Science with Dad

Rob is a very hands on father.  With his schedule though it is diffuclt to be there for all of it, when he is though he makes sure it counts.  Recently the kids got a treat that dad helped them with some school work.  He helped Sam with some science lessons on water pressure.

The first part was to fill a container with water and put one hole in it to see how far the pressure made the water come out.

The second part was to take another container and put three holes in it to see if the pressure would make a difference on any of the holes.

They were checking the distance here. (a yard stick was laying on the ground so they could see the difference in lengths)

Well Gabe could not stay away any longer.  He wanted in on his brothers science (LOVES water).

Well dad made sure he was included.  Gabe loved this by the way he kept saying "again again" 

So that is what happens when all three of my guys get together and do some science.

Brotherly Love

I love watching my boys together and seeing how much they love each other.  It really is a wonderful thing to see.  Here Sam was trying to help Gabe get warm after he had water dumped over his head a few times.  Not saying who the guilty party was on that (cough cough..daddy)  LOL

Fruit Smoothies

Who does not love a good fruit smoothie.  To always have the ingredients on hand when you want one can be tricky.

We happen to have a bunch of fresh fruit on hand one day so I decided that it would be great to chop it up and freeze it so we could have it any time we want.  (We always have juice and yogurt on hand, it is a staple in our house) 

I thought that this would make an excellent kitchen skills lesson for Sam (He agreed)  So first he chopped the fruit with me.

Then he bagged up the fruit.  I let him do this by himself so that he could choose the flavors.  He really enjoyed figure out if how many months worth of smoothies we had.  He figured that if we had 2 a month then it would last until June.

Randomness

I had severel photos that I thought were interesting just not enough of them to make a post on their own so I decided to do this random post. 

First up Sam's Sentence cups.  I wrote different sentences on the cups that might be properly written.  He had to tell me if they were written correctly on not.  If they were not then he had to tell me a way to fix the sentences.  Once he did that he used his catapult to knock them over. 

Can you find Gabe?  This is the inside cover of one of our science books.  He thought that it was hilarious.

We have played lots of games.  One of our favorites right now is Guess who mix and mash.  This one was my person and Gabe kept telling me that he could see the resemblence.  Such a nice kid I have here. LOL

We have gone on walks around the neighborhod enjoying the wonderful nature that we even find here in the city.

Playing lots of music.  Gabe really gets into it, LOL.

Sam learned how to make a syphon on his own that worked.  He was so proud of it.

 Recently we started going back to the main branch of our library because they are opened on sundays and it is better for our schedule.  We had not been there in a long time because one of the reasons is that they were closed a year for renevations.  So when we went back we were greated with this amazing mural in the lobby.  The book of Einstein was Sam's favorite.

(taken by Gabe)

Of course we spent time capturing memories.

Some Simple School Project Tutorials.....

Ok so as homeschoolers we are always on the look out for new fun ideas to learn with, who of us is not looking.  The boys do the worksheets but they always want to do some active fun things. (really who can blame them)  So I thought that I would share a couple of ideas with you that I put together recently for them and show you how easy they were to make if you want to make some too. 

The first idea is something that I made for both of the boys.  Landmark blocks, I first saw the idea for it on pinterest and it linked me over here.  I thought that it was such a wonderful idea that I had to do it.  My boys love learning about the world, so much so I had to find away to make it challenging for them.  Check it out to see how I made it a little more challenging...

First gather the size of blocks that you want it to be.  These are just some old megablocks that are for ages one and up.

Once you have done that find a picture that you want to use (This is the Australian Capital building, one of the ways that I made it more challenging.  Sam knows alot of landmarks so I had to start using capital buildings)  I just printed this picture from the internet.  Once printed I used mod podge to glue it down.  Then I put a layer over the top to seal it down.

After the dried I cut them all apart.  (They are actually 2 sided to give even more of a challenge).

The problem that I have found with mod podge (which I love using very much) is that even after it dries it can still be sticky.  An easy way to fix this is spray down your pieces with clear spray paint, problem solved.

The finished blocks.  They were very easy to make and the boys love them.  Our only problem now is that we need more because the kids want some with art work and animals from around the world.  We have already used them to do grammar.  So many ideas, what will you make with them.

To give Sam a little more challenge with them I made these cards.  On the front side I wrote the country names.

The back have the pictures and info about the location. 

I placed them out like this for him and he then assembled the buildings.  Once assembled he put with what country he thought it went to.  Once he finished he flipped them over to check if he was right or not.

The next project I did was for Gabe.  It was a lesson for him to work on word families.  I have seen this idea all over the internet so I can not remeber where I originally found it sorry. 

I used a bunch of paint cards that I got from wal-mart awhile ago.

I painted word families on each card.

Then I made a chart with the alphabet and some common groups of Letters.

He then takes and runs it along the to find different words.

See they are easy to make projects and they cost me absolutly nothing. 

Orisirisi: Drum Stories

Our Library does some pretty good events.  Over the weekend we attended one called Orisirisi.  It was all about African music and story telling. 

It was run by a husband and wife team.  They did a really good job engaging all of the kids.  The wife danced and sang through alot of the things while her husband played the drums and told the stories. 

She did play the drums a little bit too!

As you can see from their faces they were enjoying it alot.  Our hands hurt at the end from all of the clapping that we had to do.

They even got up and did a little dancing.  :0)

At one point all of the children were asked to come and help play drums and other instruments.  Both of the boys were excited to play an instrument but a little sad that they did not get to play the drums.

I included some videos too!  None of them are very long but they give a nice sampling of what they did.  The first video is of her dancing.  The second video is of her trying to act out one of the stories (about a dog and a turtle).  The last one is some of the song that all of the kids got a chance to play.

Gabe is now 9!!!!!

Well his birthday was on February 12th (slacker mom as usual)  Where does the time go though.  It really does seem like yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital.  I will say this that time might have flown fast but he has made every day fun and exciting.  He is the most energetic, imaginative boy that I know. 

This was the first gift that he opened.  It was from his brother.  Sam designed his own Tony Stark doll for him.  He even made an Iron Man outfit that he can put on the doll.  Very cool and as you can see Gabe loved it.

I made a felt airport mat for him (we included a set of airplanes for it too). Like I said this boy is extremly imaginative so he loves gifts that he can use his imagination on.

He got lots of goodies for his birthday.

One of Gabe's favorite apps on the iPad is Monster Mouth DDS  so when we found this play-doh dentist set we had to get it for him.  I have to admit it is pretty cool.  It even has a battery operated drill so the kids can drill the teeth.

This is probably my favorite picture of the day, look how happy he is.  Gabe always wanted a pillow pet (loves any type of stuffed animal) so we found a monkey one in the smaller sizes.  The castle in the front is something that we got from Micheal's.  It was unfinished so his dad painted it up for him.  It is a really nice castle.  It can close up for easier storage and has a draw bridge that opens and closes.  I will try and do a post on it soon.

Now for his birthday cake.  Oh the troubles, he really wanted an Iron Man cake which normally would not be a problem, except that we could not find an Iron Man pan anywhere.  He really wanted a shaped cake because I asked if he just wanted a basic cake with Iron man drawn on.   So we decided to get creative and the closest thing we could find was a Spider man cake pan.  This is what I came up with.  I was actually pleased with the outcome and Gabe loved it too so that was great.  The cake flavor was great, he wanted Strawberry/blueberry flavored.  I used this recipe here and just added in blueberries.  It was really good.  Rob actually commented that it was nice to eat something that was healthier on a birthday, now if we could just do something about the frosting, LOL.

Farmer's Market

The other day we took the kids to our local farmer's market.  The kids love going here and getting the fresh fruit and vegetables here but this trip was a little different though.

I promise Gabe had more fun than it looks like in the picture.  He was just a little upset because I asked him not to be silly in the picture.  I know, I know mean mom.  :0)

The difference for this trip was that the kids got to pick their fruit and veggies off the plants themselves.  They thought that this was the funnest thing.

First up was the strawberries.  It was hard to get the boys away from these plants.  They loved finding them in the plants.

Gabe really enjoyed racing up and down looking for new plants.

Sam was a little more patient and relaxed on his hunt.

Eventually we seperated a little bit.  Sam went with his dad and found lots of yummy ones.

I got this little cutie as my helper.  He wanted this picture because of the really long stem.  :0)

My three guys showing off the haul.  Rob really does have some in his bucket but Gabe has the most in his.

We got a nice little strawberry haul.  After picking the strawberries we headed over to the the tomatoes to pick.  We did not stay over there long because all the tomatoes were green.  We did pick some, just waiting for them to finish turning red now.

Heading to the stand to pay for our goods.  It was a really beautiful day for picking.

Some shots from the outside of the farmer's market.  This was an antique wagon.

I love the red in this tree.

This was a bottle sculpture that the kids thought was pretty neat.  It was for sale if you want it.  It  is a just $89.  Sorry kids maybe next time.

That is all for now.  Off to enjoy a homemade oreo, yummy