Last week Austin worked on recognizing numbers in different ways.  I put out some coins and he would tell me how much they were worth.  Then he would show the number on his abacus and on place value cards.

 

Adelaide has a puzzle she likes to play with that has three bears on it that you can change their outfits.

Austin and Adelaide have been learning about stars and they did a 'glittery, starry night' picture.  First they put silver glittery stars on a black poster board I cut in half.

Then we added lots of glitter!

Then, after the glitter dried, they glued on glow-in-the-dark stars.

They have enjoyed having their pictures in their rooms at night although I got the stars at the Dollar Star and they only glow for about five minutes which is a little disappointing.

Adelaide has worked on this alphabet puzzle.

This weekend we went to a Civil War battle reenactment for the Battle of Westport.  The boys really enjoyed it!



Our neighbor gave each of the kids an egg to 'hatch' in water.  That caused a lot of excitement this week as they watched their animals hatch and then grow bigger in the water.

 

 Austin and Adelaide have been learning about stars this week in science.  We made stars by putting blobs of red and yellow paint on a circle, putting the circle in a Ziplock bag and then squishing the colors around to blend.

Gavin added another layer on his feudalism diorama.  This time he added the nobles layer with a lord and lady eating a feast.

 

 

Adelaide is now working on stickers that are certain shapes that have be put in a certain place in a picture.

 

Austin spent his morning doing puzzles.  He did five puzzles altogether!

This afternoon we went to the pumpkin farm.  We had a great time as always.

The kids enjoyed the hay ride!

 

Adelaide got to find the perfect pumpkin for the first time.  She wanted a "baby" pumpkin so we found the smallest one in the patch for her.  She was very proud of it!

 

Getting through the vines can be difficult.

 

Here is her perfect find!

Adelaide loved the sunflowers!

 

Then it was time to see the animals.  They had goats, sheep, lots of fowl of various kinds and bunnies, which is what the kids are looking at in this picture.



This week in math Austin practiced copying shapes using the reflector.   I made a shape on the geoboard on one side of the reflector, and he made the reflection of the shape on the other side.  He learned that a reflection is not an exact copy of something, but that something backwards.

 

Austin and Adelaide spend a lot of time playing together.  This week they pretended to be superheroes.

Gavin continued to work on his feudalism diorama.  This week he finished the king and queen level.  He began by using a sponge to paint stones on the shoebox.

Adelaide really likes these counting puzzles and worked on them several days.

She also did this dress the bears puzzle.

Austin continued working on recognizing and grouping numbers.  He took several handfuls of tiles, put them in groups of five so they would be easier to count, then counted them and showed the number using place value cards and on the abacus.

Adelaide played with the counting pegs this week too. 

Here is Gavin's feudalism diorama so far.

Finally in math, Austin used the reflector to make reflections of shapes using the tiles.

Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival.  We had a good time even though it was very muddy due to all the rain we've been getting.  Gavin played a couple games of chess with the chess master monks.

The boys took fencing lessons again this year.

Gavin got sent to the stocks.  I thought we might use a set of these at home...

Austin wanted nothing to do with the stocks but he did decide to be Henry VIII.  Much wiser I thought.

As always, we enjoyed the jousting.

Gavin did his best to slay the dragon again this year.

Austin worked up the courage to try it too.  I was very proud of him!

Overall we had a really good time as always!