Flat Stanley

What a fun and relaxed week!  For co-op, we read the book Flat Stanley - the story of a boy whose bulletin board falls on him during the night and leaves him 1/2 inch thick.  He is able to do amazing things being that thin, like going down a grate to get his mom's ring, he was mailed to California to visit a friend, and helped the police nab some art thieves by pretending to be a painting on the wall at the art museum.

One of the activities we did in co-op was making flat people.  Here are pictures of the co-op flat people.

Each child is sending his/her flat person somewhere, along with a journal.  Flat Alex is travelling to Maryland, and Flat Nicolas is on his way to Georgia.  We are getting return flat people from those families to journal also.

We did a lapbook, but I have only taken pictures of a couple of the interesting components, because we will not be finished with the book until later.

The boys designed their own stamps - Alex's are at the top, and Nicolas's is below it.

After seeing the close relationship of Stanley and his brother in the book, we looked at my boys' brotherly relationship.  They wrote down some things in their own books about their brothers (Alex-top, Nicolas- bottom).

This morning, for breakfast, I surprised the boys with Flat Stanley pancakes - because in the book when Stanley's mom and dad saw him the morning the bulletin board fell, his mother said Stanley was flat, and his dad added "as a pancake."

This afternoon, to finish things off, we did a marshmallow experiment.  Both boys chose 3 heavy objects and guessed which one would flatten a marshmallow the most.  Alex chose a shoe, a rock and a 2 1/2 lb. weight - he predicted the rock.  Nicolas chose a dictionary, a rock and a 5 lb weight - he predicted the dictionary.  After flattening our marshmallows, we weighed each item.  Of course the heaviest object should flatten the marshmallow the most, however in Nicolas's case, the book flattened it the most (even though it only weighed 2 lbs.)  Hubby says it probably depended some on how the marshmallow was placed.  They had fun.

Art Show

At the IAHE Homeschool Convention this past weekend, both boys entered an art project.  Neither won, but wanted to share the artwork.  They chose to paint a sunset using watercolors.

Alex's

Nicolas's:

Berlioz the Bear

We did a fun book this week by Jan Brett, "Berlioz the Bear".  It's a story of an orchestra of bears trying to get to their concert in town, when their bandwagon's wheel becomes stuck in a hole.  Several animals try to help pull them out, but only a bee sting on the mule's hindside is successful.  The boys had a good time with this one because it involved music and they are so musical! 

We did a beginner's "reading music" class, learning how many beats are in a whole, half and quarter notes.  We clapped a song in 4/4 time, holding out the half and whole notes.  Nicolas then used his drums while Alex played his guitar.

We learned a little about the different instruments in an orchestra - brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion.

Then for geography, we learned a little about Germany and learned to count to 10 in German.

For art, the boys each tried to draw Berlioz the Bear from Jan Brett's website.  I think they did a pretty good job.

Alex's lapbook above, Nicolas's below.

CONVENTION- HERE WE COME!

Italy

We went to Italy this week. (You can go anywhere in stories, can't you?)  We read Little Nino's Pizzaria at co-op this week.  Learned some italian words and about 3 different artists - Matisse, Michelangelo and da Vinci.  We made a small lapbook again this week, only about Italy.  Not anything I feel the need to post pictures of.  Basically, just the flag, color Italy on a map, our Italian language book and some pictures of Italy - canals in Venice, the leaning tower of Pisa, etc. 

For our field trip, we went to Papa John's and they let each child make their own pizza.  The kids (and moms) had a lot of fun!

We then went to the park to eat our pizzas, although the kids waited until we got home to eat, they had to use up some energy!

Minnesota field trip

The boys great-grandmother died this past week, so we made a quick trip to Minnesota for the funeral.  It was a long drive there and back, but they did well.  We took reading and math with us so we wouldn't be as far behind.

I call this a field trip because the boys got some family history while we were there, and met distant cousins.  We drove by the farm where their grandmother grew up, the church where their grandma and grandpa were married (also their great-grandma and grandpa were married), the old schoolhouse where their great-grandmother went to school, also the farm where their great-grandmother was born and grew up.  They heard stories at the funeral about what kind of woman their great-grandma was.  They saw pictures of her growing up at the viewing and saw pictures of quilts she made.

It was good to get away and see family again, but it was good to get back home!

Spring Break!

We took Spring Break this week, although it hasn't been all that fun.  Alex came down with a fever on Sunday and kept it through Wednesday.  It seems to be gone now, but a cough remains.  I have tried my best to avoid the doctor's office because I didn't want the rest of us to get anything.  I was able to do some cleaning out of closets and kitchen cabinets this week, starting on my spring cleaning list.  There are still several things on the list I want to get accomplished.  The carpets were shampooed yesterday, so the living room looks great - for a couple of days :)

I always feel better when my house is clean.  Why is that?

My grandmother in Minnesota is not doing well, so it looks like we may have to make a trip up there.  We're not sure how long we have - days, weeks, months.  She has outlived 2 husbands and has survived many "episodes" in the last few years, so, who knows, she could fight through this one too.