More Snow!

I am beginning to feel as if this snow will never end. After spending the morning shoveling our way out from under a foot and a half of snow the kids spent the day playing with friends. They got to play and I spent the day with the washing machine. Being a kid seems like the better option on a snow day.

Yesterday we watched My Fair Lady together. I can honestly say that I love this movie, and the kids, not so much. Oh, they were on board for the first hour and a half. But after that, it was a bit trying for them. Little Miss does think the movie was awesome. She loved the songs and the fashion. She has been singing "Just you wait 'enry 'iggins just you wait" while drinking her hot cocoa. Mister B thought the movie was a bit weird. He does say he enjoyed watching.

And another snow day....

Another storm has hit our area. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, another snow storm. In the spirit of the snow day we had a 1/2 day of school today.

Fractions went better today then they did yesterday. Let us all do a happy dance.

Our Pyramid Mountain class was cancelled due to the weather. We have to wait until next week.

Today we are enjoying that classic Audrey Hepburn movie "My Fair Lady".

Fractions are Fun

If I tell myself that "Fractions are fun." enough times will it become true? I would really like it to be true. Mister B is feeling about mixed number fractions the same way he felt about long division last year. I agree with him. I have an intense dislike of fractions. It goes all the way back to 2nd grade. I didn't understand them then and I still struggle with them now. Oh, I had a fraction epiphany in my 20's when I was doubling a recipe and I was loving fractions for awhile. But, now I am back in my intense dislike of them. Converting an improper fraction to a mixed number fraction is really not that hard and yet.....Mister B is struggling with it a bit. Oh, not the easy ones like converting 5/3. It is the big ones such as 174/126. The same concept but he is being thrown by the large number. I think today it finally clicked. I just hope it sticks. He also tends to skip reducing his fractions. "Why do I have reduce them?" He asks. "The answer is still right. It is an equivalent fraction." I explain it all comes down to the ruler. He wants to skip reducing. I make him do it. "Fractions are fun. Fractions are fun. Fractions are fun."

Little Miss M on the other hand is still loving division. I believe she will be hitting double digit division in the next lesson or two. Let us hope the love remains.

Language Arts - Mister B is now working on past and present participles and helping verbs. Little Miss M - still mastering proper capitalization and reviewing the possessive - 's or - s'. She did not enjoy having to go back and review the chapter on what she forgot. That is life. Sometimes we forget stuff and have to go back and review.

History - I read aloud about the Viking conquering England. We did some map work on where the Vikings came from, where Normandy is, and where Britain is in relation to Normandy. We talked about Alfred the Great from Wessex who managed to keep the Vikings at bay. We then briefly discussed how the reason they were able to conquer Britain was because they were a divided country. They did not have a strong king like France (Charlemagne).

Science - We finished up our paper chromatography experiment. Separating ink into its' different colors. Is black ink really black or is it a mixture of colors? We all thought it was pretty cool the way the colors from the black ink separated as they traveled up the piece of paper.

This afternoon Little Miss will be attending the first meeting of the American Girl club that her friend has organized. They will all be bringing their favorite book and discussing them. A fun way to learn a little history.

Tomorrow just may be another snow day. The kids are hopeful. I am hoping for rain.

School is back in session

After our quasi-vacation last week today we got right back into the thick of things. We started our day by me being the great fun killer known as mom. The kids were going to town playing that great game - The Great Word Race- and I had the nerve to tell them to stop so we could do math. I know, I hear all of you gasping in horror. How could I? That game is educational! It counts towards language arts and critical thinking skills! So much can be learned from this game and your kids were engaged with it! Well, there is a method to my madness. If they knew that I did not mind at all the time spent on this game it would no longer be a desirable activity. So, by being a big ole buzz kill they think they are getting one over on me when they play that game when they are supposed to be doing something else. I suppose one day they will be in therapy over this, but for now, it is working.

Once I got them to put that away it was on to math. M continues with basic division. Mastering the 7 and 8 factors. B continues subtracting mixed number fractions and some review of finding the perimeter of a shape using fractions.

Language Arts - M is working on Capitalization of Proper Nouns and B is working on diagramming a sentence with helping verbs.

History - M started her unit on the Danes and the Anglo Saxons and B started working on his biography of Charlemagne. That did not go over so well. He hates having to read up on someone, outline the information, and then write it all up. I explained to him that in life we sometimes have to do assignments we don't want to and we need to do them to the best of our abilities. Plus, this is a skill he will need for college. He still wasn't happy but he stopped complaining.

We rounded off the day with swim and gym class.

Tomorrow is a new day full of new possibilities.

Sledding

When we had all that snow fall last week we took an afternoon to go sledding. The hill was hopping. This event involved Phys Ed, physics, and survival skills.

Pyramid Mountain 02.18.10

We returned to Pyramid Mountain for class # 3. Trees. The kids learned the difference between deciduous trees and evergreens. Okay, they all knew the difference, but this was the intro to identifying trees in the winter.

At the start of the class they had two types of evergreens. They examined them, broke open a needle or two to examine the insides, and discussed how you can recognize it as an evergreen.

The next step was finding out how you identify a deciduous tree. Looking at the buds, leaf scars, the branches are the big 3.

After identifying various twigs in the classroom it was time to go outside and identify some trees.

They spent a few minutes discussing the differences in the bark of this tree and the trees around it. Notice the smooth bark. So nice for carving your initials. Well don't do that. It is disrespectful to the tree.

For those who do not know, it is a Beech Tree.

This was not their favorite class. They realize that being able to identify trees is an important survival skill but this is not exciting. They did enjoy themselves but the trees don't move the way birds move around. There was no evidence of glaciers. Well, there could have been but it was way up high in the air. This class lacked a bit of the excitement that the other two had.

After we were done looking at the trees we hiked over to a maple tree and took a peak in the bucket collecting sap. Very soon maple syrup time will be over. You need the right conditions or the sap does not flow.

On our way to the maple tree we noticed deer tracks in the snow (along with a fair amount of that yellow snow you should avoid). We followed the tracks to an area where the snow was all kicked up and littered with leaves. The deer restaurant. This was where they stopped to dig under the snow for some good eats. The kids thought that was pretty cool.

More Snow

Snow! More snow! When will it stop? I am ready for Spring. It is time for Old Man Winter to let go. Rant done. Thank you for listening.

In other news, a productive day at Howard Academy. The kids did their math lessons with a minimum of grumbling. B is working on subtracting mixed number fractions. This is easier then I remember it being when I was his age. Perhaps my mother is right and it is all my math phobia is the fault of my second grade teacher. M continues with basic division, reviewing measurements (yards to feet), and review of multi-digit multiplication and subtraction.

Grammar - M continues working in pronouns and B is learning about Helping Verbs.

History- M finished her unit on Vikings and will be moving on to the Danes. B finished up the Carolingians and will be writing a Biography on Charlemagne.

Tomorrow we have Discussion Group where they will be discussing the differences between the book Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and the movie.

A New Week

This week is off to a rocky start. We had a death in the family and a funeral to attend on Sunday. We are missing Aunt Gail. She was taken from us too soon by that insidious disease known as Cancer. Gail was a woman who lit up a room when she entered and lived her life to the fullest. She was an amazing woman and she will be missed.

This is a vacation week in our town due to President's Day but we are not taking a complete vacation. Since we were in DC a few a weeks ago we have some catching up to do. The kids are not thrilled by this but they understand.

Pyramid Mountain 02.11.10

Today was the next class at Pyramid Mountain. The kids learned about winter birds. How birds keep warm in the winter, what they eat, how to look for identifying marks, and other assorted tidbits.

This is an overlay showing the different parts of the bird that can be used to identify them.

The instructor gave each child a bird to study for a few minutes and then they each presented the features of their bird.

Here they are discussing their birds. Mister B had a woodpecker and Little Miss had a Cardinal.

Next came the best part of the class. The nature hike to look for birds. Besides the fact that it is just awesome to be outside what made today so great was .........................






SNOW SHOES!
We all got to wear snow shoes for our hike thanks to the 2 ft of snow that fell the other day.

Before heading out in the snow everyone got a quick lesson in the proper use of binoculars. Here they are looking at some birds right outside the classroom door.

Nothing says fun like snow shoes.

Hiking up the mountain. All the kids got turns being the leader so that everyone could experience the thrill of being the first person to pass that way on the trail.

Today, I have to say, was a great day. This morning we took a virtual field trip to Colonial Williamsburg to learn about the slave trade. Then the kids each drew a picture of what freedom would look like to them and wrote an essay on what they would do first as a freed slave. We also had some excellent discussion on how slaves were treated and why that was wrong.

After the virtual field trip there was some good playing in the snow and continued shoveling out from the storm. Once we finished shoveling we were off to Pyramid Mountain. The day was rounded off by Little Miss having book club at the library.

I am hopeful that everyone sleeps well tonight.

Snow Day!

Enjoying the snow storm February 10, 2010

Liberty Science Center

After that bear of a Monday (a big thank-you to my friend Larissa, who continues to encourage me on this journey) we had a class at the Liberty Science Center (http://www.lsc.org). Actually 2 classes. Mister B took a class in food science and Little Miss M took a class in Urban Ecology. I was able to chaperon M's class so I have lots of pictures of her.

Here they are waiting to go into the labs for their classes. What would one of my posts be without the obligatory waiting pictures?


I managed to get a couple of shots of Mister B in his class during a break. I have no idea what he is doing but it may involve figuring out how many calories are in a food item.

When his class returned from lunch he posed for this shot. He really enjoyed the class. I think mostly because they got to burn marshmallows. Fire, in a controlled environment, can be fun.

On to Little Miss M. Here she is learning about water shed. They crumpled up a piece of paper and then used marker to color the mountain peaks. Water was then sprayed on so they could see how water sheds.

After learning a bit about water shed, pollution, point pollution, and non-point pollution they watched a brief movie about Inky the Sperm Whale and her fight for survival after ingesting some plastic. Then they got to look in The Beach Box. A collection of various things an employee found at the beach. Star Fish, Horse Shoe Crab, Shells, Seaweed, Assorted garbage.

After the beach box they did a little experiment. They each got a plastic spoon (their beak) and a plastic cup (their stomach) and a pie plate filled with beans and plastic beads. They then had 15 seconds to fill their stomach with food not plastic. This really illustrated how our garbage impacts nature. If you took your time your stomach was not that full. If you rushed you ingested a lot of garbage. Either way, you were left feeling hungry.

After the experiment they went up into the exhibit on the Hudson River. There they got to see fish and turtles that live in the river and learn about how people are bringing the river back to health. They also got to dredge the river, as illustrated by Little Miss below.

On the way back to class they all stopped to play with this globe that demonstrates currents. What is more fun then spinning a globe and watching the insides swirl?

The afternoon was spent learning about Alien Invaders. Plants that came over here on ships and replaced native grasses. The African Rock Dove (more commonly known as a pigeon) which thrives in cities. Cats which demolished bird populations (who knew something so cute wreaked such havoc). The Zebra Mussel which has made quite a pest of itself in the Great Lakes by hogging the food supply of plankton and making its home in pipes and other small areas.

After learning about alien invaders and making a food web that demonstrated how the Zebra Mussel kills off the rest of the food chain it was time for live animals. They got to get up close and personal with a box turtle, a salamander, a couple of frogs, and a corn snake.

Unlike Monday, Tuesday was a great day. Everyone came home happy. Now, on Wednesday, they are enjoying the tons of snow falling. Three cheers for snow days!

Monday Blues

I think today was our worst Monday ever. Mister B has been an absolute bear today. Everything is hard, everything is a reason for dramatic blow ups, everything is just awful with his world.

It took 40 minutes to complete his math and then he made 5 careless mistakes. Which he then had to do over. Not happy. Grammar went okay. History was smooth. Then came science. Today we did an experiment on mixes. Oil and water, oil and oil, water and ammonia, etc., and how soap cuts through oil. The mixing portion went fine. Then came the end. The last question: How does soap work? You would have thought it asked how a nuclear reactor works. He knew the answer but could not wrap his head around it. Tears, anger, frustration. Thankfully dad was home and came in and helped. We took a little break and then tried again. Finally, the light bulb moment came.

Off to swim and gym we go. Relatively smooth. Except for his having to switch lanes. Life is so unfair. Gym was mostly problem free.

It was a difficult day for him. Growing up is just so dang hard. I wish there was a way for me to make all the hurting go away. At least Little Miss had a fine day.

As I told Mister B, tomorrow is another day.

Pyramid Mountain

On Thursday we started a series of 4 classes at Pyramid Mountain (http://www.morrisparks.net/aspparks/pyrmtnmain.asp). The first class was about Glaciers and how they work and how they left their mark on NJ. The gentleman who is teaching the classes is phenomenal. He did a great job.

Here are the kids at the beginning, about to have a paper snowball fight. A little introductory game so they could get to know each other. They all wrote their favorite winter game on pieces of blue paper and when you got hit with a "snowball" you had to say if that was yours or not. They loved this game.

This is a shot from the rope bridge we crossed on our hike to see the evidence of the glaciers. I liked the view. It reminded me why NJ is called the Garden State.

Here he is asking the kids to examine the rock and tell him what they see. Little Miss M said the markings looked like a river. Ding Ding Ding. Winner. The water from the glaciers dissolved the softer minerals in the rock thus leaving the impressions.

Continuing on our hike to see more evidence of glaciers. Rocks that were relocated by glaciers. We know this because the rock is not native to this area. How smooth rocks were shaped by the glaciers and how jagged rocks were broken by water freezing and melting and freezing in craters in the rocks.

After our hike we headed back to the classroom to see how the glacier experiment was going. They placed ice on slopes and used bricks on one part and wood on another to see which glacier (block of ice) moved further. It was the one with the brick. More pressure.

Doesn't Little Miss look thrilled?

After all the great information about glaciers that the kids learned what do you think is he fact that really stuck? Penguins live on glaciers.

The kids really enjoyed the class and are looking forward to next week when they get to use binoculars to look at winter birds.

Washington DC

We went to Washington DC for a day before visiting friends in Virginia for the weekend. We saw the Terra Cotta Warriors and some of the Museum of American History. Other then the freezing cold it was a lot of fun.

Total bummer that they don't let you take pictures at the exhibit for the Terra Cotta Warriors. The kids and I had a lot of fun identifying the different types of warriors. M really loved the replicas of the chariots and horses. It was interesting to learn that there were also Terra Cotta entertainers and animals. Disturbing to learn that they buried some exotic animals with the emperor.

B pretending to be a Terra Cotta Archer. M is posing sweetly with this replica of a Terra Cotta Soldier.

Waiting for the Metro to take us to the Museum of American History.

The Original Kermit the Frog.

Dumbo

Future Presidents.

Here B is pretending to be George Washington. I believe little miss is being a Secret Service Agent.

It was a great weekend. The kids loved seeing their cousins. Spending the week-end with friends celebrating the Bat Mitzvah of their daughter was fantastic. Learning how States that do not normally get snow deal with it-highly entertaining.