Lego Quest - Metamorphosis

We have started a new challenge that I think will not be ending anytime soon. Austyn absolutely loves Legos. I can see him doing each challenge from here on. This was Quest 17 on their blog. Here is the blog if you want to learn more or join in on the fun.

http://legoquestkids.blogspot.com/

Planets hanging from the light

The ideas that Austyn comes up with on his own are always such wonderful ideas. This is a project that he undertook to start to decorate his room with planets.

Our Maple Trees are Growing!

Every year the trees in our yard get bigger and as they get bigger so do the leaves. The kids decided to pick a bunch of them after a rainstorm one day.

I showed them how to do leaf rubs.

Book Sharing Monday

You should read Is "There Really a Human RACE? by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell". It's a nice spin on the words "Human Race". A little boy doesn't understand the meaning and takes the word "Race" as a literal race of some sort. He is asking questions about it and wondering if he has to try and win. 

Is there really a human race?

Is it going on now all over the place?

When did it start?

Who said, "Ready, Set, Go"?

Did it start on my birthday? 

I really must know.

Is it a spring? A dash to the end?

Am I aware of the time that I spend?

And why do I do it, this zillion-yard dash?

If we don't help each other, we're all going to...

CRASH!

The mom sits him down and tells him that it's nice to slow down sometimes and that it's about helping others and making our world a better place for the whole human race.

Train Station Field Trip!

 

 We sat down and watched a movie about railways in our area and in Canada. I learned somethings and I quietly repeated some of the film to Austyn to keep his interest. Each child was given a post card to take home with a picture of the train station on the front.

 After the film we explored the station and Kev read about trains to Austyn.

 Once we were finished in the station we went outside in the rain to go inside a caboose. 

 There was a model train set up.

There were two telegraph machines set up so the kids could be at either end of the caboose and send messages to each other in morse code. Austyn still remembers reading about Thomas Edison and using the telegraph sparked an interest in making one of our own. I have looked up the instructions and am planning on getting the materials we need to make them at home. 

Recycled Booklet Fun!

 

I watched some interesting videos many months ago on the internet about different ways to make little booklets. While visiting relatives the kids got interested in a pile of papers that were set out to be used for camp fires. They were all of the extra pages that got printed when printing websites. I remembered learning about how to recycle the pages easily and use them for little books. I thought it'd be a great way to keep them occupied while visiting. So, I picked up some papers and started to fold and cut.

Here are all of the beautiful books that Zoe made. I have to add here about how she told each story over and over in detail and in the process also learned what "Step Mother" and "Step Sister" means. Her story books were on Cinderella/Zoe and while reading to her Grandma about the step mother and the step sisters Grandma (being silly) said, "Step mother? Do you mean she was made from a step?" and Zoe couldn't answer. She just wanted to move on with the story and could tell that it was suppose to be a joke. But after she was finished telling her story again, I asked her if she knew what it meant to have "Step" infront of mother or sister. She didn't so her and I had a great conversation about it. After the conversation her stories changed to express the feelings of poor Cinderella/Zoe who missed her mother so much. It was so sweet!

I don't know if you can tell by the pictures above or not but Zoe used an effect on her name. It's called "beading". Earlier that day I showed her how to bead. She liked it so much that she used it all over her book and finished the above picture that I started for her. I found this effect in a book.

The book is called "Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye".

For those of you who know Austyn or have read our blog, you might remember that he's not interested in printing or doing anything with a pencil at all. Well, it was so cool, because as soon as he saw what Zoe was doing he decided he wanted his own book. I made his long and thin to be different. He loved it and chose to make a rule book for his pretend bank. I wanted to encourage him to do most of it on his own. I had just finished reading the information in "Games for Writing" and knew that by encouraging him to do it without worrying about too many details was so important. So, I reassured him that he could make mistakes and that it wasn't a big deal. I told him not to be worried too much about his letters and to just relax and let it happen. It did! He relaxed and just wanted me to help him with spelling. He used his eraser a couple of times and even switched to the left hand when his right hand got tired. The book turned out wonderful! He came up with most of the rules on his own. I love it!

Lincoln Blocks

We've had these building blocks for months now and the kids maybe picked them up twice. Since we've been sharing them at the Pioneer Mini Co-Op Austyn has been using them much more. His next log adventure is supposedly going to be an old fort and he'll use his army men to fight a war. This is a great way to  move into seeing an old war reenactment that we'll be watching soon.