Rain Rain!

Hi Friends!

We are so thankful for this rain!  I hope it goes on for days although I don't think it will.  Those of you who know me IRL (in real life) know that I love rainy days.  I find them to be incredibly soothing.  Today is no exception!  Baby and I bundled up and headed out on our standard morning walk in the rain.  It was blissful.

We had a rather relaxed morning, getting through our journaling - today's prompt was to design your own spacecraft!  This was followed by spelling and grammar.  Then I gave the kids a pop quiz on the order of the planets!

We had not yet worked on the spelling of the planets so we'll work with him on that.  But he got the planets and their order correct which is exactly what I asked him to do.  

We came back and the kids had DEAR time followed by discussions about their research projects.  We are heading to the library this afternoon so that they can find books on their chosen topics.  We then read and talked about Hubble's Law and watched a great video which helped cement the concept.

This afternoon we had art and using shaving cream, glue and food coloring made awesome puffy planet paintings!  The kids LOVED this!!  It is shaving cream, Elmer's glue and food coloring.  The mixture is approximately 3 parts shaving cream to 1 part glue. We used paper plates to mix the shaving cream, glue and coloring with craft sticks.  They used the craft sticks to put the mixture onto their paper and used toothpicks to make details.  The kids created their own Universe on black construction paper.  They sprinkled everything with glitter when they were done and VOILA!  It was such a fun project!!  This needs to be left overnight to dry.  The texture is super cool and fluffy!

his - an awesome Universal explosion!

his - a close up

hers - a close up

hers - a candy Universe! A girl after my own  heart!

After this and while the baby was still having his afternoon nap, we snuggled down to continue reading about the beginning of the Earth. 

snuggled down

I introduced the time periods: 

• Precambrian
• Cambrian
• Ordovician
• Silurian
• Devonian
• Carboniferous
• Permian
• Triassic
• Jurassic
• Cretaceous
• Tertiary

We then briefly touched upon Charles Darwin.  The kids were FACINATED!  We talked about genetic traits that move on and why they move on and why some animals carry on and others die out.
We then moved onto something a little different but themed to go right along with what we've been learning this week.  We read from the D'ularies Book of Greek Myths.  Not only are the stories fantastic but the illustrations are AMAZING!!  We started at the beginning which is titled in the book "In Olden Times" then we read "Gaea, Mother Earth", "The Titans" and we started "Zeus and his Family".  The stories we read drew parallels to the beginning of time, earth and all of our living things.  We talked a LOT about how these stories influence some of what is believed today but that a lot of it was simply people making sense of what they could not understand during their time.  Kendall asked a VERY good and observant question which was "Mummy...is this book like the Bible?"  I was floored.  I thought that was a very good correlation to the myths that we were reading.  I told her that that was exactly right!  The Bible is a book of stories that people believe to be true.   I explained that some of it may be factual but that a great deal of the information in the Bible is simply stories that people wrote down to explain what they could not understand.  Just as a note...these are our personal opinions - if you don't feel the same that's totally fine!  No haters here please!  

Gee...I look a bit tired!  lol!!  It was that kind of rainy day!

The baby woke up and we zipped off to our library so that the children could find books to help them with their research projects.  Kendall is researching the Mandrill and Tyler is researching the White Handed Gibbon.  We did a little role playing before we went so that the children would be prepared to go up to the Librarian themselves and ask for what they needed.  I hung in the children's area with Ari while they worked with the Librarian.  They found their books and we headed home.  Tonight is "parent special" and it's Kendall's night.  She is going to hang with Daddy while Ty and I zip off for some upcoming birthday errands!!  K's bday is this weekend...so exciting!

Teaching independence!!

He had a BLAST!!!

Heads down reading about Gibbons!  I love the focus...

Oh and the children's "Not Back To School" photos came in and they are ADORABLE!!

Tomorrow is busy with lots of fun!!  See you then!