Snapshot Summary, August 22-28, 2011 summer session, week 3

Snapshot Summary August 22-28

Monday
22
Steven had to go to his doctor's appointment to see if he will need more surgery on his knee.

Katie took the boys to the community pirate ship and along the way, they picked up this mushroom to bring home.

We examined it, took pictures of it and then snipped off the cap and put it on black paper to make a spore print.

While James read with Katie, I had Quentin gather some natural materials of late summer...

and we formed three groups of them. I had him count each group and write down the quantities.

He then added the numbers and then counted all the objects to confirm his addition.

upper-left: Katie (age 19), upper-right: Alex (age 17)
lower-left: Sam (age 14), lower-right: Phyllis

We made chalk pastels to finish our pond study...

and our study of the water lily and lotus.

Steven, it turns out, by the way, does not need any additional surgery, so our next goal is for him to be able to put weight on the leg, which will be in another two and a half months.

Tuesday
23

Our morning was busy. While Steven worked with his Physical Therapist, I made a little set of Medieval/Renaissance buildings for Quentin made from this template at Mini-eco to go with our readings about Islamic Empires in the Renaissance.

It is made from a cereal box. Katie and I spray painted the side with the writing on it...

but left the other side plain.

This inspired much play.

We finished our Queen Anne's Lace Nature Study.

We checked on our spore prints, which had come along quite nicely.

I even re-set the mushroom for another print.

After lunch we worked on our Maine scrapbook page.

In the afternoon, the floor and walls began to move in a rippling fashion. Steven, being from California, immediately recognized it as an earthquake. I couldn't believe it! Turns out it register 5.9 and centered in Richmond, Va. Now I can say I have experienced an earthquake.

Wednesday
24

Quentin took this photo of our rose in bloom.

 My friend, Denise, took me to the grocery store in the morning and we didn't get back until the afternoon.

The boys spent their time while I was gone building and pretending.

I helped Quentin work on a page in his history folder on Cabot and Hudson.

I listened to James read to me and he wrote about Gutenberg in his history folder.

 Then we made Soft Molassas Cookies for our study of Maine.

They were so good and with their spices would make a perfect fall treat.

Thursday
25

 We played a Bingo-type game to learn coin values by making a 5 x 5 square grid which we filled in each square with coin values (1, 5, 10, 25 and 50). Meanwhile I write various combinations values of the coins (such as 34, 2, 16) slips of paper. He chose a card and put that amount of counters (although real coins would have been better!) on the grid to equal the amount shown on the index card. To win, he must fill in as many squares as he could, and with each play he wanted to better his score. You could play it with two or more people, each with their own boards.



I peaked the interest of a reluctant learner while we learned about earthquakes using hard-boiled eggs.

 James practiced spelling.

Sam had a sick day (some sort of stomach bug.)

I made an tasty avocado vegetarian salad and sandwich.

and cut up a big bowl of peaches for a fresh peach pie.

 The Weekend

26-28
"What Are We Going To Do Today?"

Phineas and Ferb Day
began with these sandwiches for lunch, along with P & F fruit snacks and watching the show, of course.

 The hurricane hit our area on Saturday, knocking the electricity out for the weekend.

I hope the fact we have had an earthquake, a severe thunderstorm and hurricane in the same week isn't because we planned to study weather this year. : )