weekly wrap up 11-4-16--Learning about flight

For our book club the boys are reading about the Wright brothers and learning about the history of flight.  MarioFan and I are working with these resources at home.

If there is time we might do a couple of the experiments with the boys at coop

For the book club each mother and child came up with an activity to help cement the reading and understanding of flight.

MarioFan and I decided to look at gliders which is a toy that first interested the Wright brother to study flight.  We also look into making different paper airplanes and graphed how each plane did during flight.  A great site to make several easy  paper gliders and airplane can be found here  

we made 3 different gliders

This was a great glider that does very well

and five different paper airplanes

then we tried flying each one at home to see how they did.  We will be showing the boys in our club this and they will each be graphing how will each items flew.

At book club this week we had several activities to complete

The first activity was for the boys to recreate the wright brothers flight at kitty hawk using legos

The boys decided to start with the glider and we were all pleased with how much they remember from their individual readings.

The finished glider

Next they recreated the first airplane with the propeller on the back

of course they had to re enact the whole scenario as well:)

Next the boys went to the this site that explains the wright brothers process for deciding what components need to be  there for flight.

Lastly we experimented with three different paper gliders and  looked at what made each work 

We discovered that one glider preferred to be threw into the wind while another preferred to be thrown against the wind for best flight.  

It was nice to hear one of the boys announce that he didn't know science could be so much fun after our club had finished.  We didn't get to our paper airplanes this week so we will do that next week:) with the boys as they read about Amelia Earhart.


We had a field trip went to Washington University this week for another Young scientist workshop.  In the morning the kids has a enzymes class and did a few experiments.

This is an program run by graduate students

The kids were taught how distribution of enzymes works 

We also compared the difference between canned pineapple and fresh pineapple.  Due to the processing of pineapple  for canning it is missing certain enzymes.  This is evident when using gelatin.  

Gelatin is able to solidify with Can pineapple

but not with Fresh pineapple.  I never knew this!:)

The afternoon class was on island ecology and evolution.

The kids all had some interesting insight on this topic and it was great to see so many homeschoolers who understood evolution!

This weekend we are heading to Deutsch Days with some friends.  Will write about that for next week!

Weekly Wrap UP - 10/21/10-- Book club and French festival

For our Book club this week the boys worked on two books creating their own written stories based on the books illustrations.  It was great to see the boys working together and being creative and deciding together what to write.

The first book the boys worked on was this one which is a story entirely of pictures.  I simply asked the boys to write down a story.  We briefly discussed the basics of what makes a good story and I left the boys to it.  I rarely intervene on their writing process!  It was so nice to see them working together and bouncing ideas off each other.

First the boys went though the book and looked at the pictures to give themselves an idea of what the pictures were saying.

Then the boys decided what they wanted each character to say and wrote it down on post it notes.

I was surprised they got through the books so fast and had a story written in just under 45 minutes!  They enjoyed the process and loved their story!

Since they were still excited about writing a story I brought out another book I had and this time I encourage the boys to write more of an narrative for the book in addition to what the characters might say.  This was more of a struggle for the boys.  I did intervene a bit more, encouraging them expand their writing and give more details but all in all not too bad :).

The boys did a great job working together but working on a narrative story was harder for them all.

My husband is studying French and heard about a French Fete about an hour away.  Since he has been off work for a week, due to surgery, he is going a little stir crazy and needed to get out of the house.  Also this week he got to see first hand just how busy we are at this homeschooling thing.  :) I think he has a better understanding why some things don't get done around the house in a timely manner as I quote his words "are you ever home during the day!"

I also got to drive my new car a longer distance and try it out on the back roads.  I love it!

The state of MO was originally settle by French settlers and  this small encampment showed how they might have lived era mid 1800's 

small distilleries used for medicine 

MarioFan checking out the different types of fur that may have been found in the area for the trappers

Various tools the local indians may have used 

Playing some children's games.

Being shown how indians may have drilled holes into shells 

They had French music playing and my husband said he could understand some of the words.   His French lesson are paying off:)

Making make pork crackling--- the original chip the guys said.   

We tasted a French pastry

Watch them make rope

We had a nice afternoon out enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of the era:).  You can tell it is fall time as there is a nip in the air:)

Weekly wrap Up 10/14-- A new car-- Finally!!!!

We finally heard back from the insurance and after nearly 5 weeks they finally decided to total our mini van after the flooding in Kansas City.  It has been a long ordeal but we are so glad it is over.  As soon as we got the payout from the insurance we went out and bought a new car.  We decided to not replace the mini van but instead look for a cross over car with better gas mileage.  My husband did tons of research and settled on the Subaru Outback.  We went for a test drive Wednesday morning and by that evening we brought home a new car!

I love the color!

We also made a decision about the roof of the house and found a bid we liked and had a company installed a new roof on the house.

I am not going to lie that was a tough bill to swallow but it had to be done before winter!

My husband is still recuperating from his shoulder surgery and has begun painful Physical Therapy.

My daughter loves volunteering at the World Bird sanctuary  She is now allowed to handle some of the birds.  She is feeding one of the parrots.

She is also getting over her fear of spiders!  :)

 While at coop we are continuing our book club and added a new child to the mix.  We decided to give the boys a chance to write their own stories but using books that already have the illustrations.

One of the Mothers brought in this book which tells a story without using any words

We had the boys discuss each page and discuss what pictures were saying in this story.  The boys loved looking at the pictures and each actively participated in what they thought was happening based on the pictures.  We were very pleased how though and in depth the boys were able to go just based on pictures.  Next week the boys will be actually using a different book and writing down their story.  We are thinking the boys will work together to make a story but if that doesn't work then they can each have a book and work separately.   We will see how it goes.

Since the boys got along so well as did the MOMs (always a plus) I invited the boys and Mothers to join us on our yearly trip the the City museum.  My kids love this facility and it is our trip to celebrate not going back to school!

They had a great time together and we all exhausted by the time we left 5 hours later:)

As for other school news the kids are working on learning about the Great depression, the Dust bowl and the new deal.  Some of the books we are looking at are:

MarioFan is also reading the book Out of the Dust and Firedrake is reading Grapes of Wrath.  In addition to these books we are looking at various documentaries on this period.

Kids were determine to decorate the outside of the house this year, as last year for some reason I never got around to it.