I am So Glad I live in a World with Octobers
As we conclude October I think of Anne and how the books and movies and shows always seems to portray Green Gables as existing only in fall colors. We spent a lot of time at home this week, sniffling through the cold front with another cold and watching the last of our own trees change color and drop their leaves.
Our history led us down south this week to explore middle aged Australia and New Zealand. We discussed aboriginal peoples lifestyle and diet and read an epic about Maui and the formation of the New Zealand islands. Picture books from the library were pretty scarce, so we read silly stories that happened to have a wonbat, kangaroo, or other Australia specific animals. We did find some that spoke about the countries in general as well.
Nature sciences focused on fungi this week. Wow, there is much more to fungi than I realized. We used our already gained knowledge of photosynthesis to realize mushrooms DO NOT use that, instead they gather nutrients from decaying matter or other plants around them. Did you know in Oregon there is a 4 mile long fungus that could possibly be over a thousand years old?? It is the largest living organism on Earth that has been discovered. This symbiotic relationship is mutual tho, the fungi gives back to the tree as the tree gives to it. Knowing our own yard had a variety we went for a walk and journaled our findings, used an online dichotomous to attempt to identify our findings, and then watched a few videos on fungi.
Emmet realized that his writing book from last year still had pages left unfinished so he is working his way through that. Michael is also finishing up his book from last year, and only Avery has started his new book this year. He is also the only one who excitedly accomplishes this task; the older two like to moan and groan over writing lessons. Reading has taken an exciting turn for the better, both Michael and Emmet have been picking up and reading books on their own. We will more than surpass my goal of 50 books each this year, I am thinking, so planning how to change that goal next year to include more books or set a page requirement. I am so happy they are starting to love reading! Here is Michael at the dentist picking up a book on his own to read to me.
All three boys have been working away at their Usborne math books, doing one page a week as well as playing the game Prodigy twice a week. Both Michael and Emmet are showing great improvement in the game, and Avery is catching on quick to addition and subtraction problems.
We did lesson 6 in WeDo Lego Robotics this week, constructing a robot that moved. They have also been exploring simple coding in Minecraft by using command lines to turn on and off features of the game. Ironically the game calls these "cheats", but it reminds me of how our old Commodore 64 I grew up with functioned- not being able to enter a program or do anything without entering command lines.
Piano has been a highlight of their week. We have resumed lessons just at home, following one of our piano books and they have enjoyed plunking away at simple songs and even writing their own. I leave this subject up to them, not instructing just asking they play one song three times from the book for our lesson. They usually play around all morning on the piano that day.
Cub Scouts has also been a lot of fun. Both John and I are finishing up our requirements to be den leaders. All three boys earned badges this month at the pack den meeting. Michael learned pocket knife safety, whittling, camping skills, and tool safety. Emmet received a badge for swimming skills and Bobcat, which means he memorized the scout codes. All three boys got to go on an archery field trip and earned a badge for participating. Here is Michael getting to do the flag ceremony at this weeks den meeting (he was playing around with the flag, but then go to post the colors a little bit later).
Unfortunately we have missed the last two weeks of Village Home due to illness, but the boys have been focusing on using the new kids looms we bought. Everyone has made a small sample on it and figuring out how to re-thread it counts as engineering, I am thinking!!
Working on updating our ILP's today and creating our first portfolio for the year has me realizing we need to re-evaluate our schedule and draft new goals that match our pace. Somehow I always set goals that end up being too lofty. ;)
Bonus science: we made bath bombs this week! It has done two things: given us an understanding of chemistry, and (super bonus) encouraged A LOT of baths this week!
Happy Halloween!!
Our history led us down south this week to explore middle aged Australia and New Zealand. We discussed aboriginal peoples lifestyle and diet and read an epic about Maui and the formation of the New Zealand islands. Picture books from the library were pretty scarce, so we read silly stories that happened to have a wonbat, kangaroo, or other Australia specific animals. We did find some that spoke about the countries in general as well.
Nature sciences focused on fungi this week. Wow, there is much more to fungi than I realized. We used our already gained knowledge of photosynthesis to realize mushrooms DO NOT use that, instead they gather nutrients from decaying matter or other plants around them. Did you know in Oregon there is a 4 mile long fungus that could possibly be over a thousand years old?? It is the largest living organism on Earth that has been discovered. This symbiotic relationship is mutual tho, the fungi gives back to the tree as the tree gives to it. Knowing our own yard had a variety we went for a walk and journaled our findings, used an online dichotomous to attempt to identify our findings, and then watched a few videos on fungi.
Emmet realized that his writing book from last year still had pages left unfinished so he is working his way through that. Michael is also finishing up his book from last year, and only Avery has started his new book this year. He is also the only one who excitedly accomplishes this task; the older two like to moan and groan over writing lessons. Reading has taken an exciting turn for the better, both Michael and Emmet have been picking up and reading books on their own. We will more than surpass my goal of 50 books each this year, I am thinking, so planning how to change that goal next year to include more books or set a page requirement. I am so happy they are starting to love reading! Here is Michael at the dentist picking up a book on his own to read to me.
All three boys have been working away at their Usborne math books, doing one page a week as well as playing the game Prodigy twice a week. Both Michael and Emmet are showing great improvement in the game, and Avery is catching on quick to addition and subtraction problems.
We did lesson 6 in WeDo Lego Robotics this week, constructing a robot that moved. They have also been exploring simple coding in Minecraft by using command lines to turn on and off features of the game. Ironically the game calls these "cheats", but it reminds me of how our old Commodore 64 I grew up with functioned- not being able to enter a program or do anything without entering command lines.
Piano has been a highlight of their week. We have resumed lessons just at home, following one of our piano books and they have enjoyed plunking away at simple songs and even writing their own. I leave this subject up to them, not instructing just asking they play one song three times from the book for our lesson. They usually play around all morning on the piano that day.
Cub Scouts has also been a lot of fun. Both John and I are finishing up our requirements to be den leaders. All three boys earned badges this month at the pack den meeting. Michael learned pocket knife safety, whittling, camping skills, and tool safety. Emmet received a badge for swimming skills and Bobcat, which means he memorized the scout codes. All three boys got to go on an archery field trip and earned a badge for participating. Here is Michael getting to do the flag ceremony at this weeks den meeting (he was playing around with the flag, but then go to post the colors a little bit later).
Working on updating our ILP's today and creating our first portfolio for the year has me realizing we need to re-evaluate our schedule and draft new goals that match our pace. Somehow I always set goals that end up being too lofty. ;)
Bonus science: we made bath bombs this week! It has done two things: given us an understanding of chemistry, and (super bonus) encouraged A LOT of baths this week!
Happy Halloween!!
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