Last Thursday the boys and I headed to our local homeschool conference.  It's always fun for the kids to get to spend a weekend playing with other homeschooled kids and I enjoy the sessions and planning for next year.  I think Gavin and Austin were most impressed by the breakfast selections at the hotel...particularly the waffles, which Gavin got to make in a waffle iron.  They do have a nice breakfast!

Of course on Sunday there was a lot of laundry to catch up on.  Now that Adelaide is walking in good shape she is turning into a great helper.  She happily helped me by moving my folded laundry piles from place to place in the living room.

Did I mention that it had been folded?

She is really loving the warm weather too!  The last two mornings while Gavin has been in school I blocked off the front porch and let her play out there (we kept the door open of course).  It has finally provided something to occupy her while Gavin works.

Seeing that I was trying to get some pictures of his sister, Gavin decided he needed to butt in.

Adelaide already knows how to defend herself though so all is well.

I love the look she's giving Gavin in this picture!

Free at last!

It didn't last long.

This morning we got out the Playmobil 123 for Adelaide to play with.  She loves her brothers' Playmobil and these are made for toddlers.  She had fun trying to get the man in the jeep.

We are starting something a little different in science.  We are going to work through this kit:

By the end of the year, I kind of need a kit to follow...my creativity and excitement is waning...

Today we talked about different types of engineering and simple machines.  We focused on levers.  First, Gavin put a 'load' in a bar and tried to pry it out.  He couldn't.

Then he used a lever and it came right out!

He tried this several times because it was fun!

Then we talked about how scissors are a lever.  After identifying the fulcrum, Gavin tried to cut through a piece of foam board.  He found that he had to put the foam board near the fulcrum to cut through it because that's where the lever has the most force.

Then I had him try again using the tip of the lever.  It was much harder.

Next Gavin was asked to build a tipping scale.

He did it with no problem.  He added a weighing platform and placed it near the fulcrum.  He added weight and then slowly pushed the platform away from the fulcrum.  Pretty soon the scale started tipping and finally tipped all the way to the table.

Gavin recorded his findings in his science notebook.

This afternoon, I walked into the school room to find Adelaide drawing.  Normally she isn't allowed to have writing utensils because she chews on them (particularly erasers) but she found a pencil and started drawing on the scrap paper Gavin had used in school today.  She was very happy!

It quickly drew a crowd into the room.

She had the pencil the correct way and then she turned it around to draw with the eraser.  She was still happy!

Gavin tried to help her turn it back around and she was having none of it (probably because pencils are usually taken away from her).  She snatched the pencil and paper as only a one-year-old can snatch and walked off in a huff.  (The cord is from the vacuum cleaner, proving that despite the fact there is always dirt on my floor I do, in fact, try to keep them clean!)

I found her a few minutes later sitting on the stool in her bedroom drawing again!  I think it's time to invest in some toddler crayons!

And, not to leave out Austin, his carrots have sprouted!  He really is happy in this picture but I cannot get a normal smile when I tell him to smile... he is very excited about the carrots though.

We finished the book we were reading about the childhood of Teddy Roosevelt and we started a book more about his adulthood.

Gavin has had four chapter books he is reading.  I'm having a hard time keeping up with him because he reads shorter books too.  At least he's reading!  Today he finished his book about General Custer and his book about the Pony Express.

Yesterday in history we started talking about the Industrial Revolution.  We sort of read this book.  It is more of a middle school level but it has great pictures.  Each two page spread had a different topic concerning the industrial revolution so I just kind of summarized and we talked about different aspects of it and looked at the pictures.  I had a really hard time finding books about it for younger kids.

We also read this book about England.