Tangrams, Cookie Dough, Paper Airplanes, and Chocolate

Here are some pictures from the past week.

We had lots of fun covering the beginning of World War I and doing some neat "hands-on" projects.

Sissi, all dressed up and playing with her bear

Working on some math

Gwangi, working on his Explode the Code

Being silly while doing her Explode the Code

She loves to work on tangrams while I do our read-aloud

Gwangi joined her on this day

One of her finished pictures

When they put the blocks away, they did it by shape and color, in layers...They inherited my organization gene!

Making sugar cookie dough maps of Europe

Cutting out Europe from their rolled out sugar cookie dough

One of the final maps, I think this is Gwangi's map

Watching it cook in the oven

Decorating her map

It puffed up a bit during baking, but I think they look great

More decorating

Another tangram, this one built by Gwangi from his imagination

Making and flying our own paper airplanes

Science project, watching the sun focus on the chocolate through the magnifying glass and melt it

Krypto actually got a flame and smoke coming off of his chocolate

So very gooey and tasty!

Surprise Birthday Party!

Here are some photos from Chana (and Brian's) Surprise Birthday Party!

Lots of fun in Fayetteville last weekend.

Surprise!

I love this cake!

Our first two weeks of school

Just a few pictures from our first two weeks of school!

Gwangi working on his Astronomy Notebook

As I do our Tapestry of Grace Lower Grammar (LG) reading each day, I have the children draw a picture about what I'm reading.  We share at the end.  The boys can each write a few sentences for their own description.  I write Sissi's after she tells me what her picture is all about.  This way, we have a notebook of all our History and Literature readings for the year and it gives them something "hands on" to do while I'm reading to them.

Our new Science curriculum.  This is our first year with Apologia.

Sissi writing in her Notgrass Psalms devotional.

Krypto doing his devotion in the morning.  You can see his pile of books next to him, Logic, Handwriting, Grammar, and Math.

Gwangi working on his pile of books.

Another page out of Sissi's Notgrass Psalms book that we are working on in the morning.

While I make lunch, the kids often play a game...this day was "No Stress Chess"...you play it with cards, so it teaches the kids the moves.  This game was not completely without stress though :).

We are doing a Home Economics course this year, by the Pearables company.  The first week was learning about the Food Pyramid and making healthy choices.  This week, peeling carrots and potatoes.  My goal is to have them each planning and cooking one night of the week by the time they are teenagers.

The boys, blowing up balloons and measuring them as we try to show the relative size of the planets to each other.

Sissi is cutting out our "ring" for Saturn.

We taped our ring onto our Saturn balloon.

The boys, more measuring to be sure the balloon planets are the right size.

Another day of Home Economics...the dinner that night was Potato Soup.  The kids peeled all the potatoes for me.

Then, they decided they wanted to learn how to cut, too. So, we had an impromptu lesson in using our knives safely and how to cut potatoes.

Just a handful of the books that we read these past two weeks for History.  The beginning of the 20th Century is a very rich time to learn about, we've been busy.

Next week...we're heading into the Pre-War years!