Arabian Nights

Before we learned about Persia and Arabia, we learned about the second Babylon and learned about Daniel and Nebakanezer. Most history books just clump the new Babylon with the old, but I decided to study Mesopotamia-Egypt-Israel-Babylon-Persia because that's the order of the Old Testament, and it makes the most sense to me.

We made our own Ishtar Gate to study Babylon.  All that was missing was the hanging gardens!

Has anyone out there actually read the Arabian Night stories?  One word....WACKED!!!  Especially Ali Babba and Sinbad, but even though they're warped, I must admit I still find them intriguing.  I find it amazing that woman, even slave woman, were often the heros.  However, I can totally see why Esther was so scared for her life if she was brought up hearing stories like these!

We wore tubans (I actually watched a youtube video on how to tie a turban,) made pita bread that actually puffed up like it should, and made genie lamps out of tin foil, but instead of oil in the lamps we just put a candle.  Maxwell loves the Arabian Night stories....humm time to return them to the library.

For science we learned about atoms again.  I think I'll start with atoms next time I teach chemistry because that makes more sense to me.  We made a marble atom model and a gumdrop atom model, and made an atom model where the nucleus was a brick and we made a chalk line 15 ft from the centre to show how atoms are mostly space.  I think some of it sunk in.  Using candy helps.

This week we went to the monthly poem recitation that my incredible friend Eve does.  Maxwell loves to perform.

My niece, Briana, has really inspired the household to make books.  There have been many books made this week.  Briana made one for Hyrum that he has me read him every night called "Super Hyrum."

I found that the "bed" way of learning "b" and "d" wasn't being that effective at this point in the game, and I went back to this theory that my friend Nicholeen taught me.  The truck either runs into the Back of the Bear or the Dog's nose.  This has seemed to work better for Maxwell.

And even though we had our track and field day a month or so ago, I thought I would include this video that my amazing sister-in-law made of the event.

Israel and Atoms

We continued learning about ancient Israel with King David.  We made sling shots of course.  These were a hit, especially since the 5 smooth stones were marshmallows! They were made from wire hangers, rubber bands, and leather from a purse I bought at our second had store. They worked really well.

That was it for history...yah, I'm a slacker, but when you have guests....well, slacking is allowed.

Science was good, I think.  We talked about atoms.  We talked about how they are too small to see, so we poked objects in play dough and tried to guess what was inside, and talked about how this was kind of like how scientists find out about atoms.

We also talked what makes up an atom and we reviewed + and - charges.  We had balloons pick up pieces of confetti and had balloons repel each other.  Kids always love it when you bring out balloons!

Maxwell is doing really well with his reading program.  It is going at a pace that he's really comfortable with.  He is starting to make headways, and it's exciting to watch.

This week, we are studying the "b" and "d" words, and my sister has this great way of reminding kids which is which.  I made a poster for Maxwell to remember her concept (Maxwell helped me colour the bed on the computer):

Do you get it?  if you put your hands in fists with your thumbs up, then you make a bed, and so your left hand is a "b" and your right had is a "d" so you just have to look at your fists to remember which is a "b" or "d."  It seems to be working so far.

Ancient Israel and Halloween

This week we didn't have science because I had a minor surgery.  I have to say that science is the hardest thing to teach because of all the preparation that has to go into the experiments (and finding the random things needed for experiments!) but it is the most meaningful thing for Maxwell, so I will continue to prepare and be diligent in the future.

We learned about ancient Israel this week.  Of course, my kids already know quite a bit about ancient Israel because of the Bible.  In fact, when I first mentioned Ancient Egypt, my kids said "oh ya, we know about Moses!"

Well they got to study Moses again anyway.  We made a Red Sea for Moses to part, and a whole bunch of Israelites to cross it. My Sister's family is staying here for a few weeks, and my nieces made this activity elaborate and fun.

We also pretended to be Israelites that surrounded the "wall" of Jericho and blew their trumpets to have the wall come tumbling down.  I had no idea when I bought these one dollar trumpets how LOUD they would be.  I thought our cup wall would literally fall down from the sound vibrations!

And Maxwell has another scripture memorized....

Of course, since it was Halloween season, we also made masks and carved pumpkins.  Hyrum LOVED his "happy pumpkin."  He wanted to sleep with it that night....I sure love him.

And even though today is part of next week, I'll just admit now that no learning besides Halloween fun was had today,  but they sure had FUN!

Green Papyrus and Density

This week was awesome.  Science worked out really well.  We talked about the periodic table and how to identify elements.  We talked about how certain elements conduct electricity, and set up a battery with a light attached to wires, and we saw what kind of elements would complete the circuit.  We talked about brittleness and smashed some different things.  One boy saw everything set up and said as a joke "Are we going to smash stuff?"  I said yes, and he looked at me with a silly grin and said "Really?"  We also tried to burn different elements to show different coloured flames, but it didn't work....borax is not as pure as boric acid I guess.

We also talked about density and weighed different things.  We also put different liquids in a test tube to show how they will float on one another because of their different densities. The boys LOVED this experiment!!! Maxwell started experimenting will all the liquids he could find in the next few days.

We also made hydrometers to measure liquid density.  They really worked!

History was really fun this week....for me :)  I love ancient egypt, and Teri Ebert of the Four Year Plan gives a link to some really great Egyptian crafts at http://boiseartmuseum.org/education/egyptian.php  and that is where I found out how to make papyrus.  They suggest making it out of rhubarb stalks, but the only rhubarb I could find was limp and decrepit, so I took the celery out of my fridge and crossed my fingers and ...... it WORKED!!!  I have to admit, I kind of took over in this craft, because I really was excited and wanted it to work.

It took a lot of drying, but in the end Maxwell was able to paint on it.

We also made cartouches.  Egyptians believed that these ovals were magic, protecting the words inside.  That's how important writing and preservation was to them...fascinating (or maybe I'm just a happy nerd).  We did sand art to colour them.  The kids had fun and in the end mixed up the sand to make "rainbow sand"

But it did make a mess....

For Preschool we talked about how the letter "e" says "ehhh?" like someone who couldn't hear you very well, so we made ears.

And for our field trip we went to a halloween party.

Math has been going really well with doing Rightstart lessons and Saxon worksheets.  Maxwell has memorized the song that is the basis for the Rightstart philosophy of this year:

Mummas...I mean Mummies...

This week we didn't do science since it was Canadian Thanksgiving.  I guess we learned about the science of cooking....hey, it IS chemistry to bake something!

We did indeed do history.  MUMMIES!  I had taught Maxwell quite a bit, and then the twins and Maria came over and Maxwell was excitedly sharing what he knew, and they asked things like "were they all girls?" and Maxwell would say things like "No, lots of them were boys and dads."  I was confused for awhile until Hyrum kept talking about the Mommys.....oh, ya, oops.

Books that I loved were: one I already have "Mummies made in Egypt" by Aliki, and one I found "Hallmarks of History: Pyramids"

Our activity was of course to wrap ourselves up as mummies.

(facepainting is a regular hobby around here)

And we made canopic jars.  We filled them with noodles that I was going to pretend were brains until I got reminded that brains were thrown away, so I guess they were intestines.

And we even did an experiment with mummifying oranges.  One was left alone, one was just wrapped in a paper towel, and the other one was place in between two coffee filters filled with baking soda which should work just like natron.

The next day we talked about pyramids.  We built a pyramid from sandpaper that we glued hieroglyphics in.  Then they wrapped up toy people and animals and put their mummies in their pyramids.

For field trip....well, I kind of skunked out.  My sister-in-law took my kids and they raked leaves and put them all onto the tramp and had a jumping-in-leaves-hootananny that I don't think they'll forget.

and we have been memorizing scriptures...this is sooo cute...well maybe only I think it's cute because it's crazy just like it always is.

The Fertile "Croissant"

This week we learned about the Fertile Crescent/Ancient Mesopotamia.I couldn't find any GOOD books, and as a result, I'm not sure how much it all sank in for Maxwell.

My reeds I ordered A MONTH AGO  to weave baskets with hadn't come in.  Perturbed....

We did do an activity anyway.  We were supposed to make bas reliefs from salt dough, which is a low raised sculpture or a picture etched in clay.  The kids weren't very interested in this, and since we were talking about the world's first cities, asked if they could make cities out of clay instead.  This sounded appropriate.

See how there's a city wall and a pyramid like temple in the middle?  I teach 'um good, eh?

We talked about how Mesopotamia is also called the Fertile Crescent and made croissants to drill this in, but I don't think they got it...maybe in four years.

For science, we talked about water tension.  We showed how a little safety pin will float on top of water but will sink if it goes through the water tension (just like a water skeeter.)  We showed how we could still fit tons of stuff in a glass that seems full.  We showed how material would hold in water unless you touched it and broke the tension, and then we broke the water tension in a shallow bowl with matches in it using dish soap.  It was pretty low key since only one boy showed up.  They were more interested in halloween costumes then water tension.

For preschool we learned that "d" stands for dddrum.

And for Field trip we went to an awesome Friendship Soup party.  Everyone brought an ingredient for soup and some cookies.  The soup ended up tasting delicious, and everyone got their cookie fix for the week.  There were probably 80 people in one house, but it wasn't crazy, I swear.  I bet it was because it was a big open house with vaulted ceilings, and she had carpet and log walls to soak up the sound.

I spent some of the party talking to one homeschooled boy who had just got his mission call.  I love how most homeschoolers are so comfortable talking to adults.  He has earned all the money he needs for his mission mostly from selling CDs with music he composed/performed on it.  Incredible and with it....YES another homeschool success story in the making.

Of course, what's a party without Shaina face painting everyone?