justin, Simon and Sina to join us for the rest of the unit.
Lily reviewed some bridge building basics with everyone while I made playdoh --one of our building materials for today.

Lily and Justin testing the strength of their bridge

John and Sina retired to the living room for a game of chess after building part of a bridge with playdoh.

We learning about "The Amazing Arch" today and built (or began to build) bridges from two different materials.  They first made piers, beams and arches from the playdoh.  These are still drying out in the oven.  Then moved on to building a cofferdam from popsicle sticks (it didn't quite work out).  Then onto building arched bridges with cardboard and comparing the same bridge with and without abutments.

Here is the book that we're using, Bridge! Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test  Don't be deceived by the childish cover-- it covers the topic in depth!

Gabriel and Math

As we pulled out math today, Gabe started grumbling.  So I decided that it might be a good idea to find out if he just didn't want to do math or if there was some other reason that we could find a solution for.  Turns out that he's bored.  I have been aware that he can pretty much do his math without help and I haven't had to actually teach him a lesson for awhile but I've been reluctant to just jump ahead.  So I found an assessment about 25 lesson ahead of where we are and worked through it with him today.  The examples above are just two of the questions.  We worked out the problems on the white board so that I could see that he actually understood the math.  The only part of the assessment I knew he wouldn't be able to answer from memory were the multiplying by seven equations.  However, I do know that he understands multiplication and he knows how to find the answer.  Those particular facts just haven't been memorized yet.  So, following today's lesson we agreed to jump ahead in his math book (from lesson 35 to lesson 60) but that we'll need to focus on memorizing the times 7 facts.

Water Wheel Experiment

Gabe really likes experiments and crafts so I'm making an effort to do more of both and let him choose an experiment.
This was easy and fun!  Afterwards we watched some videos on how water wheels are used and the development of their technology.

Week of September 24-28

I was a little slower embracing the world in the mornings this week due to a nasty cold but emerged one morning to the wonderful site of Lily doing her math at the kitchen table.  She was soon joined by Gabe and John set himself up at the counter while I made muffins. My homeschooling dream come true - only took 7 years!
Lily has shown a lot of maturity this year and has been much more self motivated than I've seen in the past.  There are several subjects that she can  work through on her own (math, French, editing, reading assignments for history and science) and has really shown initiative this year.  She's finished reading most of the novels, histories and fun science books that I bought for this year. 
Gabe and John are making very good, steady progress at their reading and have launched right back into math and spelling with very little review needed.

They've been going on nearly weekly outings with Grandpa Rene to the beach to both explore and draw their observations.  This has been a wonderful bonding time for them and art lessons to boot!

I don't have to make any concerted efforts to make sure they get physical activity. They spend hours outside every day biking, jumping on the trampoline and tramping through the woods.

Hiking at Lynn Canyon

2 hours round trip hike and then a visit to the ecology center on the way back to the car.

Hovercraft Project

The first step was to gather recycling. I gave them some general ideas and sent them scouring. (Fortunately the recycling truck hadn't come by yet!)

Lots of trial and error finding the way to cut the plastic.

And testing them with a race!

Gabe's didn't get any further than this :(

Afterwards we compared everyone's designs to decide what worked best and they spent some time making modifications trying the blower dryer to move them and even the shop vacuum.

First Day of School

Lily swimming (Brr!) with her new friends

John, enjoying his sandwich between running around and digging in the sand.

Ahh, the beach!

We enjoyed the sun and sand at TLA's annual "Hit the Beach" first day of school.  The weather was gorgeous and my nose got one last sunburn.  No pictures of Gabe because he was too busy running around with new friends.  I was really proud of him.  No clinging to me, no waiting around saying he was bored.  He participated in the games (organized by Richard!) and made friends with no prodding from either of us.  We have worried about his shyness in the past but I think we can put that aside for now.
We started slowly with academic work just easing into math and language arts.  We've done a few day trips that could be considered field trips, including a fun day at Fort Langley which I'll post pictures of.  We started, as is my new tradition, with Who Am I? worksheets from Life as Mom.  It makes a great cover for the school work from the year that I want to save and is so fun to look back on.  Last year John said he wanted to grow up to be a man.  Hilarious.

Gabe and John's Food Web

The boys had fun with this simple activity.  Lily drew the cow after seeing my pathetic attempt and Gabe drew the pig. Both boys came up with ideas about how we use both cows and pigs in our daily lives. 

Learning: Beach Style

View from the parking lot of the Astoria Column

After visiting the Maritime Museum we drove up the hill to the Astoria Column. It was gorgeous day to enjoy the view- in years past we haven't had a clear day. Lily, Gabe and Grandpa climbed all 164 steps to the top while John and I enjoyed the view from the lawn.

Flying a kite

Playing catch

Letters in the sand

Flying a kite

Fort Clatsop

Lily with Sacagawea

Traditional Clatsop dugout canoe

Lily finding all the specimens for Plant Bingo along the Lewis & Clark River

John working on his word find back at the Visitor Center

Lily and John trying on the authentic explorer clothing

We spent the morning at Fort Clatsop, just minutes from Seaside, learning about the winter that Lewis and Clark spent on the Pacific Ocean.  It was fascinating to the kids that the Oregon coast has elk just like the Kootenays.  And in fact, Lewis and Clark choose to make camp on the south side of the Columbia for that very reason.  We actually saw a herd of elk on our way home from visiting the fort.
The State Parks have a wonderful Junior Ranger program which we finally took part in on this outing.  They each had to complete a certain amount of activities in a workbook specific to the State Park (see John & Lily above) and visit at least two historic sites.  At the end of our visit the Ranger checked their work, filled out a certificate for each of them, and administered an oath.  They each received a badge, a stripe with the level they completed and a ranger pin.  Awesome!
While at the Visitor Center we watched a wonderful video made by the Clatsop people about the arrival of the explorers, Lewis & Clark's winter at the Fort, and the experience of the Clatsop people in relation to all of this.  It was very interesting to have the familiar story told from the Native perspective.

Columbia River Maritime Museum

We visited a fantastic museum this morning that chronicles the history of the Columbia River: its discovery by Europeans, traditions of Native tribes living along its shores, naval history and fishing/commercial history.  We watched a video at the museum which highlighted the changes on the Columbia from a hundred years ago to now with the addition of dams. The video also documented the expertise needed to navigate the river and the bar; each requires specialized training and only a handful of men are qualified bar pilots.  We also got to tour the Lightship Columbia which was anchored 5 miles off the mouth of the river until 1970 because the coast along the Oregon side is not suitable for building a lighthouse.

May 6-11

Game of ball and tag combined before the exam.

Exam.

Gabe completed his first year of Judo and earned his yellow belt tonight.  We are so proud of him!  Judo was a huge learning experience for him.  He naturally excels at the athletic aspect of Judo, quickly and easily mastering the moves he's taught.  He also thrived with the ritualistic aspects of Judo: bowing when entering, bowing to instructor and fellow students, folding the kimono, and tying the belt.  The most difficult part of his lessons came with the other students.  He was frustrated with the lack of attention and focus some of the younger boys displayed and after 4 months was given the opportunity to join the older class.  The older students were much more focused (though many of them still struggled) and Gabe met a slightly older boy who partnered with him most of the time.  This boy helped Gabe to learn new moves, correcting his mistakes patiently.

End of April!

We began our new science unit: Diversity of Life/Animal Growth and Changes.  Lily studied plants cells in depth our first week of study, reading about cells, drawing diagrams, memorizing parts and making and examining her own slides.  She also compared plant and animals cells.  The boys enjoyed looking at the slides and Gabe drew what he observed. John is spontaneously observing nature, especially birds and following up with finding coloring pages and asking us to read to him about the birds he sees. 

Gabe and John are both making steady progress with their reading and spelling. John has decided that he wants to be a writer when he grows up and has been asking lots of questions regarding this.

We finished our study of Ancient Greece with a Greek dinner and even sang our usual hymn in Greek.  John loves the Greek version and is now asking us to sing it in Roman.  We've started reading about the Ancient Roman Empire and Lily has been doing independent reading.  She especially enjoyed Rotten Romans and would read passage aloud that especially caught her interest.

We bought a new book for Fine Arts: Story of the Orchestra which has been lots of fun.  It includes a CD which relates to specific pages.  As an instrument catches someone's interest we read about it and then listen to the appropriate track.

The usual math, physical education and piano studies continue.

Holy Week lapbooks

Lily's

Gabe's

Instead of our usual lessons on Thursday and Friday Lily and Gabe created these lapbooks documents the events in the life of Jesus in the week leading up to His resurrection.

Easter Garden

 We saw this idea on Pinterest and on Lazarus Saturday (the day before Palm Sunday) decided to plan our garden.

 Lily, Gabe and John filled the basket with dirt from the garden (after lining it with plastic wrap), molding the dirt around a flower pot turned on its side and wetting it down to keep everything in place.

 We then planted wheat,  made three crosses, and found a stone to roll in from of the "tomb."

 By Thursday it looked like this:

Lily took pictures of the grass every hour on Thursday to observe its growth - we could almost see it growing! On Friday John rolled the stone in front on the tomb and on Sunday morning woke to find it rolled away and the tomb empty!  
This was such a fun activity.  We all enjoyed watching the wheat grass grow and wondering early in the week if it would come up in time for Easter.  It was wonderful to see how engaged John was with this and hearing him recount different aspects of the events of Holy Week and Easter.

April 1-6

This week found us learning about stars: how they form, different classifications and how they die.

Lots of work was completed in math with each child completing 4-5 lessons in addition to playing Rocket Math on the ipad.

Lily and Gabe filled out lots of information about the Ancient Greeks in their History Portfolios with a focus on Alexander the Great. 

Lily started working on her Journalling Through the Liturgical Year again - perhaps inspired by the upcoming Feasts.  Gabe helped her with some of the journal and is asking about doing his own!

Gabe and John read lots this week.  John in Hooked on Phonics and Gabe in Christian Liberty Nature Reader.

Week of March 25 - 30

We studied the last two planets in the Solar System this week: Uranus and Neptune. Lily and Gabe completed narration pages and Lily made several diagrams about various aspects of each planet.  We preformed an experiment from Astronomy for Every Kid illustrating how atmosphere density affects sight. This led to a discussion on light, heat and how the atmosphere can be changed.  It was a great opportunity to discuss pollution and Climate Change.

Lily completed 6 math lessons this week including an Investigation into the geometric construction of bisectors.  Gabe and John each worked hard at math with Gabe focusing on subtraction and John learning to count by 10s.

Gabe, doing his math at the chalkboard for a change of pace from paper.

John showed real progress and diligence with his reading this week.  He read pages 46 through 55 in his Hooked on Phonics workbook and read a little book titled Tag.  He is continuing to practice his handwriting.  I am going to look into purchasing a cursive workbook for him - the printing book is too large and when he uses cursive his letters are much tidier.
Gabe began reading from Christian Liberty Nature Reader 1 this week out loud.  It was very helpful for me to hear where his reading is at although he's reluctant to be put on the spot and read aloud.  He is working through his  cursive workbook with very good handwriting. He wrote several summaries for science and history this week and completed a spelling and grammar lesson.

Lily completed a couple writing lessons this week and one of them happened to coordinate nicely with our science.  She also worked on spelling and grammar. She has been reading Treasure Island (the original) and D'Aularies' Greek Myths. This morning, while working on our history portfolios, we listened to Greek Myths via booksshouldbefree.com.

Lily and Gabe completed their swim lessons last Friday.  Although neither passed their level both worked hard, learned lots and had lots of fun.  This week was a return to dancing and Judo, as well as bike riding.