A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

We have been learning about the phases of the moon. 

We learned that the moon revolves around the Earth, while the Earth revolves around the sun. It seemed confusing until we acted it out. 

We also learned the length of time it takes the moon to rotate around the Earth (appx 27 days), and how long it takes the Earth to revolve around the sun (appx 1 year).

Coincidentally, our local library had a space camp program discussing the phases of the moon. They got to use oreos to demonstrate what the phases looked like. I think this is a project we should retry at home, to make sure the lesson really sinks in! ;)

Our Brave Writer book this month is How to Eat Fried Worms. 

Someone turned 7! Her request: green pancakes, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. 

 This is the birthday cake she asked for...

And in karate, the birthday kid gets to break a board. Here is her breaking her board!

Who Dunnit?

Last week the kids participated in a local library event called "Who Dunnit?" They were each given a character from "The Wizard of Oz" to play. Jayden was the "Wizard" and Caitlin was the "Wicked Witch of the West".

The objective was to find out who killed the Wicked Witch of the East, but the tricky part was not even the killer knew who did it, so everyone is a suspect.

The kids all worked together to ask scripted questions, crossing off suspects through process of elimination.

 In the end they discovered a munchkin killed her because she constantly ridiculed them.

It was a lot of fun!

More Halloween Fun!

We went to an amazing homeschool Halloween party! The kids collected materials and made decorations for the party during one of our co-op meetups. 

Ready for the party!

 Cait did an egg race.  She had to hold an egg on a spoon without dropping it.

The kids all participated in a donut eating contest. They had to eat the donut from a string without using their hands.

 We had a costume contest.

 Caitlin won "Scariest Costume".

 

We went to Juan's job for our annual trick or treat fun. They made cookies and got an enormous amount of candy!

Day Camp & Halloween Party #1

Just over a week ago the kids went to their drop off day camp program. They learned about birds and what it takes for them to fly. They also went bird watching. Caitlin ended up feeling sick so I went to pick her up early, but Jayden had a lot of fun!

 We had a fun Halloween party at the kids karate school.

Math, History, & Spanish

A few weeks ago at Jayden's request, we made the switch from Math in Focus to KhanAcademy.org. Jayden now does his math lessons through this website, which he loves. There are video lessons, practice assignments, and challenges to complete. In just a few weeks he has completed nearly 50% of 4th grade math!

Caitlin is still working diligently on her Saxon Math. Over the last two weeks she has learned the values of a penny and a dime, the difference between even and odd numbers up to 20, how to tell time to the half hour, and the definition of addend and sum.

This week in history we read about the Medieval Indian Empire. We learned key words such as "dynasty", "Buddha", and "fresco". There were many kingdoms in India, and the upper part was united by King Chandragupta.

We read about the Huns Barbarians and how they attacked India during their Golden Age (a time where they were rich, peaceful, and strong). The Indians defeated the Huns, but unfortunately they were left weak and poor, causing them to divide into separate kingdoms once more. 

In Spanish we are currently working on "Los Sentimientos". The kids had to draw faces on the person, and translate the emotion from Spanish to English.