Week 8- Science in the Sandbox

 Play is the primary way children were designed to learn. 

Kathy Hersh-Pasek

Monday, we had a read-a-thon for multiple hours.  

Snuggled up in the cold morning reading together.

Tuesday, we spent multiple hours getting ready for the science fair. 

We also visited a friend's farm.

They even had a foal

This week we also made molds using plaster of Paris.

And we are trying an experiment to see if seeds will grown in our greenhouse over the winter.

And cooked some "homemade" pizzas using Greek style pita bread.

We had one that broke when we froze it,
still made a good pizza, pre-sliced!

We also love watching Bambi and all his friends grow their winter coats.

Clean up service for all your fallen apples.
Will simultaneously fertilize your lawn. 

Somewhere during the week, A1 did get a couple of math lessons done. Mainly, word problems involving multiple steps to find the solution.

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For history, we learned about the three branches of government. Ironically, this week's lessons focused mainly on congress (Senate and House of Representatives). It was kind of interesting to teach about how it's congresses job to approve spending (power of the purse) and what happens when congress can't approve a budget, all while being in a current government shutdown. 

This week A1 started a new chess club and engineering club. For engineering club, they pretended they were trapped on a island and had to make a trap to catch food.

Fish acquired

A1 has also been building a lot of forts lately.

He continues with piano lessons and enjoys making up his own songs. I asked him to play what he had been practicing and instead made up this one on the spot.

https://youtu.be/l1sUM6hR22E

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For A2, we continue to read and do Joy School.

She played with stamps.

And, most importantly, A2 reminded us of the importance of play. You see, A2 wanted to bring a toy out to the sandbox, but the toy had a hole she didn't want sand to get into. She decided a band aid would be a good way to cover it. I politely suggested a piece of tape might be better. She decided that would be okay and covered the hole with tape. As she and her brother ran outside, I heard her exclaim, "Now to test it out to see if it will work!"  Science in the sandbox.  

While I once would have tried to explain to my children how sand would ruin their toys, she experiment and decided on her own that it wasn't the best toy to have in the sandbox.  I'm so glad she was able to discover for herself.

And the highlight of her week was visiting the farm.

A2 loves horses