Ephesians 6:10-17

I bribed him with a cookie to video himself saying Ephesians 6:10-17.  This is the second recording.  The first one he was too distracted by making silly faces and forgot about every fifth word.  For this recording, I covered the screen and he did much better.

Watch below or click here.


There's something weird going on with the video.  Not sure what happened when I uploaded it.  I tried to upload again but YouTube won't let me upload a duplicate.

Math Game

This game was borrowed from Sherry at Living and Learning.  She got it from the book The Penny Pot.

Mr. Intensity loved playing the game.  We played multiple rounds at his request.

Sherry wrote on her blog:

 ...a game listed in the back of the book:


"Construct a mat for each player. Collect one die and a pile of coins with lots of pennies.  Each player rolls the die and then receives that number of pennies. Trade 5 pennies for a nickel.  Keep playing and trading up for nickels and dimes. The first player to get a quarter wins."

We happened to have a fancy die that was eight sided and allowed us to reach a quarter quickly.  Eventually we upped the stakes and went to fifty cents.

Currents

This week we studied ocean currents.

Memory work:
God created currents called the "paths of the sea"
They move the water to and fro; more lively the ocean will be.
Warm water moves to the poles, causing the cold to sink.
The cold water moves to the equator giving the fish a refreshing drink.

Nothing solidifies theory and definitions like a good experiment, 'eh?

Janel recommended we watch this YouTube video.  Inspired, we tried the experiment.

We used a lamp for warm water near the equator, a bowl of ice (instead of bag - probably a mistake) for the ice caps.  Salt was sprinkled on the ice to expedite the process. And Mr. Intensity insisted on "fish" thus the bottle caps (definitely a mistake).  In the picture, the lamp is turned off so that a better picture would result.

He used two drops of food coloring and almost immediately we saw movement toward the ice caps cups.

The bottle caps fish got in the way of the moving colored water so I removed them.  After about 20 minutes our water only moved a couple of inches.

I suppose our equator wasn't warm enough or the poles not cold enough.  The girl in the YouTube video recommended setting up the light and ice for a long time before starting.  Her experiment actually showed a circular motion of the dye from the equator to the ice cap and back to equator.  I turned on the light for about 30 minutes before, I guess not long enough.

Mr. Intensity still liked the experiment.

Charting the Weather

My dad records the weather for the National Weather Service.  It's a hobby of his.  As long as I can remember, he's been interested in the weather.  I suppose it's the farmer in him.

Today is Papa's birthday and during this activity we talked a lot about him.  My dad has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemo treatments.  He's felt really crummy the last week and a half.

To sneak in handwriting numbers with Mr. Intensity, we started recording temperatures at the beginning of the school year.  I'm just now getting around to using the data.


A friend of mine gave me some "end rolls" of newsprint.  She procured it for mulching her garden and gave me the extras for packing dishes, etc.

Yesterday we traced Mr. Intensity's body on it and today we used this huge paper to make a chart.  He really enjoyed the process.

I'm ready for October-like weather!  Brrrrr -it's freezing here today.

The Lady of Shalott

He memorized part 3 of Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem:

click here to view it on youtube.

Listening Pleasure

I've written before about our bedtime routine, that it includes Bible listening.

My lil man is addicted to audio.

If I've listened to Adventures in Odyssey once, I've heard the Revolutionary War story about a million times.

So, when Hubby emails me today about a screamin' deal going on at Lamplighter, I knew we'd have so spend some cash on the boy.

If you have an audial learner, you'll want to check out Lamplighter's sale.  For those unfamiliar with Lamplighter, it's a publisher (and ministry) that re-prints classic classics.  Oldie and goodies of literature.


from their website:

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
OF SOME LAMPLIGHTER BOOKS…

The Lamplighter – 
In 1854, this book saw sales of 40,000 copies within a few weeks of publishing.  Within a year, sales had eclipsed 70,000.  The book received international acclaim and outsold the Scarlet Letter giving Nathaniel Hawthorne cause to utter his famous complaint to his publisher that “America is now wholly given over to a d***d mob of scribbling women.”  This book was a literary icon in its day.  Temple University uses this book as a literature textbook.  It was the third best selling book in the country at the close of the Civil War.  It is because of the literary and moral quality of this book and because of the powerful influence it has had in character-building that Lamplighter Ministries chose it as their flagship work.


A Peep Behind the Scenes –
Though not written in the same time period as the Scarlet Letter, A Peep Behind the Scenes sold more than two and a half million copies by the late 1800’s, outselling the Scarlet Letter and most best selling books of the 19th century.

************

I'm super excited about hearing new stories and I know Mr. Intensity will be, too.

BTW, Lamplighter's Theatre is produced by the same people who put together Adventures in Odyssey (they were laid off from Focus - read here for details).

Multiplication Tables in Action

He's been learning his multiplication tables. I printed numbers on business cards then had him put them in correct order.  He's hoped, jumped, and roamed through the numbers, sometimes even with his eyes closed.  When I whipped out the camera he was super stoked - and the crab walk was his favorite.

Draw. Write. Now.

Veteran homeschooling mom, Lori Davidson, tipped me to this resource.

Draw. Write. Now.

I. Love. It.

In conjunction with the Draw and Write Notebook from Handwriting Without Tears,

he did this:

Making Soup

We did this activity today - originally posted Sept. 2008:

The Van Klan inspired us to make soup, Montessori style. Let me just rave about this activity!  It's really wonderful on so many levels.

The children get to:

- work small motor skills (pincer grasp)

- practice number recognition, reading the recipe

- count, using one-to-one ratio

- sensory experience (rice on the fingertips)

- pouring

- stirring 

- sorting

The three children each had their own, unique, "recipe" card.  After they made the soup, they were instructed to sort the ingredients and place them back into the tin.  Then they could trade recipes with a friend.  

Mr. Intensity definitely worked longer and harder on this activity than he would have done solo.  I wasn't sure how he would fair since Merranda reported that her son asked for a trickier one next time.

The ingredients we used were: pop corn, lima, black, red, soy and coffee beans, pasta, flat-ish glass marbles.  The black beans and coffee beans looked very similar. I was concerned it would cause confusion but they all discerned well.  

The black, red and soy beans were all mixed together with the pasta and lots of rice in the center row of the muffin tin.  It worked great as a sensory experience.  I hadn't planned it as a sensory experience; the beans and rice had been mixed together previously and I was too lazy to sort them.  :) 

In the picture above, Lucas (on left) counted his marbles in a row.  I instructed the children to put their ingredients in the plastic (smaller) bowl first then pour it into the "soup" bowl and stir.

Did it again April 2009:

And he's working on it again as I type.

Diaper Experiment

Comm. Central started last week (just before we left for vacation) so this week is our first true week of school.  After the drudgery of memory work, I try to plan something fun.

Here is today's experiment.  It was highly scientific (not really, but he enjoyed it.)

We were trying to decide which diaper is best for Sister, and compared four kinds of diapers for absorbency.

He submerged each diaper (above is a disposable size 2 Luvs) then held it up till it stopped dripping.

Then we calculated how much water was missing from the bowl by refilling it back to the two liter mark. (I had to help with the math on this part.)

Below he's submerging a BumGenius all-in-one with an overnight insert.

Writing his findings.

Submerging a prefold (without a cover)

Holding it until it stopped dripping.

Our findings:
The disposable diaper held 275 mL of water.
The BumGenius with one insert held 400 mL of water.
The prefold held 450 mL of water.
The BumGenius with the overnight insert held 675 mL of water.

We also talked about the reasons for using disposable vs washable diapers.