Westward!

This week we studied about the Oregon trail.  Am I the only one who always thinks of that old Atari computer game when ever the Oregon trail is mentioned? We talked about how Oregon had a lot of trees and good land that made people think they could have a better life there.  We made log cabins as our activity.  We made them out of huge pretzels and glue.  I saw Hyrum and Daniel eating them later….I hope the glue tasted good!

We also made faux beaver pelt hats.  I wasn't planning on it, but in every book, there was something about how the pioneers made money off of trapping beavers for top hats.  I couldn't pass up this opportunity for a cute project. The boys are still wearing them and are very proud of them.

We also made butter and jam (since that was what I DID plan.) We shook and shook whipping cream and blended and mushed strawberries, and we ended up with some delicious butter and jam sandwiches!

For science we began learning about electricity…I have to say, I personally had fun with these experiments.  We played with the static electricity of combs, and learned about insulators and conductors. We made a conductor tester with some wire, a battery, and a light bulb, and we tested different objects to see if electricity could go through them. Scissors, spoons, coins, and hole punchers work great…pens, jump ropes, and most toys…not so much.

For field trip, we went to the pioneer memorial museum of Utah.  Can we say nick-nacks!  Some museums need to realize that less is more.  It was not very kid friendly, but we did see a real beaver pelt top hat that belonged to non other then Brigham Young!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow is the king of the wild frontier

This week we learned about Johnny Appleseed.  What an inspirational man!  Good wholesome fun.  We juiced apples to make home-made cider and made apple stamps, but I forgot to get them to put pots on their heads!  For shame.

We also studied Davy Crockett.  I hadn't realized how political he was.  I liked what the end of one our books said "Davy made sure that he knew what was right, and then went forward with all his might."  We made tin lanterns…Davy Crockett might have had tin lanterns…right?  4 hammers + 0 crying = success.  We used the homemade candles to light them, but they tipped over inside the can.  I should have gotten tea candles……We are now done with the frontier and now it's pioneer time!

For science, we had our final light lesson.  We talked about color/colour (sometimes I don't know if I should spell the US way or the Canadian way) We learned all about Rainbows (ROY G. BIV) and we used prisms and bubbles to see rainbows, we painted rainbows and we had fun under a black light.  Did you know that laundry detergent glows in black light?  My club now knows :)

For our field trip, we went to the planetarium.  Maxwell asked "What does tarium mean?" does it mean study? or learning?  Now I wonder… We saw a movie in the dome theater/theatre where the whole ceiling is a dome that projects.  Maxwell kept saying "are we moving?" It felt like it.  At one point, the movie said "even the iron in your blood is the same as the iron in the meteorites" and Maxwell turns and says excitedly, "Thats how Jesus made us! From things in the Universe!"  Oh he is wise, what can I say more.

Tall Tales

This week we learned Tall Tales of the American Frontier.  I even learned a new one…Mike Fink.  This subject was a winner with my kids (of course.) Paul Bunyan is definitely a new favorite hero.  We made yarn dolls and I explained how children on the frontier would make dolls just like this and then pretend stories about the Tall Tale characters with them.  They loved it.

We also weaved placemats out of poster board.  I explained how a story is weaved by many people to make a whole Tall Tale…I'm not sure if they got that symbolism, but they were sure proud of their mats.

For science the light saga continued.  This time we talked about how light bends when it goes through things like water and curved glass (lenses.)  We did a really fun experiment where you put a penny in a bowl and get far enough away that you can't see the penny and then add water to the bowl, and you can see the penny again.  It was like magic.  We also did a lot with magnifying glasses including making a fire….well, it was more like burn holes through dry leaves and make smoke.  We couldn't quite get flames going…it wasn't quite sunny enough.

For field trip, DADDY took the boys to a fire engine museum.  The boys had a BLAST.  They even got free fireman hats.  (Mommy liked the break too :)

For the last two weeks, Maxwell has been taking swimming lessons every morning.  He has loved it and has learned a lot, but I have to say that I'm so glad it's over.  It was getting me out of sync with my morning routine.  Some days we weren't even doing devotionals until after lunch...

Scriptures and Shadows

This week we got ready for Valentine's Day by decorating and making valentines.  At the end of our main day of Valentine crafts, I asked Maxwell what he learned that day so he could write in his journal.  He said "I didn't learn anything today."  Oops…I swear we did math and reading that day!

We also studied Daniel Boon.  I have to admit, although I knew he was a famous frontiersman, I didn't remember anything about him.  It was good to refresh.  We made candles to solidify the lesson.

For science we continued to learn about light, and I was back in my groove, and we had fun.  We learned about shadows and reflections. We made shadow puppets, acted out a lunar and solar eclipse,  reflected light off a few mirrors, and made a periscope.

My husband and I went on the field trip (we celebrated our anniversary) but an adventure of Grandma and Grandpa baby-sitting/spoiling was better then a field trip for the boys anyway.

Maxwell is getting better and better at memorizing scripture during devotionals.  Here's two cute examples of recent scriptures:

Trail of tears, trail of beads, and trail of light

So this week we studied the Trail of tears and native suffering.  Holy cow that was a really depressing episode in US history.  I could hardly finish reading a children's book about Chief Joseph to my kids.  But to help embed the history into my children's brains we made beaded necklaces and the next day we made dreamcatchers.

I found this big container of beads at Walmart that had the coolest beads ever (for little kids.)  It had bear beads, star beads, heart, shell, and even elephant beads.  A bit of a mess, but really fun.

I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find any hoops to make dreamcatchers from…so I just bought dreamcatchers, cut out the middle, untied the feathers, and then my boys reweaved the middle, and retied the feathers.  They actually loved it and did the weaving without too much help, but Maxwell was really disappointed when he found out that they don't actually catch your dreams.

This science day I was a little out of sync with my groove.  I was a bit stressed.  We talked about light and cameras.  I think most of it was too complex for my crowd.  In fact, at one point one little boy said "this is getting complicated" ya….but we did actually prove that light travels straight  and we also ended up making zoetropes that WORKED!

We went to the discovery zone for field trip….Maxwell was so excited to show the museum off to his cousins since he had already been there.

For math we've been doing this sort of poke-a-dot adding thing that I made up with magnets and metal washers on numbers.  It kind of goes against the theories of abacus math, but hey now they'll know more then one technique.

Sweet Music of Lewis and Clark

This week we learned about Betsy Ross and made US flags.  What little kid doesn't love 50 star stickers?

Next was Lewis and Clark.  I wanted to make terrain of the US continent and have our toy cowboys and natives represent Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea, and the other natives, but I just didn't have enough salt to have an impressive landscape (our rocky mountains were pathetic.)  When I do something like this again, I am going to get a bucket load of salt dough.

For science we continued to learn about sound.  We learned about echos and music.  We even made our  own symphony with homemade instruments.  Maracas out of rice and paper cups, pan pipes out of straws, and guitars out of shoe boxes and rubber bands….ah the sweet melodies.

Our field trip was amazing…grandma and grandpa took us to the CIRCUS!  The first circus of my thirty long years.  It was in a small city, but it was an incredible show not lacking in any way, and since it was  a small venue, we got REALY good seats :)

Presidents Sound off

I know we took a month off for the holidays, but we moved too, so I think we should be forgiven.  Now we are back and back strong.  All my boys love math time (or coloring time for my younger boys) Although, Daniel bites off the ends of the markers, and ends up a ink mess every day.  Now each boy has their own markers….at least they're nontoxic!

This week, we studied presidents, so we talked about the difference between the president of the church, and the president of the United States, however Maxwell didn't think this was the funnest activity since we just posted things on the wall.

We talked about the different jobs that the President of the United States has, and put hats on Obama representing all his jobs.  It was kind of weird teaching so much about Obama since I'm a conservative and not in tune with Obama's politics.  Too bad Maxwell can't be president someday…born in Canada…well, maybe Prime Minister eh?

For science, we learned about sound.  We made sound waves out of streamers, watched rice dance on speakers, made cup telephones, listen to rubber bands through different mediums, and acted out lightning and thunder.  They loved it.

For our field trip we went to the church history museum which was fun since they had a kid's exhibit on. Maxwell insisted that these were the REAL gold plates, and I couldn't convince him otherwise.  They spent forever there having fun…a little too long since whenI came out my meter had ran out,  and the police was there giving me a ticket!  He had pity on me when he saw me all a fluster with three little munchkins in toe….hallelujah!