Back from Break

While we may have put our math books away for a little while, the kids are always learning. Our mini microscope made a comeback over Christmas break. The kids also played with puzzles, sensory tables, and more.

escape room

water table

We also spent some time exploring Southeast Utah. You can check out things to do with kids in Arches here. Or Things to do in Canyonlands here.

We went on a hike to a ruin, too. 

dinosaur tracks near the road

The kids got to explore a little of our friend's property, too.

Then it was back to the books. We continue geography with exploring counties in Central America. J learned that Belize has the only Jaguar preserve in the world. We then went to a zoo in Guatemala City (by way of Google Earth) and found the jaguars there.

Hotel room the kids explored in Honduras

The next day we learned about El Salvador. It has many volcanoes and 4 types of sea turtles. We went and stood in one of the volcanos. We went to a beach and the coral reef in Honduras (after first landing on a cruise ship), and saw the Christ de Mercy Statue in Nicaragua. The kids loved Hanging Bridges in Costa Rica and we visited the Panama Canal in Panama on our third day of geography.

We also began health for 7th and 8th graders using a program we bought off of Teachers Pay Teachers. (Yes, homeschool parents can use it, too. We are, after all, teachers.) We learned about stress and depression. As per assignment, J wrote a book about an animal that overcomes a stressful situation.

Story: This is Sparky the cat. She is very stressed. She has a big hunting test at school, but she can't catch mice.

 The stress is distracting Sparky from school. She almost forgets her backpack!

When she gets home, she is too stressed to do her homework. She gets even more stressed.

Sparky decides she needs a time out. She goes to her room and listens to music and reads a book.

Sparky Rereads the test rules and remembers she doesn't have to catch mice. She can catch birds.

The next day Sparky is still nervous, but she takes some deep breaths and calms herself down.

Sparky does very well on the test. She got and A+ for her bird hunting skills.

Sparky is happy she got over her stress.

We continue with writing, our online classes, and math. J finished 7th grade LA and will now focus more on writing. A1 has been using his free write time to write a story. This week, K finished his penmanship workbook and reading the 4th Magic Tree House Book. 

A1 did a magnetic Mel science kit. K did one involving motion.

A1 made Muddy Buddies and J cooked Biscuits for our baking class.

More escape room games were completed.

And A2 enjoyed some preschool sensory bins.