A day in the life

No two days in our homeschool are ever the same and we love it that way!  This is today's slice of love and fun.

Hungry,  hungry math! 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and cuddles with the furry family. 

A little fiddling

His favorite word of the day

And some fun paper cutting! 

KaBOOM!

We've been reading a lot about volcanoes and rocks lately and having a lot of fun with it!  Since we actually saw the lava flow from Kilauea it's been a major source of conversation around here.

I taught in New Mexico for a week recently and brought back a suitcase full of volcanic rock and fossils.   

Real, floating pumice!

Basalt - FULL of air bubbles

It's a whole new world!

We've had quite a week around here!  

Mystery note scavenger hunt!

New fun this morning :)  I wrote out a series of short notes for the Boy that all led to a quick hunt and a small prize.   He asked for more and more and more and sounded out a lot of words! 

Quick trip

We've been starving for sunshine around here, so the chipmunk and I took a quick trip to Florida to visit family.  

He loves to sit and have breakfast and watch for skateboarders and dogs.  We spotted coconuts,  did some surfing on the bodyboard,  and had an all around fabulous time!

The kid who doesn't like to color

The boy doesn't really like to color.   He doesn't like to draw. He will paint occasionally, and he loves mazes, but most of the time has had no interest in holding anything that will write.   We pushed it a few times, then decided to trust that he'd come to it when he was ready.   All the things are available and he has mostly ignored them until this week.  He got up Monday morning and wrote a to do list on the chalkboard.   Then he wrote words on the sidewalk outside.   He gets it in his own time.

Early

A typical morning.   Sean has an agenda and I'm begging for coffee.

Just fiddling around

Someone had his first lesson today.   He had such a great time!

Just in time

New socks for the little man.   Just in time for it to be 50° and raining today.  He seemed comfy :)

Word Families

The Chipmunk is getting more and more comfortable with his reading (and admitting that he's reading).  We're spending lots and lots of time reading together, of course, but I thought we'd try to help him find some extra confidence by playing with word families.

We wrote them all out on the driveway, found a rock, and started hopping!

Be still my heart

This little man makes my coffee in the morning.

Springing up!

Daylight savings here came along with 75° weather and plenty of rain.  We're spending all of our time dodging the rain drops and planting everything we can find.   We can't wait for veggies!

No desks today!

Homeschooling FTW! No desks for us this beautiful morning :)

O Octopus!

Tell me, O Octopus, I begs,

Is those things arms, or is they legs?

I marvel at thee, Octopus;

If I were thou, I'd call me Us.

Ogden Nash

We moved on pretty quickly from whales once the Chipmunk discovered that sperm whale ate GIANT SQUID!  The last two months have been pretty solidly spent in pursuit of cephalopods!

A cephalopod (head-feet!) is a marine animal.  They have bilateral body symmetry, (mirror halves), a large head, and a set of arms and/or tentacles.  In other words....squid, octopus, nautilus, and cuttlefish!

We always start with a trip to the library, lots of reading, and a look at anatomy.

The Chipmunk made his own version of the squid anatomy.  Our favorite fact we learned was that the squid has a brain shaped like a doughnut.  It's esophagus goes right through the middle!

Here is the Chipmunk's version:

The bagel is the brain, spaghetti is the esophagus, orange candies are smooshed together to make the THREE hearts (one systematic, two branchial), lettuce for the gills, and bread for the stomach.  The tortilla is the funnel and the taco shell is it's beak!

It turns out that this week (Oct 8-12) is International Cephalopod Awareness Week!  It's been an awesome couple of days of videos and beautiful photos.  Here are a couple of our favorites:

Beautiful octopus photos from National Geographic

Everything from Nautilus Live

Live filmed dissection of a Colossal Squid

We made an emergency trip to the aquarium today to check out the extra cephalopod activities they had planned this week.  We went in with lots of questions and found the answers we wanted when we spoke to some of the biologists.  They brought out a dissected squid for the kids to see and the octopus was really active.  It was so much fun to watch him swim and crawl around!

The best part, though?  One of the educators that we speak with regularly took us back behind the scenes to see the baby cuttlefish and sea horses!  We saw some of the breeding tanks - cuttlefish, rays, some sharks, giant clams, sea horses, and jellyfish.  Absolutely amazing and such a treat!

Little Hands

Little Hands have declared today to be "Maker Monday!"

Highland Games Sweaters

So far, I've managed to get a new sweater made for the Chipmunk each year for our local Highland Games. I'm just finishing up this year's sweater this weekend, so I thought I'd post a little retrospective. This is his 5th sweater!

2013



2012

2011

2010

It's raining up.

Mom:  Hey!  You've been working hard on that.  Will you tell me about it?

Chipmunk:  Sure.  It's raining up.  See?

M:  Raining up?  What do you mean?

C:  Mom.  (imagine voice of disdain)  Evaporation.

5:47am

"I need to write all my letters today.  On the laminated sheets.  With the dry marker.  COME ON, MAMA!!  WAKE UP!"

Another view from work

Write me an application!

The Chipmunk is in love with the rescue kittens at the vet. He desperately wanted to do something for them, so he asked me to write him an application to go to work and take care of them!

We wrote out his application together, took it in, and they agreed to give him a trial run!  He changes the water, feeds them, and takes them to an exam room to play and get some exercise.



He brought them a box and some toys to play with and they have such a good time! We've been going over there twice a week.  Little man, is right at home in the office and they all treat him like he is part of the staff :)