Our Week ~ Gingerbread

This week has been filled with gingerbread houses, gingerbread men, gingerbread pirates, lots of fun, and even a little bit of learning thrown in here and there! 

~Baking~

Every year we put together and decorate gingerbread houses.  Aiden did more sampling than assembling!  This year Emily did most of the decorating and I took pictures.

We made a gingerbread pirate crew after we read the book The Gingerbread Pirates. 

~Crafts~

The kids decorated gingerbread pirates and gingerbread people cut out of construction paper.

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~Counting~

I made a simple gingerbread counting printable for Aiden.

click on the image to download

Each gingerbread man has a number 1 – 10 (numeral and written) on it.  Emily held Aiden add the correct number of buttons to each gingerbread man.

 

~Science~

I cut gingerbread men out of sandpaper and rubbed them with spices (2 with ginger, 2 with cinnamon, and 2 with cloves).  The kids took turns matching the scents.

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Then we did a little experiment to see why the gingerbread boy didn’t want to cross the river.  I let the kids guess how long it would take for the gingerbread to start crumbling?  Emily guessed 2 minutes and Aiden said 4 minutes.  It took about 1 minute and 15 seconds for it to completely disintegrate in the water.

 

Just for fun we tested a marshmallow, pretzel, nut, and a gingerbread star to see if they would disintegrate.  The results:  the marshmallow got slimy, the pretzel feel apart and of course the gingerbread star became mush.  The winner was the nut!

~Writing~

On of the most exciting things that happened this week was finding a sticky note that Aiden wrote his name on.  AIDEN WROTE HIS NAME all by himself!

~Reading~

Emily has been reading to Aiden everyday during quiet time.  They like to gather all of their pillows and stuffed animals and camp out in the hall.   I absolutely LOVE hearing Emily reading to Aiden!

I hope everyone had a great week!

Linking up to:

 

 ~Cindy

Weekly Wrap-Up: China Week 3

We’ve finished up our tour of China.  I have to admit I am rather sad that we are moving on ~ we have had so much fun learning about China! 

It was quite a busy week!  I had a bug of some sort on Tuesday and ended up calling our substitute teacher~ my Mom.  I  really am blessed that my family is supportive of my decision to homeschool and willing to help me out.

The Three Rs:

Nothing much to report ~ we are moving along with reading, writing, and arithmetic.   Emily really could have completed her math this week in two days or just skipped the lesson, which was a review of skip counting by 2s.

Geography:

We reviewed the following weeks and the Asia geography song.  The kids pulled out our Asia continent box and talked about the Chinese abacus, money from China, animals from Asia, and Asian landmarks.   

Family Reading:

Emily made a dragon hat, which is very cute, after we finished reading the Magic Tree House: Day of The Dragon King.  We found the instructions to make the dragon hat in the book Multicultural Art Activities.  

Chinese Shadow Puppets and a Theater:

We learned about the legend of how shadow puppets were created and then we made a theater and Chinese shadow puppets.  You can read more about it here.

   

Lapbook: Giant Pandas

I had no intention of doing a lapbook this week, but Emily asked if we could do one on Pandas after we finished reading Giant Pandas by Gail Gibbons.   How did Emily even know there was a Giant Pandas lapbook?  She loves to look over my shoulder when I’m reading Jolanthe’s blog, Homeschool Creations.  I was looking at her lessons plans for China and Emily commented on the lapbook, so I printed it from Homeschool Share, and we put the lapbook together in two days.

           

Art:

To go along with our lapbook Emily learned how to draw a Giant Panda using Draw Write Now – we love these books! 

We finished our Giant Panda study by watching The Amazing Panda Adventure on Netflix and the kids ate popcorn with chopsticks.  

The entire family loved this movie.  It was about a young boy who goes to China to visit his father, who is helping to save pandas in their habitats.  While out on the preserve,  the father is separated from his son and a young girl who is their translator, when poachers attack and harm a mother panda.  The young boy and girl are left with the baby panda as they make their way through the wilderness to safety.

Our Book Basket:

 

Next week we are going to take a break from our geography studies so we can talk about fall ~ one of my favorite times of the year!

I hope everyone else had a good week!  To see what other homeschoolers have been doing this week, visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

~Cindy

Weekly Wrap-Up: China

Weeks like this make me love homeschooling!  The complaining was minimal, we completed everything we had planned for the week, and Emily loved it all!

The Three Rs:

Emily amazed me this week with her reading!  I think it is all starting to click.   I have actually found her under the covers with a flashlight reading the past couple of nights.  Makes me so proud ~ the reading, not the staying up late!

She is moving along quickly with Math-U-See Beta.  I have noticed that we need to work some more on time and money. 

Geography Song:

Both of the kids learned the Asia Song from the CD, Geography Songs ~ which is fantastic!  My kids can learn anything if you put it to music.

Tangrams:

We read Grandfather Tang’s Story:  A Tale Told With Tangrams.  Emily and I loved this story.  It is about Grandfather Tang who tells his granddaughter a tale about two shape-changing fox fairies.  The fox fairies try to outdo each other—becoming different animals chasing each other.  When the two chase each other right into danger, they finally have to set their competition aside and pull together.  

The book includes a pattern for the tangrams that I enlarged and printed for Emily

so she could make the animals as we read the book.

Lapbook:  The Empty Pot

We read the book The Empty Pot.  Love the moral of this story! 

Ping is a Chinese boy with an emerald green thumb; he can make anything grow "as if by magic." One day the Emperor announces that he needs a successor, someone who can carry on after he is gone with the ruling of the kingdom and the growing of the flowers. He gives each child one seed, and the one who grows the best flower will take over after him. Competition is fierce, and Ping is heartbroken that nothing comes up, despite his careful tending. On the day of the competition, he is the only child with an empty pot; all the others brings lush plants. But the Emperor has tricked everyone by distributing cooked seeds, unable to grow; and Ping, with his empty pot, is the only honest gardener--and the winner. Extraordinarily delicate Oriental landscapes in round frames show Chinese architecture, foliage, native birds and clothing in a delightful way. And the story contains an important lesson on the worth of individual strength and honesty.

I printed The Empty Pot Lapbook from Homeschool Share and Emily put together the entire thing together in one day.

       Art:

Emily used watercolor pencils to draw cherry blossoms and then blended them with water.  This is the first time we have used watercolor pencils and we are having fun playing with them.  That is her name written in Chinese on the side. 

   

 Culture:

Emily really enjoyed watching this Ribbon Dance.  The little girl, Catherine Yang, is nine years old.

Of course Emily then had to perform her own ribbon dance.  It’s not as easy as it looks to get the ribbons to dance!

     

We also listen to some Chinese music.  We loved the beautiful pictures in this video and the soothing music.  Not sure why they decided to put a picture of Jackie Chan fighting in the video? 

Chinese Moon Festival:

Thursday we celebrated the Chinese Moon Festival.  You can read more about it here.

We made Chinese paper lanterns and Chinese Moon Cakes.

As the sun was setting we enjoyed tea and Moon Cakes before we went outside to look at beautiful harvest moon.

Our Book Basket:

• The Story about Ping
• A Grain of Rice
• The Empty Pot
• The Moon Lady
• Grandfather Tang’s Story
• Children Like Me
• Kid’s World Atlas

I hope everyone else had one of those “I love to homeschool” kind of weeks!  Visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what other homeschoolers have been doing this week.

~Cindy

Weekly Wrap-Up: Finding our Groove

We are starting to find our groove again after summer vacation ~ but it hasn’t been easy! 

Emily seems to be having a hard time calming herself down and getting back into the swing of things.   She started out the week by having two complete meltdowns while we were doing her language lessons.  Tuesday we were down to one meltdown and Wednesday it was eye rolling and whining ~ which resulted in some extra chores for Miss Emily!  By Thursday things started to settle down and we managed to accomplish more during that one day than we have during the past week and a half. 

The Three Rs:  Lets just say we managed to get through all of her lessons.  I’m really hoping that next week will be much better.

Geography:  We are traveling around the world this year with Galloping The Globe.  I am also using Five in a Row so we can do more family schooling and include Aiden, who is almost 4.  

We read Maps & Globes and talked about the advantages and disadvantages of early maps.

Drawing in sand or dirt ~ couldn’t carry it with you.

Clay maps ~ if you had a large clay tablet it would be heavy and break.

Maps on silk (we used cotton fabric) ~ easy to carry.

We ended the week by reading Columbus’s Chart. 

Art:

Claude Monet is one of my favorite artists so we are starting our artist study learning about him.

 

We read The Magical Garden of Claude Monet and admired Monet’s painting Water~Lilies.

 

Composer Study:

During the next six weeks we will be learning about and listening to music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.  We started out by reading Getting To Know The World’s Greatest Composer’s Johann Sebastian Bach and listening to a sampling of his musical compositions.

 

In the Kitchen:

Emily helped me make miniature apple pies this week. 

 She is becoming quite the little cook!

Preschool:

You can read what Aiden has been in Preschool here.

I hope everyone else had a good week! Visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what other homeschoolers have been doing this week.

~Cindy

Weekly Wrap-Up: Finished!!

Did you get that? We are FINISHED ~ our summer vacation has officially begun!  We aren’t going to completely ditch the books this summer, after a break we are going to continue to work on reading, spelling and writing.  I also want to start doing some nature journaling and drawing this summer. 

Some highlights from the week (bad and good):

We started out the week with Emily getting gloop stuck in her hair. 

Let me tell you, this stuff does not come out easily!  Luckily we didn’t have to cut her hair. 

On to the good!  The kids are very excited because we are heading to the beach later this month.  This will be the first time either of them has seen the ocean.  Since we are heading to the beach we have been learning about the ocean and all the fascinating creatures who live in it.

Emily decorated a picture frame with sea shells and course sand to keep a beach picture in ~ cause you know I’m gonna take a bunch of pictures! 

We had some glorious thunderstorms this week so we made a Thunder Cake.  It was quite yummy!   

 

 

 

 

 

I have been listening to the The Schoolhouse Expo online for the past three days!  What a great way to end the school year ~ getting encouraged and excited about learning!  

I hope everyone else had a great week!  Is the end of your school year in sight?  Visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what other homeschoolers have been doing this week.

~Cindy