Wednesday Austin got to do a fun activity with this toy that he got for Christmas:

It's kind of a puzzle but you get to nail the pieces into a piece of cork with a little wooden hammer.  Needless to say, he loved it and kept doing it even after school was over.

Gavin is learning about the split of Israel into Israel and Judah after Solomon's death.  He labelled a map showing the split.

In science he got to break open a couple geodes.  The first one opened fairly easily, the second one took some doing.  Both were fun though.  While he was working on it we talked about how geodes look like plain rocks on the outside, like nothing special, but they are beautiful on the inside.  We used this to talk about how God looks at the inside, not the outside appearance, and how it doesn't matter what a person looks like what matters is that they have a good heart.

Here he is trying to put the labels on a blank map in history. 

Adelaide got to paint yesterday with a Melissa and Doug paint book where the paint is at the top of the page.  It worked well as far as the paint showing up on the paper but it kind of confused her because you have to mix the water in the paint like watercolors.

Gavin used shapes to make a Russian city skyline yesterday.  I cut out a few 'onion' style domes and then rectangles, squares and arches for him to use.

When he was done he added doors, windows and other random things.  He put a cross on the top of the domes like they have in Russia but insisted they needed lightening rods as well.

Today Austin cut food out of grocery flyers to glue onto the letter G.  He ended up gluing stuff all over the paper so you really couldn't see the G anymore.

Gavin used soft pastels to make a ballerina pictures a la Degas, who is our artist of the month.  We did not actually get to art last Friday since it was just one of those days where nothing got done for some reason.  Anyway, he did a really good job and actually gave the girls necks and such.  Usually he just does stick figures still.

I call it Degas meets Picasso.

In science Gavin experimented with rocks to see if he could figure out what type of rock they were; igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic.  I had a science kit with different types or rocks for him to use.  First he looked at the color, texture and other features of the rock and recorded his findings.

He also checked to see if they were transparent.

He used a balance to weigh each rock in grams.

He did a streak test...

and studied them carefully.

He also did a scratch test using the Mohs scale and dipped them in vinegar to see if they would fizz.  Finally, he checked to see if they were magnetic or not.  Then using his findings, he tried to determine what type of rock they were.  He did a really good job.  He did this for just over an hour and got over half right.

Gavin read these two books about Degas.

This book is actually about Anna Pavlova but all the pictures are paintings by Degas.

He read this chapter book in history.

And this book about the Assyrians.

He has also been reading this book about studying rocks and geology.

It's been a while since I've posted because for some reason on Friday we were running really behind and didn't get through half of what we were supposed to and Monday Gavin said he was sick so we didn't do school.  I'm not sure how sick he was but he did spend the entire morning reading in his bed.  He was fully recovered by lunchtime.

Last Thursday Adelaide discovered the letter magnets when she was going through the cupboard so I got out the magnetic white board and let her go to town.

When she started getting tired of the letters I got out some farm animal magnets for her to play with.

This is the toy she is most likely to pull out of the cupboard.  For some reason she loves it.

Austin did another fireman activity on Friday where we read a little story and then he had to find the words in the story.  He did this and then spent the rest of his school time in the bathroom...I didn't think it was that bad...

Since Adelaide has been getting out of her crib whenever she felt like it, we decided it was time to convert it into a toddler bed.  This made Austin happy because he can now sit on it.  Adelaide seems to like to be able to get in her bed when she wants to and actually slept in it all night last night which doesn't happen very often.

This week Austin is learning the letter G.  We have no real theme for G.  Yesterday he did activities with goats and today he did a garden activity.  Yesterday he cut out 'g' words and glued them onto a piece of paper with the letter G on it.

Adelaide is so obsessed with glue!  She used Austin's scraps to glue onto her own paper.

Finally I remembered these tissue paper pieces left over from a long ago craft that were still in our craft closet.  And, this is why you don't throw things away, because they are perfect for Adelaide to glue onto paper.

Austin had lots of crafty stuff for today.  First he did a cute little worksheet where he looked at seed packets, decided if they were flower or vegetable, and then glued them into the right category.  Here he is making his G garden.  He used foam flower stickers to cover the G.  There were ladybugs in the package so he put those on too.

Adelaide is still gluing with the tissue paper pieces.

We added grass, a sun and some rain and we had all we needed for a garden.

Adelaide saw Austin get his picture and wanted her picture taken too.  And since he was covering his face, she did too.

When she's done gluing she takes all the pieces of paper off and puts them back in the bag for the next day which is very thrifty of her!

Today Gavin learned about metamorphic rocks.  I cut a Snickers bar in half and we talked about how it was like a sedimentary rock with layers.  Then we put parchment paper around the Snickers bar, placed a book on top and then he stomped on the book.

Then we talked about how it no longer was a sedimentary rock because it had changed it's form due to heat and pressure, it was now a metamorphic rock.  Then he ate his metamorphic rock!

He recorded his findings in his science journal.

These are the books he has read in science.

In history he has been reading from the Children's Bible and an old history book I found at the Children's Book Sale at the library for 50 cents.  It has a chapter about many ancient civilizations and it is a wonderful book.  I can't find a picture though but it was published in the 1950s.  He's been reading the chapter about Palestine.