Our life seems to be following no well defined path lately. It's not a scattered or uncomfortable place, we are just jumping all over the place in terms of interests and 'schooling' stuff. But I guess that is one of the great things about homeschooling- we can jump around.
One of the areas we seem to be pausing in for a long time is the world of fractions! I must admit it was one of the math areas I struggled as a kid. It took everything I had to 'get it'. I was intimidated just by the look of it, and I was told by my teacher it was hard. This was deterrent enough.
Not the case here. During lunch prep the other day the kids were giggling during a conversation which included;
this bagel is cut into quarters, who would like one fourth?
haha I would like 1/8th, anyone want to share 1/4th!
can you fill my cup 1/3 full of water?
1/2 of my stomach is filled with food! if we all were 1/2 filled with food we would equal two stomachs!
We have been playing fraction games out of some of our favorite math books, I hate Mathematics and Family Math I, II, also with our fraction manipulatives. We have also been doing different challenges (ie. hop ten times, run around the kitchen four times, etc) and trying to redo it in 1/3 (1/4, 1/2)of the time.
Apart from fractions, reading is being practiced on recipes. We have been enjoying hot bread (everyone baking a loaf!) and tea in the afternoon which has been such a wonderful treat.
The kids have been entering lots of contests, the most recent being one in the chickaDEE magazine. They created robots, which among many things could build tree houses, pull them up the toboggan hill, make milk shakes, turn into a hot air balloon and become a sprinkler on a hot day! They are hoping to win a remote control dragon fly!
On the last trip to the library the kids took out the most recent Guinness Book of World Records, to compare it to the 2006 and 2004 versions they own. They look through it so thoroughly that I am sure they have memorized portions. They have decided to enter in and beat the record of most snails on a person's face. The current record is seven snails, they have no doubt they could get up to 20snails on (as long as they aren't too fast!). There are practice plans for when the snow leaves and the ground thaws.
The Iditarod race began March 1st, we have been reading about and following our favorite musher. It has been a fabulous project to follow along with, I can see participating in the egroup program being a yearly thing.
4 comments:
LOL we've been playing with fractions too - I have book recs for you (but I have them all out of the library right now :P )
Em noticed the 2008 Book of World records yesterday at the book store. She wanted to buy it for your kids
Tell the kids Steve loves the Robot pictures! ooo fun project for when you guys visit we can build a robot out of the sticks, stones, etc in my yard!
i think instead of finding people the best deals for hs stuff on ebay ...you should source out resources for a small fee karen, you do have a gift!
The kids are quite excited to visit and building robots in the yard would be an added bonus for sure
Yes and it's sneaky in nature too build a robot out of the yard waste.. haha it gets the yard cleaned up!.. hmmm I think I am going to make a good Dad!
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