Math for Breakfast

We did spontanious hands-on math at breakfast today. We openned a new box of Fruit Cherioes cereal. I usually don't get colored cereal, but it was on sale and I had a coupon for it as well. The kids started telling what colors they had on their spoon which prompted me to start making a pattern and having them add to it. We have been discusing repeating patterns and sorting recently in math so this went along with what we have been doing.

After several patterns we sorted them by color.

Then I grouped them in small groups and had them add them together to find the total.

We also have released our second butterfly this year. It was not a monarch! I was surprised. After checking my butterfly book I learned that it was a queen, another kind of milkweed butterfly. It looks very much like a monarch when the wings are folded, but when they are open it is definatly different. It doesn't have the black lines that the monarch has.

Book Review

I wanted to share a few books that we have used lately and are enjoying. Our curriculum suggested reading books that deal with math topics. The first one I tried was Beep, Beep, Vroom, Vroom by Stuart Murphy. It is about making patterns with cars. It was a big hit with my kids. After I read it once, Abby then read it again and again out loud to her brothers. There also is fighting over who gets to look at it, and since it is a library book I have put it up high. I'm sure I will have to read it several more times before we take it back to the library. We are now looking for and making patterns in our everyday activities.

The other book making a big splash around here is Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes. I love the way this book breaks down the drawing process into easy to understand elements. I didn't think I could teach my kids how to draw, but this book makes it all very easy to understand and teach. My curriculum schedules art once a week, but my kids are asking for more art time. I love the quiet as they are busy drawing. I am looking forward to teaching this.

Saturday with the whole family

Our family headed for a hike after finishing our bus visits today. The first place we stopped had WATER!! Abby got herself wet up to her waist in no time and the boys were busy throwing in all the rocks they could find. Us adults sat in the shade and watched them.

Beth enjoys sticking her tongue out.Sisters

Next we went hiking up the canyon to a ruin. It was a short hike and rather hot. The kids did great on the way up, but on the way back there was a bit of tears from tired children who missed their nap. They fell asleep shortly after we got on the road, so we had a peaceful ride home.

Robert and Josiah, and

I even got a good picture of Rueben.

The ruins on the rock is what we hiked to see.

Now I need to wash up dirty kids and get them to bed.

Aren't they cute!?

Elisabeth is climbing up on everything. Josiah loves to lay on the floor and let her climb over him.

Science with little ones

We have been reading and studying on the water cycle. It is a bit hard for my kids to understand since we live in a very dry area and there is not much natural water cycle happening. The curriculum that I am using for the twins called for an experiment to demonstrate the water cycle, and it really seemed to help them understand it. First I filled a pan 2/3 full of water and brought it to a boil. I removed it from the heat, set it on a hot pad on the table where everyone could watch, and put a cookie sheet covered with ice cubes on top of the pan. After about a minute we lifted the pan and watched the water vapor rise, meet the cold tray and turn into tiny water droplets on the bottom of the tray. When the drops got big enough they “rained” back into the pan. Monday we released our first monarch for this year. I have one caterpillar that will soon make his chrysalis. I also have a baby caterpillar and two eggs that we found Monday when we released the monarch. It has been fun listening and trying to answer all the questions that this has brought up. I wish I could remember them all so I could list them here.