Another Celebrated Dancing Bear

A couple weeks ago we rowed "Another Celebrated Dancing Bear", here are some of our highlights from the week

We started out the week at our friend's house, where she organized a Beef Stroganoff lunch for the kids, a carving art project to go along with the book's illustrations, and had the kids make Russian Tea Cakes.

At my house, I dug into my husband's old photo album (he lived in Russia the summer after his senior year of high school) and had the kids do an art project while they learned about architecture in Moscow (found the pattern in the back of my FIAR manual)

Then I tried to do a Faberge Egg project using a cut up silk tie. I thought this was the PERFECT opportunity to go through my husbands extensive tie collection. I found one just bold enough to dye an egg, yet subtle enough that he wouldn't notice it missing. Then I saw this:

Needless to say, I panicked, realized I know nothing about the value of a tie, checked my Macy's account to make sure he left some room for me to shop, too, and dug out an Easter egg dying kit - behold, the homeschooler's Faberge Egg :)

Next the kids had a snack and learned about bears and hibernation. 

I froze some fruit to give them a sense of why bears cannot find food in the winter (smell), and then did a project using loads of Vaseline to represent fat and its protection against harsh weather conditions. 

This was our last FIAR before summer, we are actually only working on phonics now until next school year, so until then, have a great summer, homeschoolers! 

Weekly Wrap Up - "The Glorious Flight"

This week we ROWed "The Glorious Flight"

My friend taught on Monday (I don't have photos) and we built our own cardboard box planes, made an airplane snack out of a banana, and found France and England on a map.

Wednesday we rowed at home, where we learned about propulsion using a balloon, yarn, and a straw, we baked some French bread and churned our own butter. We also learned a little about scale and angle as we did an art project imagining our neighborhood from a planes perspective. We wrapped it all up with a field trip to "Missionary Flights International" with our homeschool group.

 Eating popcorn and watching a show about planes while we waited for our field trip!

And as far as tot school went this week...it didnt :) Baby J marched to the beat of his own drum this week!!!

Weekly Wrap Up - Madeline

This week we rowed "Madeline" with friends!

Here is an overview of some of our favorite moments:

After we read the book, we started by locating France and building the flag. Heads up - don't listen to the anthem, at least not with the English translation! CRAZY!

Then we tried our best to build the Eiffel Tower after we watched a 360 degree view from the top

 We then enjoyed a traditional french picnic with lots of different cheeses, breads, fruits, and of course - mousse! 

By day 5, the kids remembered most of the rhymes on their own

I printed a clip art photo of the Eiffel Tower and made a jigsaw puzzle out of it as part of our math lesson

Then we played a memory match game with photos from the book and images representing France

And our favorite activity? We learned about pairs and counting by twos. Below you see the blueberries in two straight lines (just like the girls in the book), and the chocolate chips in pairs.

We used our fruit and chocolate to make crepes! The kids loved measuring and mixing the batter.

And our final order of business? EATING THEM!

Dessert Crepes

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups milk

2 T melted butter

1 Cup Flour

3 T sugar

pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together, and pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto lightly greased skillet over medium heat. Cook about 1 minute-1 minute and a half on each side. Fill with favorite fruit, a pinch of sugar, and top with chocolate sauce! 

And this moment deserves a special place in this post! I happened to take a picture the very moment that this little man wrote his name for the first time on his own! His mommy was so proud!

Weekly Wrap Up - "Night of the Moonjellies"

This week we ROWed "Night of the Moonjellies" by Mark Shasha. Since we live by the ocean it was a fun filled hands on week! We did school at the beach (didn't attempt photos with two littles at the beach alone!!!), visited an aquarium, and set up a diner!

We used the graphing and patterning pages from the {girly} Sea Preschool Pack, and did the Hamburger Book, Responsibility Book, and the Life by the Sea Book .

For art we learned about "Medium" and painted a jellyfish with paint and oil pastel.

 

We watched our fake moonjellies glow in the dark:

 

 

And invited Gram and Gramp over for a homemade Mar-Gra's diner lunch

 

 

 

OK, not so homemade :)

 

 

On Friday we visited the local aquarium and saw some REAL moonjellies! They even let us feed them some teeny tiny brine shrimp!

 

And, well, it's not a normal January in Florida unless we're spending some time in the sprinkler with cousin JoJo!