This week in science we learned about friction and inertia.  First, Gavin walked as fast as he could across the living room with a rolled up sock in his hand, arm stretched out to the side at shoulder height (it was a clean sock!). I put a bowl on the floor and he had to try to drop the sock into the bowl without stopping.  He found that he had to drop the sock a little bit before he reached the bowl and we talked about how an object in motion stays in motion until it meets something that will stop it.

Then he spun a top and noticed that the more force he used when spinning the top, the longer it would spin, but it always stopped, even when it didn't hit anything.  This led to a discussion about friction.  

Then we tried it on the carpet and noticed it took more force to spin and it didn't spin for as long as it did on the wood floor.

We did the same thing with big and small marbles.  Gavin rolled them on the wood floor and noticed that the   big marble rolled farther and went straighter than the smaller marble.  We talked about how mass affects friction.  Then we tried it again on the carpet.

We finished up Australia but using Play-Doh and toothpicks to make echidnas.  Just in case you don't know what they are (because I'm not sure I've ever heard of them before), they are kind of a cross between a porcupine and an ant eater and are native to Australia.  Here is a picture:

First we rolled the body.

Then added a head and pointy nose, then put toothpicks in his back.

Both the boys really enjoyed putting the toothpicks in his back.

I'm not sure they really look like echidnas, but the boys enjoyed making them!  Gavin named his "Mr. Spiny", Austin names his "Grandpa"!

Then Austin decorated a bag for his Valentine's Day party at school next week.

Gavin made out Valentines to everyone he knows.

Austin got his Valentines ready for giving to his classmates.  He signed them "UA".  I tried to get him to at least write AU but he insisted it was UA.

And Adelaide has been her sweet self.

We read this book in history.  It follows a few families that settle on the frontier and follows the growth of a town around them.

We read these books in science.

And, Gavin is participating in the homeschool Science Fair in March, so we read a couple books about his topic.  He is learning about flight because he wants to experiment to see what style paper airplane will fly the farthest.

We will read a couple more books about flight and then start experimenting!

Today we read just a couple more books about moving west.  After this we are switching to life in the west rather than the journey.  Then Gavin did a worksheet that had a picture of a covered wagon on it.  Another page had items that would be in a house in the 1800s and Gavin had to cut out what he wanted to take with him in his wagon and glue it into the wagon, only taking what would fit inside.

This is what he took.  I wasn't going to let him put things on the sides of the wagon until he pointed out that they put hooks on the sides so they did technically hang things from the sides.  Since I couldn't argue against it I told him that was fine.  I asked him why he chose the clock and he told me it was so he would know what time to put the kids to bed.  I thought that was funny!

Since it was 70 out today (WooHoo!!!!) we went to the park this afternoon.  Adelaide wasn't sure what to think about mulch.

But she loved her first ride on a swing!

Gavin was nice enough to take her down the slide.  She wasn't sure what to think while she was going down but she did smile when she got to the bottom.

Austin got filthy in the wet sandbox.

But he had fun!

These are the books we read in history today.

We also read this book about Australia.  We ate Australian sausage rolls this weekend in honor of Australia Day, which was Saturday, and today we made an Australian pasta dish that was really good.

We didn't get quite as much done this week as I had planned because we have had a stomach bug passing around the house.  First Adelaide had it, then I had it, then Steven had it.  Hopefully the boys won't get it and that will be the end of it because it's no fun!  

Wednesday Gavin and Austin worked on Aboriginal kangaroo artwork.  We read a few books about kangaroos (not all where non-fiction) then the boys stenciled a kangaroo onto a piece of paper.  When it dried they used Q-Tips to make dots on their kangaroos.  I told Gavin to make dots in patterns, not randomly around the paper, but as you can see, he didn't listen to me!

You can see my neat circle where I showed him what to do.  We looked at examples of Aboriginal artwork on the computer too and talked about the patterns.

And here is what I got.  Austin's picture is the top one.

We are well on our way to Oregon!  We are still focusing on the journey to get there but soon will switch over to life on the prairie.  On Thursday, Gavin and I built a replica of Fort Laramie with his Lincoln Logs.

We read this book on Wednesday.  It is quite detailed and took a while to read so that's the only one we read on Wednesday.

Gavin finished 'Little House' today and promptly asked for the second book.  He was reading it this evening and said he thinks it will be better than the first book so we'll see.

We should be finished with Bound for Oregon sometime next week.  They are crossing the mountains.

On Thursday the boys went on a field trip with Austin's school to the Planetarium.  They both had an awesome time!  Apparently Jupiter is visible right now but it was too cloudy to see it.

We will finish George Washington Carver next week.  I'm sure I have mentioned this but on Friday's we read a little from a book about a person from whatever time period we are learning about in history.  It's just a way to dive a little deeper into people's lives then what you get in a more general book.

Today after Gavin took his math and language tests, we played Scrabble Junior, which I think is harder than regular Scrabble.  Anyway, we had fun.  I've been trying to play more board games with Gavin on Fridays.  It's just a fun wind down from the week and Fridays are our lightest school day work-wise.  

And, I couldn't find another art thing to do about Charles Russell, so I had Gavin copy me as I followed directions for drawing a horse I found online (one of those line by line drawings).  I thought it was fitting since there are always horses in Russell's paintings.  Anyway, here's the horse he drew...not too bad.

Then I made him put the horse in a full picture and color it with colored pencils.  This is what I got.  In case you can't see, the side of the wagon says "Going to California for Gold' because we read and saw pictures of some wagons with messages on the side.  The old fashioned soap on the windshield I guess.  The driver is saying "Hi, Hi' complete with little comic bubble and he's waving and whipping the horse at the same time.