Night at the Museum and Dry Ice

You know this movie, right?:

Well-we really DID spend the night at the museum!!!

Oh yeah baby-Before we left, William said "This is going to be the best night of my life!"

And it ended up being pretty phenomenal.

We went to the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur museum. It's in the top 5 in the WORLD for best dinosaur museums. But it's 3 and a half hours away. So we listened to Story of the World and more Story of the Word and MORE Story of the World.

They did four experiences for us. 1-Put together a Raptor skeleton while learning about each part. 2-dig up bones and things from man mad "dirt and rock" 3-Making a cast from a REAL mold and talking about fossils and 4-having a flashlight tour of the museum.

Magical.

That night the boys slept next to their best friends (the Blackmores) and I gave them glow sticks, and they were in heaven under the biggest Tyrannosaurus Rex you've ever seen.

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast and a few short movies, they let us have admission to the museum for the day. What a museum!

And close to the museum is the biggest dinosaur sculpture in the world, so of course we had to go up that!

The whole experience went so perfectly with our ancient history year.

Of course, we have moved on from dinosaurs in history. We continued to learn about Egypt. We made Cartouches and we made papyrus. We studied about king Tut and the valley of the kings, but we also talked about Joseph being sold to Egypt and bringing Israel there. I had this awesome book I just bought....but I couldn't find it! Rrughghghh.

And I'm not sure if this counts as history or not, but Hyrum went to an ancient Persia murder mystery party that his Auntie Bear hosted. Check out his costume:

He's supposed to be a merchant, so I think he's trying to sell that mouse. LOL

As for science, one science day, the travelling planetarium came to town! It went to the elementary school, and John made sure we were part of the experience. It was so fun. It was like a bouncy castle without the bouncy part. He showed us constellations and talked about planets.

He also brought a real meteorite, and all my kids insisted on having their picture taken with it.

And as for my science club, I did my most epic class of the year, if not of all time: DRY ICE!

Not only a dry ice party, I Halloween Dress up dry ice party!

I spent all morning running to Lethbridge to get it (the man was super kind. I told him I wanted 20 lbs and he said that would be $70 and I was crest fallen, so he asked what it was for and I said it was for classes to to science experiments with kids, and he gave it to me for $20.) You have to go to a welding supply store in Canada to get dry ice. In the US you can get it everywhere.

I had tons of moms and Dustin helping me, and we did it all: we did huge bubbles and small bubbles and even "boo" bubbles, we did fake liquid nitrogen to freeze gummy worms in 30 seconds, we made a carbonated drink and ice cream, we put out fire, we wiggled coins, we had floating bubbles, we "carved" a pumpkin in an instant, and we blew up balloons (I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the stuff we did.)

But not only did we do all that, we did it TWICE! There were almost 40 kids in total. Crazy

The only thing we didn't do twice was....ummm...a dry ice bomb.

Not sure the neighbours appreciated that.

Don't you love the endermen? Maxwell made that hat, and its eyes glow and can hold speakers for the endermen song to play.

And I realize that I haven't been posting much about the "essentials" Don't worry, we HAVE been doing them.  In fact, Maxwell just got a 28 on the practice ACT math test! Proud mumma moment.

Hyrum and Daniel are both doing level "G" in Rightstart even though they are opposite ends of the book. Hyrum just did an awesome lesson where he had to find the hight of things using similar triangles.

In one problem, he has to see the top of the object in a mirror as part of creating the similar triangles, so we found out how tall our house was:

And last but not least, I went to a dyslexia conference in Calgary put on by the Decoding Dyslexia Alberta Chapter. I'm so glad I did. It's good to know that I'm not alone in Alberta, and there are already steps being taken to help those with dyslexia here. They were of the Sally Shaywitz mindset, just like me (i.e. not into vision therapy and or the Gift of Dyslexia guy, but instead independent scientific research only please.)

Although, it really bugged me that they were selling the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" book. If you're dyslexic, BURN THAT BOOK! but if not, it will work for you great.

Rightstart Math Review

I have five boys. Very active crazy boys. Two have ADHD. And all of them are dyslexic. The oldest is 14 and youngest is 5. I have been using Rightstart math from the beginning, which is nine years. (That makes me feel old!)

Even though my kids have learning difficulties, they have been at least a grade AHEAD of where they "should" be in math. In fact, my fourteen year old just took a practice test for the ACT, and he got a 28 on the math portion. (The equivalent of 1300-1320 for SAT.)

Because I've been using Rightstart since 2010, I use the first edition, so this review is about the first edition. I've had the impression that the second edition didn't get rid of any of the amazing qualities that the first edition had, and mostly just added worksheets to comply with Common Core, but I'm not sure.

This review is not funded by Rightstart, but I am prompted to do this review because they gave am amazing contribution to the school for the orphan and impoverished that I volunteered at in Vanuatu.

Check it out:

I really do believe that Rightstart Math is just that: a right start.

It teaches you HOW to think like a mathematician. It teaches kids the WHY behind the numbers. And it helps guide children to come up with equations themselves.

Recently, I went to a conference where the main guest speaker was a math "guru." She toured the country showing school districts math strategies that blew everyone's minds.  I had to chuckle. It was like she was teaching directly from a Rightstart manual.

She talked about the importance of not counting, but instead, immediately recognizing amounts. This is one of the main goals of Rightstart level "A."

Among other things, she also talked about the need to visualize multiplying fractions. She did this the Rightstart way of making a multiplication grid: the columns for one fraction and the rows for the other fraction.

Everyone gasped in amazement; finally being able to visualize multiplying fractions. I just winked at my friend next to me who also uses Rightstart.

It's nice to know that math elites use Rightstart methods, but for me, I love Rightstart because it actually works for my kids.

My kids are severely dyslexic. All five of them. My husband and I are both on the spectrum, and dyslexia is so genetic, that our kids would have to be mutants to NOT be dyslexic. We have no mutants.

Dyslexic children can really excel at math. Infact, that was one of the things that puzzled psychologists when first studying dyslexia: The same children who couldn't read a simple sentence of letters and words, had no trouble reading out numbers and equations.

But the thing that almost always goes hand in hand with dyslexia is poor arbitrary memorization. This is the memorization that has no rhyme or reason: it just IS. Things like names, dates, and scientific terms often are hard for dyslexics to memorize. Don't even attempt to teach them the periodic table of elements. (Just kidding, we still try.)

Usually, maths facts fall into this category of arbitrary memorization. So many math programs out there rely on memorization of facts more than anything else. They chant "2 and 2 is 4, 4 and 4 is 8, 8 and 8 is 16" until they're blue in the face.

This mystifies dyslexic children, and leaves them in the dust.

Rightstart doesn't do that. They have the philosophy that math is 95% UNDERSTANDING and 5% memorization.

What a breath of fresh air!

They explain the "WHY" behind everything the children encounter. Even words like "eleven" (people use to say it's ten and a left over one, and the "a left over" turned into "eleven.")

Rightstart is also extremely visual. The abacus SHOWS the children what is happening to numbers as you do arithmetic. Children can see, touch, and manipulate everything they do.

One of my favourite examples of this, is when Rightstart teaches the about the concept of Pi. They guide the children to take measurements of actual round objects around their house using string the size of that object's diameter. The string can always go around the object three times and a little bit.

That three and a little bit is Pi.

 And then, of course, there's the games. My kids BEG me to do the math games!

The games actually work too. I can gauge where my kids are at, see them improve, and all while having fun.

The only drawback to Rightstart it the time commitment. There is no "go do your math." There is only "LET US do math together." In a big family, this gets overwhelming. Once you get to the older levels, there's less actual teaching, because the teaching is hidden within the do-it-yourself-worksheets (fun worksheets that say things like "go outside and use similar triangles to find out how tall your house is!") But my problem is that there are so many instructions and word problems on the worksheets that my dyslexic boys need my help to read the worksheets.

You might wonder what it's like to teach Rightstart. One word: EASY

No preparation necessary.

No prior knowledge of Rightstart methods needed.

Just open the book, and follow along.

Now, after saying all these positive remarks, I must admit that I feel the the need to supplement Rightstart Math in certain ways. In other words, it hasn't been an absolutely perfect program. But it sure is close!

With my second child, he wasn't remembering that "6 is 5 and 1" and "7 is 5 and 2" etc. even though he had memorized the "Yellow is the Sun" song, and saw it on his fingers, abacus, and tally sticks.

I eventually realized he needed a new approach and I made up stories to go along with the facts: six is sick and all alone- seven is heaven for a couple who is happily married- eight is two people who ATE the ice cream between them- and nine says "mine, mine where's my person to match me? Mine nine."

Also, to help memorize the "Yellow is the Sun" song, I made this visual:

Also, the way Rightstart teaches children how to write numbers is super dyslexic UNfriendly. Dyslexic children typically have a really hard time learning right and left, but this is the main strategy in learning how to write numbers according to Rightstart.

It was no problem for me to find a better way. My kids were already using Handwriting Without Tears for their handwriting, which already included how to write numbers. Handwriting Without Tears is the BEST program out there for teaching dyslexics handwriting (and since HWT also donated to the Vanuatu school, I plan to do a review for them as well.)

And that's the only supplements I needed until level "C" which introduces multiplication. Even though they had a thorough understanding of multiplication because of Rightstart, and given enough time would be able to tell you their times tables, I felt they needed to know the facts quickly and automatically.

I used "Times Tales" for automaticity. Times Tales uses stories to memorize the facts, and it worked like a charm. I highly suggest it.

Next, in level "E" and in "G" the children are required to learn a ton of geography terms. Memorizing terms tends to be an arbitrary memorization hiccup, and my boys needed help. I made some definition flash cards to help remember what these math terms meant.

If you want a link to all my definition flash cards, find it here. 

Also, it was apparent by level "E" and "G" that there were a few subjects that I felt Rightstart didn't cover very well. They kind of took it for granted that the children needed very little instruction in these areas, and quickly skipped to the application of them. Maybe Rightstart fixed this in the new edition.

It was true that because the children have been taught how to think in a mathematical way, these subjects were super easy to master, but they still needed a more thorough explanation to begin with, and I found those explanations from certain movies by "Mathantics" on Youtube.

First, they need to know the order of operations. At least in Rightstart's first edition, it's never spelled out for the kids emphatically. Here's Mathantic's video for order of operations:

Second, Rightstart first edition doesn't do a very thorough job at the distributive property. They give the kids an example, and say "Isn't that obvious that that should work?" Well, it IS obvious after watching this movie:

And third, I really feel like my kids need a better explanation about balancing equations. They understand that an equation needs to be balanced (especially with the actual balanced that is used in some Rightstart lessons) but knowing how to make that happen needs to be more explicitly laid out for my kids. Mathantics does that here:

I also might show my kids the Mathantics' "fractions are division" and "multiplying fractions" movies when I feel like it.


Even with having to use these simple supplements to the Rightstart program, I still feel blessed that I found Rightstart so early on in the game.

I see my kids thriving in mathematics everyday thanks to this amazing program. I hope you can too.

Too Busy

Well, usually when a new year starts, I am disciplined enough to do a post a week....oops.

Okay, well we have been disciplined enough to do school, and that should be enough. I'm not going to lie, I never seem to get to do everything I want to. There's never enough time. Mostly because there's FIVE of them who need one on one. (I thought Maxwell wouldn't need me at all by now... I thought wrong.)

Also all their extra curricular activities take away time. They LOVE them though, so I figure it's all worth it, so If we don't get enough of the "necessities" it's just a season. A season where they're getting more than enough extra classes.

One thing that's taken time in the extra curricular world this week is Hyrum and Daniel doing tryouts for the drama class they're in. They're doing this play about monsters, and even though they are for sure in the play, the director wanted to find out what part they should have.

Hyrum did a monologue about Minecraft, and Daniel did one about Spiderman. This is where they excelled. They had tons of energy and slap stick humour.

Then their songs. I know this is weird for anyone who knew me when I was growing up....but I've never attempted to teach my kids to sing. I don't have my boys sing. Maxwell's pretty much tone deaf, so I just gave up early I guess. Anyway, I just had them choose whatever song they wanted, and Daniel picked a Minecraft parody song:

Hyrum did the Lego song, but he included all the talking that's done in the movie, so it was more like a second monologue than a song.

We'll see what happens in a few days!

Another thing that took up some time extracurricular this week was the "Person of Eminence" day at Westwind. Maxwell chose Brandon Mull, Hyrum chose Abraham Lincoln, Daniel chose Gandhi, and William chose Mark Rober.

I swear we went through the facts they learned about their person, but when it came time, I really had to help them. Whatever.

The best thing about the experience was Daniel's costume. Check it out:

Don't you love the bald head? Daniel insisted on it.

Also, Hyrum had Abraham dress up instead of dressing up himself which was fitting:

Cutest Abraham Lincoln I've ever seen

The boys have been LOVING Westwind which started last week. They come home inspired. Hyrum really got into this multiplication game, and made trophies for next time's events:

How cute is that?

And as far as extracurricular that I'm in charge of, science is going great. THERE ARE SO MANY KIDS! There were 20 (TWENTY) kids in my older class one week. That's as big as a "real" school!

One day we did a club about the three states of matter. They were pretty cute when they tried to blow up a balloon that was in a glass beaker. They turned very red in the face:

 The kids' favourite day is, of course, polymer day where we play with oobleck (cornstarch and water) and make our own slime. We also put pencils through plastic water bags and skewers through balloons among other experiments.

And this week we did the changing states of matter which had exploding film canisters, lots of ice-water-steam demonstrations, and the BLOWING UP OF A MICROWAVE. yep.

Well, my microwave is actually still intact. But the plate I put in it is shattered. I was trying this experiment:

But I didn't watch the video in preparation, and I thought I would just put this entire bar of soap that's at least 4 years old in my microwave and that it would work. Yeah, it didn't, so I thought it needed more time....then more time...that bar of soap is all dried out and just shattered my plate which sounded like the microwave exploded.

But at least blowing up balloons with baking soda and vinegar worked (Just look at the delight on William and Abraham's faces!)

As far as history is concerned, we didn't do anything too exciting for dinosaur activities, because we went on that field trip that had activities anyway, and we are going on another dinosaur adventure this weekend. So I just bought some dinosaur eggs from the dollar store that I thought had a skeleton inside that you put together. No. It was just a tiny Dino in the egg.

See the Dino? No? yep.

But we've been learning and inspiring enough to prompt artistic renderings of Dinos.

Abraham is always doing art. Always.

We learned about cave paintings and early man, and made our own cave paintings:

We learned about Mesopotamia and Sumer and weaved a bag:

And now we're learning about Ancient Egypt. Of course we started with mummies!!!

And if all our extras that we do isn't enough, my kids create their own extras. William has been on a mission to take about every electronic thing he can get ahold of and figure out how he can play with their parts in a new way:

And Maxwell, without any prompting from me, has decided that he wants to learn Spanish and has been learning on Duolingo like crazy.  He loves to be at the top of the scoring charts.

And one reason I'm so late in writing this post, is that we were gone for over a week. Yes, we went to the coast to see family, and it was oh so wonderful.  We saw my sister, whom I love:

And she took us to Craigdarroch Castle, which I've never gone to. 100 trips to Victoria, and never seen it.

Well, we've seen it. 

She also took us to butterfly world which was Awesome. THANK YOU DANETTE

We also went to things like China town and the petting zoo and just enjoying how gorgeous it is there:

But the main thing we did was just spend time with family. 

I had a women's retreat towards the end, which was Devine. We talked a lot about meditation and mindfulness. I really needed such a zen day.

We stayed on the coast longer then anticipated  because there was a freaking huge storm in Alberta, and we had to wait it out. This is what we came home to:

But my Vanuatu boys were actually quite thrilled about the snow.

So much for fall. That didn't last long. The snow came before the trees had a chance to turn colour, which means dead trees next year. :( But before we went to the coast, we celebrated fall and had a cider party. Every time we have a party there's about 50 people there. People that we really know and connect with. So different than isolated Vanuatu. 

Well, tomorrow's another day of 50+ people at our house. Thanksgiving here we come, wish us luck!