Somewhere in Outer Space

A couple of weeks ago, we started our new science curriculum!  We will be studying astronomy for the next six months or so.  We decided to kick it all off with a trip to the Evergreen Aviation Space Museum!  We all had a "blast"!  Get it?!  Like a rocket...blasts...off....sorry...=)

Our first project was a scale-ish model of the solar system, made with balloons.  The kids took turns measuring the diameter of the balloons as we blew them up to make sure the relative size was accurate.  The sun and some of the planets have since deflated, but the kids enjoyed making the model and learning about how much bigger some of the planets are than others.

This past week, our focus was the sun.  The next time you see them, ask the kids some questions about the sun, such as what solar flares, sunspots, and solar eclipses are.  They've also learned a lot about light and color.  We weren't able to do all of the sun experiments, since it has been missing for most of the past several days, but we were able to make and use a pinhole box during a quick sun-break yesterday.  The kids thought it was neat that they were able to look at an image of the sun.

Next week, we're off to Mercury!

This isn't necessarily school-related, but the below conversation did take place in the car on the way home from Kindergarten.  Plus, it's so darn cute, I had to record it.

Brennan: "Boy, it's not a good day for building houses."
Mommy: "You're right."
Brennan: "Let me tell you about sunny days.  On sunny days, it's good to drink lemonade."
Mommy: "Really?"
Brennan: "Yeah.  Let me tell you about cold days.  On cold days, if you have a popcicle, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger!"

Crazy kid!

Way Down in Egypt Land

This week, we learned about ancient Egypt.  We read piles of books about the Nile and pyramids and pharaohs and lots more.  The kids learned a ton, but their favorite was the projects.

The boys made throwing sticks and Ella made a paddle doll.

They created clay pottery, which will be painted when it dries.

The crowning achievement was a miniature Egypt, complete with cardboard pyramids and a Nile river made out of blankets.

The "Seedlings"

Yesterday was a Johnny Appleseed day for home school.  The kids have been learning about apples, orchards, and Johnny Appleseed this past week.  They put on a performance of the Johnny Appleseed Song for me (Daddy), where Kyler played piano, Ella sang, and Brennan played "drums" on some toys.  Unfortunately, the band, named "the Seedlings", was only a one-hit-wonder, and will have to be coaxed out of retirement for encore performances!  They really enjoyed the crafts they made today as well (Mommy's craft ideas are always so much more "crafty" than Daddy's!).

Here are the kids memories of the day:

Kyler - "I finished my typing lessons.  Ella, Brennan, and I made a band that we named "the Seedlings", in honor of Johnny Appleseed.  Our big performance was for Dad tonight.  He's a big fan!  We also made apple cards with our memory verse on it (Psalm 17:8) to put in our notebooks for a craft, as well as pots to wear on our heads & potato sack shirts to wear (out of paper bags...).  I had a great day."

Ella - "Well, today we had a really good day because we did home school with mommy.  I got to do some educational games on the computer and do a test in math (that I got 100% on).  I'm also learning to round numbers in math."

Brennan - "I loved my band with Kyler and Ella.  I got to play drums!  I made a Johnny Appleseed suit to wear for our performance.  I made apples with paper: white paper, red paper, green paper, and brown paper.  Everything.  Nothing.  0."

Today, the apple theme continued, but with a science emphasis.  The kids looked at apple cells under the microscope and performed an experiment to see if lemon juice would prevent apple slices from browning.  Also, they created apple life cycle wheels.  Later this afternoon, we will make apple sauce from the apples we picked last weekend, and tomorrow will be apple pie.  Now, that's my kind of chemistry!

Welcome, Sports Fans...

It's the start of another busy week, which was preceded by a busy weekend!

We decided we weren't done celebrating the start of fall, so we had party #2 on Friday.  The kids and I made and decorated autumn-themed cupcakes, we decorated the dining room, and we had a delicious candlelight dinner.














Saturday was soccer, soccer, soccer!  The boys both got their first goals of the season, following their sister's example from last week.

As soon as the last game was over, we headed south and met Grandpa Brownlee at Detering's Orchards.  We picked a couple of bucket-fulls of apples and one pumpkin for each kid.  That evening, we watched the Ducks play Stanford while enjoying pasta and breadsticks at Pizza Hut.  The kids enjoyed sharing cupcakes with Grandpa, as well as reading and talking with him.

Continuing the sports theme, we met Kyler's soccer team (actually, we were the only ones who showed up besides Kyler's coach and his son) at a University of Portland women's soccer game.  They ended up winning on a penalty kick in overtime.  It was very exciting...but Kyler's favorite memory is of the Kettle Corn his teammate shared with him. =)




Today, the studies resumed.  Brennan read a story about a box and drew a picture of a box and what he would put in it.  A ball and a Spongebob Squarepants toy, in case you're curious.  Kyler says he did well on his math test and started lesson 4, which is about equivalent fractions.  For free writing time, he wrote letters to superheros.  He also started a new level in his typing lessons.  Ella wrote a poem about cats and bats.