Paper chromatography

We used coffee filters to do a basic chromatography experiment at a previous Science Club gathering, and the boy was so excited about it that he set up his own replica of the experiment at home. After colouring a picture with markers, he set it in a bowl of water and watched the ink separate as the water rose up the paper.

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Science: Observation

Grape construction

This week's Science Club adventure was a simple combination of grapes and toothpicks. The kids used them to create various shapes and objects, including pyramids, houses, tiaras, and even sea urchins!

Little brother snacks while big brother begins creating.

Making a grape-kabob fence.

His final creation!

Bonus? Instant snack time afterwards!

We will definitely repeat this activity with a more focused look at both two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes in the future.

(Thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration!)

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Science: Observation
Mathematics: Shape and space

H_ngm_n

We went out to eat last week, a rare treat, and the boys were given magna doodles to play with while we waited for our food (thank you, child-friendly food establishment!). The boy wanted me to draw something, so I drew a pole, a few blank lines, and introduced him to the exciting game of hangman. It immediately became one of his favourite games, right up there with Uno and Lego Creationary.

Gotta love the classics!

His word was Fatburger. Don't judge. Their food is yummy.

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Language Arts: Reading, writing

Fun with magnets

One of our most fun purchases recently has been a couple sets of strong magnets. We used them to test which objects were magnetic and which weren't, to make "temporary magnets" out of other objects, and to see how long of a magnetic chain of objects we could make.

We also had a lot of fun moving magnetic objects around containers of water. We placed paperclips, coins, and other objects inside a container of water, and then used the magnet on the outside of the container to move the objects within.

Using a magnet to lift a paperclip out of a glass of water.

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Science: Observation, description

Underwater Fireworks

This was one of those projects that was the perfect combination of low prep and high engagement. The kids watched the "underwater fireworks" for a long time, and then requested that we keep the remaining mixture in the vase "just to look at" for a couple more days.

(Thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration!)


Supplies:

Oil
Water
Food dye
Clear glass containers


Directions:

We began by pouring about a half cup of oil into a glass, then added two drops of each colour of food dye to the oil. We noted that the food dye remained in small round balls at the bottom of the glass. For comparative purposes, we did the same thing with a glass of water and observed that the food dye mixed with the water instead of staying in little balls. How interesting!

We disposed of the water mixture and turned our attention back to the glass of oil. The boy used a fork to vigorously stir the oil.

Stirring complete, we noted that the food dye was now in many many smaller balls within the oil.

The boy then poured the glass of oil and food dye into a vase of water.

In she goes!

And now we watch.

It didn't take long for the show to begin. As the little balls of food dye sunk from the oil down into the water, they "popped" into colourful underwater fireworks.

Aren't they pretty?

This one was my favourite. That reddish clump on the right looked like a little fishy swimming in our water!

When all the dye balls had sunk down into the water, we were left with a dark mixture of water on the bottom and a layer of oil on the top. We talked a bit about the why's but mostly just enjoyed the observation process. Looking forward to similar experiments in the future!

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Science: Observation, description

Around the house

In addition to developing his kitchen skills, we've been offering the boy greater responsibilities around the house as well.

His laundry responsibilities, in addition to putting his own dirty clothes into the hamper, had previously included bringing the dry clothes from the dryer in the garage into our house, as well as basic washcloth folding. Bringing in the dry clothes has now been passed on to his younger brother, while the boys' new responsibilities include putting away the clothes for the three kids (I had initially asked him to put away the clothes for him and his brother, but he insisted he could do his baby sister's clothes as well) and sorting the laundry. Next up, advanced folding!

Other current household responsibilities include assisting in unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming the living room, setting the table for the kids, clearing away his dishes after a meal, cleaning up his toys before bedtime, keeping his room tidy, and general assistance when requested. He also enjoys window washing, but that remains a skill-in-progress.

It has been interesting to observe the link between meaningful work and personal initiative/responsibility. The more (age-appropriate and reasonable) meaningful work we give him, the more he demonstrates awareness of household needs and a willingness to take them on himself. He has, for example, taken on the responsibility of undoing both of his little sibling's carseats when we arrive at our destination, in addition to other self-initiated responsibilities.

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Social Studies: Responsibility

In the kitchen

The boy has been taking care of his own breakfast for a while now, often helping his little brother with his as well. He also washes fruit, peels vegetables, and makes toast with peanut butter.

Recently we've been working with him to increase his kitchen skills. Earlier this month he made us a delicious meal of fried egg & cheese sandwiches with a side salad. I sliced the cheese while he made the toast and fried the eggs (turning on the correct burner, buttering the pan, cracking the eggs into the pan, flipping the eggs, moving the cooked eggs onto the toast). We worked together on the salad and then everything was brought to the table for our meal. Delicious!

The next day, he saw me making fried mushrooms with toast for my own lunch. He doesn't usually eat mushrooms, but he thought my lunch smelled and looked yummy, so I told him there were more mushrooms in the fridge if he wanted to make his own. He turned on the correct burner, buttered the pan, sliced the mushrooms, stirred them around as they fried, made toast, then put it all on a plate when it was done.

Our next dinner was a simple spaghetti and pasta sauce meal, so I let him have at it again. He learned not to put an empty pot on a hot burner, but to put the water in first. He boiled the water, added the spaghetti, and warmed up the pre-made frozen pasta sauce in another pot. I began to set the table, but he promptly stopped me, insisting that he would take care of everything. He set the table for all of us, brought the jug of water over, and put the Parmesan cheese on the table. Simple skills, but a complete meal!

Next up: Pancakes from start to finish!

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Health: Nutrition
Social Studies: Responsibility

He's reading!

I'm sitting here at my computer, resting after a long day. The baby is sleeping on my lap and the boys are playing happily together. Soon we'll have supper but right now it's quiet.

And then - and then! - I hear a familiar sound. It's the sound of the boy carefully sounding words out. I look over and there he is, reading a book out loud to his little brother!

I love it.

And now he's done, back to his Lego. I'm so glad I caught that small moment, and I look forward to witnessing more of them as his reading skills continue to grow.

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Language Arts: Reading

Enunciation

"How do you spell _____?" has become one of the boy's most commonly asked questions as of late. He generally attempts it first and then asks me for confirmation. If he's incorrect or if he hasn't yet attempted it, I guide him through the sounds to help him figure it out himself. In this way, spelling rules are gradually introduced as examples present themselves.

An interesting challenge has recently arisen with the boy's attempts at spelling. Because of his age-appropriate and yet incorrect pronunciation of certain sounds, he spells the words as they sound to his ears. When he asks if he has spelled it right, I enunciate the word correctly so he can hear the sounds. Only he doesn't believe me!

The first such controversial word was "truck". He had spelled it "chuc", which is phonetically correct according to his pronunciation. Somehow when he says it aloud, the difference isn't glaringly obvious, but a closer listen reveals that he does indeed replace the "tr" sound with "ch".

A similar conversation took place regarding the word "thing", which he pronounces as "sing". Again, it was a challenge for him to adjust his idea of the correct pronunciation of this word. This issue has led to interesting discussions on the concept of speaking clearly, the challenges of spelling words when they aren't pronounced correctly, and whether or not mom does in fact know how to spell.

The "tr" versus "ch" pronunciation came up again after he drew and labelled a picture of tarantulas ("chachalas"). I was impressed that he had tackled that word on his own. After telling him so, however, he asked if he had spelled it correctly. I told him it was close but the "ch" sound was actually "tar". Again, he had difficulty hearing the difference and remained convinced that he was indeed pronouncing it correctly.

I know the issue will resolve itself in time, as his speech sound acquisition progresses. In the meantime, it makes for a good reinforcement of careful enunciation as well as an interesting presentation of the challenges of phonetic spelling when speech sounds have not yet been fully acquired.

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Language Arts: Reading & Viewing, Writing & Representing, Speaking & Listening

Gobble gobble!

Although Thanksgiving has come and gone (here in Canada, anyway), we decided to do a turkey handprint craft this week. I traced and cut out both the toddler's hand and the daycare toddler's hand, put glue on the fingers, and gave them some pre-cut feathers to stick onto their turkey.

The boy, however, was affronted at the idea of creating a turkey with feathers coming out the top of his back. Turkey feathers, he said, stuck out at the back rather than the top of the turkey. No way was he going to construct an incorrect turkey.

So marker in hand, he went to work drawing and cutting his own turkey. He then used tape (not glue!) to put the feathers in what he felt was the correct place. He added paper feet and used a marker to fill in the details. Satisfied with his turkey, he finished the project in his usual way, by printing his name on the back. Important detail, you know?

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

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Fine Arts: Visual arts

Incorporating literature into imaginary play

The boys' bedtime story this summer was The Hobbit, which both of them enjoyed very much. (Thanks to The Hobbit, the word "thief" was introduced into their vocabulary, and has since become the go-to word for someone they're very angry with. Better than some of the alternatives, right?)

After The Hobbit, they began the Narnia series. So far they have completed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, followed by The Magician's Nephew, and are now working their way through The Horse and His Boy.

It has been particularly interesting to watch the boys incorporate the characters from these stories into their imaginative play. Queen Jadis (from Narnia) and Bilbo (from The Hobbit) are the most common characters used, while several others make occasional appearances.

The boys spent this afternoon outside, building an elaborate fort and then using it as their house for their imagined family. The boy was "Rose" from the book "The Golly Sisters Go West", while the toddler was "Primrose" from another recent favourite, "The Complete Brambly Hedge" (this beautiful book is currently ours on loan from the library, but will likely be purchased to become part of our own library to be read over and over).

We'll see what characters make imaginary appearances next!

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Fine Arts: Drama
Language Arts: Reading & Viewing, Speaking & Listening

Recent drawings

The boy spends hours each day with his crayons, scissors, tape, and paper. He says glue takes too long to dry, but he loves the mini-stapler that I bought for him after he kept borrowing mine. He enjoys his smelly markers (Mr. Sketch) and my highlighters. In short, this guy loves his paper crafts.

I was amused by this recent creation, where he combined tape and crayons to make a stand for a dump truck he had drawn. How innovative of him!

He loves Magic School Bus books. I'm quite fond of the old-style ones myself, while the new ones seem to be lacking a certain depth that the original ones had. Despite my feelings for the newer ones, several have made their way into our library, including one on bats. It was from that book that this drawing was inspired.

Although we have done leaf rubbings and coin rubbings in the past, the boy was excited to discover that the same idea worked with stickers. These shapes were created by colouring over stickers placed under the paper; the outlines were impressively clear.

This little zebra is my personal favourite. He's in a cage in a (well-labelled) zoo. On the right-hand side, you can see the boy's initial attempt at spelling "zebra". After asking me if he had spelled it right, I helped him sound it out slowly so that he could determine the correct letters. He was able to figure it out without difficulty and wrote it at the bottom of the page.

The boy has several similar versions of this self-invented doorknob hanger, most of them hanging together on his bedroom door. I love the line of cheering people on the basketball side, and I was pleased to see the 'J' in his name facing the correct way on the soccer side. He usually draws it backwards, so it was good to see self-correction in action.

Other current favoured drawings right now include dinosaurs, construction vehicles, trains, houses, and birds.

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Language Arts: Writing
Fine Arts: Visual arts

Letters everywhere

The boy's list of sight words is rapidly growing, and his ability to sound out words is improving daily as well.

At home, he uses letter magnets to make words on the fridge. He also labels many of his drawings and frequently comes to ask me if he's spelled a word correctly.

Some of the boy's current fridge-words.

As we drive, he reads street signs, billboards, and words on stores and vehicles. Sometimes he sounds them out himself, while other times he asks me what (for example) "T-R-A-N-S-I-T" says.

Because he doesn't yet have the ease of reading nor the stamina for reading long portions at once, we take turns when we're reading early reader books (Dr. Seuss books are a favourite of ours for this alternating-pages style of reading).

During a playtime with some friends, he spent some time with one of his friend's mom doing a reading and writing game. I love that everyone we meet has that potential to be a teacher-figure in our lives, whether by introducing us to new games, discussing new ideas, facilitating a learning experience, or sharing a skill!

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Language Arts: Reading, writing

Car Talk

Thursdays are our busy out-and-about days, with lots of time spent driving back and forth - to science club and back, to Bible study and back, to evening activities and back. All this driving leads to numerous opportunities for discussions. I don't know what it is about the car, but our best conversations always seem to happen there.

Today's lunch was a rare fast-food stop at A&W. From this we discussed the concept of healthy versus unhealthy food, why fast-food places exist (convenience for consumer, profit for company), and why fast-food places usually sell food that isn't very good for our bodies (cost, convenience). We talked about how a steak, potatoes, and salad would make a reasonably nutritious meal, but when you fry the potatoes in an unhealthy oil, put the steak and salad inside of a bun, cover it all in salt, and drink it with a sugar-filled soda, it becomes significantly less healthy.

After discussing nutrition, we ended up on the topic of careers. The boy's dad is currently an electrical engineering student in his final year, which means next year he'll begin full-time work in his field. The boy asked why people go to school, which led to a discussion on learning skills and working conscientiously, as people who either don't know what they are doing or don't do their jobs responsibly end up being told they can't work there anymore. The boy then asked what jobs you didn't have to go to school for. After I listed some examples, he suggested painting, which then led to a discussion on the concept of self-employment. Very interesting conversation all around!

Our final discussion centered around the idea of twins, as the boy has recently befriended a set of boy/girl twins as our weekly science group. Because the twins are different genders, the boy rightly observed that they didn't look alike. I explained the two different ways twins are formed and how that relates to whether or not they will look identical. After discussing those ideas back and forth, he then asked how a mommy's tummy would look if she was pregnant with twins. We talked about babies coming early or being born smaller, what that meant for the infants' development (primarily centering on lungs), and what might have to be done to keep everyone healthy (bedrest, respiratory assistance for premature babies, etc).

It's always fun to hear the boy's thought processes through his questions and observations!

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Health: Nutrition, careers
Science: Observation, discussion