'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Jabberwocky, from Through the Looking Glass, C.S. Lewis
Oh what a week of delicious learning we have had!
Aldi (the local discount grocery store) had science kits on sale! Woo hoo!
And so, in our bunny slippers and Pink Hat of Power...
...the kids read instructions, measured, poured, constructed, learnt chemistry and had lots of fun in the process. I purposely took a step back and let them do most of it (hard for a science teacher mum!):
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| Pouring plaster of Paris into a mold - did you know that plaster setting is an exothermic reaction that gives off heat? |
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| Volcano still needs painting - we might get to it on the weekend |
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| Reading instructions - and maybe getting a little carried away with the safety gear! |
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| Adding sodium alginate to calcium chloride solution to create "fish eggs" |
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| Worms! |
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| Leeches! (perfumed too!) |
There are some fabulous games available on the Internet - this one develops logic and problem-solving skills (and the kids work well co-operatively).
We lost Wombat Girl for a whole day as she consumed the latest Septimus Heap book....
Inspired by other blogs (here and here - and just quietly, isn't that cutest baby?) and the lovely 'first day of spring' sunshine, we made a fresh platter and ate outside...
We popped into the library, and Video Boy came home with a book about the history of China and so we lost him for a few hours....
...while Wombat Girl read up on her chess moves...
...and then promptly whipped her Mum's butt in a lovely game outside (she did the "Four Move Checkmate" - I never knew what hit me!). The second game was much more even, but Wombat Girl was victorious again! Must have been the Pink Hat of Power...
Later on that afternoon, back at the library chess comp, Wombat Girl stale-mated a game, while Video Boy breezed in and beat Wombat Girl and won another game.
We finished reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, watched the original 1951 Disney movie, then watched Tim Burton's to compare. Both borrow heavily from "Through the Looking Glass (and what Alice found there)" and so we have started reading that too. There are some good activities in the Michael Clay Thompson manual, so we started discussing the book critically and may even attempt an essay!
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| Just some of the Alice (and Anne) books in our own collection - and this doesn't even include the MCT one I bought! |
At the library, I also found this wonderful French language course by Tony Buzan which incorporates visual learning in the form of mindmaps and auditory learning on CD. Wombat Girl has been trying to teach herself French using another little French phrasebook, so hopefully this will be a welcome addition.
We went swimming - and I relaxed about how much/how far they swam. It was a much more pleasant experience and they swam heaps anyway, following their mum up and down the pool.
Wombat Girl has been teaching herself piano. She is working her way through the instruction book they used at school (when we paid for lessons) and is doing quite well (even with the dog's tail bashing against her!).
Oh, and we did some algebra (the only thing we did this week on the "Plan") which Wombat Girl was most enthusiastic about and Video Boy not so much.
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where - " said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you walk," said the Cat.
"---- so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
Alice 's Adventtures in Wonderland, C.S. Lewis
How fabulous is that week!
ReplyDeleteYou'd recommend MCT then ?
It was a pretty fabulous week, Melissa! I loved how I didn't really direct anything, and yet look at how much the kids learnt and did.
ReplyDeleteThis is our first MCT book - the novel is annotated with footnotes explaining the meaning of less common words and every chapter has a little box "decoding" the grammar of an interesting sentence. I must admit, we didn't really understand what he was on about half the time, but I like the accompanying parents manual, which has a list of open-ended questions to be discussed and if you want, essays written. I'll let you know how we get on with that.
Sounds like a wonderful week!!! I bought one of those volcano kits for a friends son. Hope he likes it, it looks like fun.
ReplyDeleteI can't resist the science kits! I always tell myself that I could probably pick up all the stuff on my own to do the experiments, but the kit just makes it so much more fun! I think it's time for me to pull mine off the shelf this week.
ReplyDelete