Thursday, October 28, 2010

A day at school today

We had so much to cram in this week.  We wanted to take tomorrow off from school since we will be going out of town for our circuit assembly. 

This week in review:

The boys were practicing math with the http://www.americanmathchallenge.com/.  They both earned Bronze Certificates.  We'll see what they get next week.  Some of the facts are very challenging.  I think Brayden's grade level may be set too high.  Some of the Math questions are of things he has not covered yet.   Joey has not had that issue on his questions yet.  His only issue is remembering how to complete problems properly by not cutting out any steps he has been taught. 


 Joey is working on his reading comprehension tests. 
A picture of their American Math Challenge Awards
We made a Reading Island to sit on this morning.Brayden working on his typing program.  Of course he doesn't have two hands on the keyboard.  He is struggling with two handed typing. 
 Lydia has K12 curriculum, but I have alphabet puppets that I have been saving.  So we are working on alphabet puppets to go with each new sound that she is learning.
 Today was the /h/ sound....she hates her phonics lessons, hopefully these will help.

Next week we will continue learning about Joseph.  The boys will continue working on graphing and reading graphs.  Joey and Brayden will be creating graphs with M&Ms and Skittles (which I am sure Lydia will learn some about graphing also).  In Geography we will be visiting China (which Lydia thinks we will really be visiting).  We have Art Class, where we will be learning about Pablo Picasso and the Cubism period.  And on Friday we will be visiting the Toledo Firehouse Museum!!!  We are so excited about that field trip..... 

How to Bake An Apple Pie and See the World Too.....

 Here's the final day of our quick study of what Geography is.  We sang the Continent Song and colored/labeled a sheet displaying the continents. 

We read How to Bake An Apple Pie and See the World Too...and then baked our own apple pie.

Lydia mixed the crust.
 Joey actually peeled the apples.
We made homemade butter using whipping cream.

We used regular brown sugar to create a more caramel flavor.

We didn't grind our cinnamon though like they did in the book.  We just used plain ground cinnamon.
 
Just before we put it in the oven.


Our finished pie.

Our pie was actually gluten free.  We didn't follow the recipe completely.  Our crust was made with Gluten Free Bisquick, Crisco Butter Shortening and small amount of ice water.  The filling was 5 apples and a layer of cinnamon, fresh whipped butter and brown sugar.  We covered it with the same Gluten Free Bisquick crust.  Baked it at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes. 

It was very tasty...MMMMmmmm.  What a way to end the week of geography study.  Next week we will be off to China!

Silly bowling video....Brayden's little dance.


Brayden cracks me up.  He can be so animated at times.  This is a video of him when he was bowling on Tuesday.  He did a little dance every time he went up.

The Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert---START

While surfing around the net, I found something called Start (Story Art). So every week we are going to do a project inspired by a story. In the spirit of fall, we chose Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. After reading the story, we used silk leaves (so they would last longer) and real acorns that we collected at the park to create our own Leaf Man.




This was sooooo fun!!! Can't wait til next week.

Making a Physical map of Arizona


When we came home from the library, we finished our Arizona project. Part of our geography project this week was reading and making a map. We drew maps of our block and then learned about their legends. So we turned our Arizona project into a physical map. We used Cheerios to show the mountains in Arizona.







It was a tasty and bit messy. Some understood better than others. But it really brought the legends to life.

Arizona Day at the Library




This week's state is Arizona. Amelia didn't feel like doing the map, but Deb brought this great souvenier from there. A Jumping Cactus branch.












From what we read, and heard about Deb's brothers experience, we don't really want to see one of these cactus in person!



Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Expedition Earth...What is geography?

We have started our new social studies curriculum. I really like how it is all layed out, and minimal extra work for me besides teaching them. For Week One we are talking about what Geography is and reminding ourselves what the continents are and where they are located.

The special project of the week is making a salt dough "mini" globe. We started these yesterday and let them dry overnight so we could paint them today.




We baked them on low most of the afternoon, and then let them finish drying overnight. Now it is time to paint our globes.



Lydia's K12 curriculum sent us this great inflatable globe. It is very portable. We already have this awesome...awesome talking globe though that the kids love. I just don't want it laying on the kitchen table with paint. The inflatable globe is washable!
Comparing how much land he has drawn on the globe.
We will be traveling on this journey for the next school year and beyond (since we are getting a late start). If anyone is interested in using this same curriculum, here's the link where we got it: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/. Click on Geography. We have made a few adjustments to our family and it can be easily adjusted any families religious beliefs or thinking.

Tomorrow we will be finishing our What is Geography? section.





Lydia's school lessons....

So far we really like the K12 curriculum that we have received from Ohio Virtual Academy. Everything is layed out, I do have to read ahead of time what we will be working on so I can make sure that I am showing her how to say and do things right.

Today in Literature Arts we read a poem about kids building a make-believe ship. And our assignment was to build a ship in our schoolroom out of all the pillows we could find and then read a story of our choice while "riding in our ship".


We did a Leaf Man project after reading Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. But that's another post.



For phonics, we practiced our alphabet song several times and then worked with our letter tiles.

This morning after library time, we played at the park in Waterville. Such a nice park, and a beautiful day except for the wind.
In the end, we got all our school work done!!!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Bowling Day...

So I needed to get Brayden out doing something today, and since Lydia's gym class was cancelled I decided a round of bowling would be good. So we gathered our Free Bowling coupons and headed for the bowling alley, unaware that the thunderstorm was coming quicker than we heard on the weather channel. Yep, we got hit by a nasty high wind storm today. Of course a tornado warning was issued for our county and the kids could hear the TV in the bowling alley, so Joey was a little freaked out.

But we still had fun. Brayden was having fun, he was trying to beat me...which he normally does have a higher score than me. He didn't throw the ball...he rolled it. I wanted to do a little dance. Hoping he keeps this up.

Joey can bowl with both hands. He can also write with both hands too. He is predominately left-handed though. Today he kept switching hands, but at least he didn't just throw the ball down the lane...he actually rolled this time. We are working hard on our aim though


Lydia was a show-off. She did really well though learning how to roll the ball. But sometimes she still forgets and releases the ball too high.


I actually won today, but only because I picked up spares int he 10th frame.



Next week for gym we will be going swimming at a local hotel's swimming pool. Joey needs to practice his kicking for swimming. He needs to make some big "strides" in the next couple weeks if he would like to compete in December.
Tomorrow...we will be finishing our salt dough globes. We dried them in the oven most of the afternoon so they are ready to paint tomorrow. It was fun.



Monday, October 25, 2010

Lydia's fleece blanket kit.

So we got this fleece blanket kit at Walmart last Spring and was saving it until it started getting cold. We got it out yesterday and started Lydia's. She cut the top layer of fleece and I did the bottom layer. She had trouble cutting the thick fabric. She practiced tieing, but got very frustrated. So we just kept trying. She gave up, but we got it done tonight while watching a movie. It is beautiful!















Flu Shot Bribery Day

Well it's that time of year and we need to bribe the kids to get flu shots. Today we had time to kill so we took them to the "forbidden zone" for an hour or so. We only go to this place usually really early in the am, like right when they open. The boys cannot handle this place when it is busy. And I cannot handle the kids in there.


Brayden really liked the virtual coaster ride. He rode that over and over again. But he is also our coaster nut! The only roller coaster that scared him at Cedar Point this year was Top Thrill Dragster.


My Joey...can we count that as school time. Was he really learning to tell time?


Caty always has a blast.



Everyone had a blast. We got almost 500 tickets in that short amount of time!!! So each kid got a small ticket item. Then it was off to the doctor's office.
We all have sore spots on our arms, but I have to agree with the doctor about the boys having them. Kids with autism do not even think about germs. And if we can avoid the hospital due to serious illness, it is best for the boys. Being attached to wires or monitors would only make them
face serious meltdown issues.
They may not even come into contact with H1N1 or the flu, but I would rather not take the chance.