Mechanics with Grandpa

My Dad came over this past weekend to help with some car repairs which resulted in a grand total of $150 in parts, a small price to pay considering Sears quoted an estimate of $1100 to do the same repairs. We're now thoroughly educated on what it takes to replace a brake caliper.


Today A, our 3 year old, explained to me how he helped Papa D lift the car off the ground with his 3 ton car jack. He demonstrated by putting a stick under his toy dump truck and pumping with arms exclaiming,
"I'm so strong. Super Andrew and Super Papa make van float so high. Look Mommy my truck is sick. It dis broke-n, we make it all better!"



Car repairs are certainty memorable activities for little boys.

  

 

Peppermint Snow Dough

Peppermint Snow Dough

2 cups of plain flour
2 cups of coloured water
1 Tbsp. of cooking oil
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup of salt2-4 tbs glitter
few drops of peppermint oil
  
Directions:

Place all of the ingredients in a medium size or large pan. Cook slowly on medium-high and stir it until the playdough thickens. Keeps best in the fridge in plastic containers. This is similar to the traditional playdough recipe.

Week 5: Moon

Theme: Moon

Vocabulary word: Full

Shape/Color: Crescent/Silver

Number:5

Letter:E

Field Trip: Nightly observations of the moon from our driveway.

Highlights from moon week include nightly observations of the moon, identifying the phases of the moon with Oreo cookies, playing catch with "the man in the moon"- a face drawn on one of those giant balls you get from Walmart, making the moon with ornaments and duct tape, cranking up Michael Jackson and moon walking, and eating crescent rolls. We practiced drawing the big and little letter "e" in moon sand.

 

Got this idea/photo from the sweet treats blog, click image for link, it was a big hit with A. I'm kind of thrilled that he knows what a waxing gibbous is.

Last but certainly not least, no moon study is complete with out watching this.

Wax on. Wane off.

Week 4: Thanksgiving

Theme: Thanksgiving

Vocabulary word: Autumn

Color: Lavendar

Number:4

Letter:D

Nursery Rhyme:Lavender's Blue

Field Trip: Thanksgiving celebrations with family.


This week revolved around a lot of cooking lessons in the kitchen (we hosted a Thanksgiving meal) other highlights include;daily nature walks observing the change in season, making a Thanksgiving grocery list with pictures and pointing out what we needed in the grocery store, setting the table, making lavender spray for our curly hair, lavender play dough, a turkey hunt, and learning about what it means to be thankful.

This Sausage apple cranberry dressing is significant to our weekly lessons because A assisted in every step of making it. First and foremost he washed his hands, he kneaded the bread, broke it, and spread it on our on the baking sheet to toast it. He even helped stir the browning sausage, chop the onion and celery with a real chef knife, and pour the stock over the mixture. 

Can you say Luh-duh? Now say it over and over again in a falsetto voice and you might be able to pronounce the name of A's turkey.

These little hands have a great future ahead of them.

Perhaps those little hands have a future in Turkey farming because they sure did enjoy plucking Luh-duh Luh-duh Luh-duh Luh-duh Luh-duh Luh-duh. Luh-duh

The letter D is for,"Die Turkey, Die! I eats you for Thanksgiving om nom nom". Not. (True story, kid loooves birdies and won't eat them.)

In other news, the lavender mist is really helping the frizz!

 At this point in craft time Mama turns on Turkey In the Straw banjo interlude and the crowd goes wild.

Lessons in cleaning up before guests arrive are vital.

Week 3: Eyes

Theme: Eyes

Vocabulary word: Iris

Shape: Diamond

Color: Blue

Number: 3

Letter: C

Nursery Rhyme:Lavender's Blue

Field Trip: Optometrist

Construction paper facial features taped on the wall started out as a fun way to play "pin the eyes on the face". A however, did not like the blindfold and turned our game into a discussion of feelings; "Mama the face is happy make him smile, The face is sad make him frown, This face is silly, etc...". We closely observed the eyes and learned how to identify the iris and pupil. Eventually this turned into a game of face having boogers, a cough, and other yucky elements. The big finale and end of face as we knew him was when he abruptly got his brows and lip waxed. Ouch! 

Shadow play was an activity we did to learn more about light refraction.A sheet simply draped over our shelving unit and a shadeless lamp provided two hours of entertainment.

Bed Sheet draped over shelving provides backdrop for our shadows.

What am I?

Perfectly timed shot of A's jumping shadow.

Learning about shadows and bending light, opened up the opportunity further our discussion about color. We sat up lamps with different colored light bulbs and mixed the emitted colored light on our sheet.

Mama had a follow up appointment with her eye doctor who was kind enough to let A look through the phoropter and do an activity with a pediatric Snellen chart. The whole car ride home he was chanting "cover right eye, cover left" and following through with the motions. He's been pointing to all the characters in his books and differentiating between their left and right eyes.

Eye week was a lot of fun. I have a feeling we will be finding googly eyes, from our craft projects, for a very long time.

Velocity

Physics, geometry, physical activity, the skate park is a home educator's mecca; our Monday morning shenanigans are starting to attract a small crowd.