Inauguration Day

Today we took the day to study Inauguration process and being the President.

It was fun.

First we did a general study on the Inauguration process, looking at the menu for the lunches, the china, all the fun details using this inauguration site

We also had fun playing the game If You Were President. We also decorated the oval office learning about some of the past presidents as we went.

We did some fun activities on what we would do etc Britt was all about the environment while Brae was ready to get the tank and take over the world. On the scholastic site they had to give money to the budget Brae was all about the army and Britt all about the environment and some to the others. Brae gave no money to education budget..LOL....that boy!

Here is a pic of the craft we did.

Pyramid fun

Kids had fun this morning building their pyramids out of sugar cubes.

Even Brae likes it

Working on our Story of the World History. Even Brae likes it. That says a lot, of course there are still times his eyes glass over and I know he is more interested in the texture of the table than what I am saying but for the most part this is keeping him interested. Britt is loving it and checking books out of the library to go further into it. Today we studied ancient writing forms cunniform and hieroglypics. We did the cuniform on a tablet but the hieroglypics I just printed the pics out and they glued their names on a paper. I put more pics on flickr. Also did the diet coke and mentos which they both loved.

Fun learning with ping pong balls!

We have a new favorite fun thing at our house. Ping pong balls. You can do so much with them. My kids love them. They are inexpensive as I bought a gross of 200 for around $20 on ebay.

First thing. The kids are learning the books of the bible this year. So I wrote each book of the bible on a ball using a permanent marker. Then two buckets set up new testament and old. They have to look at each ball and then toss it in the appropriate bucket. Fun fun. To learn the order just pile the balls and they have to line them up in the right order. Something about them being on balls rather than paper makes all the difference to my kids.

Also do this for reading for Brae as far as using __ ey or ___ at and he has to throw it in the c or k bucket. Nouns and Verbs. Helping verbs, action verbs all that because more fun when you get to throw your answer in a bucket. Even reviewing for Science or History using true false balls to toss into the true false buckets.

I put the balls in storage bags for each subject. If you get tired or learn all of one thing you can soak the permanent marker off with alcohol let them dry and write something else. The words stay on good during lots of play until you want it to come off and use the alcohol. For storing the buckets set inside of each other and the bags with the different subjects fit into the bucket with the index cards I use for labeling so it doesn't take up much room. The kids love it, it isn't bad to pick up and they get really interested and have fun. Of course Brae said it best "I know this is a trick to make me learn but it is okay because I like it".

History Fieldtrip

Friday we got to go out for a fieldtrip to Historic Fort Smith, visit the site of Isaac Parker "the hanging judge". The kids love field trips and Kim does a great job of organizing them. The kids loved the replica courthouse and going into the old jails. We had a really good tour guide too.

Few snap shots from the day.

One down...5 to go

Homeschool co-op that is. 5 more weeks. I actually really enjoy being director but there are a few lets call them "hiccups" along the way. Thankfully I have the best friends ever to help me out it's like having my own little club of people to back me up. Without them I would have been hiding under a chair today. But it all went relatively smooth.

The kids loved their classes. Brae is taking medevil history and that is right up his alley with swords and weapons. Britt is taking a horse class and that is so her thing. So glad they have the opportunity to get together with their friends. Day one is always the roughest, well that and the last day because we do presentation night and it is hectic but the in between is more enjoyable.

We went and ate after, no way was I cooking tonight. I almost showed up at a lady's house for a meeting luckily my friend started questioning me and I realized I had the wrong night. So dinner then ice cream and home. Kids are in bed, hubby is destressing. Hubby has never been involved in co-op before other than helping out with presentation night but this time he took vacation time so that he could teach two computer classes, which also meant he got to help me set up and I don't think he realized how much that was.

Anyway that is my whining about co-op but now that the first day is done and once I get the school room back in order (I have thrown the whole days worth of things in the floor to be sorted in the morning) then it should run fairly smooth.

school stuff

Just wanted to share a few school things.
This is Braden doing his reading game. So far I have liked the scaredy cat reading system. Braden likes it which is the most important thing. He actually wants to play the games that came with it. The glasses he is wearing in the pics are a new vision therapy. I was hesitant at first but they seem to be making a big difference and he loves wearing them which once again is so important. He only has to wear them when reading, playing video games or watching TV but he can wear them as much as he wants and he chooses all the time.

Yesterday we made herbal soap, the kids wanted to dye it blue. The kids had grown the herbs in their hot box. I just love apologia science. There are 3 more books after this botany one and I can't wait. I love it as much as the kids.

This is a project from our Story of the World another subject we are all really enjoying. This is from studying about the Nile River.

Digging

This week we started our Story of the World History. So much fun. We studied archeology. So today to wrap up the week we had to have our own dig. I put 4 different items in two buckets. They had to dig them out, clean them with the tiny toothbrushes, and then tell what those would say about people if they were found 100 years from now what could they learn from them. They both had so much fun. The last pic is one of Braden when I told him it was time to go back to school.

School

Just a few pics from our school day. We ended our study on the planet Mercury today by making salt dough models. Also a pic of the kids with their sheet for their state book, we are learning all the states and capitals and doing a color sheet to add to a book when we are all done. A snap shot of Braden putting his spelling words for the week on the washer.