Another Use For MUS...

Need another use for those math-u-see blocks?

Son found that they make great building blocks. 

Love double duty items!

test tube mosquito

I loved this experiment.

Son wants to do it again.

We learned about air pressure.

Here we have a test tube mosquito.

We are boiling the water...creating the pressure.

Though it has one wing (a second holder was to be it's second wing) it worked great.

Sucking the "blood" (ours is alien blood...all I had was green).

Can you see the squirt?

 Before we heated the water it wouldn't/couldn't suck anything up.

Gotta love science!

Not mosquitoes!

Our daughter loves making videos. 

Here's one she made of last year.

You get a chance to view my rascals live (well almost live).

The artist in the family (son) had this for us our first morning.

Geography, as if you needed an explaination.

Science...a week long project, that looks like it may not work.

Why I Love Homeschooling

Somedays I would rather be by myself or just not have school, but then our son does this and reminds me of why I homeschool and love it.

He rounded up some scrap wood that was in the yard and put together this scooter.

He was getting rid of his skateboard.

He used the wheels for his scooter. 

(My idea...I earned some "Cool" mom points there!)

Science offers some fun photo opportunities.

Here the kids are learning about camoflouge (sp?) and animals use it to save them from getting eaten.

We use a Reason for Science and really like it.  I had to bring DD in a lower grade. 

So DS and DD use the same book.

They had to color toothpicks.

Then throw them in the yard and try to find them.

Can you see it?  It a green one.

Here they are looking for some more.  I think they found them all.

Notice the slippers...one reason DD loves homeschool!

Egg Drop

You've probably seen this done before. We tried the famous egg drop experiment. Each kid got two eggs to wrap as they wanted. The idea was to see if the wrapping would protect the egg from breaking when dropped.#1 tissue and medical tape

#2 duck tape, duck tape and more duck tape

#3 attempted rubber band wrap.

#4 newspaper and yes, duck tape

#5 stuffing

Boy, very excited about dropping the eggs.

None of the eggs made it. The duck taped one cracked the least.

Our Wall

I was thinking of repainting our walls, but I think this one will have to wait. It seems to be getting covered up. This is our dining room wall. As you can see it is also our main homeschool wall too. On it we have multiplication facts in colored story form, chemical formulas in colors (which I think only DD can read, she wrote them on teenage graphics), a calendar, the alphabet in cursive (as the kids need to write almost all in cursive now and we need the occasional reminder of how a letter should look), the ever essential dry erase board, and two maps for geography.

Last year we also had the US presidents running along the top of the wall. What does you wall look like?

School Outside

How do you NOT take class outside on a day like this!!

Science Experiment

DD had to do a science experiment on a classmate. Since we have two "students" Dear Brother got to be the guinea pig! He was very willing though. You had to hold your nose while tasting different foods and see if could tell what you were eating while your holding your nose. DD didn't really explain the whole nose thing to son. So he'd hold his nose for awhile then let it go. He'd tell us what he was eating after letting his nose go.

So I stepped in and let the poor guy breathe some!

Out of apples, cornbread and two different crackers, he was only fooled by the cornbread. He thought it was broccoli. This boy knows his food.

OK, these are backwards. Yesterday, school went well and the weather was just too nice to stay home. So we walked to the zoo. It was about a 30 minute walk. We were outside for alittle more than two hours! We actually got sweaty! These are some photos from the zoo and the walk there.

The monkeys are always a fave! This one is actually watching DS. He even did a dance for him. The kids call him Elvis! J was really interested in the swan. We just finished reading The Trumpet of the Swan. Just a sign on the way. The buildings in the window look like an old western! Actually the street in the window is the original downtown. It has some neat buildings.

Our performing arts center.

The house is a constant remodel. It was the school district building (I think). Some guy has been remodeling it into a house (I think). This is one of the gates to the house. I always like driving by and seeing what's been added.

Today, we did a hands on project.

Project: Take apart this radio and put it back together. And still have it work.


DS taking the screws out.

Wow, the screw driver's magnetic!

The guts!! We wanted to take it further apart then this, but most of the items were welding on.

DD amusing herself while Mom and DS check out the inside. Another lessons with magnets.

Final outcome: We got it back together. We weren't able to turn it on as the previous batteries had corroded inside.

But it was fun.

Yesterday, we went to the library. We try to go every other Wed. I am one of those weird people who carry their camera everywhere and take pictures of everything! Ha! Anyway, this is where you can find us every other Wed. afternoon.

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish each of you a VERY Merry Christmas! Thank you for reading my blog/s!

As you know long division has been a bit of a bear for DS. I have tried many different things. Anyway, the light has come on!!! I believe he's gotten it! Here he is working out the problem.
Notice it's money...which used to throw him.

Did I do it right?.....

YES!!!!! This makes it all worth it!

In other news. My dear friend, Anne wanted to to print out the Word by Word Story that the kids and I wrote.

The Mad Scientist Strikes Again

Today when I opened the window I saw that our yard was very, very strange. A man was wearing a purple hat, with a bag that stunk up the whole neighborhood. He was standing in a boiling pool from sobbing because he lost his book about bombs. Then he started banging on our door. I did not know why he was doing this thing. My dogs and the neighbors had noticed the smell and came to my rescue. When they came they captured the strange man. he went to the kitchen to tell why he had put the bomb in the tree to see what would happen. He was sorry that he was going to blow up the tree. We invited him over for chicken. The End.

This is what happens when you put a 10 yo boy, 12 yo girl and a mom together to write a story! LOL!! Again, this game is only to get the kids to love, interested in writing. we didn't correct spelling, etc.

We just did another writing game. The name escapes me.

Here's how it works:

Everyone thinks of something (animal, place, food)

Then we ask each other questions that can only be answered with Yes or No.

For example:

Subject is places. Q. Do you have to fly to your place?

Subject animal: Q. Does your animal have fur?

They wanted to do this game for awhile. We did 3 subjects.

Next we may try an arguing game. (Which they've been doing lately.)

In this game you have to argue your point. There is a judge.

You pick a topic ex. why Dogs/Cats make a better pet.

Then each of you write down 10 or so reasons to prove your point.

The judge then picks the winner.

Icing & Icicles

Here's another one for you. Ok, here's a photo of the cake C made for history. It's called Yogurt Cake with Honey frosting.

It is the last piece. It went fast. J wants me to make it again. It's different but really good. It really sticks on you...all the honey!

Oh, do you have any ideas for photo series you'd like me to do?? Please tell me and I'll do my best.