Friday 30 September 2011

Marble Science

Learning all about centrifugal force, kinetic energy and inertia
but, really, we're just having fun with marbles!



Thursday 22 September 2011

Life of Fred

We've started reading the delightful book "Life of Fred: Apples"
from Dr. Stanley Schmidt's Elementary Series.

Life of Fred 4-Book Elementary Set # 1 : Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Dogs

Each hilarious chapter is short (6 pages) and concludes with a handful of questions for the kids to do.  It is really intended for Matthew's age and so some of the questions are simplistic for Bekah but then others are very appropriate ("Do you think a million is a big number?").  Amazingly enough both kids are entertained and starting to do simple algebra in a very natural way.

Matt's Work 

Bekah's Work

Scrabble



Bekah's first Scrabble game

More Writing

I've been unsettled with regards to what to do with Bekah in Language Arts this year (lots of ideas but the big picture isn't coming together yet) but then the other day I realized that I need to stop stressing about it. My daughter writes "for fun" all of the time (she wrote me a chapter book this summer) and my job is just to make sure she keeps loving it! Here are a few samples of things she wrote this summer:


The People's Poem
Be kind to all
No matter what colour
Don't go around hating
     and despising each other
For in God's eyes
     we're all the same
He loves us all equally
No matter what our fame or fortune,
No matter if you're the poorest person
He loves us all EQUALLY!


My God Song

Oh My God
God of all Gods
I worship in praise
     for I know you are with me
     for all of my days

So I worship
So I worship in praise
     the Lord my God
For all my days

So I worship
So I worship in praise
So I worship in praise
So I worship in praise
I worship in praise
     the Lord for all of my days
Worship my God for all of my days


The Tree (Inspired by "The Giving Tree")

Oh what a tree gives us...
Without us even really caring
Now trees are few and people have taken their home
     and we still hardly even notice.
We still hardly appreciate what they have given us
     for thousands of years.

They have given us shade on hot summer days,
     fruit when we are hungry,
     a place to climb away from danger,
     or just a wonderfully beautiful place to sit.