Futuristic horse art by g#3



  As we prepare to go skiing later this week, many items on the weekly planner checklist are being completed.  This one of my g's in the picture finished 2 grammar lessons from First Language Lessons level 3, so I asked him to complete the next lesson in Artistic Pursuits after Cubism and Picasso. There was an initial struggle with the rational realist that he is.  Then he moved into the surreal of the possibility that a horse structure could become evident in the aluminum foil and tape.  Although, as you can see, he still isn't quite sure. 

Mind boggling that someone who can create all kinds of planes and shapes with zillions of Legos, and can't imagine that a horse shape can be made in aluminum foil. I wonder if I'm creating a monster who may keep "borrowing" my box of foil every time my back is turned. 

Science AND Art: Balance along with Calder mobiles

Yes, that is a hockey puck.

Physic notebooking along with blue artist pages for Mr. Calder

SNOW, Mountains of it!

Blessings

 Physics discussed balance, sound, light and gravity.

AWANA grand prix event took place with fun and friends. 

Ice skating for the first time with other home schooled kids.

Community Bible Study continues with the study of Peter for both kids and mom.
I get to read and soak up wisdom from "One Thousand Gifts" on http://www.incourage.me/2011/02/one-thousand-gifts-chapter-four.html.  History and art, math and spelling continue as normal. Even grammar is moving along at an acceptable, year-ending pace.  The snow is melted, all 36" of it and left "snirt" behind. Swim lessons end this week and we begin a new session next month.  Ocean habitat study is going well and we've moved onto discussion of seals and sea cows.  The kids enjoyed seeing "Fiddler on the Roof" with us last week in the CYT stage and again on video from the library this week. Plans for travel are discussed and visits from far away friends are explored. The Daddy gets to move to his new office this next week downtown on the whatever floor of a HIGH building. So much going on and a few pictures to pass along what we see.

Sleeping Bag School and Mega Glue

So, It's a bit cold in our neck of the woods. Yes, that's a colloquial phrase that means we received a great deal of snow and are enjoying some indoor time. While doing school this week, we bundled into our sleeping bags on the couch or recliner and did the best we could from there. We listened to "Esperanza Rising" by Pam Munoz Ryan about a Mexican girl who is forced to move to California during the United States Depression Era. My kids were riveted to the story which tied so closely into our study of the Boom/Bust years after The Great War.  We also finished listening to "Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis and look forward to "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" read by my all-time favorite British actor Derek Jacobi.

We were able to read about civil war in Spain and the rise of Franco to power.  At the same time, Hitler started "rebuilding" the "Fatherland." We listened to the "Corrie ten Boom Story" because I didn't get the movie, "Hiding Place" for the correct week. It was probably better to listen to the story rather than watch the movie. Maybe we can still get it from a nearby village library who has stricter rules than our own.  But, while 2 of my kids are barking like seals with a cold, it is better to let the healthy big brother help the Daddy and his snow blower clean out the driveway to the one lane street that is plowed.

Doing math and spelling, history and some art from our sleeping bags is ok, but it is necessary to get out of the sleeping bags and do the Henri Matisse collage work with lots of glue from the kitchen counter. We also worked through several sound science labs at the kitchen counter too. Then hopped back into the sleeping bags to write paragraphs (whether 3 or 5 sentences) about the assignments for the week.  We're planning our ocean boxes too from the sleeping bags while we answer questions about the whale chapter in our ocean habitat book.  My last G is reading about Ms. Frizzle's whale watch right now in order to drop that book back at the library.

No AWANA, French, piano lessons or extraordinary sound science with Crazy Roger's Physics Phun. And very little play time outdoors with below-zero wind chill.  But, we got extra time with the Daddy while he worked from home and prepped yet another Latin lesson with him for the next time. We practiced our individual languages and looked a little at the French materials. We read lots of Boxcar Children stories while we were warmly wrapped in our sleeping bags and contemplated how much glue it took to attach anything, because the size of the glue bottle is meant to inspire the size of the project.

Choices, Decisions, a Legacy

How many meals a week do you prepare, cook and serve your family each week, month and year? 3 meals a day, 7 days a week, equals 21 meals a week. We eat out on Friday evenings, so that number here is 20 meals a week, and then 1000 meals a year because invariably there are at least 2 weeks in there that I'm not or the Daddy is not preparing a meal. My kids haven't seen a food pyramid, but they know that each time they eat, a veggie, meat/protein, bread/cereal and milk are required. They know that My Grams would always run for relish when the plate wasn't colorful enough. We don't always get those necessary servings per meal, but when averaged out over 1000 meals a year, and who knows how many snacks, they are establishing healthy eating habits.  I don't always serve fresh cooked meals, and there are WAY too many packaged items in our pantry, but they do know how to identify each vegetable, and that we rotate between rice, potatoes, pasta and cous cous as our starch servings. My parents are always discouraged that we serve only skim milk (farmers who owned a milk cow and served fresh milk while I was a kid). We drink at least one 16 oz bottle of filtered water a day AND I don't buy chips, cookies or keep ice cream on hand.

"You must be rich that you travel so much," people say. "Nope" - I think. It's 1000 meals a year prepared at home; healthy consumption of water each day; sleep and rest and unhurried playtime.  No antibiotics in how many years? I can't count. Sure, we have cavities when we visit the dentist, but then again, you can get cavities if you are born with less enamel on your teeth than others.  Exercise and competition are part of having 3 children withing 18 months.  They all want the same thing at the same time and can't agree to take turns.  But, we sit and eat our meals as a family at the table and work hard at being full, full to overfilling with good stuff whether it's in our spoons (what we eat), our ears (what we hear) or our eyes (what we see). These are choices we make (less for the mommy and daddy and more for the growing children), decisions agreed upon and a legacy learned. 

Note to self: remember what http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html Jamie Oliver said about eating habits and health in the USA and the world, and what he learned while working with a village of people in West Virginia.  Remember what his recent tv show demonstrated about using my garden for many meals and organically fed meat sources to build us.  Remember that he first demonstrated how useful my "magi mix" could make my food preparation efforts less painful than years of peeling, chopping and needing.

Physics: Gravity

Egg Carrier


Somewhere in this container is a raw egg straight from the carton.
We discussed the pull of gravity and how well the egg was insulated
from damage by packing peanuts and paper packing.  The first 2 tries
saw the egg completely safe from an 8 foot drop onto a tile floor.
The final try was exerted with a major force from the same 8 foot
drop and the egg broke.

I remember this same experiment from the 3rd floor fire escape of my
junior high building during my senior year physics class. I was one of
the last competitors to keep the egg unbroken. And I loved the
fun of it!  My 3Gs had fun with this for only the thrill that mom would
allow them to use a real raw egg to do this experiment from the
Elemental Science Physics for the Grammar Stage materials.