Mammal Experiment

This is our last week learning about animals in biology.  The boys are each picking an animal to write a report about-and it has to be a specific animal, not just a class of animals.  IJ picked ball python.  Shane hasn't decided yet.  In the meantime, we did two experiments.

The experiment demonstrates the importance of fur or blubber for mammals, who need to regulate their blood temperature.  We had two sets of "blood." One set represented an orca and the other represented a hairy mountain goat.  (The experiment calls for plain water, but I added red food coloring to make the experiment more realistic.)

The orca set asked, "What takes more energy to stay warm in, cold air or cold water?" One bottle went into the freezer and the other into cold water with "icebergs."

The hairy mountain goat set asked, "Which goat stays warmer, the hairy goat or the bald goat?" One bottle sat on the counter and the other nestled into a scarf.  The scarf does not contain any goat hair, so we used our imaginations.

We were amazed at the temperature difference between the orca bottles.  The cold water was ten degrees warmer than the air in the freezer, but the "blood" from the ice bath was a good fifty degrees colder than the "blood" from the freezer!  This was a great way to see why marine mammals need so much more blubber than land mammals in the same temperature.  And why we get so cold swimming down at the pond in the summer.  And why hiking scouts shouldn't get wet.

I've incorporated writing into every subject for the boys, especially Shane.  He is facing his first written portion in the annual standardized tests this spring and I want him to be completely comfortable.  I don't expect him to score very high considering he is younger than 99% of the 4th graders (and a large percentage of 4th grade boys are Ian's age).  But I do want him to practice and do well.  I had him write the data for our goat set and write up the conclusions.

But sometimes picture is worth a thousand words:

Of course my silly boys had the most fun toasting each other and drinking the red water with their lunch.  Sigh.

Fourteen

Coincidentally, he says it fourteen times.

Independent Learning

We are two weeks in to our rearranged schedule and I have seen a lot of really neat independent learning.

IJ's Science Project

Because the older kids have lots of free time in the morning (provided they have their math done), and they can't play video games or watch movies, they end up finding something interesting and productive to do.  IJ decided to grow avocado plants, using instructions he researched online.

Cobra, Rattlesnake, and Anaconda

Evie colored these three pictures of snakes, complete with habitats, which is a perfectly acceptable method of assessing learning.  I did let the kids watch an educational video about anacondas on Discovery Education, which led to me finding more video clips starring The Crocodile Hunter handling venomous snakes.  Today, in between dance classes and toddler time, we watched the last documentary Steve Irwin filmed: Ocean's Deadliest.  (Can you imagine? I had Daniel watch sharks biting a boat and then I put him down for a nap-sweet dreams!)

The other morning, Mark caught IJ helping Fiona read and write short words.  IJ is also doing a great job reading Evie's science books out loud to her on Tuesday mornings while I have dance/toddler time with the youngers.

Evie's math assignment yesterday was building three dimensional objects from two dimensional instructions using plain cubes.  I pulled out the Equilibrio cubes and the Architecto book and set her loose building more objects!  Now everyone is playing with the blocks.

One ongoing project in the lower levels of Saxon math (which we are not using this year) is recording the daily temperature and charting it on a graph.  I had the best intentions to keep this project going with the boys....for about three days.  I found a better project for my artistic child: a temperature scarf knit along!  My knitting and crocheting friends MUST read about it.  Evie and I are busy picking colors out of my stash of yarn.

"Please, sir, can I have some more?"

And of course we have reading.  Shane has finally caught the reading bug and is enjoying Choose Your Own Adventure books and Shel Silverstein.  IJ reads anything he can get his hands on.  And Lula? She devoured Oliver Twist!  Mark called me while I was driving home from wrestling last night and said something about Lula being fussy all evening.  But as my Nana always says, "This too shall pass." but I'm sure she wasn't talking about Oliver, specifically *wink*

The Most Beautiful January Day

The weather report said rain, but I saw sun.  I'm so glad we went outside!

Lula in the Sky

Top Dawg Roosty

Free Range Eggs

Boy's Best Friend

Let the climbing begin!

Reptile Week in our homeschool has turned into a lot of snake play.  And begging for a pet snake.  Mark is happy to oblige.  For those who don't know, Mark had many pet snakes when Ami and Laura were little.  When we got married, he was down to three red-tailed boas that he fed home-grown rats to.  When I first started going to their house for work purposes, Laura gave me two of their rats, hoping they would find a better life.  They lived in a bird cage at my house until Mark and I got married- then they rejoined the queue.  Mark donated the snakes to the reptile man when Ian was a baby.

Emerald Tree Boa

Barefoot Panther (not a snake)

I took the kids for a short nature walk...

 ...which ended up down at the pond, naturally.  Lula got to sit on real earth for the first time:

We are still reading about the ancient Greeks and are partway through The Odyssey.  We've also watched different versions of movies based on Greek myths.  It shouldn't surprise me that sometimes the stories get mixed up:

Shane launches Odysseus and the Argonauts *grin*

Well-guarded Baby: too bad they can't retrieve sticks from her mouth!

"I've got a stick in my mouth!"

"I've got another stick in my mouth!"

Daniel, not to be outdone, also puts a stick in his mouth:

 ...and insisted it was a yummy stick, not a yucky stick:

 When the big stick got too heavy, he found a smaller stick:

 He is such a goofball.  I love his "smile" for the camera:

 But even more, I love his big blue eyes!

(It's so easy to forgive him when he looks like this)

This day is only half over and so beautiful that it is easy to forget things that are going wrong (transmission going out in the van, roof STILL leaking, possible ear infections for me) and only focus on what is good (Mark being inducted into Sons of the American Revolution, farm fresh eggs, knitting sweaters during naptime).

Lula Gets Her Sassy On

If you care to watch a two minute video of Lula trying to get out of her Bumbo to get a train, enjoy.  This is one the other kids here love to watch over and over.

And this is just cute:

"What's the big deal with these things? They're no fun at all!"

Lula took her first trip to the swimming pool today!  She loved the water.  This was my first time taking six children to the pool.  Daniel decided he was scared of the water and kept a tight hold of my bathing suit top the whole time, even with a life jacket.  Once I took the life jacket off, he was fine.  I was thankful to have a friend that was happy to hold Lula the whole time so I could wrestle my giant squid son.  The other kids were happy to swim too!

No Sleep

We've had a rough couple of nights.  Because the baby room, where Lula usually sleeps, gets so cold at night (47 degrees last time I checked), we've had her sleeping with us...

"Who is that sleeping in my bed?"

And since Daniel still can't sleep alone, there are four people squished into a king-sized bed.  I'm ready to move to the couch or put a bed in the cold room for myself.  Daniel is still "extreme snuggling" and with Mark's broken/injured rib/side, he is not happy.  I think Lula is teething and growing because she is waking up throughout the night and consuming way more than I can produce.  This also is exhausting.

Guess who can crawl out of the Bumbo?

Okay, enough with the whining.  The latest "thing" in blog world is finding happiness in little things and blogging about it.  I've been very happy with my knitting lately.  I've finished up some wool pants, a leafy shawl, and now I've started a sweater for Evie.  This picture is for my friend Crystal, who knows me so well:

Pure Happiness

The sweater is knit from the neck down all as one piece so I don't have any seaming at the end.  I'm using yarn that I bought to make a sweater for myself many years ago.  The color is better suited for Evie:

Those green eyes just pop right out at you! They are so pretty!  That makes me happy :)

Insulate Me

You don't want to know what Mark and the boys did yesterday.  Okay, maybe you do.  After all, there wouldn't be a Twin Firs Adventure without adventures at Twin Firs.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, Mark and Ami insulated the attic with sheets of twelve-inch insulation.  This was done before we lived here, back when Grandad needed to stay toasty and there was no one to build him a fire.  Mark didn't know that by stuffing the insulation all the way to the corners, he would block the flow of air into the attic.  But now he does.

Mark created those nifty wire cages to hold the insulation down in the corners so air can flow freely.  Unfortunately, his helper that fits through the tiny spaces is all grown up with a child of her own.  Fortunately, Mark has two more helpers, ready to take the insulation crawling challenge! *shudder*

Unfortunately, IJ just hasn't grown strong enough to really shove those wire cages into the corner.  So Mark really did squeeze through that tiny hole (after shaving it a bit with the Sawzall (y'all)).  He must have gained some girth while in there, because he got stuck on the way out.  Yep, I was putting Daniel down for a nap when I heard him start to "worry" in the attic...

"I'm sorry, Mark can't come to work today!"

...Mark escaped without having to saw a bigger hole, but I'm afraid he cracked a rib on the way out.  At least he had the sense to wear a mask this time.

Free to be Flexible

One thing I absolutely love about our lifestyle is our ability to be flexible with our daily schedule.  If something isn't working, we can change it.  Sometimes I have a hard time thinking outside the box, but other times I surprise myself.

Finished math = Chess game (with Lula)

Daniel has been a humongous problem for our homeschool.  He needs to have a buddy at all times and he needs to be lead in a productive activity.  One of the reasons he can be so beastly is because MY routine is not meeting HIS needs.

Wants to continue homeschooling so he can know his siblings

For example, in my "perfect" morning plan (with lots of time built into it), IJ and Shane do their math independently while I listen to Evie read out loud.  When she is finished reading, I teach a math lesson to her.  Evie's instruction time shouldn't take more than 45 minutes.  While I'm busy with Evie, Fiona and Daniel are supposed to play.  They can play whatever they want wherever they want, they just can't disturb the peace.  After the 45 minutes is up, Fiona and Daniel get my undivided attention.

The Darkness Club-invented by Evie

In reality, Daniel bugs and pesters his brothers to play trains with him.  Or he and Fiona fight with each other.  Or Evie runs off with them to play in their room (The Darkness Club plays with flashlights and makes shadows) and I have to disturb the peace to stick to my (loose) schedule.  Or they bug me to watch a movie.  And if I put a movie on, Shane starts watching the movie instead of doing his math.  Daniel gets more and more irritating and we have to start disciplining.  And then he yells things like, "I HATE you mama!" or "I'm a BAD boy!" or "I'm gonna SPANK you Mama!"  And he has completely regressed and would rather have wet pants all day instead of submit to nature's calls.  Basically, 10:00 AM is a witching hour at my house (which is also right about the time Mark comes out of his office for a coffee break).

Give a girl K'nex and she makes jewelry.

I've tried staggering the boys' math times so one can always play with Daniel.  But with Shane's space-out problems, he rarely gets done on time.  And IJ gets tired of playing crash the trains and cars.  While the kids take their "recess" break, I'm supposed to catch up on laundry, dishes, that sort of thing.  Whatever housework I don't get done, I'm supposed to finish up in the afternoon when the kids are done with school.  But with my constant interruptions and frustrations during the morning school hours, I just have no energy for housework.  By evening, I usually put on a movie for the kids and try to get things done while they are zombies-or I become a zombie with them.  My "perfect" schedule was supposed to be a starting point to return to when we got off course, but I always seemed to get off course at the same spot every day.  And some things just are not getting done.

Teach a child to read and he can learn for a lifetime.

So, to recap, Daniel's day is supposed to be playing with siblings in the morning, taking a nap in the afternoon, and engaging in educational something-or-others in the evening.  In reality, his day is spent being told to wait and stop and quit bugging me and no you can't go outside and why can't you just color at the table during school time? and can't you just sit still on my lap? until it's nap time.  After he wakes up its watch a movie and quit bugging me again.  No wonder he's driving us crazy.

Take a boy outside for 15 minutes and he's happy all day.

So, New Plan. Again. Gosh, how many times have I posted about new plans?  Anyway, I discovered that IJ and Shane are perfectly capable of doing most of their work independently, which I already knew but forgot.  On Tuesdays when the girls have their dance class, I leave them a list of what they need to get done and they do it.  So now they can do that every day.  And I now spend every morning just puttering around the house, doing a chore here and there, and always available to Daniel and Fiona.  If Daniel wants to go outside, I pack Lula up in her snowsuit and Ergo and we all go outside.  If Daniel wants me play cars or trains, I do that (although when I play cars and trains, they don't crash into each other, they talk about their feelings, "Thomas, when you say you hate me, that really hurts" *snicker, snicker* He usually just takes his trains back at that point).  When I need to change a diaper, we all go have a "potty party" and get lots of stickers for dry pants, going on the potty, and putting pants back on without fighting.  And if we want to do a fun activity, like going to the zoo, the boys can do their math at night like Evie.  Daniel doesn't have to miss out on the fun things his brothers did when they were toddlers!

The dogs like the new routine too!  "Play? Outside?!?"

What about Evie? Well, lucky her, she is a Night Owl just like me.  Right now, IJ and Shane have activities every night except Tuesday.  So we do her schoolwork in the evening!  I am never too tired to homeschool because I love homeschooling (teaching Evie math is way more fun than laundry and dishes)!  And by the time evening rolls around, Daniel is happy, happy, happy, because he played and got lots of love and snuggles and took a nice three hour nap.  And I'm happy, happy, happy, because I got all the "hard" homeschool work done while he slept.

Mina hid her toy in the pond so she wouldn't have to share.

While Daniel slept this week, we started reading The Odyssey (Mary Pope Osborne's version), read about the Ancient Greeks, did three weeks worth of map coloring, and...

Cutting the jaw hinge to see the "teeth"

...dissected frogs.  Evie learned how to add 8 to any number less than 100 without having to count or write anything down.  I finished up another pair of wool pants and worked on my Leafy Shawlette that I started last weekend.  I batch-cooked lasagne last night.  Daniel and I brought in 15 eggs this morning. And we all feel so much happier and peaceful, all because I moved a simple 45 minute teaching session to the end of the day.