Wordless Wednesday: Fall

QOTD: Why is Lead's chemical symbol Pb?

Today's question was sparked while loading a mechanical pencil for handwriting work.

So the answer comes from the Greeks:  

Name: Lead
Symbol: Pb
Atomic Number: 82
Atomic Mass: 207.2 amu
Melting Point: 327.5 °C (600.65 K, 621.5 °F)
Boiling Point: 1740.0 °C (2013.15 K, 3164.0 °F)
Number of Protons/Electrons: 82
Number of Neutrons: 125
Classification: Other Metals
Crystal Structure: Cubic Density @ 293 K: 11.34 g/cm3
Color: bluish

Facts  
Date of Discovery: Known to the ancients
Discoverer: Unknown
Name Origin: From the Greek word protos (first)
Symbol Origin: From the Latin word plumbum (lead)
Uses: solder and shielding against radiation, batteries
Obtained From: galena  

Vacation Bible School 2012 Blessing

We have been on the move since the first week in June with out of town guest and a 1,000 mile roadtrip. God has blessed us to see many friends, family members and places while bring us safely back home. The icing on the cake has been this past week in our hometown VBS.

The theme was "Awesome God! Amazing Power!" In the words of my late grandmother "God just showed out!" The blessing and demonstration of God's love and direction was evident in section.

My son was placed in a group with some wonderful children who were as filled with God's love as his. His youth group leader was encouraging, caring and cool. He was blessed to see a young man, who was "cool and awesome" and lived his faith for everyone to see.

I started out the week as a hall monitor and ended working with a group with an amazing leader. We will call her Miss B has a quiet calm and peace that just radiates from her. It was blessing just to be in her presence. I met so many amazing mothers and dad who took the time to volunteer for VBS.

 The ending program brought me to tears. Imagine 300 young voices singing: 

If God holds my days in His hands, 

If God has power over my circumstance, 

If God knows the plans He has for me, 

... ... Why should I fear? Why should I worry? 

If God is for me who can be against me? 

If God is for me who can be against me? 

Whatever happens I know I can trust 

He is in control. 

'Cause if God is for me who can be against me?

 

 

Price Reducation Home Education Used Curriculum Sale

 Okay I am cleaning the closets before I bring in any new stuff.

Please contact me via Well Trained Mind PM or email to complete sales.  All items come from a smoke free/pet free home.  Paypals ONLY please.

Language Arts
Spellwell Book Bb by Nancy M. Hall   Pages 65 ISBN 0838821944 $1.00

Hands of a Child
Operation: English Grammar Curriculum $3.50

 
The Operation: English Grammar Project Pack takes your student on a special mission to help the people of planet “Gabgone” learn the English language in order to visit, conduct business, and communicate with the English-speaking nations of the world.  This 75-page unit includes a 15-page Research Guide and 28 hands-on activities that explain nouns, pronouns, adjectives, prepositions , verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, phrases, clauses, sentences, and punctuation!   PLUS - 2 bonus activities!  Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to crack the code on the English Language and prove that it is possible to use good grammar!

2nd Grade Printing Teacher's Guide is the guide for the second grade workbook, Printing Power. $1.00

History



Virginia History Projects:
30 Cool, Activities, Crafts, Experiments & More for Kids to Do to Learn About Your State Books 1 and 3
$2.00 for both

Math

Number Beats DVD $10

This fun and educational video teaches children how to write numbers 0-9. Each 7-minute chapter includes writing and counting demonstrations, skits, and worksheet practice! Also included are three chapters on skip counting (2’s, 5’s & 10’s); as well as a bonus chapter on “big numbers”.

Fun!
Lego Minifigs
Cole, Jay, Zane ZX, Snappa, Stormtropper and one handed Mechanic (with a spinner and weapons) $7

Science


Science Celestron 44320 Microscope Digital Kit $15 shipping included
Condition: Gently used Camera and Microscope work.

• Kit comes with:
  
  • Biological microscope with powers from 40x to 600x
    
  • Zoom eyepiece from 10x to 20x
    
  • Digital camera with imaging software included on CD-ROM
    
  • Top and bottom electric illumination
  
   The Celestron 44320 is a multi-purpose microscope can be used as a traditional microscope with powers from 40x to 600x or attach the digital camera to view on your computer. It's the perfect tool for discovering and learning about the world we can't see. The included software allows you to save digital images and video to your computer. Weighing just 22 ounces. Other features include a zoom eyepiece from 10x to 20x and top and bottom electric illumination. The microscope requires Windows 98, 98SE, 2000, ME, XP, or Vista, CD/DVD drive and open USB port.

 

Good-Bye Old Friend: Five In a Row Bible Supplement

We are done now with FIAR, so to keep the clutter to min we are selling off all our stuff. So sad, but it can bless another family.

Wordless Wednesday: Be Happy

theinspirationtree:

Be Happy by Monica Sheehan

The Learning Power of Lego

Via: Online College Advice

QOTD: Why are erasers pink?

While finishing Math yesterday The Student wanted to know: "Why are erasers pink?" After a google search we found the following answer on ehow.com.  

History

The beginnings of the modern eraser are traced to 1770, when Edward Nairne sold cubes of natural rubber from his shop in London. The pink eraser became common when Eberhard Faber began to manufacture the Pink Pearl in a factory he started in 1861.

Properties

Pumice, a type of volcanic rock, and organic rubber were combined to make the pink eraser. This combination created the distinct smell and color of the eraser.

Features

The pumice gives the pink eraser its abrasive quality without detracting from the softness of the rubber.

Function

Erasers are used to remove markings from surfaces, most often to remove pencil markings 

from paper.

Fun Fact

Papermate reported the sale of 132,000 Pink Pearl block erasers in 2008.

 

Wordless Wednesday

The Alphabets of Being A Homeschool Mom

by Unknown

Recycling Lego Containers: Cleaning Product Storage

Wordless Wednesday: Welcome Space Shuttle Discovery

 More on this once in a life time trip later.

Worldless Wednesday: Spring Break Waffles

Six Weeks On and One Glorious Week Off

The new schedule has been a God send. It has allowed us to focus on obtainable goals and bring the joy back to our home education journey. During our week off this year we got to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Washington DC Cherry Blossoms.

Actually we had spring fever the last day of of the six weeks and took off downtown. Oh the joy of home schooling.

January Review

January In Review

In order to bring the joy back into our homeschooling journey I have switched to a six weeks on and one week field trip schedule. This allows me to plan six weeks of work and a week to be off enjoying what it means to homeschool. Also it allows me to add or alter lessons based on the progress of the pervious six weeks.

So far is it working very well because I print the weeks schedule out in advance. He knows what we have to do and I leave enough time in the schedule to follow what I call “Popcorn Subjects”. Subjects that just POP into your schooling adventure that beg to be investigated.

Co-Op

Co-op is going well new year we will be looking for something in the area of two or three days a week.

Bible and Character Building

January we studied the concept of Self Control with Studio 252 as well has studying his T&T AWANA book. Our memory verse for the month was .

Our big self control challenge was building a tower out of our favorite candy (gum drops) without eating them. It was fun to work together and talk about what it means to have self control.

We also talked about how to bring self control into our daily lives through prayer and practice.

Science

We are wrapping up our study of the human body with the Digestive and Nerverous System with an introduction Genes.

Our primary resource is R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life program with additional information from Usborne Science Encyclopedia.

We used resources from Bill Nye as our video portion.

It was fun to discover just how long the digestive track is in the average human.

We had a lot of fun doing the bar chart of reaction time of catching a ruler.

Music

This month we studied Mozart. Again we used Classics for kids as our resource along with books from the library and Brain Pop.

Our local classical radio station celebrates Mozart's birthday all month long playing every piece of Mozart music available. It was great to see his eyes light up as we drove around town to our different errands as he recognized a music concept or just enjoyed the music.

Next months goal is to attend an actual concert and find a percussion class.

Art

Epic Fail on art this month. We were suppose to finish Leonardo Di vinic but art kept getting moved to the back burner. I need to find a more interactive outlet for art.

Math

We have finally breached the walls of double borrowing and multiplication. He loves it. We are using Mammoth Math and Teaching Textbooks 4. TT is only one day a week when we have a lot of outside activities. He see it as a reward.

Handwriting

I decided we need to review some basic concepts of HWOT but did not want to take him back to the “ baby” books in his words. We found a good bridge in the form of HWOT's Can-Do Print. It is recommended for 5 ^th graders but it fits our needs and he loves the Greek and Latin elements.

Product Description:

Can-Do Print is for fifth graders or older students who prefer print to cursive, but still need practice.

• Students receive a quick, thorough review of printing.

• Practice pages reinforce other language arts lessons (grammar, Greek/Latin roots).

• Printing skills are used to write paragraphs, poetry, plays, autobiographies, and thank-you notes.

So once a week we do cursive and the other days we do CDP.

History

This month has been a study in Roman for SOTW. He finally got his question answered about the tow children on the front of the SOTW Volume 1 book. We will be focusing more on the time in in February.

Language Arts

I finally broke down and bought Sonlight LA for Grade 3. Simply because nothing else worked and we fast approaching boredom with LA. It has some good elements but it is still not as exciting or challenging as FIAR. The components are not holding his interest and the stories either bore him or depress him.

So I will be using it as a spine and incorporating BYFIAR into our six weeks schedule.

He still loves Worldly Wise 3 and at this rate might finish it by April which is when I will begin All About Spelling.

10 Weekly Goals

I am reading a wonderful book by Crystal Paine called The Money Saving Mom's Budget: Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year. One of the first steps she encourages you to do is create goals for yourself and your family. The important part of goal setting is to write them down and review them daily, so they become a part of your life.

This has long been a improvement area for me because of faith issues and fear. Today I am stepping out of fear into grace and starting small with 10 Weekly Goals. Crystal has great advice and encourage on her site at MoneySavingMom, it has been a blessing to our family.

So here are my Top 10 Goals for February 6- 12

Blog:

1. Plan my February entries
2. Read “How to Start A Blog for Profit”
3. Decide if I need one or two blogs

Family:

4. Hug my family at least three times a day
5. Menu plan for the next ten days.
6. Read a chapter aloud from “Three Musketeers” everyday

Personal:

7. Switch to green tea and eliminate regular tea
8. Drink More water at least 6 glasses a day
9. Exercise 3 times this week

Home Management:

10. Complete Income Taxes.

Lego Logistics: Storage and Building Project

Okay so the Lego collection had gotten a little out of hand in our house. Each time Ironhide wanted to play or build he had to spread tons of Lego into the middle of the floor. We had them in a 4 drawer container but they were so jumbled it took hours to find parts. It was not a creative environment.

Then one bright November morning I saw this lovely low cost Lego organizing system in Family Fun Magazine.

This design could utilize the drawers we already owned and give Ironhide a proper building space for all his creations. I wanted to do this project that very weekend but the entire family came down with strep so it had to be postponed until after Thanksgiving.

When December I arrived I knew the holidays would bring more Lego sets so the entire family sat down for what we thought would be an hour of Lego sorting. We were so very wrong. This pile looks manageable in the photo but in real life this was a big job.

It took two adults sorting and one kid kinda sorting kinda building 4 HOURS to turn that pile into these six neat drawers. I have to admit it has been a long time since we sat down as a family without the TV on and just talking working on a project together. I loved every minute of it.

(Hubby's enthusiasm turned to dogged determination by the 2 hour mark and by hour 3 he was promising never to purchase another Lego. He was kidding.)

Christmas was mere days away so I only had a $25 budget for this entire project. So the next day I made my supply list and headed for the stores.

Project Materials	Qty Needed	Price Per	Total Cost	Actual Cost
Neon Green Duck Tape	3	$6.00	$18.00	$6.00
Lego 15 X 15 base plates	2	$15.00	$30.00	$0.00	We owned multiple green base plates with fit.
Sterilite 4 Drawer Storage Cart	3	$25.00	$75.00	$0.00	We already had them.
Industrial Strength Velcro	3	$4.00	$12.00	$4.00	Coupons!
Plastic Drawer Dividers	8	$5.00	$40.00	$0.00	I made my own with leftover presentation board and Duck tape.
2” Thick Presentation Boards	2	$7.00	$14.00	$7.00	(The original designed called for wooden board but we thought thick sterofoam was a better solution saving time and money. If it didn't work we could always go back later and get a board.)
Total			$189.00	$17.00

But again illness sideline my team and we put the project on hold until after the Christmas.

We were blessed with lots of new Legos that needed a home so we got right to work to keep the sorted Legos in their new proper homes. In order to get this into his room we did a complete room re-organization. We moved shelves, rebuilt beds and brought in new bedding. Once Ironhide saw the work space he just help to build there was no more design time he had to build. He said “It's like a home make over show!”

We still have to label the drawers (he didn't like the Duck tape plan) but we have one happy kid. He has been at this station everyday since it was built. He even completed a set that had missing pieces because now all he had to do is look in the color drawer.

His birthday is coming soon so we may end up expanding the work surface.

This was a blast to do and gives him a creative space.