Mommy Why Does My House Spin?

Elsa was spinning around in the living room and asked, "Mommy why do we spin and why does my house spin?"

Place Value and Artichokes

I felt like we needed to work on place values so I pulled out some math manipulatives and Skip- Bo cards. The kids loved it and learned their place values up to 1000. That was one of those few instances when I felt like a truly successful teacher. They had fun, learned efficiently and still remember.For lunch we had the most beautiful and delicious artichokes I have ever seen or tasted. Joseph and Elsa loved them too. They were both so cute sitting a bit far away from the bucket where we discarded leaves that had been eaten. Because of this they took turns tossing the leaves in the bucket and congratulating each other saying, "Good shot!"

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We Love School

We started the day by doing three lessons on Ancient China. First we learned about the Yellow River and how the silt it leaves after flooding is yellow and good for growing millet. Next,the Yangtze River which means long in Chinese. We also learned how silk is made and the legend of how it was discovered. Finally, we learned some Chinese characters for tree, forest, fire and mountain after which we watched a calligraphy demonstration.

In Chemistry, we learned about chemical reactions which reminded me of last weeks Chemistry Magic Show! At the show we were able to watch several types of reactions including change of state, change of color, change of temperature and best of all fire and explosions!

Lucky for us, Andy's brother, Ben sent us a link to http://periodicvideos.com/# It is the Periodic Table of Elements and when you click on an element, it shows you some experiments using that particular element. It is worth watching just to see the one scientist's crazy hair! :)

The evening brought a delicious Chinese dinner of pot stickers and rice. After dinner we watched a performance of the Tang Dancers and ate fortune cookie to end with something sweet.

Elsa's Bedtime

About a month ago my Elsa was trying to go to bed and was disturbed by her bed covers. "Mommy, my bed is Awful! Can you fix my covers? I have books in my bed."

She also sleeps with Crab (a red colored crab) and Lion who she will not go to sleep without. Even if she has gotten them in the covers and she knows it.

Science, Science and more Science

This morning was a difficult one due to pregnancy hormones. Somehow with Andy's help, I was able to pull myself together and start the day with a Chemistry lesson on Atoms and Molecules.

We used Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry Pre-Level 1, Chapter 2 by Dr. R. W. Keller. After reading the chapter, we built molecules out of marshmallows and toothpicks. We build Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon. We made sure that our Hydrogen molecule only hooked to one atom, Oxygen only hooked to two atoms, Nitrogen only hooked to three atoms and Carbon to four. Joseph decided to go crazy and build a peptide chain. How does he come up with this stuff?

At the end, when I asked Elsa to tell me what molecules are made of she responded, marshmallows!"

Later we went to the Rock and Mineral show where we saw glowing minerals, bismuth, orthoceras fossils, ammonites, geodes being opened, and the all important rock candy.

Joseph bought a giant shark tooth and a tiny goldstone frog resting on a fiber optic glass lily pad.

Elsa bought her brother and herself a stick of rock candy. She also won a bag of seven rocks, minerals and fossils including selenium, petrified wood, a dinosaur bone, a Navajo tear, citrine cristal, turritella shell.

We came home and jumped on the trampoline since the weather was so nice. While Elsa headed to the sandbox, Joseph and I blew through a Planet Earth workbook titled, Animals of the Water. Who knew a humpback whale could live to be 135 years old.

Elsa came over and worked on a Winnie the Pooh colors and shapes book. She is just like her dad, the epitome of efficiency. At one point she had to color a carrot orange and the top green. She grabbed two crayons and colored both parts simultaneously.

I love how much the kids play together. I'm not saying they never fight but I do think they love each other. Joseph makes up games that Elsa loves to play. He entices her with "specials". Three "specials adds up to a "super special". He reminds me of myself. I used to have a whole system of favors and deeds for my younger brothers and sisters. A certain amount of favors equaled a deed.

Elsa took a very long bath this evening after heading to the bathroom sink to do some science experiments just like her brother. Her experimentation consisted of getting a bunch of soap in her hair and her clothes all wet. She and Joseph played store in the tub. He made her a fizzy soup mixture complete with duck, fish and magic fizzy powder. When she was ready to come out of the tub, Joseph offered to carry her out to which she responded, "no thanks, I can carry myself."

Joseph just choreographed a dance for Elsa while acompaning her on the piano. "Echappe open, echappe close, saute, now spin around, now do your arms. Ready, set, take a bow." How did he learn those ballet terms? This boy's brain is amazing.

Saint Patrick's Day Party

The kids and I were invited to a Saint Patrick's Day party kind of at the last minute today. I didn't have the time or desire to make a treat but I truly wanted to bring something to contribute to the party. As I was wondering aloud what to bring, Joseph said,"Easy Mom, just bring potato stampers." What a smart boy! I grabbed some potatoes, green paint, paper plates and a knife. I forgot the paper on which to create the art work but our hostess was gracious enough to provide some.

When we arrived at the party, I set to work on carving the potatoes into shamrock stamps. When I had finished two, I asked Joseph if they looked OK. He extremely diplomatically told me that he would rather I carved a heart next time. I almost said something dumb like it is Saint Patrick's Day, NOT Valentine's Day but he wanted a heart, this whole thing was his idea, so I carved a heart.


Later, Joseph explained that if you stamp the heart four times in a circle, it becomes a four leafed clover. Brilliant!