Term Three: Week Eight ~ Finding the Balance

This was a good week.

I feel like (at least this week) we've found our balance between structured learning, play time, and screen time.  Who knows what next week and beyond will be like... but balance is good. So here is my selection of some of our activities.

Monkey decided he wanted to start a new puzzle so we set up this beautiful Ravensburger 500 piece puzzle.  I'm not sure if his motivation will see him through to the end, but we got quite a bit accomplished our first night - since Monkey was convinced we wouldn't have time to get the edge pieces put together! 

We enjoyed a bit of a science afternoon one day - though not without some frustration and disappointment.  The above photo was supposed to be a homemade thermometer but we couldn't get it set up correctly.  I think we need a different kind of straw, so we abandoned that and made note of supplies we need to buy. 

Next was this fun experiment about hot and cold air.  We started by filling the bottle with very hot water, left it for a few minutes, then emptied it, put the lid on and plunged it into cold ice water.  I think the bottom photo does an okay job of showing that the bottle has indeed crumpled a bit as the air cooled inside. 

Next we did an experiment about conductivity of heat.  We stuck the buttons on to different spoon handles with butter, then filled the jar up with boiling water and waited to see which spoon lost its button first.  The boys LOVED this experiment - as it was a competition of course!! 

Finally an experiment to show how warm liquids (this was vegetable oil) rise, then fall again as they cool.  We had to be VERY patient for this one, but in the end we were rewarded when little bubbles of green food colouring rose to the surface of the oil, stayed for a few seconds, then fell again as they cooled! 

Monkey tackled our Crazy Kiwi game again - we have had this game for a couple of years now and still have NEVER solved it! 

There was time spent scootering - in the back and the front yards. 

Munchkin enjoyed having his older brother read aloud to him. 

 Monkey has discovered the Treehouse series.  I bought him the first two books to get him started and he has raced through them.  Monster already owns the whole set (there are six or seven in the set now) and has graciously agreed to let Monkey borrow them.

 Two fantastic information books we read aloud this week. All three boys LOVE learning about dangerous and freaky creatures.

We read some WONDERFUL picture books this week.  Favourites were "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig", "A Bus Called Heaven", "Ten Kisses for Sophie", and "That is NOT a Good Idea!" 

This beautiful Mark Greenwood book was a GREAT introduction for Monster and I as we will squeeze in a little mini-unit on Ned Kelly over the last two weeks of the term. 

 I read all three of these books aloud to Monster this week. Ancient Greece is fascinating.

Bedtime stories that daddy read to the Munchkin this week.  All three are fantastic and I suspect it will be awhile before I'm allowed to return them to the library.  Good thing we can renew things twice thus allowing us to keep books for UP TO nine weeks. 

 Finally, Mum's reading for the week.  I really enjoyed this short biography about Roald Dahl. It was written for older primary children really, so a super easy read, but fascinating to learn a bit more about him and his life.  I'm keen to read the two books Mr Dahl wrote about his life.

The book on the left was FASCINATING and FRIGHTENING all at the same time.  I knew the evils of sugars, and has a little twinge of knowledge that seed/vegetable oils were best limited or avoided, but had never bothered to do any research as to why.  Well, now I know why and I intend to drastically reduce our use of these oils.  I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in knowing more about what is REALLY causing the rise in obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease... hint... it is NOT saturated fat!!

Term Three: Week Seven ~ More Natural Learning

Though there was certainly some structured, written, book work throughout this week, my photographs showcase the natural learning we did.

 This is an elaborate game/story line that Munchkin created.  He told me all about it but I should have written it down because I don't remember now.  But he built all the Duplo structures himself (top photo and left-hand photo) and then the Mega Blocks (right photo) were the bad guys I think.

The two older boys have a Pokemon game set up in the lounge room so we've blocked it off (the ladder you see in the background and toys where you see Monkey sitting) to protect the game. Lots of their free time was spent playing the game together. 

 We helped out my best friend by looking after two of her three children for a few hours on Wednesday.  I couldn't resist their beautiful faces and had to practice my black and white portrait photography on them.

Munchkin and Mr M enjoyed looking at books together. 

All three boys enjoyed building a big fort in the lounge room one day.  They had a picnic in there and discussed the possibility of sleeping in it, but decided against it in case the blankets fell down in the middle of the night. 

Monkey is enjoying reading these books out loud to Munchkin. So far he has read him two books out of nine in the series. 

 Some of the picture books we read this week.  We LOVED the Snail and Turtle book (Stephen Michael King is quickly becoming another favourite author) and the boys were THRILLED to see a new Elmer book, but the Little Bo Peep book was a dud.  Such is life, and thankfully we rely mainly on library books so we don't lose lots of money when we choose a bum book.

Finally, Monster and I read this book about Greek Gods and Goddesses.  This was our read aloud in the evenings and we enjoyed the stories.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed learning about Greek (and Roman) mythology.

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Finally I have decided to showcase some of my own learning that I do during our week.

Jackie French is my all-time favourite Australian authors.  She is amazing and her writing is fabulous.  Monster is just starting to move into her historical fiction novels and really loves them.  I have been spending some of my time pre-reading some of her novels that I will have Monster read in the next few years.  This one will be PERFECT when we start studying Shakespeare.  Jackie French has also written an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that I've read as well.  Now I need to go back and read the Shakspeare version of both and I think I will understand them MUCH better.  I NEEDED these books in high school and college/uni as I would have done MUCH better with my own Shakespeare studies had I had them!!   

This is the current stack of books on my nightstand.  No, they aren't stacked up that high (I normally keep them in two shorter piles) I just did that for the effect of the photo.  You may be able to JUST see that there are bookmarks in the top seven books.  Since taking this photo I have finished two of the books! 

I am also taking a short (5 week) online photography course and really enjoying what I'm learning.  It is high time I start learning how to use the manual modes on my camera that Charlton gave me nearly 2 years ago.  So as I learn new things I try them out.  This series of photos should have been taken in better light, but basically I was practicing changing my f-stop to change how many Lego minifigures were in focus.  SO cool - and SO exciting to be learning all that my camera can do!!