Down Town Montgomery Tour Field Trip!

We took a tour of Down Town Montgomery there are a lot of really cook museums and historic places there you can get on and off this Trolley all day and enjoy the stops. We just decided to do the tour. 

There is a lot of really cool civil rights movement history here, although my boys are still a little to young to really understand all of that. After this we played at the park with Friends. It was a fun day!

Biography Kick off day

One of the Things we do is Drawing into the Heart of Reading by Heart of Dakota This program teaching the different Genres of reading, it also teaching biblical character traits and how to "direct" reading, thinking about "moods" "cause and effect" etc. The program starts for 2nd graders but the teacher is very hands on, starting 4th grade it is much more independent. I so adapt it, and we work together as much as we can on it. This program forces my kids to "slow down, and think" about their reading, it is a very different approach then what we normally do, and I like that. We only do this twice a week. We work on a new Genre, every couple months. At the start of the new genre we have a "kick off day" doing fun things to introduce that Genre. This time we did Biography. We talked about what a biography was, a true story of a personals life, written by another person 

Our first Activity was to look at some "family biographies" scrapbooks, of them, and other family History scrapbooks.

Then they each got to pick out the book they were reading. Ethan a book on Milton Hershey, Aaron picked Shark Lady, and Ryan a book on Benjamin Franklin (he does not really do the program) this was just for this day, and we were already learning about Ben Franklin in history. Another activity we did was they went through the house and found 5 things that they would want someone to write about them, and took turns telling there favorite things. As they did this I wrote these things on little strips of paper. After words I picked one of out a bowl and they had to guess who that thing match too. We had a lot of fun.

When we are done with the books they each do an activity from something they enjoyed about the book, Ethan of course wanted to make some Hershey chocolates, and Aaron and I made shark pancakes.  (no pictures of the pancakes but the turned out awesome!) Ethan also wrote a summery of what he learned from it, and Aaron drew a picture of his favorite seen from the book.

we made homemade peanut butter cups and almond Hershey chocolate bars. YUMMO!

wonderful job boys on your projects!

we did this Genre August through september

PreK and Kindergarten Activites

Homeschooling lots of children of different ages is really a challenge. I have read and listen to lots of tips on how to do it and why. They are all different and work well for those families, THAT is the wonderful thing about homeschooling. I have had weeks where I feel like I am sinking in a sea of dishes, laundry and piles of "to do" school stuff. Or where I just can't seem to get anything done because my younger kids are distracting me. 

 I have tried giving the younger kids things to do while I work with the older kids, and I have tried just having them tag along while they sit on the older kids stuff, and this works "some" but I still find they are happiest when they get their school time too. I do pre K and Kindergarten level activities (just for the younger two boys) 1-2 times a week. The other days through the week, they each get their reading time with mom where we read books then do a puzzle or quick game etc. For me I find my younger boys are much better about doing "busy bags" or playing or doing things on their own better if they get some time with me too. For us, I give the older two something they can go by themselves (first thing after our spiritual thought), while I play with the younger ones, Then They are much better behaved while I work with the older two. Most of these ideas/activites are from early in the year but I am just now getting them posted. 

 Here are a few things I have done with my younger boys. Ryan (picture one) is making a number line up to 20 creating something from Legos for each number on the line. GREAT activity lots of practice counting. We did this over time, not all the numbers in one day. Picture two is similar, these are beads on pip cleaners, then a sticky note with the number on top. Dallin did 1-10, Ryan did 11-20 again we did a couple each week, then reviewed each time we got the project out again. They really liked it.

 Ryan LOVED this activity, and Dallin helped too. I would give them a letter in this picture it was the better B and he went though the house finding things that started with that letter. I then put the words on pieces of paper and we sounded them out, to match the word to that item. I went with him searching,  but he found everything on his own.

 This is a really fun Lego Math game teaching greater then and less than. I give them a container of Legos, and start the sand timer, they build as fast as they can until the timer is out. Then we count how many each person has, then see who has greater or who has less. Dallin just learns to count and number recognition, Ryan is really learning the concept of greater and less.

 For Dallin after we counded his I would give him four options of cards and say "where is the number 10? and have him find that card, that matches the number of Legos we counted. I did this for Ryan too, even though he already knows them.

I try to keep things simple around here, I do not have tons of time to plan, print, cut out and do long fancy things. These things are easy, and do not takes lots of time, but when for me, I find when I spend that time with my little ones, they are happy they do not feel like they are being pushed aside for the older ones, and I feel happy because I get time to enjoy my little boys personalities before they are all grown up!

Random Fun things...

These are just some random picture from some of the stuff we did. I would like to be super organized with regular experiments, art project and activities, but I am not. In a perfect world I would like art once a week, and science with a hands on project once a week, and then a history or whatever other subject hands on activity, or even math once a week. But it never goes that way. And I am now ok with it. We do the projects and things when we get to it.

Here are the boys are doing a project from one of the science books we have about light, and color they had a lot of fun with this section.

I love these books we have a few of them. They are fun and colorful. I love that they really are pretty advanced. For my younger kids I do not read it all, just skim it, and look at the pictures and talk about it but for my older kids there really is a lot for them to take in. They are for ages 5-10 the author is Kimberly Brubarker. We read this book, and then made balloon rockets an idea I found on pintrest. The LOVED it! and want to do it again!

I am really enjoying our Art Program (ARTistic Pursuits) Here the kids are using water color crayons to make a picture. I also want to mixing this up with other things too... I will share whenever we get around to actually doing it... if we do... ha ha

Ethan is really into reading and writing, and enjoying learning vocab. The way we do Vocabulary is when he is reading, he underlines words that he does not know. I trust him to be honest and do this. I am sure he does not always, but many times he does add words to his list. We also add words to the list as he reads to me, or as I am reading and he will ask what a work means. He keeps this running list and then once a week he picks 2 words from this list, and he uses this page that I made up in word. Where he writes the word, then the definition, which he looks up on the ipad, then we talk about to to make sure he understands it. Then he comes up with a way to use that word in a sentence. Then he draws a picture of the sentence he created. This works for us I feel like it is efficient and you can do it as often as you like. I do not know how to share word documents on a blog so if you want it them ask me.

Aaron is doing one of the boys favorite games, making up silly sentences. We have a game that we bought from a used home school book sale but often times we like to make up our own. And we cover a little grammar along the way. The pics "things" or "people" and I write them on note cards that I cut into strips. Then they think of "adjectives" and I write those. I think in this lesson Aaron was learning how state of being and linking verbs work. We also will reads some fun grammar books too.

Here Ryan built out of Legos When we learned about the Erie Canal- I think I may have already posted about this so sorry if it is a repeat, but often times the kids like to act out or build things we have learned about and I love it when they do that.

Here is when we did a Volcano science lesson- this was back in the fall of 2012

this was  a few months ago, it was our Balloon Rockets- we are for sure doing this again, and I bet that wont me the last time either. I will for sure make the strings longer next time. 

Ethan is doing a math activity with a book that we got at a yard sale, basicly it is copy work, but it is good way for him to pratice those math facts. Aaron is going a game with a dart gun he hits a number then a nother number then he add or subtracts them. He has a +/- dice I made that he rolls. I got plain dice at a teacher store and put the symbles on them.

Art foundry Field Trip fall of 2012

While we were in Utah, (almost a year ago) we got to Tour Beare Bronze Sculpture 

This is where my Dad works, and just recently my mom as well. My dad has been doing this kind of work, Bronze sculpture all his life, and I remember as a child going to the foundry, so it was pretty amazing to watch my kids learn about this kind of Art from my dad just as I did.

When you want to have a bronze sculpture made you start with your original piece, then they make a mold of it. Then from that mold they make a Wax version of the sculpture.

Once you have a wax version of the piece from that they made a casting. This is what will hold the liquid bronze. Your max piece is dipped over half a dozen times into the slurry, then into a white sand like power until the casting is finished. Then it is heated up, and the wax comes dripped out.

After that they heat up the bronze and heat up the casting and once it is just right temp they pour the bronze into that casting.

When bronze is heating up it has a green flam- pretty cool!

This is my Dad and his boss doing a bronze pour it was pretty cool that my kids could watch him do this.

After the bronze cools about 12 hours or so. Then break off that outer casting and then sand blast it to get all the finishing touches done on the piece. After that a patina is done, which is a process of heat (from a torch) and different chemicals to create different colors and patters on the bronze. Here my dad is teaching them that - the frog picture is a piece after it has gotten the patina.

After the patina, the piece is rubbed out with a protective wax then boxed and shipped. When I was in High school, I had a job at the foundry where I would help in the office, and I would also rub out piece, once that patina is finished. 

Now you all know where I get my creative genes :) 

HERE is a link to a cool video of the process

Busy Preschool Activites - part 1

I find that when I give my younger boys something to do, then I am able to focus better with my older ones. When I do this I also must be realistic with the activities and how much time I will get out of them. I can not expect certain things to keep them busy for hours. But some will, for example play-dough my kids LOVE play-dough. Even with I do work with my older kids it is in pockets of 30 here and there mixes with other things. So these activies work well. Also I do not do these everyday. A lot of times my younger ones just do "free play" but when they do that to many days in a row they start to fight a lot, and get in to trouble so I try to balance it out. Here are some of the actives they like to do. 

 Toys and water in the sink. classic, they love it. I given them things that I know will sink and float and we talk  about that some, but mostly they just like to splash and play- then I give them towels to clean it up when they are done.

 This is not one of his favorites, but he will do this, He will also throw them in the trey. This keeps him busy for not more then 15-20 minuets but still good motor skill activity.

 This is Joey- I got him off Amazon the company is Melissa and Doug, they have a girl one too. My boys love to play with this, they will enjoy this activity for about 30 minutes give or take depending on the day.

 We have a rice bin with fake bugs- that I have shared on there they like that,  and this is similar, I already had the lentils, and the small pots the boys got at a craft they made at Lowe's build and grow activity, and I already had the fake flowers. I thought this might be to "girly" but you know they really liked it. There is a fake shovel in the box too, so they liked digging and shoveling the "dirt" into the pots and pouring them back and fourth. They will play with this for about 30 minutes- give or take I always put a sheet down to try to contain it.

 Another Fun activity we have done are they squishy gel ball things- they are actually meant for flowers  but they are fun to play with and squish up, and made a mess with. I got I think 12 pkg for $5 on amazon of the cheap kind. I took two pkg and let them soak over night, (I think I did it a little two long) and they swell up to the size of the little get bouncy marble size balls! They like to play with these for 30 minutes or so. When they are done I just keep a towel over then on the shelf, they will eventually dry out, and I have been told you can just soak them in water again. Even if they break I just still let them play in the squished up ones. HERE is a link to something like what I got.

 I think I have shared these before under the Lego ideas but the younger boys really love this! They like to build a maze but they dooo still need my help with that, once once it is set up, they love to roll the marbles in them. They will play with this 15-20 minutes give or take.

 This is another Busy bag Activity. One day when we went to Lowes for their build and grow activity I went by the hard wear section and got a bunch of random screws of all different sized and shapes, then I got the matching nut that went on to it. This was actually harder then I thought, and I had to have someone help me. But I ended up with about half a dozed. Then I also got some different Luggage locks, one with a key and one with a number combination.

They Love this bag it is one of there favorites of the quick busy bag activities I have put together. They just dump it out and then find the match, they like to open and close the lock with the key, and you can set the combo lock and I do that and just tell to them and have then try to line up those numbers, they will play with this for a good 15-20 minutes.

I know that it may not seem like a long time, but if I can have that much uninterrupted time, I can usually get through a good chuck of things with the other ones. Then read a book to the younger ones or then they play some. I try to balance structure, and unstructured activites, and be organized.  I have a general outline "plan" for the day, but usually we just go with the flow and do what we can.

Lego Books we use.

I have had A LOT of people ask me about what Lego books we use. So I thought I would share what we like here. 

This is our FAVORITE book! HERE is the LINK 

 I did A LOT of looking and looking and reading before getting this book, there are LOTS out there. but this one we like the best! Some others just show the sets Lego has done, others are like this but use a lot of really advanced stuff, and lots of specialty things. I found this book to have both some advanced and some simple things. It also gives really good tips too. BUT it does NOT have step by step instructions. (which I knew- but I just wanted to make that clear.)

 Here is an example above is a pic from the book and bellow is Dallin with my version of the plane

 I will admit sometimes I get frustrated because I "can't tell how they built it" of I think "if I could see the other side, or the underside of it" some things they dooo show undersides or back sides but not everything. Even so I still love this book the  best - for ages 8 to Adults

 Her is another example Here is the barn pictures that inspired my Barn that we made here is just one pick- click on the Lego activities to see more pictures

Book example bellow 

There is another "series" of Lego books we like by Sean Kenney- I have looked at all of them but I only really liked two enough to by them (used even). They are cute, and fun, but pretty short. So you do not get a lot of ideas for the price. We have this "cool Cars and Trucks book" and also the "cool Robots book" We have borrowed this one from the Library "cool Castles" but I did not feel the boys would use it enough to buy it. These books are fun for younger kids to look at but not really any easier builds to do still say ages 7-13 and up 

The other one we have is 

The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide

this one is for ages 10 to adults, and there is not a lot of pictures, this is written details about how to use your Lego's to build stable things, cool textures and different tips. I honestly have not read it to much as it is a gift for Ethan but we have not given it to him yet. 

This is the other book that I have not gotten yet but I am thinking will be our next Lego book purchase IF we decided we need more books. 

It is called the Lego Idea Adventure book  it does show more step by steps but it seems to use a lot of fancy specialty pieces. I just flipped though it once at a book store, but I would like to go back and look at it some more before I buy it. 

We have also found a lot of fun ideas on pintrest and this site is really cool (see bellow) it has free instructions for LOTS of sets, so if you have a lot of Legos you may already have the pieces just need some instructions. 

this one called Lets build again 

Well hope you and your Lego Loving family find this helpful! 

Lego Barn - Family project

Ethan was given a cow Lego piece by his friend, and he was also picked to bring something to show and tell about at Lego Club. Ethan decided he wanted to make a barn. Soooo of course I got all excited, and we busted out our new favorite Lego idea book and got to work. 

 Again- we all helped but Ethan and I worked on this the most. The roof was the hardest part!!! and when the boys finally took this all apart I think I about cried. Good thing I took pictures!
The top pictures is our barn and the front view- our family is all eating at the table- outside :)

 Here is the side view, with the ducks, and a little pond.

 Here is our family, each boy picked out and designed there own Mini figure to look just like them, but then they played with them, and when I went to take pictures they could not find them, so Ethan made these but they are not as good as the ones we did originally

 Inside we have our horse, cow, and pig- which we built. But we now have a pink Lego pig piece, so next time we do a farm (and I know we will) we will have a pink pig!

 Above those animals we have the chickens, Ethan designed these with the help of some ideas in a castle Lego book we got from the library.

 Here is the inside of the barn on the side, this is where the family lives. - yes we love our animals sooo much we live inside with them (this is how they wanted it) Up stairs is the potty, sink, and the boys beds.

 Bellow is the Will and I bed :) and our stove, food, supplies, and piano.

 Will is making dinner while I play the piano :)

 Our little tractor trailer we build to do all the work on our farm.

 We are all singing around the piano while I play- at the time we were practicing and singing the star spangled banner, which I am learning to play (I had it down really good- but have not practiced and now I am really bad at it again) Anyway- so us all singing together while I play was on the boys minds. Although it was my idea to build the piano.

 Here is a cool pick up truck I did, because those are a must on a farm, and above is the dog house that Ethan made, for our Lego dog. (could not find him when I took these pictures)

I do not even want to think about the hours I sometimes feel like we "waste" doing Legos but you know- we really do have lots of fun, and learn new creative skills on how thinks work and fit together