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Japan Day!

Japan Day.... We decided that today should be all about Japan... We did origami, and made  and we got a poster board and drew japan on and colored the regions.  We talked about some key history points mostly about WWII and Pearl Harbor.  We looked up on our ipads about schools in Japan and what children learn in that country.  We wore our dresses we got form China all day and pretended they were Kimonos and put chop sticks in our hair.  The girls had a lot of fun.

Here is a video on what they learned...

Pinckney Island National Wildlife

We went to pickney Island and oh did we get lost - OK really we just went down the wrong road and got to the end and decided we should turn around - took us an extra hour to get home but Isabelle thought we were lost and never going to get home ...

We saw a fiddler crabs and chased them all over the dried up pond- we saw lots of birds and a baby alligator.  Then we made our way around a huge pond - and saw a huge alligator (6 FOOT), and its head was about one foot from a bird and then we saw ducks, deer and another alligator and of course lots and lots of trees and birds. 

Belle got so scarred of the huge alligator she started crying but we made it back alive and we had a lot of fun - it was so neat to see the alligator.

The girls took their Ipads  and took lots of pictures so enjoy...

Also Check our the girls music lesson...

Banana Scrabble

Banana Scrabble... What a fun game, we made up our own rules and did it a little different.  We used the first grade and second grade spelling list and used that to make our scrabble board.  The girls had so much fun trying to make words and make the words line up, and what a great way to do spelling.

Guitar lessons  -  McKenzey has started guitar lessons and is so excited - so far she has learned the two cords of horse with no name (man in black)  - she has been practicing everyday and loves her instructor Mr. John.  We also got her a kids size guitar that is blue (her favorite color) and has a mermaid on it.  Belle is going to start this week

Jasper Park

We decided to go to Jasper Park the other day just to walk around and get some energy out.  We had a lot of fun the most exciting part was when a snake ran over Isabelle feet - she was behind us and ran past me to beside Jack, lets just say Mac and I laughed our heads off. 

It was so hot instead of drawing pictures of all the plants I thought it would be fun to take pictures - so it became an art project.

McKenzey had her own ipad and took the pictures she wanted... she mostly took fallen trees and plants - its interesting to see through a child's eyes.....

Belle took mostly pretty plants and wanted to get everyone in the picture walking so we could tell that it was her pictures and not her sisters...

Manatees

We were at the dock the other day and saw a manatees up close - so cool..... He was drinking fresh water and we could have reached out and touched him or her.  The girls and I were so excited that I forgot that I could take a video so all we have are pictures.  We went home that night and looked it up and found some other stuff out about them...

They weigh 800 - 1200 pounds, live 60 years, are mammals (breath air every 5 min), eat plants, have babies every 2 to 5 years, swim very slow and get hurt by fast speed boats a lot because they stay close to the surface and can't get out of the way and lots more.....

Enjoy the slide show......

Judy Moody and the NOT bummer summer

We finished reading the book - which the girls gave 10 thumbs up.....
So I said if we finished reading the book we can go to the movie.....In the theater

We did and the girls gave it another 10 thumbs up....

Here are some of the differences we noticed between the book and the movie, its pretty long... so bare with us...

Math and Time

We watched a lot of videos this morning ... Bill Nye the science guy, wetland and planets

We also watched a video on time and math - her is what the girls learned....

Bamboo wind chimes for Fathers Day

We walk around the campsite a lot and talk to all the old people and people on real vacation.  The girls found a guy cutting down some of his bamboo and asked if we could have it.

I found a project online to make a bamboo wind chime .

The girls and I went to Lowe's and got a saw and a drill for fathers day.  I decided that we could test out the drill to make homes in the bamboo.  I wanted to make sure Michael was getting a good product. We also got little tape measures for each girl. I bought a wooden wreath at Michael's, paint and glitter.

We started by measuring different sizes to cut (6",9",12" and so on) and then I held the bamboo while the girls used a real  saw to cut each piece, hard work when its 100 degree out. 

Then the girls each took 4 bamboo stick  and painted them, (2 brown for granddaddy and 2 green for daddy)and added glitter and there initials and glitter glue and all sorts of fun stuff to make them pretty for Grandaddy and Daddy.

We tied them to the wooden wreath and were done.  I was very proud of the girls for using a real saw, measuring on there own - which of course led to math (discussing what a foot was,  two feet, inches and so on) and on cutting there own pieces of bamboo - hard work, even for mom.

Here is a video of what they did - they do a much better job explaining than me  :-)

How do Clouds form????

How are clouds made??? That was the question for today..... so we made a cloud by taking a 2 leader soda bottle cut it in half and then but very hot water in the bottom and put ice in the top with the lid on and upside down.... It didn'[t really form cloud but it made steam (or condistation built up between the layers)
which formed on the side of the bottle and then dripped water like a cloud...

 

Books...Books...Books

We go to the library every Wednesday and get some educational video and lot of books and here are some that we are reading right now...

Mac:    The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson...
              She did an excellent job but I started looking at the end and decided it was too scary
             The Grapes of Math  by Harry Briggs
              Bird Watch by Jerry Jennings
             Butterflies by All Aboard Science Reading

Belle:  Dick and Jane - She has read all 12 books in the series
           Lots of Spots by Lois Ehlert
           Monster Stew  by Mitra Modarressi
           Clifford's Best Pal   by Norman Bridwell
           Pet Stories  by Reading Rainbow

We read a chapter or two of each of these books everyday
      Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg - by David Christiana  - Mac wanted this book because it tell about how Raini losses her wings - she bought it with her own money
      Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer - We want to get done with this one before the movie comes out in July....

We got Bill Nye the science guy - he is one of our favorites, and we watch Magic School Bus

This is a fairy house that Isabelle found by our camper and took a picture on her Ipad...

Fairy House

Here is a really funny video that McKenzey did....

Do Frogs Eat Lunch and Dinner like us?

Belle asked the question do Frogs eat lunch and and dinner like us..... So we looked it up on a fancy IPad2 and here is what we found out..

Postcard Tuesday...

We wrote postcards to two people each and this time the girls drew pictures of baby animals.  I still have to find envelopes and stamps but hopefully they will be mailed soon.  We are trying to get to everyone, so bare with us...  This helps with spelling, and writing...

workbook

We did more workbook pages.... Mac had to read a story and then answer several questions, which she needed some help on but did pretty good and then she did math word problems.  Belle did 2 pages on ending sounds of words.  They worked on there Ipad for a bit and then we went to the library.

After we got home we watched BIll Nye the Science Guym - this time we watched a video on insects....
here is Belle video...

Summer begins still homeschooling

We did our two work book pages from Brain Quest - Today we did math. Mac did multiplication 1 and 2 times tables which she did with no help at all, I am so Proud!! Belle did subtraction pages which turned into tic-tac-toe. The were 2 digit problems that subtracted 2 digit problem (98-74=24).
Next we did our postcard writing, so if you haven't gotten a postcard from wonderful Hilton Head you will be soon! I decided we will start doing that once a week. It nice for everyone and good for girls to practice spelling and writing.
The last thing we did was work on our IPads - they did several educational games, spelling,typing,read 3 books, stack the states and of course Isabella ( a search and seek game)

Then we went swimming to finish off the day, found some bamboo (If anyone has any ideas of what we should do with it - let me know), took Jack for a walk and of course went for our daily ice-cream, which McKenzey used her own money to buy.

M&M science/math

We took some bags of M&M and decided we were going to count how many were in each bag.

 First before we opened the bags we made an estimate of how much was in each bag,  then we looked at the back of the bags and found out how much M&M said there should be in each bag.  We had to multiply 1/4 cup by 8 serving, so to do this we had to measure and see how much was in 1/4 cup.  Then we poured out all the M&Ms  and counted them to see how much was really in the bag and last we put all the colors together and made an estimate of which one had more - then counted those and finnaly ate some when we were done....

So here is what we found

Mac - bag of Pretzel M&Ms / guesstimate 180 / 1/4 cup had 23 m&m times 8 = 184 / counted exactly 136 /which was a 48 difference / guessed orange was the most /  yellow = 30 / orange = 36 / blue = 33 / brown = 9 / green = 18 / red = 10  / she was right orange did have the most

Belle - bag of plain M&M / guesstimate 1130 / 1/4 cup had 66 times 8 serving = 528 / actual = 424 / difference of 104 / guess that blue and orange were tied (she put hers in the measuring cup and they were both 1/3 cup) / brown = 36 / red = 46 / yellow = 42 / blue = 112 / orange = 111 / green = 60 / she was one off so that was impressive

here are the videos.....  only macs - belle messed up...

Squishy Circuits

Many moons ago we made play dough - one with sugar and one with salt.. The Green or conductive clay which had salt in it and Isabelle and I made first.  Mac and I made Blue or Insulating play dough that had salt in in and would not let electricity pass through it. 

Now you are asking why?? - To learn about electricity... So here is how it works....

Adding salt to the dough helps electricity move through the material. With enough power, the electrical current can light LEDs and sound a buzzer! 

We blew out about 3 LED to start with until we got the hang of and I let the girls try different things till it worked, which believe it or not it did - It was awesome.  The girls played by themselves with different clay designs trying to make each one work. Some did and some didn't - and the ones that didn't we would look at and figure out why - they loved it...

If you are interested in doing this yourself here is the link to help explain  and projects.. teacher's guide

This is the website to Squishy Circuits
this is the link Anne Marie demonstration on the squishy circuits

If you try this at home I have a few suggestions  ....
1) Make the Insulating clay white, and when making it add the water very slowly, the other you can just add all the water at once.

Last 2 weeks

I have been really bad the last two weeks so I am going to give you the run down...

Got up at 4am and watch the wedding - of course - who didn't - I was so excited and they told of lots of history about the wedding and English government - Awsume...

We went and watched African Cats at the big movie theater at Downtown Disney - It was sooooo good and we learned a lot about cats and ask lots of questions on the way home..  Best part of watching at that movie theater is you can have a big kid drink at the move theater

I bought the girls Brainquest workbooks - So every moring we do  2 pages and the girls make $1 - they also have to make there bed and clean up but its a great way to give the girls spending money.

Easter.....We colored easter eggs and had lots of eggs salad for the next day, which is Belle favorite food.  The Easter bunny came and left us lots of candy and brought us a really cool easter basket.    

Milkseed Pods

McKenzey found a Milkseed  Pod and this is what we found out... We first thought it was a banana but was sure it wasn't, so with a little more research we found out what it was...Out goal is to find another one and see if we can plant the seeds and grow some flowers.  We tore apart the first one to see what was inside the pod.

The seed pods themselves come or form from the flower blossoms if the blossom is pollinated.

After the Milkweed flower has finished blossoming, it begins its 'seeding' process. The Silky Gold blossom on the left hasn't finished flowering yet the two on the right are 'done' and have begun to go to seed. They look like two little teardrops in the picture.

Here is a picture showing how one stem has four seed pods, some blossoming flowers, and one flower going to seed, all at the same time!

Now, in order to gather seeds from the seed pods, the best thing to do is to wait until the seed pod is beginning to 'crack' open. Do not take the seed pod off of the plant early or the seeds just won't be viable (won't germinate when planted).

Keep an eye on the pods-they will soon begin to change colour. A hint is to gently squeeze the pod and when you feel it begin to give a little, you will know that the time for the seeds to be ready is coming soon! A long line will soon show and this crack will open up to expose the brown Milkweed seeds. If you get the pod just as it is splitting, it is really easy to gather the seeds.

Here is the link if you find any...http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/07/what-is-seed-pod-how-can-i-collect.html

Tennis anyone, so far the girls can bounce the ball and hit with there racket over the net.  We play a game where they hit the ball to me and then I have to hit ir back or run around the court - I miss a lot and they think its funny for some reason - if they miss when I hit to them they have to run, McKenzey plays along Belle just sits down and refusses  - its funny too...

Chief Isabelle

While McKenzey went to gymnastics Isabelle helped Michael make dinner.  She made mini hamburger seasoned with onion soup with a side of asparagus.  Isabelle made all the hamburger patties herself and Daddy cooked them and then she put the canned asparagus in the pot and watch them cook.  Then when we got home she put everything together for us and served.

Here are are plants they have babies - Yea!  We have been watering them everyday and hopefully we will have flowers soon!!

We made some origami - a ring and a fish.  The fish did not turn out so great but the ring actually turned out and even fit our fingers.  The girls were so excited that we made it out of a dollar and gave it to our waitress because she was so nice to us.

Friday..

The kids woke up about 9:30 and we got dressed and went and played tennis. We decided to make the rice-crispy eggs with m&m's inside.  McKenzey melted the butter and belle measured the marshmallows and cereal. Then we coated pam on the inside of the eggs and started putting the mixture in the eggs and made a pocket with our thumb - man was it messy - my advise let it cool a put and use lots of pam so your fingers don't get sticky - it was pretty tuff and didn't hold up well put fun to make and eat.

Next we went to meet a homeschool group - no one showed up so we played on the playground and found really cool catipillars that we played with, talked about  and looked at for an hour. They were tussock moth caterpillar...and a diamond back moth (I think??)

Saturday ..

Started off the same but today we decided to make fairyies out of pipecleaner, yarn, and fake flowers - they turned out really cute.  After I showed them how to make one both girls we to town making a lot... which turned into just making mummy, jewerly and then using them a wristbands to get into their pet show...

We planted our seeds that we got last time we were at Disney - many moons ago - they are supposed to attract butterflyies...

and then of course the pet show - the girls set up there littlest pet shop in there room and made tickets for Michael and I and we had to play games they came up with - Buy items, which they had to give us the right change and then we had watch a show about the pet it was pretty funny....