Stop Motion- 5 Year Old Style

Somebody is trying his hand at stop motion video...

He's really working hard at it too! More on this software and the stop motion adventure soon...

4H: LEGO NXT

E12 did his 4H Public Presentation on how to build and program with the LEGO NXT kit. He did a fantastic job of showing the different components that come in a kit and he demonstrated how to program a robot he'd built. This year's season began in February and he progressed (along with R10) to the district level which was held this past Saturday.

His poster was pretty clean in design.

The robot- a design from one of his Mindstorms books

He went with double sided foam core board- the first year we used the tri-fold which folded up too much. These are  much nicer for the easel- a free tip for you!

A screen shot of the program he used to demonstrate the touch sensor on his robot. He projected the laptop image onto a screen and demonstrated how to use the drag and drop software to program the robot.

Both of the kids wanted to achieve district level this year and they both got there! R10, of course, was did her demonstration on How to Make a Drawstring Bag. I'm happy to report they both earned blue ribbons! Due to budget issues, there is no State Level competition this year which is frustrating for so many, but because they earned blue ribbons they can choose to do these presentations at the NY State Fair as a general exhibit.

Congratulations to all of our kids for a job very well done! They are already looking forward to next year.

4-H: Fizzy Science

Our 4H presentation season is all over! But I neglected to share some more story with you. This is J5's poster for his talk on "Fizzy Science". He did an amazing job of demonstrating what happens when you dissolve citric acid in water and add baking soda to it.

He said all the right things and at the end fielded questions. He was a pro! He's been watching the other kids to this for years and was delighted it was finally his turn as well. As a Cloverbud he did this just one time, but it's captured on video! I wonder what he'll do next year.

It's been a great season and I8 is already considering what he talk about next year- an illustrated talk on Daniel Boone is in the running although something on World War II is a close second at the moment. He has some time to work that out. In the meantime, I'll be sharing the results of the district round of talks for E12 and R10 soon! (need a few more pictures to make it right)

Lentil: Lemon Bars

Of all the lemon things offered as recipes with Lentil, we went with the lemon bars to go with our bbq chicken and baked beans. J5 had a great time along with his sister R10 as she assisted.

Sifting the ingredients- flour and confectioners sugar I believe.

J5 was tasked with finding the pastry blender. As you can see, he made the correct choice.

He got to cut in the butter. I hear real pastry chefs do this part with their fingers. I'm afraid I am not that dedicated. This pastry blender is a Pampered Chef one which has been really sturdy.

Blending the wet ingredients.

And adding the dry ingredients

Each of the stories has a recipe page and the original cookbook left room for you to include pictures and thoughts about each recipe.

The cookbook is only available digitally these days. Check it out in the FIAR digital store. The link is below!

My kids love to cook and bake! Now that they are all a bit older, I'm taking total advantage of this fact. The FIAR cookbook lets us enjoy recipes that go with our studies.

The results: Well everyone enjoyed them. I think they could have been more lemony. If I were to make them again, I'd definitely go with real lemons instead of lemon juice. Also, this recipe has an absolutely sinful amount of sugar in it! Wow. But hey...everyone said they tasted great. Great job to our young chefs!

Sugaring Time!

Last Friday we had the special privilege of seeing a local sugar shack boiling down some maple sap! A man from our church has his own small shack and it was a real pleasure to go and see this rite of spring. There were a bunch of us from the local homeschool group, of which his daughter and her family are members, and we stayed a long time. It was a lovely 60 degrees that afternoon (I must hang on to that memory as it has been snowing all day here) and the kids ran and mudded through the woods. If you could have seen I8's whole backside. He was a sight!

First, the kids helped to identify which trees were sugar maples. This one is too small to tap.

R10 boldly asks if she can try her hand at drilling the hole in the trunk.

A bucket of sap- which we were allowed to try. Pretty much tastes like sugar water.

Here are the taps also called stiles. When the sap runs, the buckets get full. Mr. G says that some of his bigger trees can fill a bucket overflowing over night!

Here the sap is boiling down. He's working on the best method- he's made his own boiler so he's been working on something more efficient. We did the math on the collection of 350 gallons of sap from his 8-9 trees a season.

Boiling sap! He will remove the sap before it's all done and start again the next best day. Gone are the days when he would babysit boiling sap all night!

The kids got to taste the partially boiled sap. Reports say it was yummy! It's looking a bit more like maple syrup now.

This where Mr. G filters his syrup before finishing off the boiling inside. There's a paper filter for larger things (that might fall into your sap while boiling it) and a felt one that really gets out the particulates.

What a view! Actually, just a few miles down the road from my house there is a similar view. The weather may be trying here sometimes, but it's beautiful.

We learned that sap early in the season makes light syrup which is the Grade A maple syrup that is expensive and later in the season the syrup goes darker and is B Grade syrup used in candies and foods.

E12 wanted to know what percentage of the water gets boiled off to make good syrup. An answer came with some math- If 350 gallons of sap are collected and it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, then about 97% of the water is boiled off. We also figured out how many 5 gallon buckets Mr. G hauls around during this 6 week season. That's a lot of work considering the weight of each one. Yeah...Dan and E12 worked on that math too.

All this makes me want to tap a few trees next spring just to try it out. Our neighbor has a few sugar maples. Do you think they would mind?

Lentil: Part 1

J5 has been doing the FIAR unit on Lentil the past week or so. He is really enjoying his school. He's been happily play a harmonica around the house and try out lemon recipes. He learned where Ohio is and we have plans to color some maps.

We talked about the author Robert McCloskey and his other books which are our favorites like Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal, and One Morning in Maine.

J5 made a list with me of the buildings in our village. Like Lentil, we live in a small town.

We have more to share about our lemon recipes, but this week we are excited to do some acid/base chemistry using red cabbage juice! Not really a topic from the FIAR study, but really...when it comes to spending time with lemons, how can you pass up the opportunity to investigate more acids? How?

Sewing Library

Not too long ago, when I shared with everyone R10's secret lair, one reader asked about our sewing library. R gets the most use out of it right now, but I use it as well for small projects and referencing. I also give her assignments and ideas from our library. After all, it says in my profile that I am a "sewing visioneer". Those of you new to Blog, She Wrote may not know that sewing is a large part of R10's homeschooling.

So, we came up with a list of the sewing book resources we have and we're happy to share what they are and which ones are our favorites. Some of them are mine from when I first got a sewing machine and some are new. We hardly ever pay full price for a book. Just click on over to Miss Bliss to see the list!

Experiments with Snow

Using the Winter Nature Study pages from Handbook of Nature Study blog, we did some observing with snow. I really enjoy Barb's nature study pages.

I really like Barb's nature notebook pages!

We filtered the snow to see what particulate matter would be left behind and we measured how much water was left when the snow melted.

We didn't do a ton of winter nature study this season. On our weekly routine, nature studies are generally on Fridays. Now that we have rounded the corner and the first day of spring is just about here, I'm hoping to do more art and nature studies with the spring nature study from the Handbook of Nature Study blog. We really need to replace the art in our dining room gallery and I think we'll do some of the spring bulb watercolor ideas.

Riddle...

5 year old + head lamp+ bedtime + Kanoodle = 

Stalling!

Lion Prep

Good news! I have heard from the author of the Lion Preparatory Academy and she does have copies to sell! Her name is Lynn and she is willing to ship to anyone who would like to purchase it. It will be about $50 plus shipping as I recall, but the price may vary so take that as a "ball park figure" please! She can be reached at theophilusbooks (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Lion Prep is a literature based course of study built upon The Chronicles of Narnia. It has six week studies for all seven books in the series. For each book you will find:

• a Recommended Resources page- batched by books for secondary,  young, and middle, videos, and field trip ideas
• Vocabulary List- for all six weeks on one page broken up by week

By Chapter Groups (various chapters are grouped together each week)you will find the following for each book:

• Discussion Questions- for each chapter for the week
• Activities
• Vocabulary- with exercises
• Dictation/Grammar- which includes a passage to dictate and then a list of what to focus on for grammar and the resources in which you can find information about them.

There is a "How to Use this Study" page and an appendix. There is a letter to parents of students and the students themselves. She talks about the order in which she assembled the study. The Magician's Nephew is not first, but The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is because it is the way in which they were published and it parallels the way that a person encounters the Savior. LWW is a story of redemption and meeting God.

I'm excited she still has copies to sell and I hope that if you are interested in Lion Prep that you will contact Lynn and see about getting Lion Prep for your homeschool. If you have other questions about the study, feel free to leave a comment.

Happy planning!

The Read Aloud: Like Sunshine for the Soul

{My new post is up over at Heart of the Matter! Go on over and enjoy- here's a little preview...}

Or a cool drink on a hot day! Nothing soothes the grumpies at our house like a read aloud. Nothing.

I’ve been a long time advocate of reading aloud to your kids. Not just the bed time kind of reading, but the kind that can start at any time and last for hours. So, I thought it would be a good idea to give some pointers on how to get started with reading aloud or how to make the most of it.

The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease is a fantastic book about the benefits of reading aloud to your kids at any age. This book, along with a favorite children’s picture book, is my standard baby gift for new parents. If we travel in the same circles, please don’t steal my idea! Mr. Trelease makes a compelling case for making the effort to read regularly to your kids and it will surely boost your confidence that your effort is well worth it.

I know what some of you are thinking. The read aloud is almost a cliché in the homeschooling world. Some of you are groaning because you simply don’t like it. Aren’t good at it. Or haven’t made the time despite your best intentions.

Many of you probably are avid readers to your kids, but what do you do if you aren’t or if you have tried in the past but have not been successful with it. Maybe your kids don’t act interested. Maybe they are too squirmy. I can tell you I have been known to read to my kids for two hours at a time and if I stop it is most likely protested with kids yelling, “More!”

So, how do you get there? By just picking up a book and reading it to your kids. Enthusiastically and consistently. You can’t lose! {Read More}

Editing

We've been trying out some new strategies for self-editing using some tips from WriteShop. I LOVE Kim's suggestions! I can't tell you what a difference it's made in our successful student editing. Just a simple thing like reviewing their work looking for the things they did right first has been incredible. R10, who is notorious for various grammar infractions, actually looks forward to this process and she's making progress in finding her own mistakes. This is HUGE!

The kids use highlighters and stickers now to mark what they've done well before we even begin to look for the items that need correcting. We just keep this can handy during school hours. They love the can.

A spelling dictionary I picked up at a Scholastic Warehouse Sale years ago. It comes in handy actually. For Christmas, we bought R10 her own Franklin Children's Dictionary and Speller. I was afraid she wouldn't be able to spell well enough to use it, but she does! And this little tool makes editing pretty cool stuff.

A pocket thesaurus which is great for beginners, but pretty lame over all and good ol' Roget's that I used in college. It doesn't even hold a candle to The Synonym Finder (below).

The best thesaurus EVER. Trust me. You need this book.

We are having a great time writing this semester. We have a few things cooking, but I've been spending a lot of time at In Our Write Minds. I am most excited to report though, that despite the fact that I do not use formal writing/grammar programs, my kids are doing very well with their writing. Which really just reaffirms my choice to continue with the goal of helping my kids to become good written communicators through lots of writing and coaching.

Unit Study: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

So you know E12 has been dying to play Axis and Allies since Christmas. He finally convinced some siblings to play the other day and they love it! I find this a bit hard to believe, but there it is. Those not so enchanted with Risk think Axis and Allies is amazing. But, their interest in playing a WWII game made me think about some other areas of our IHIP (Individualized Home Instruction Plans) that we had not yet approached. Enter The Lion Preparatory Academy and a study of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Axis & Allies- it will be interesting to add a timeline to our prior knowledge of WWII because our kids have studied this topic several times now. Each time we add another layer. This time it's lots more detail in the timeline for the older kids.

There are lots of Narnia unit studies around, but this one was written by a local homeschooling mom years ago and is popular around here. I wish I could say it is widely available because it is so well written, but it isn't. If you are super interested, I can try to connect you with the author.

A sample from the first week of LWW. We are looking forward to tea time tomorrow.

The kids can see what the agenda is for the unit study each day. Number 4 has more going on and they made a notebook page of it.

This book study is expected to take 6 weeks. I'm sticking with several topics/activities per week so that we can keep a forward momentum. This time of year I like to be mindful of lingering too long on a topic. It's also a great time to study as a family and give work to the kids according to their ability. J5 is also doing his FIAR work. I8 is along for this Narnia study at his request.

The Great Backyard Bird Count- After the Count

How many of you all participated in this year's backyard bird count? We love the bird count! We are always watching for the birds and this gives us a chance to quantify our observations. We decided to build a little feeder and we observed. But where were all the birds? This is a great mystery because the birds were just hiding out. I think we counted three birds!

We made a milk jug bird feeder which has turned out to be a huge disappointment. We haven't seen one bird visiting this feeder. The kids think the perching opportunity is not attractive to the birds. I say others must use these if they have directions for them on the internet! Right?!

The prepared feeder

Do you think it could be the bungee cord they don't like? That snow in the background was there before the new snow fell...just so you know!

We did not turn in our results to the GBBC. We'll try again next year. I did mention yesterday that our non-wintering cardinal family has returned along with the red-winged black birds. That call just warms your heart! And we were enjoying it immensely before our 19 inches of snow fell. We have not seen the robins yet. If they are here, they are wondering why they arrived so early!

We have a walk scheduled at the Lab of Ornithology on Friday morning. Looks like there will be snow on the ground still. One of the things I really like doing once all the results are in is a little graphing with my kids. Keep checking back at the GBBC site for this year's results or simply use results from a previous year and have your kids graph the numbers of bird species spotted this year. Hopefully, we'll see the raw data for this year. That is how they used to post it, but I notice there are graphs where once there was just data. I suppose if we can't construct a graph, then we'll just have to interpret it!

March Snow and Signs of Spring

We're having a snow day! This morning we awoke to hearing that a State of Emergency had been declared in our county and that even the campus where Dan works is opening late. And they've delayed it even longer as the day has worn on. Co-op is canceled and digging out is underway. Dan is happy for the help from a now capable E12 and R10. I shoveled out a foot of snow the week before last by myself so I'm sitting this one out.

Oh the bliss of a shoveled driveway snow pile!

the village plow

Dan puts down the toboggan and tries to get a sled run going for the kids in our front yard.

This brings our snow total to about 160 inches for the season. I'm estimating based on local weather reports and some extrapolation. It snows here nearly every day in the winter some years. You have to shovel what are called flurries here. Snow's been on the ground since Thanksgiving and it started snowing at Halloween. That all adds up.

Just the other day we heard our first red-winged black bird back in town. Clusters of them have been chattering in nearby trees. We have a cardinal pair, which did not winter over here, beginning to nest in our yard. The sump pump is running more often- which indicates some ground thawing. The night before all this snow, it rained all night long (I haven't heard the sound of rain on our roof since October probably) and the previous 10 inches had melted away. By the time we woke up, it was snowing and only just stopped a bit ago (after at least 26 hours of steady snowfall).

I still think spring is on its way...living here means appreciating those early signs. I think even the red buds are out which is concerning because they could get nipped this early, but the days are getting longer so the trees are starting to wake up. Really warm spring days are a long way off. It's been known to snow on Mother's Day(which is did last year) and it's not safe to plant until Memorial Day.

But the bird calls make us happy and help us to wait patiently. There might be 19 inches of new snow, but the birds are back!

Survey of the American Girls II

Some of you may remember that I taught a Survey of the American Girls last semester at our homeschool co-op (along with my JrFLL class) and we only got part way through. So, this semester I decided to offer the second half and we have lots of the same girls along for the adventure.

Our first stop in the survey this semester was Kit from 1934. We did a map of Ohio (Kit is from Cincinnati), made a reporter notebook, talked about the Depression and the girls were given charge to interview a family member or friend who experienced it, and we began and decorated the notebook.

So far, the plan is to finish our the series of the historical dolls including the newer dolls which might be a bit more difficult without the same resources. Next stop is Molly from 1942. This will be a fun one and I will draw on some of the experiences of R10's Molly Birthday Party from almost two years ago.

Good news for all the girls who would love an American Girl Club of their own! CurrClick is hosting a free American Girl Club through their live class web room. We just signed up. Click the link to join. We hope to see you there!

This just in...club's been canceled! Unless one of you all wants to volunteer!

Mechanics of LEGO Robots

Our new semester of homeschool co-op is officially underway! This semester Dan is teaching a class on the mechanics of LEGO robots. He is fun to watch teach a class. I get to be the helper. Each spring he tries to teach another aspect of working with the NXT kit so that we can strengthen our FLL team for the new competition season. By the end of the semester, our 2011 team will be in place and we'll meet during the summer. Mid-summer we get the new registration kit and the Friday of Labor Day weekend they announce the challenge. Last year, we held a kick off party that night. Then the season really kicks into gear.

This semester he really wanted to focus on how to build stronger robots. The first lesson was on torque.

The kids had to load up nickels and move the baskets to get them to balance.

Levers and vectors oh my!

They had to recognize the pattern as they added the nickels and calculated the torque.

Warms my science teacher heart...look at these data sheets. Impressive Dan!

This is the model Dan had the kids make. He made these directions all by himself using a free program from the LEGO website.

LEGO Digital Designer allows you to build with bricks on your computer and then print out the building instructions! You can also order the custom set, but actually it won't let you do that with Technic pieces. Best of all, it's free! How cool is that?

There's a lot in store for this LEGO Mechanics class this spring. We began in mid-February and we go through the first week of May. Our Co-op runs for 10 Mondays from 1 to 3 in the afternoon. Next up is an update from the other class I'm teaching.