Play time/Cleaning out Junk from my Homeschool Cupboard

Will is building a plank house and Ruth is decorating her tipi. Best part of homeschooling is that when kids want to explore some random topic, you get to do it! We also looked at wigwams, wattle and daub, longhouses, earthen houses, and adobe houses. We learned about the benefits of each structure and the regions where they were built.

 Ruth apparently had a blast creating a castle! We used up left over geometry pieces and chalk (that's what is in the bowl). Wet chalk dries really cool.

I cut the bottom off of two milk jugs. Then we played catch.

Old shoe box turned stegosaurus, via Ruth

Playground of dreams

Water Experiments and Homeschooling

Roll the dice then find the state or capital that starts with that letter

We've done all sorts of water experiments this week. We looked at water in its solid, liquid and gas forms. (The timing couldn't have been better because we were later able to talk about cement mixers and keeping cement a liquid and how it turns into a solid...they're building a house right next door to us.) And while the water was boiling we talked about absorption and watched water climb the paper towels and mix in the bucket below. (Bonus: we got to talk about mixing colors)

 Immediately after these two we decided to test which materials absorb water best. We used sponge, towel, paper towel, giant pom pom ball, craft paper and an egg carton. We made hypothesis about which would do best and which would not absorb much at all. Then we added 1 tablespoon of water to each section of the muffin tin. The funny thing is that since we just did the paper towel experiment, both kids guessed that it would do the best soaking up water. The towel did the best, egg carton was the worst.

Playing "real" angry birds

Sorting money

We made our own number line. The kids LOVE looking at the numbers they colored and counting the objects next to the numbers. I think this is really going to help Will with number recognition. This is hung on the wall by the back door/table so we're constantly looking at it and talking about it.

We also added a HUGE map and other useful charts that now decorate our living room. I have been wanting a huge awesome map for a long time. I love that we're immersing ourselves in educational resources. After we read books we always look up where the author is from or find the country the characters were from. We also all love that the bottom has all the nations flags! (I guess it's good I have never been good at interior decorating, otherwise all these "school" decorations in the living room might be annoying!)

I saved the old egg shells and filled them with paint...

 Then we smashed them on paper in the backyard...the only downside is that 18 eggs was NOT enough!

Art AND Science! Ruth colored with markers on paper towels and then sprayed them down with water and watched her artwork spread out as the water spread through the towel.