Dinner With A Side Of Science

Last night we went out to dinner with a friend and her two children. With kids in tow you are in better shape if you pick a kid friendly place. Red Robin is a good choice for us. Kind of noisy but they have kids meals, menus, crayons and my daughters favorite part is they give you a balloon when you leave.

Usually I am rather annoyed by balloons when they are bobbing around and the weird sound when they get near my ears freaks me out. Last night though my daughter was intrigued by her balloon and so we spent about an hour discovering what the balloon can and cannot hold and still stay aloft.

We kept a log and discovered that the balloon would carry one dime but not a nickle, penny or quarter. It would not carry Daddy's wedding ring or six paperclips but it would carry five paperclips. After we were done we weighed the string down with a glass on the table so we could see if it was still floating as high in the morning. It wasn't. Today it couldn't carry the things it did yesterday.

This sparked a whole new realm of questions from my daughter and necessitates another trip to the library so we can find the answer together. This is what is great about homeschooling. You never know when a learning opportunity is going to float by.

See Ya Later, Alligator!

Homeschooling a six year old calls for repitition and patience. In trying to help my daughter retain information we play games, sing songs, make up stories and use memory drills. She is doing pretty well with addition and the ABC's.
Currently we are working on States and Capitals and the Presidents. She knows the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln but is disappointed that the capital of Montana is not Hannah but some lady named Helena that she has never heard of and doesn't have her own show.
We will come back to that I tell her and start working on the Presidents.
Great!
She knows George Washington is the first President. Who is the second president?
Blank stare
I prompt her...John....
John Hericks?
No, that is your cousin. John Adams was the second President.
There are a lot of people named John.
Yes there are.
Was John Hericks President?
No, he is just your cousin. Who was the third President?
Do alligators believe in Jesus?
Huh?
Do alligators believe in Jesus?
Uh, no. They don't have to. Answering these questions on the fly is not easy. Animals are God's creatures so only people have to make the choice to believe. All animals go to heaven.
What if they eat a Christian?
Hmmm... then I guess they are in trouble.
See ya later alligator!

Ok. Let's try this again.
Who was the first President?

How do you verb?

Recently I have been working on reading skills with my daughter. Her reading is improving slowly but surely. Her brother being ten years older is of course working on a much higher level. It is difficult at times to work with them both at the same time but this week I had a light bulb moment. (I love those!)

I wrote a few mad lib stories. These are little stories just a paragraph or two in length. Leave out a couple words from each sentence. Without reading the story to them I asked them for the specific types of words I had omitted such as noun, adjective, verb etc.

What a great way to learn the parts of speech. My daughter quickly caught on to ''a noun is a person, place or thing.'' and ''an adverb is how you do an action'' or as she said ''It is how you verb!"

The three of us had a great time laughing at how silly the stories ended up and I love how it was a great tool for learning as well.

Great Idea

I love a great idea and will admit I didn't come up with this on my own. Another home school mom in our Classical Conversations group gave this tip to me.

Cut four inch circles out of different colors of construction paper. Have your child use each circle to write words in their own handwriting that they know. Use one of the circles to draw a face for the word worm. Tape it to the wall where it can be easily added to as they learn more words.

My daughter is so proud of hers. Every time someone comes over she shows it to them and reads the words. Every repetition helps when it comes to learning.