Melted Crayon Art

This was an interesting project we did this week. I even got to turn it into a Science lesson. We talked about how the solid (crayon) turned into a liquid (using the heat), then back into a solid once it was cool. Monster enjoyed did but Mom did have to help some (I had to hold the blow dryer for the most part). I love how it tuned out and can't wait to hang it up! 

LOVE IT! 

Here is what we did:

• We used a large canvas I had just purchased from Michaels. They had them on sale 2 for $4.99
• Crayola Crayons unwrapped (I swear those things used to be so much easier to peel off when I was a kid!) 
• Hair Dryer

Simple as that! Monster is not a HUGE fan of getting his hands dirty or mixing colors, but when the colors did mix he thought it was so cooool... (his words). He ended up pushing the crayon around with a pair of tweezers. I suggest for littler children using a smaller canvas. Since Monster will be taking a Art class this year at co-op I am trying to do more Art with him at home to get him ready for it. This was just one project on our list!

Week 4

This has been a pretty lax week. We have managed to get all of our work done and some fun time in too! All the kids in our area went back to school this week. So on the first day of their back to school we went swimming. I knew the pool would be pretty much empty and it was great.

Yesterday my SIL came over with her daughter and the little girl she keeps and we did the famous milk in a bowl project. The kids loved it. We are thinking about doing a once a week Science experimenting day where we get the kids together and do a big project. I have so many ideas that I have pinned to do with them. My niece is four as is the other little girl!

We did this with:

• Shallow bowls
• WHOLE milk
• BLUE DAWN dish soap
• Food coloring
• q-tips

We actually did it once till it wouldn't mix anymore then dumped it all out and did it again. I learned that if you add more dish soap and sit and watch it, it will separate more. It was neat to watch. 

Monster loved it so much we showed DH when he got home from work! 

Another fun thing we did this week was create a light table! I have been wanting to make one for him for awhile and so I finally did! I am now looking for other items that would work on this for his age group. 

So far we found these cool spiders, made a couple color bottles and some slime. I also found some letters I will be ordering soon for him to use to work on spelling words. Yesterday while at Walmart I thought of a great way for him to use the light table for Math but I needed transparency sheets. Yeah they don't sell them anymore.... I was bummed out. Hoping I can find some at a office store this weekend. We also bought some planets to use on the light table. We took them apart so it was just half of them so they would work better. Monster wants to put them back together though and hang them from his ceiling (thats what they are made to do) so we may be doing that this weekend as well. 

Right now though, Monster is sick :( He has been running a fever since last night. He is asleep and resting at the moment. I am hoping he feels better soon. He hardly ever gets sick. 

More fun post coming soon!! 

This weekend

We were BUSY!!!

We started out Friday going to the opening ceremonies for the corporate challenge in our area. My husbands company is involved this year for their 1st year. We went to support them! Besides getting to eat 3 snow cones! Monsters favorite part was playing in the fountains!

We went Saturday to watch his company play in the 1st event which was Volleyball! Then headed to church! Sunday we went back to church, then back to watch more volleyball (which we ended up missing :( ) and then back to church to help out at open house for Awanas. Monster will be starting his 2nd grade Awanas this year! We also have decided at the last minute to sign him up for flag football through our church! Dad is coaching too!!! YAY! That was our busy weekend! Hope everyone else had a great weekend also! 

2nd week done

Our 2nd week went great! We actually did most of our homeschooling in the evening because we had a friend visiting this week during the day.

Monster learned about singular and proper nouns this week. He learned more about adding one to another number. We also discussed Libraries and Hospitals. He made a perfect score on his practice Spelling test again so I did not make him take a test on Thursday! He is loving when he gets to play with manipulatives out of his Saxon Math box and has even asked to play with them during free time! 

We also finished our Science project! We have been discussing Earth and the layers of the Earth. Along with our studies on Volcanoes! 

He enjoyed the painting part, not the laying strips covered in glue around the balloon. It turned out great and is now on our shelf! He used a model of a Earth that I got from Alison's Montessori. It comes with two pieces and they come apart so that you can see the inside layers of the Earth. Once together they make the outside of the Earth! It was so helpful to use in our Science project. 

This week we will be starting our 3rd week! We have a lot of fun things planned and I can't wait to share them.

First week down, Several more to go...

Our first week of homeschooling for the 2014-2015 school year went great. Monster did his work and got through most of it pretty fast.

In Math we worked on time on the hour. Something Monster does very well. 

With Saxon Math they give you a 2 sided worksheet. They tell you to do the 1st worksheet together and the 2nd worksheet later on. Right now I am only have Monster do the 1st side alone. If he WANTS to do the back he can. This will change once we start getting into problems he needs help on but right now everything is review pretty much. 

This was one morning he was working while eating breakfast! 

Reading and answering questions out of his Lifepacs Language Arts book

Working on CVC words. Monster did this and was done. He is way past 3 letter words. 

For Science I added in a layers of the earth project. He did not like this part at all. He is not a fan of dirty hands! 

Playing cooties with my cutie.

This was our layers of the earth project Friday. It has the top completely covered and this week we will begin painting it. 

Monster working on his first self test in his Language book. 

This week we have a friend visiting us during the day so I am letting Monster do his work in the evenings. 

Day 1 of 2nd grade

Today we officially began homeschooling for the 2014-2015 school year! As before, I let Monster decide what we started with. He choose Math. This year we are using Saxon Math. 

Here is my set up.

Here is Monster coloring in the weather graph for todays weather. 

We were working on left and right. Monster knows this but I want to stick with doing what the book says the first few days! He was hopping on his right leg. 

For History we are using Heritage Studies 2. Our first topic was communities. We also discussed using a compass, where North, East, South and West are. 

Here Monster is writing out some vocabulary words and their meanings on index cards. 

As part of his History today he had to draw a map of our school room. Since we don't really have a school room I had him sit on the floor facing North and draw a map of the room he was in. 

For Language Arts we are using Lifepacs. One of the first lessons is to draw a picture of yourself. Monster did this in the bathroom so he could look in the mirror while he did this. 

He was talking about drawing ears. 

This is him working in the workbook that is part of Lifepacs. This was a tad confusing for us to start with since the teacher book doesn't give you a lot of guidance. It does give you extra activities to use and I may find some extras and throw them in. 

For Reading today, we read about the author of Charlotte's Web. We discussed his upcoming vocabulary words he would be learning. 

For Science today,  we started our first Young Scientist Club book. He had to match up vocabulary with areas in the Volcanos and the layers of the Earth. 

He did very well today for his first day back! I was a little worried since he just got home from church camp yesterday, but he did great! Let's hope the rest of the year is just as easy!