Robin Hood and being a little burnt out

Last week I felt a bit burnt out.  I know I had a lot going on, but in looking back, I can't remember any of it.  Perhaps I feel like last week I got burnt out because today was DEFINITELY "one of those days" if you know what I mean.  Not the best start to the week...that's for sure.

I think it's because I didn't eat well today.  Being pregnant, food and emotions go together hand in hand.

Anyway, moving past my pity party, let's review the successes of this week so I can feel like I did something of worth, because let's face it, that's what this blog is all about:  Recording the good parts so I don't get bogged down on the monotony and seemingly lack of accomplishment.

So for science last week we talked a lot about solutions.  We learned about diluted solutions and super-saturated solutions. We learned about how heat, stirring, and surface area effect how fast something becomes a solution.  I learned something too....did you know that with gas solutions, COLD helps a mixture stay a solution? (which is why we put soda pop in the fridge or it goes flat...we did that experiment and the kids LOVED drinking all the flat and fuzzy soda)

Here's the only picture I took that day though....two glasses of tea, one in hot water and one in cold. (solids obviously become solutions faster in heat.)

In the way of history, we learned about Robin Hood.  I couldn't find the picture books I had, so I had the kids retell me the cartoon version.  There was a lot of "and then the fox did this and the bear did that and then the snake...." oh well.

I bought 3 bow and arrow sets, thinking that the twins could share with my boys until they went home, and then my boys would each have their own....this was not a good assumption.

Isn't Hyrum cute?

And we also talked about the black death.  How could you do a Medieval course and not learn about the bubonic plague?  We had this rather gross but interesting book with lots of medieval paintings in it of the plague and medieval medicine.  We learned what "ring around the roses" REALLY means, and for our activity we made posies.

I had nephews over, and for some reason, they were Very interested in that book, but not at all interested in making posies....oh well :)

Science solutions and Knights

Science is one of the most energy and thought encompassing things that I do as a teacher.  The main reason for this is one word: PREPARATION.  I don't have to prepare for reading, writing, math, devotionals, or piano (Maxwell started piano lessons this week).  I prepare very little for history.  But science! science needs supplies, and supplies, and supplies, and a bit of study.

For instance; This is what I needed this week:

sugar
alcohol
vegetable oil
vinegar
Italian salad dressing
corn starch
filter paper
cotton balls
funnel
nail polish
acetone
Whole cloves
Peppermint
Food colouring
little glass jar

Easy enough...right?  But I also needed

iron fillings
copper sulfate
sulfur
test tubes
Iodine

Where the heck do I get copper sulfate?!? Well, I went begging the chemistry teacher in town, and he was very nice.

This week was no special week.  I have a list as varied and odd as this practically every week.

And what is the result? Hands on multisensory learning that reaches child's brains at a better level then just book learning and me being a pretty cool teacher....I hope.

This week we learned about soluble vs insoluble and solutions.  We tested different things to find out if they were soluble:

We also learned how if something was insoluble with water, it might be soluble with something else, like how nail polish is insoluble with water, but soluble with acetone.  (I was not thinking and some acetone got on my TABLE!  ugggg) Maxwell and a few of the boys were a little too excited to paint their nails :)

As for History, we seemed to only get one lesson in this week.  We learned about knights and coat of arms (what specific colours mean and what animals and symbols mean) and made our own coat of arms.

Maxwell and his daddy did a bit of handy man work and made a chicken coop this week.  Maxwell drew up the plans and was very into the whole thing.

As stated before, Maxwell started piano lessons...I'm not sure if he's ready, and I'm not sure if I really want something else for him to practice daily, but Maxwell's Daddy is sure ready for him to learn, so we started going to lessons....it's a good thing I like his teacher.

Enchanted Forests and scientific mixtures

This week was perfect because my sisters-in-law hosted an over-the-top combined birthday party for their kids that was enchanted forest themed.  It wasn't a stretch at all to tell my kids it was a MEDIEVAL enchanted forest, and voila!  It was a school learning experience without any work from me!  Booyah!

I wish I had taken more photos.  From the Dragon cake to the chiffon-draped ceilings, the whole thing was AMAZING!

This is Grandma with all the dragon egg pinatas for the birthday kids.

And it was a dress up party, so here is Maxwell as the cutest Medieval Wizard ever:

Of course, I didn't leave all the activities up to others to do.  We learned about Medieval castles.  Did you know Ms. Frizzle does history books as well as science books?  My boys and I were pretty excited to find that out.  Her Medieval Castle book was perfect.

And here is our marshmallow, ice cream cone, and toothpick castle:

We also learned about Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts.  The book "Magic in the Margins" was perfect for this.  We made our own illuminated names with gold glitter glue as a finishing touch.

And we actually did science this week.  We learned about mixtures.  We mixed sugar and iron fillings and played with the fillings from underneath the plate with a magnet to show how the mixture was not a compound.  I quickly changed it from sugar to salt, once I realized that the little ones were to tempted by a plate of sugar regardless of the iron fillings!  Eek! (no one was tempted by the salt-thank goodness!) We also mixed water and a lot of different substances.  And we mixed water and salt and boiled all the water away to prove that it really was just a mixture since the salt was left behind.

Fun fun, another homeschool success of a week....speaking of homeschool successes, my homeschooled-niece just graduated from college!  A bachelor's at the age of 20!  GO RACHAEL!

Medieval times and a Passover

We didn't do "official" science this week, however we did practical science...I took Maxwell with us for my ultrasound :) It's a BOY!  again.

I was asking Maxwell all these questions about sound, echolocation, ultrasounds, and babies, and I was so impressed with everything he already knew!  I hardly had to review anything.

This month we are learning about the Medieval age.  We started by learning about the Catholic church and cathedrals.  We made stain glass windows as part of the lesson.

And of course, they started decorating eggs during the medieval times in the Ukrainian, and so what a perfect time to celebrate our heritage and Easter.  My Sister-in-law is really into Ukrainian family history, and learned how to make authentic Ukrainian eggs.  She was so sweat to show us how even though she did warn me that my kids were too young to really get fancy.

Yes they were too young, but I loved learning the real way.  You take a kistka and put beeswax in one end and heat it with a candle until you can write with the wax on the egg. You put the wax where ever you don't want the next colour to show.  You start with the lightest colour first, put on more wax, and move on to darker colours with black being last. We ended up pouring wax on the eggs because we got impatient, but it was fun anyway.

This year, since we are studying the Old Testament and Ancient History, I really wanted to do a passover, and The Four Year Plan has a fun LDS passover activity outlined and ready to go.  I convinced my sister-in-laws to get on board, and we followed the outline, and I think everyone learned a ton and had lots of fun.

Instead of having one big meal, we split into 5 groups and rotated from station to station.  One station taught about the wine and bitter herbs, one taught the plagues, one was the Matzoh, one was the Haroset, and one was the lamb and egg.

I thought it would be fun if we all dressed up like hebrews, but not all of us did, but those that did looked fabulous.

And of course, it was Easter, and there were Easter egg hunts and blue egg dyed hands galore.  :)