Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Busy but non-school-producitve Week

Okay this is for LAST week...I got behind a bit.

Last week we hardly did ANY reading, writing, or arithmetic.  UGG.  I hate not doing the essentials.  I want to get done with Rightstart math and Common Sense reading BEFORE summer, and now all I can say is that I'm glad Canadian school lasts longer then the states.  We might go on vacation soon too and then I don't know if we'll even make the Canadian deadline.

Why do I care?  I just do, okay!

We did do Dick and Jane this week at least.  I plan on doing Dick and Jane, Handwriting without tears, and saxon worksheets throughout the summer.  It will help make sure that Maxwell doesn't get too bad of a sun burn...or something.  Anyway, it should be easy.

We did have some fun this week though.

We went to this amazing Museum in Calgary since daddy had a doctor appointment up there anyway.



We also had fun in a swamp collecting frogs and getting incredibly muddy.



We also had a poetry recitation.  Hyrum was so excited when it was his turn.  I thought he was going to do his little name song, but no, he made up his OWN POEM!  It was the cutest thing I've ever witnessed.  Granted, the poem made no sense at all, but every line rhymed, he had the rhythm down, and for the last stanza, he had the perfect intonation and expressions.  PRICELESS.

We also did science.  We followed up on all our crystal experiments, which all worked!  Just look at our sugar crystals:


And then we learned about emulsions and collides.  We made home made mayonnaise, whipped cream, we even made cheese to reverse homogenized milk!  I've never made mayonnaise or cheese before, so that was fun for me.  Our lemon cheese:


This lesson was scientifically a little too complicated for my crowd, however.  Our youngest guest blurted out "I just don't get it!"  Well, maybe the older ones did....and maybe Maxwell will in four years when we do it again, because although he didn't say so, I'm pretty sure he didn't get it either.

We aslo started our journey of learning about the Renaissance.  I combined both Gutenberg and Martin Luther into the same day.  Maxwell is a fan of Gutenberg, and loves learning about inventions.  I couldn't find any good books about Martin Luther, which is a shame because I think he was one of the most important people in history.

Anyway, we tried making our own printing press from stamps.  This didn't work well because I could only find cheap stamps, and I wasn't willing to drive two hours to get good stamps.  Oh well,


I think Maxwell got the general idea.

You know what, looking at this long post, I guess last week was more productive then I remember it being.  Woo hoo for me and my hooligans!

Oh, also, I just heard about a book that is coming out soon, check it out:


http://www.encouragingbeautifulmotherhood.com/2012/05/10/do-you-know-how-to-homeschool/

2 comments:

  1. Lindy, Why have I not read your blog before?? I love it.
    Love, Sarra

    p.s. Why on earth could I not get my crystal experiment to work?? I must have used 19 pounds of sugar trying. Yours look BEAUTIFUL!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sarra, you're sweet.

      So to do sugar crystals that work, you need to put starter crystals on your string. You do that by dipping the strings in a super saturated solution of sugar syrup and then rolling it in dry sugar. You wait for at least an hour for the strings to completely dry and then you hang the strings in jars full of a super saturated solution of sugar syrup. (I can give you an exact recipe if you want)

      Delete