Snapshot Summary: October 26-31, 2009 {week 8}

26
Monday
Today we made a model of a limestone cave- We did not get a full cavern, but we got lots of tunnel caves!

We built sarcophagi out of cardboard taped together and then paper mache over top. The first layer.

27
Tuesday
Steven had to take Alex to his doctor, which is two and a half hours away. Quentin worked on his worksheets -handwriting and phonics. He did a couple of addition and subtraction problems, but then was finished for the day. Sam worked on sketching and making notes about Stonehenge, the sun, Egyptian gods and pyramids. He worked in his Greek workbook and on multi-digit multiplication problems. James worked on handwriting and reading, focusing on "silent e." He then made up his own addition and subtraction problems by rolling a 10-sided die for each place value. If the top numeral turned out to be larger, then it was to be a subtraction problem, if smaller then an addition problem. Who needs math workbooks if you can make up your own problems to solve?

28
Wednesday
Slow and quiet day as we all seem to be in various phases of flu symptoms. Sam wrote about pyramids, a summery of a chapter in the Lord of the Rings, an Egyptian Pharaoh family tree, Greek practice, spelling and division problems.  Alex had a really rough day yesterday. He has to have his blood drawn once a year and he doesn't understand it. He fights with all his might and at 15, he is pretty strong. It takes several people to accomplish the task. So, it seemed better today to give him some easy, hands-on kinda tasks to do today rather than his usual Language Arts work. We made a little booklet about fossils, a map of the Nile River and an experiment about density, ranking the heaviest to lightest. James worked on "silent e" words. He has a lot of trouble with remembering both the long and short vowel sounds. Seems as if he can remember either one or the other, but not both. He then worked on math word problems from How High Can a Dinosaur Count and other Math Mysteries? Quentin worked on his handwriting (h) and then subtraction problems from Little Red Riding Hood's Math Adventure. Sam was Katie's assistant this time for Quentin's ABC Cooking project because Katie can't touch the breadstick dough because it has casein and gluten in it- "I" is for inchworm snacks to share. We spent the afternoon... watching Joseph, King of Dreams... reading Lord of the Rings, drawing pirate pictures.

29
Thursday
James saw what he thought was a hedgehog and he drew a picture of it. The boys put a new layer on their sarcophagi. They painted their volcanic pop-up books mountain scenes. We built 3-D models of pyramids. They had fun seeing that when it folded out, it was in a star shape. We looked at how the chambers inside the pyramids were placed, and read the facts about pyramids. I had bought a plastic press that leaves a fossil shaped imprint this summer at Cooper's Gem Mine, and so we had fun with it. Katie helped Quentin make a "J" is for Jack o'Lantern project.

30
Friday
We have periods of time during the day when we feel well enough to do some things and then we will suddenly start to not feel so well, so we watch television (Leave it to Beaver seems to be the favored choice of the day), nap or play on the computer (Club Penguin, Toontown, Civilization or Majesty). Here are some of the things we did when we felt better... We talked about how the Egyptians painted the murals on the tomb walls. They sketched out what they wanted on the wall on papyrus and then inked a grid over the sketch. They then marked out a grid on the wall in chalk and enlarged the sketch one block at a time. We decided to try this method. Our mural wasn't very large, but it gave them an idea of how they did it. They colored and put together Pharaoh Khufu and his servants puppets. The Pharaoh puppet is jointed. Quentin made "J" is for Jack 'o Lantern Toast. Quentin worked on his sarcophagus while listening to guitar and lute music.

31
Saturday
Happy Halloween!
Cutting Pumpkins for Jack 'o Lanterns
Putting Up Decorations
Katie and Quinny made a Halloween Snack Mix
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Mummy dogs and Mummy Pizzas
A Skeleton(Sam), a Ninja (Katie), a Doctor(James), a Vampire(Quentin), a Mexican (Alex), and a Cowboy (Steven) go Trick or Treating.