Cool Homeschool Tool-Galileo Thermometer

The Galileo thermometer consists of a sealed glass tube that is filled with water and several floating bubbles.  The bubbles are glass spheres
filled with a colored liquid mixture.  This liquid mixture may contain alcohol, or it might simply be water with food coloring.  Attached to each
bubble is a little metal tag that indicates a temperature.  A number and degree symbol are engraved in the tag.  These metal tags are actually
calibrated counterweights.  The weight of each tag is slightly different from the others.  Since the bubbles are all hand-blown glass, they are not
exactly the same size and shape.  The bubbles are calibrated by adding a certain amount of fluid to them so that they have exact same density.  So,
after the weighted tags are attached to the bubbles, each differs very slightly in density from the other bubbles, and the density of all of them
is very close to the density of the surrounding water.

The basic idea is that as the temperature of the air outside the thermometer changes, so does the temperature of the water surrounding the
bubbles.  As the temperature of the water changes, it either expands or contracts, thereby changing its density.  At this changed density, some of
the bubbles will float and others will sink. HowStuffWorks or Wikipedia.

Wordless Wednesday-Guess the name of this cool homeschool tool?

Free Grammer Program

We received this information from a fellow co-op member.

"The Online Grammar and Writing Handbooks are in Adobe® Acrobat® format, for which you will need to use Adobe's Reader® software."

Scott and Foresman Reading

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday - Today's Classroom

Fine Motor Focus Day 14 -Spinning Top Race

Fine Motor Focus Day 13 -Thera Putty Hand Exercise

Stretch the Theraputty out and any tiny objects in it. Then mush it up into a ball.

It is now the child's job to pull the putty apart and find all the objects you put in there (oh, make sure you count how many you put in there, because the child WILL keep asking if they found them all).

Just a hint... children can even do this whole "game" themselves; hiding the objects AND finding them.

It comes in many resistance levels.

Tan - X-Soft Resistance
Yellow - Soft Resistance
Red - Medium-Soft Resistance
Coral - Medium Resistance
Green - Medium-Firm Resistance
Blue - Firm Resistance

Fine Motor Focus Day 12 - Break, Recycle and Use Crayon

Got old crayon? Need a Valentine's Day Craft? Have we got a an eco and budget friendly fine motor option for you.

First step peel the paper from used crayon. This paper will be used later as part of a rip paper art collage.

TS broke the crayons into small pieces using his thumb only.

These are going to be melted down via this to make this neat V-Day Craft.

voilà

Ta-Da!

HP Printer Give-A-Way at Jen's

I have been following Jen's blog for over a year. She is a mom of quadruplet boys. I just love her energy and spirit. She has a new review blog where she is sponsoring a giveaway of an Wireless HP Photosmart C6380 All-in-One Printer. Check her out!

Fine Motor Focus Day 11 - Colored Glue Art

Tools for the job:

• Half empty glue bottles
• Food coloring
• Construction paper

Add two drops of your favorite food coloring to each glue container and shake well. Let the lil artist use his imagination to make wonderful designs while working those squeezing hand muscles. For a little extra fine motor work hole punch colorful paper to add to the finished design.

Fine Motor Focus Day 10 -Cottonball Soccer

First you get an new squeeze bulb they use for suctioning lil noses and a new bag of cotton balls.

You can make them look like little soccer balls and make goals.

We used stacking cups and played cotton ball soccer by squeezing the bulb part in attempt to move the cotton ball into the goal.

This is working those thumb muscles. It was a hit but it was work for TS.

Fine Motor Focus Day 9 -Eyelash Curlers Jacks

A friend who is an OT recommended this game where you use eyelash curlers to simulate scissors, picking up jacks. TS loves it! After the game I taught him how to play jacks.

We used large jacks this time, next time regular size jacks.

Musician of the Week-George Bizet

Based on a weekly radio show called Classics for Kids.

Fine Motor Focus Day 5 - 8 Snip-It

Snip-It by Mead

"This 34-page workbook helps teach snipping and cutting skills in developmental progression. Builds fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination while introducing children to pre-writing shapes."

Wordless Wednesday- Handwriting Practice Anyone?

It maybe called Handwriting Without Tears but TS decided he needed punctuation.

Fine Motor Focus Day 4 - Bean and Noodle Sorting

This activity was done with kid tweezers, dried beans, uncooked noodles and the mega cupcake pan. TS was asked to put the correct number of beans into even numbered slots and the correct number of noodles in the odd numbered slot.

Then TS used medical tweezers (small) to remove them. There were a few projectiles but thanks to quick moves no one was harmed during this activity. :-)

What time is it?

So according to my "Grand Homeschooling" plan I was going to spend the month of January teaching TS how to tell time. He has mastered counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. The concept of the passage of time has been grasped; he gets the concept of months, days, weeks and section of days. We even got him a cool CARS watch that lights up for Christmas to make the concept exciting. He picked out translucent clock from IKEA for his bathroom in December. The spouse and I would randomly mention the time via that manual clock over the holidays. Then one night before his birthday it all clicked and TS is telling time manually and digitally. HOORAY!

No drilling, no flashcards or workbooks needed for this step, he just got it. I am very proud of him! Thank you Heavenly Father for TS, he is a child of sweet spirit, eager heart and strong love.

Did this put a hole in my planning for math? Sure, but homeschooling is all about flexibility. So instead of three weeks to finish our Currclick time lapbook it took a week. Which is great but there is a storm brewing in the Sandbox that is going to shake things up.

Fine Motor Focus Day 3 - Play dough

Squeeze The Dough

Play With Dough

Oh Come On Phil

:-)
Happy Ground Hogs Day