Benbrook Heritage Festival

We've had a chance to take some fun field trips/family trips over the last few weeks, and I've got the pics but haven't gotten around to blogging about them.  So here they come!

We went to the Benbrook Heritage Festival on purpose this year--last year were planning to go to the playground and happened upon it.  It was a bit hot for late October (even in Texas), but we still had a great time.  And they managed to learn a few things too!

Trying his hand at roping a "calf"

Ride that bull!

Checking out the model airplanes--they were fascinated!

The owners were very gracious about answering questions!

Friendly cowboy doing rope tricks--who knew what Flat Stanley was (you can see our Flat visitor in his breast pocket)

My little horse lover

Making sand art

Cow milking contest.  A couple of messy squirts and Brennan was DONE!

I have to admit I flinched a bit when they wanted to try the tomahawk throwing.  They did fine, though (fine, in the sense of not hitting anyone or hurting themselves.  Connor may have hit the edge of the target once. *grin*)

Connor was recruited (drafted?) by the Civil War reenactors.  I guess the package wasn't a sweet enough deal for Brennan, because he was definitely not interested!

Drilling with his new buddies

Holding up the train.  Must've been a Union supply train.

Lots of fun, FREE, hands-on stuff to do--a great way to spend a Saturday!

Catching up . . . again

I've been doing really well lately about doing all kinds of fun stuff (school and otherwise) and even about taking pictures, but not so much the blogging about it.  So tonight I'm going to try to catch up!  Coming up: school stuff, a couple of fun trips, and why we really love our vet.  Probably all in separate posts!

Here are some photo highlights of school from a couple of weeks ago.  We took a (much needed!) week off after that, and then this week has been hit-or-miss (mostly miss) due to a doctor's appointment, mommy illness, and a couple of other educational activities.  Ready to hit the ground running and get back into our routine on Monday!

We've been studying Psalm 23.  Here are a couple of activities we did:

Making a shepherd's staff

Making a shepherd's rod

Dressing up was their idea!

Science experiment to go with "My cup runs over": exploring the cohesion and surface tension of water.

Seeing how you can fill a cup with water above the brim and it doesn't overflow because of the surface tension.

Brennan getting his turn to explore

Seeing how the surface tension causes water to "stretch" up with your finger as you pull it away

How high will it "stretch?"

Math:  Exploring symmetry

Folding paper in half

Painting a design on one side

Closing on the fold and pressing to transfer the picture

Opening to see the symmetry!

"That's so cool!"

He folded the paper into quarters, drew a design on one quarter, and is poking holes around the shapes through all layers of the paper

Checking out the vertial/horizontal flipping and symmetry (this one was  a RightStart activity)

Science

Hard at work on his honeybee notebook page

Brennan

Drawing a picture after finishing his handwriting sheet

The finished picture: Brennan and Mommy hugging.  Reduced me to teary mush. *grin*

Now off to see if I can get another post or two done tonight!

Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science

We discovered earlier this week that the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History was getting ready to open a new exhibit about ancient Egypt and archaeology--which fits in *perfectly* with our current history studies!  They had a members-only opening yesterday (our museum membership was a gift from Aaron's parents, and it has been WONDERFUL!), so we quickly planned a field trip.

We really, really enjoyed the new exhibit. They had a good mix of displays that were detailed and informational enough for adults and hands-on activities for kids.  One area had several interactive displays that showed how archaeologists analyze artifacts found in a dig, then had kids look at a sample "dig-in-progress" and determine what had probably happened at the "site" based on the artifacts present.  Another area had some pottery pieces that the kids had to assemble to make a jar, showing how hard it can be for archaeologists to sift through and fit together pieces of artifacts.  They also got to build a pyramid (with wooden blocks) and experiment with sand in an enclosed wind chamber to see how the sands in Egypt shift to cover/uncover monuments and artifacts.  

The completed pyramid (with our Flat Stanley exchange "visitor")

They got to experiment with pulling blocks of stone on a flat surface vs. on runners with slats underneath and figure out which was easier and why.  And of course--there was a mummy.  Not a famous one, but it was still a mummy!  

The boys had a good time, but I think it will take another trip or two for them to really catch enough of the history stuff to really make connections with what we've been studying.  They did catch some of it (due to my constant, "No--stop and LOOK at this!"), but mostly they were interested in going from one hands-on thing to the next without really stopping to see what they were doing.  It was still exciting to begin making those connections, though.  We saw jars that were made sometime between  3800 and 3200 BC.  I was glad that we'd been working on memorizing history sentences to go along with our studies, because Connor was able to see that those jars had been made before Upper and Lower Egypt had been united into one country, and even before the Sumerians up in Mesopotamia were writing with cuneiform!  We were able to look at some photographs from different sites in Egypt and connect them with people we had studied.  We checked out scenes from tomb paintings and were able to recognize gods and goddesses we had read about.  We saw statues, amulets, and other artifacts from tombs--great concrete examples of things we've read about.  And lots and lots of hieroglyphs!

And there were several things that looked interesting to me (like displays explaining how scientists use various kinds of imaging to examine mummies) but that I didn't really get a chance to check out in detail because of the short attention spans of my short companions.  I was excited to make another connection of my own, however.  I recently read the book The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases by Michael Capuzzo, which features (among other people) the forensic artist Frank Bender, who sculpts faces based on skulls that have been found to help identify crime victims or give faces to the long-dead discovered by archaeologists.  Anyway, there were four busts based on mummies (the mummy they had on display as well as 3 others whose images were used in the different displays about how scientists study mummies), and 3 of them--including the one based on the mummy that was there--were done by Frank Bender!  

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures.  I discovered when we got there that I'd left the memory card for the camera at home.  Aaron brought it when he met us for lunch, but by then we'd done most of the Egypt stuff (we went back up later for another crack at the pyramid).  Also, photography was prohibited in one section of the exhibit.  I'll have to make sure we bring it the next time we go and get some pictures of the other hands-on activities.  I'm sure we'll be back there in the next couple of weeks!

Our Weeks in Review: 10/11 - 10/22

I didn't get to a week in review post last weekend (it was a crazy weekend!), which was a bit frustrating, because we actually had a really productive week!  This week has been pretty good too (including a surprisingly productive school-at-the-park day, which we'll have to try again!), so I think I'll just lump it all in together in one post. *grin*


Connor
Math: In the last two weeks, we've done lessons 65 - 70 in RightStart B, taking a couple of extra days to work on the "two fives" strategy and the 8's trick for addition.  The only real problem he's having is being willing to stop and listen long enough to realize that what I'm trying to teach him is *different* from what he was doing the other day.  Then he gets frustrated because I have to correct him (which is a whole 'nother issue . . . the whole idea of getting something wrong???  I'm afraid we have quite a row to hoe there.)  Anyway, he's got many of his addition facts memorized, and he can figure out the rest using the strategies he's learned so far.  We'll be playing lots and lots of RS math games to solidify the rest of the addition facts. 

Drawing diagonals and discovering the star inside a pentagon

Coloring designs using the shapes created by the diagonals

Playing addition war

Oh, and he came up with the best excuse yet for not doing what I wanted him to do in math.  We were working on the 8's trick (adding 8 + a number by taking 2 from the other number to make the 8 into a 10 and then adding the 10 to the leftover from the first number) on the abacus.  He was resisting a bit, but I knew he understood the concept, so I asked him to do it mentally.  In RS, kids are supposed to visualize the abacus in their minds as the first step in doing problems mentally.  So I told him the problem and asked him to do it in his head.  When he seemed to be having trouble, I reminded him to "see" the abacus in his mind and enter 8. 


I asked, "Can you see 8 on the abacus in your head?"


He replied, "No, I can't."


"Well, why not?"


"I sold it."


He sold the abacus in his head.  After staring at him incredulously for a second, I just about died laughing.


Oh--and he did finish his math lesson.  I guess he had a spare mental abacus lying around somewhere.  Stinker.  *grin*


Reading:  He started reading Who Was King Tut? by Roberta Edwards.  Once again, he was a bit resistant at first because we were doing something new with this book.  He reads the first couple of pages of the chapter to me, then he finishes the chapter on his own and comes and tells me about it (narrates).  Oddly, it was the reading out loud to me that was the sticking point.  He still reads out loud often, but I hadn't *required* it recently.  Once he got over that, he was fine.  We've missed a couple of days, so he still hasn't finished it.  We need to get moving on that!


History:  We're still on chapter 13 in SOTW.  We've kind of camped out here for a couple of weeks because he's really starting to get interested in Ancient Egypt.  We read the second section of the chapter, which was about Amenhotep/Akhenaten and King Tut.  Between Hatshepsut and King Tut, there's a lot of really interesting stuff to do with this chapter!  We read Hatshepsut, His Majesty, Herself by Catherine M. Andronik in two sittings, and a hands-on art project sprung spontaneously from each.  When we read about how Hatshepsut put together a trading expedition and then had artists paint the praises of the successful trip in her temple, they wanted to paint pictures of the trip too:

Then we were inspired to look up pictures of the obelisks she had raised in a temple built by her father, and we checked out the hieroglyphs on one of the obelisks.  I pointed out the cartouches (a cartouche is an oval surrounding a set of hieroglyphs--these are the names of pharaohs), and we looked up Hatshepsut's cartouche and then checked to see if we could find it in any of the pictures of the obelisk (we did!).  Then we pulled out our handy dandy SOTW activity guide, found the hieroglyphics/alphabet page, and Connor made a cartouche with his name in hieroglyphs.

THEN, as if that wasn't enough history excitement for the week, we found out that the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History was opening a new exhibit about ancient Egypt and archaeology, and that October 22nd and 23rd were special members-only preview days!  So we spent all day today at the museum . . . and I'll make a separate post about that!




Science:  He's learned about mockingbirds (his choice--the state bird of Texas) and beavers over the past two weeks.  He was fascinated to discover that mockingbirds can imitate other birds as well as different animals and even car alarms!  We chose beavers after seeing a dam (or rather, as we learned, a lodge) and some gnawed trees at a local pond, and we realized that a hole near the path around the pond may be the beaver's "escape tunnel" back to the pond.


Grammar:  He worked on labeling nouns and action verbs in simple sentences, and he also memorized our phone number--very timely, as I had just realized a day or two before that he hadn't ever learned it.  Oops.  I love First Language Lessons!  He's also been working on memorizing the pronoun list, and he's almost got it.


Latin:  He finished chapter 18 (review) and began chapter 19, which names parts of the body.


Spelling:  He finished All About Spelling Level 2, Step 2.  I have GOT to get a magnetic dry erase board for spelling.  The tiles are driving me nuts!


Copywork/Handwriting:  Cursive is still going well, since he's very self-motivated and he still has to concentrate.  Print copywork (and writing for his other subjects), not so much.  If I sit right there with him and remind him to be careful, correct him as he goes, etc., he can do it.  I think it's a combination of needing to review some of the letters a bit and rushing through it.  I'm thinking of taking a few days this week to review/practice printing.  I think part of the problem is that he really learned to write on his own before we even started handwriting, AND he does a fair amount of writing on his own now (he makes books. *grin*) which I don't correct, so he's gotten used to mixing random uppercase letters in, he's forgotten that certain lowercase letters are tall or go below the line, etc.  So I guess we'd better get to it!




Brennan 
Math:  He finished lessons 19 and 20 in RS A.  Getting "formal" school done with Brennan has been a little hit-or-miss over the last couple of weeks.  He's still been getting plenty of learning in by sitting in on a lot of Connor's stuff (especially history--have you ever taught a 4-year-old to say, "obelisk?"  *grin*) and reading or trying to read just about everything he sees.  When we *did* get math done, we "officially" introduced the concept of addition (which he's actually been doing for a long time--another product of eavesdropping on Connor's lessons!), he learned how to determine quantity by putting objects in groups of 10 rather than counting one by one, and he worked with patterns on the geoboard.

Phonics:  I finally found our Rotten Banana game (from Kelly's Kindergarten, a little over halfway down the page), so we've been playing that to solidify final consonant blends as well as reading lots of early readers.  We'll be moving on next week!

Handwriting:  He's finished with the uppercase letters and has started on the lowercase.  He has a little trouble understanding why I want him to keep practicing the uppercase letters!


Eavesdropping:  I knew he'd been listening in on a lot of Connor's stuff, but I didn't realize how much of the grammar he'd picked up until I asked him to name some pronouns for me yesterday.  I knew he knew a few (he often points them out when he hears them), but he floored me by reciting almost the entire list.  He's also been doing a lot of tagging along in history, which came in handy during our museum trip today!


Together:
Bible:  Last week we learned about God calling Samuel to anoint David as the next king of Israel and about David and Goliath.  That transitioned nicely (and unintentionally--Connor had been asking to memorize this one) into this past week, when we started memorizing and learning verse-by-verse through Psalm 23.  


We played a game where they (the sheep) had to move blindfolded through an obstacle course by listening carefully to my (I was the shepherd) instructions, and we talked about how sheep follow the sound of the shepherd's voice and how they will be safe if they follow, but if they stray away from the path, they could get hurt.  And then we talked about all of the spiritual implications of those ideas--following God one step at a time, learning to "hear" His voice, getting into trouble if we don't follow, etc.  They made pictures with sheep in green grass by still waters, and we discussed how God provides for us just like a shepherd makes sure the sheep have grass to eat and water to drink, and how we can rest and trust God just like the sheep trust the shepherd.

So overall it's been a good two weeks, school-wise.  And Connor asked today when we were going to study ancient Greece (he'd just finished reading Hour of the Olympics, a Magic Treehouse book by Mary Pope Osborne)--he was excited to learn that it's coming up soon.  And I'm excited that *he's* excited!  *grin*


More on our awesome museum trip to come!