The Mosquito

I chose the easy & fun route to teach lessons about mosquitoes:





This one is great, but it won't let me embed (Click the link below to see it. It is very interesting!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFfO7f8Vr9c

Click here for the printable wheel we made with the life-cycle of a mosquito after watching the Youtube videos about mosquitoes. We are adding it to the bug notebook.

I took some pictures but my camera battery died so I didn't get great ones, but I do want to occasionally have pictures of them working on projects... so here we go:

They are always so silly! :-)

Grammar Can be Fun!

Ideas for learning Grammar.

Grammar can be fun! And when one has little boys, it should be made as fun as possible. That is why we are in the process of reading GrammarLand.

GrammarLand is a living book. What is a living book you ask? Well,according to Charlotte Mason (my favorite homeschooling style):

"Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.” They can be contrasted to dry writing, like what is found in most encyclopedias or textbooks, which basically lists informational facts in summary form. You might be surprised to find that living books are available for most school subjects — even math, geography, and science"

Justin, especially begs me to read another chapter every day (did I mention we are talking about Grammar?!)

I also think little boys need fun.  Here are some great flashcards (you decide whether adjective, verb, adverb,etc)
http://www.kids-pages.com/flashcards7.htm

Here are some Mad Libs:
http://www.rinkworks.com/crazytales/

An online game:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/adventure/grammar1.htm#


More printables:
http://www.sparklebox2.co.uk/literacy/grammar/

Termite homes

After reading about termites and adding a page to our insect notebook about termites, we watched this FASCINATING clip about termite homes:

Poetry Memory:Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Here they are reciting the poem: "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" by Eugene Field.

 The easiest way to learn a poem or verse of any kind is to just say it every day.  I learned this one as a child too! :-)

They were a little distracted by the camera, so this gets pretty funny. :-) 

Jonathan Math game site

Favorite Math game site: 

http://jmathpage.com/JIMSMultiplicationfactspractice.html

Justin's first electricity experiment: The Joy Buzzer

Justin wants to study electricity, so we bought him a kit from Dangerous Books for Boys.  Here is his first experiment:  the "Joy Buzzer".   I didn't do the best job videoing, but I am glad you can actually hear the buzzing. He is so excited about it.

"The vibrating motor is a tiny motor that has an off-center weight at the end of its rotating shaft.  When the shaft spins, the center of gravity changes because of the rotating imbalanced weight.  This produces the vibrating motion.  These little motors are used in electronics such as cell phones and vibrating video game controllers to generate their vibrating action."