Marbles

One of our cold winter outings was a split field trip.  We don't do this often, but this one worked out beautifully.  We chose 2 outings both in downtown Raleigh.  The older kids (10 and up) went to Artspace.  They toured the facilities and then had an opportunity to create their own batik art.  I have no pictures from this outing though since I wasn't there.

We were blessed from the start with this day by having free parking!  I decided to park close to limit our walking and was willing to pay for it.  They were having problems though with the pay machine so we all parked free!  

The younger children went to Marbles children's museum.  What a fabulous place to play!  There are soooo many fun areas to explore.  Most of the museum is set up in themes such as this place near the grocery store.  

This was a stage where the children could put on their own performances.  There were costumes to wear and seating out front for the audience.  

Upstairs we spent quite a bit of time in Moneypalooza.  Isn't my little girl getting big?  (She thinks she is big and independent too!)

Inside there is a lemonade stand where you can sell and also help to make the lemonade.  There are all of these fun balls to work with too!

This contraption takes them up to the second level.  The boys work to quickly load it up.

You can also  carry buckets of balls upstairs to dump them into one of the chutes or catch them coming out.

I think my favorite are in here is the pizza parlor.  They have adorable felt pieces to use for making your own pizza and an oven to cook them in.  Daniel and Kyle had a blast playing together all morning!

TIme to deliver a pizza.  It can be delivered by bicycle.

Or hand delivered.

Also upstairs is a sports/games area including balls, skating/hockey, soccer and more!  I love how they have made fun areas for small and larger children too!

Muscle workout for these strong guys!

This is a neat chair that you can raise while sitting on it while using your arms to pull on a rope.

Balancing is fun too!

Woo hoo!  Look at my strong girl!   I love seeing her pretending more and more!  

Also upstairs is a building and construction area.  Eliana didn't want to stay here too long.  Honestly, I spent much of my day running after her.  We are working on that, but at the moment she does just bolt at times.  

Daniel liked building some cars to race on this track.

Back downstairs again and the guys had fun in the laboratory.  (I love the dress up clothes!  Who gets tired of dressing up?  And its not just fun for girls either!)

There is also a pirate ship you can board and swab the decks or serve as a lookout.  There is even a plank to force someone to walk if needed.

Oh, and the water play area.  This just delighted Eliana!  I'm glad that they had these aprons to wear as she would have been drenched otherwise.

She loved scooping and pouring and watching the water.  I need to do more of this in the cold months.  This kept her happy for quite some time.

Can't you just see that she is enthralled?

Playing a little ball just before we left.  The things they are sitting on have wheels and slide around.  Neat way to make this game more challenging and also get more exercise.

We went out to lunch afterwords with some friends.  We chose Mellow Mushroom since they have gluten free options.  (And really yummy pizza!)

It was a fun ending to our day and a great time with friends.

We love our field trip days!  I think hands-on time of learning is some of the best!  I'm thankful we are close to so many neat things to explore!

Blessings
Leslie

Sparky Award

So proud of Daniel for earning the Sparky Award!  This is his 3rd year as a Spark and he has worked through all of the books and all of the review and extra credit books too.  

He has been very motivated to earn this award!  He has memorized over 150 verses as a Spark!

Way to go Daniel.  I'm proud of you!

More than the awards though, I pray that God's word will always be hidden deep in your heart.  Its a treasure that can never be taken away!

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond FIAR Co-op: The Saturdays #2

We had a fun day on our second meeting of The Saturdays.  This is such a fun book!  

We started with a devotion and read this Seuss story.  A fun story in which the lesson is that you must learn to face problems and not run away from them.  

We had a two-part lesson.  The first was on Science Fairs.  We are planning to have a science fair with our group as a part of our study of Neil Armstrong (next book).  This lesson was to help them prepare and be able to work in advance.  (Nothing like some notice so that they will have several months to prepare.)

We discussed the steps of the scientific method.  I read a story to them of a girl working through these steps in doing an experiment and what she learned along the way.  There are lots of great sites with information on science fairs.

Here are free posters on the Scientific Method.

Here is a site with lots of different science fair projects by grade level.

We watched this video on Science Fairs.  How to Prepare for a Science Fair.

Next, we put into practice some of the steps of the scientific method.  We applied these to learning about static electricity.  We first talked about "What is static electricity".  I went over the charges of atoms and what happens when the charge is changed.  For example, why does your hair stand up after you have taken off a knit or wool hat?  When you pull off the hat, electrons (negative charge) move from your hair to your hat.  Now your hairs each have a positive charge.  Things with the same charge repel each other so the hairs try to move away from each other.  The farthest that they can get is to stand up and move away from all the other hairs.

The children were divided into 3 groups and given a baggie with objects in it to conduct an experiment on static electricity.  They were told to come up with a question.  Form a hypothesis on what they thought would happen.  Test the hypothesis.  Analyze the data.  Draw a conclusion and share their findings with the group.

Group 1:  salt, pepper, comb, wool or hair

Group 2:  comb, wool or hair, and tissue paper of different sizes.

Group 3:  2 balloons, aluminum can, wool or hair

Group 1 was trying to magically separate salt from pepper using static electricity.  Read more here.

Group 2 was trying to charge the comb so that it picked up pieces of paper.   More here.

Group 3 found that they could use a charged balloon to move an aluminum can.  This was a fun one!

The next part of our co-op focused on the olfactory system.  They learned about how this works in humans and various animals.

The animal facts were fascinating.  I never cease to be amazed at all that God has done in creation!

Then it was time to put their olfactory system to the test!  They started by selecting some scented wax.

Each student chose a different piece and tried to identify the scent.

Next, each was given a chart with 12 spaces.  They then smelled from 12 different containers.

As they smelled, they were to record what they thought each smell came from.

Some were easy.

Others were quite hard.

And when we finished, it was time to feast.  We chose to have foods that were listed as some of the smells from the streets of New York City.  We had a baked potato bar with lots of toppings, hamburgers also with lots of toppings, doughnuts, brownies and a variety of juices.  Yummy!

A fun and informative day.  I love our time with this group!

Blessings
Leslie

Perspective

I started this post on Tuesday and then just didn't finish it.  Monday was a day.  Some of it planned and some of it not.  Several of the things though made me realize how I rely on things other than God in recognizing my own worth.  Some lessons you think you learn and then you realize that the layers go deeper and there is still more to pull away.

I love being a Mom.  It has been the most amazing blessing to have and raise children.  I truly could not imagine doing anything that I love more.  The joys.  The discoveries.  The hugs and kisses.  All of it.  It has also been the hardest thing I have ever done too.  From sickness to pain and trials - those that are on the outside and the harder ones that are on the inside.  Being a parent has caused me to recognize my own frailty and my need for God.  It has caused me to fall to my knees so many times as I'm just not strong enough to do this on my own!  (And so glad that I don't have to!)

So, back to Monday.  Not too much going on initially.  I had planned to have a morning at home and then take one of my boys for testing in the afternoon.  Our state requires yearly testing as homeschoolers and I was interested in a test that might help recognize some of the learning struggles he is having.

In the morning, the son going for testing had a cold.  Felt tired.  Said he hadn't slept well the night before.  I checked for a fever.  Nothing really amiss.  Debated going and in the end just decided to push through it.  (That was not my best decision and in hindsight I wish that I had just taken a different son - but no crying over spilt milk.)  On our way there, he declined to eat the food I bought him.   A favorite. I'm not sure if it was nerves or what.  He also mentioned again being tired.

So, he did the testing.  Honestly, having your child tested is not a huge surprise.  You know your child and where they struggle.  Sometimes though maybe it just doesn't seem as bad.

The testing did reveal struggles and strengths.  It was nice that there were both.  She also shared some suggestions of things to try with him.  It is hard though too - seeing the numbers and knowing your child doesn't "measure up" to where they should be in the learning.  That is one of the blessings though of schooling at home.  We can move at the pace of our children and do what is best for them.

When you are teaching your own children, its hard not to see yourself as "successful" or "failing" based on how your children "perform".  I really am not a fan of testing for those reasons.  (I do believe that testing can be good and helpful in some circumstances, but not really necessary for all students.)  It is easy to question if you are doing enough.  Do I spend enough time here?  Are my priorities in line?  Can I do this?

Why do these doubts and whispers of failure come?  Why is it so easy to listen to the accusations?  Where is the truth in what I am hearing?  Whose is the voice that I'm listening to?

Is a child who struggles to learn a mark of a poor teacher?  Or perhaps his struggles would be even greater if he were in a different environment that didn't allow him to learn at his own pace.

Or is it just another reminder that this calling is not promised to be an easy path?  A reminder that I need to rely on God each day for all that I am doing.  A reminder that the One who has called us to this journey will fully equip and strengthen us to accomplish it.  A reminder that I don't have the strength or wisdom to accomplish this on my own.  A reminder that my life, my time and my talents belong to Him.

So you can see where my day was heading.  It wasn't one of those days where I was excited about all that had been done and feeling good about my own performance.  Maybe though, that is really the point.  My focus can sometimes wonder off the goal.  My eyes and heart need to be encouraged to look to God for everything- strength, purpose and joy.

It was nice to have some sweetness in my day come after all of this.  I've been wanting to make Valentines for the grandparents and last night decided that this was it!  I had seen some cute ideas online and decided to try a few of them out.

Thankfully, Eliana was cooperative.  (She isn't always.  LOL)

She loved stamping and painting.  We did hearts first.  (Yes, that is just a bent toilet paper tube.  Pretty clever isn't it?  I found it on Pinterest.)

 Then some painting with fingers.

All super cute.  Everyone joined in the fun.  It was one of those moments that just made my heart happy. It wasn't about me being a "good mom" but more that God was blessing my day and reminding me of so many things.  What I'm doing - though hard at times - is also filled to overflowing with joy.  My children are gifts to be enjoyed and to delight in.  Our days and nights should be filled with laughter and messes and fun.

In the end, I'm called to remember that God loves me and is working in me just as He is working the lives and hearts of my children.

I'm thankful for that too.

Blessings
Leslie

FIAR: All Those Secrets of the World

I don't always (or often) do a great job at taking photos of our weeks with FIAR books.  I'm not really sure why.  This time of year, I really just don't take a lot of photos period.  I think I get wiped out with Christmas and this month is just a slower month.  And it seems to ebb and flow like that every year.  Still not sure why not more pictures.  Anyway, I did have a few from this week that I thought I would share.

We rowed the book All Those Secrets of the World.  Loved this story.  It takes place during WWII when the main character's Daddy goes off to fight in the war.  Its a story of perspective.

One of the lessons has to do with the perspective of things when they are close versus far away.  The "secret" is that things seem smaller when they are far away.  We tried this outside.

In the story, a little boy moves away from the main character until he is no bigger than her fingernail.

We both tested this out.

 Also tried an optical illusion.  I think I need more practice with this one.

 We also talked about the area of the story - Chesapeake and remembering being there this summer.  Of course we made the meal substituting gluten free ingredients to make it safe for our family.

 Clam chowder and crab cakes.  Yummy.  I do love these meals as it gives us an opportunity to try things that we might not otherwise.  I think it encourages children to try new things when they have had a hand in making them too.

Blessings

Leslie