Art of Science—Primary Colors

I found this kit at TJ Maxx—on clearance for $2!!!

I’m really impressed with it.  It came with all the materials I needed and a booklet with 8 lessons in it.  It teaches:

1) Primary colors and how to mix them to get secondary colors.  Kyla knows what colors makes what now, but Piper still guesses. 

2) The girls were completely engaged the first time we did the 1st for lessons.

3) The girls were completely engaged the second time we did it.  Because it snowed, I tweaked it a little and we did lesson 5 & 6 and then mixed colors into the snow.  Colored snow!!  So fun!

4) Both girls used the pipettes (skinny bulb syringes) really well—I was especially nervous about Piper, but they both were able to get colors from the test tubes and squirt just the right amounts into the pallette tray.  Great fine motor practice!!

5) And check out the shading above!

6) It is really only made for one kid, but since there are three colors and 2 pippettes, Kyla and Piper did an extraordinary job sharing.

I will keep looking for more of these kits!

Kumon Books

Costco was selling packs of 3 Kumon books for, I believe, $12.99.  Usually, the books run about $7 each. I like Kumon because:

1) The books are fun and colorful.

2) They are very well written—skills are broken down sequentially and the tracing, coloring, and maze puzzles are great for printing preparation.  I am impressed.

3) They make “homeschooling” much easier.  It’s an easier routine, both for me and the girls, and we’re more likely to actually do it. 

Tent City

All five of us had colds this weekend, so we skipped church this morning.  Instead, I gathered up some things around the house (soap, paper towels, t.p.) and some old coats I had.  I explained to Kyla and Piper that not everyone lives in a house like we do.  Some people don’t have houses and live in tents.  Because we have so much, we are going to give to others who don’t have as much.  At first, Kyla was really uncomfortable. She started tearing up, asking me not to give away all of our paper towels and soap.  What if we don’t have enough.  Dwayne helped explain that God had blessed us with a lot of stuff and He likes it when we give some it away.  It took about 3 times before Kyla started to be okay with it. 

Tent City 4 (http://tentcity4.info/faq/) is located in Woodinville for another week.  When we got there, we decided not to take the kids out of the car, b/c it was a quick drop off and very cold.  I regret that a little, as there was no real experience for them, but it did leave to a good conversation about giving and blessings.  A very teachable moment.

Making Jack-O-Lanterns

I liked the pumpkins Piper painted the other day, so I cut them out and got out the foam shapes for a tangram-like puzzle we have. I thought it would be a hit, decorating our pumpkins and seeing the difference between circle eyes and triangle eyes, but I was the only one who really got into it.

I’ll probably try again a few more times before Halloween to see if interest grows.

Beans and Buds

Today we played with the box of beans, and I hid plastic animals for them to find. Then I got our scarves--I've never blindfolded them before--and had them find animals only by feel. I blindfolded myself and tried to guess the animal I found with the girls telling me if I was correct. Eventually, I want them to try to guess, but they will need to be able to be blindfolded for more than 30 seconds.

We also went out to get the last few rosebuds to put in the vases we made earlier. Each girl took pictures of her bud and we will watch them bloom over the next few days and record it pictorially.

Piper's:"

Kyla's:

Painting Autumn Trees

It is such a pain to paint--it's the constant vigilance when Piper is near paint as well as the clean up. But the process (and hardly the product) is so important for creativity, mixing colors, using fingers and sponges for painting, etc. that it is worth doing occasionally.

I was going more with a fall theme than true learning objectives here, but when Piper wanted to keep painting and there was still a lot of yellow, red and orange paint out, I drew a few pumpkins for her to paint. When they dry, I will cut them out. We will practice making them into jack-o-lanterns with our tangram shapes in the next few days.

This time I chose to make a finished product ahead of time so they could see what I thought it could look like. I did have to keep reminding myself "process, not product".

Mine: Kyla’s:

Piper's:

Piper's pumpkins: