Our Week: Mid February

This week, as always, was lots of fun and very busy.  Here are a few highlights from the week....

Our week started with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa.  While they were here the boys kept us all very busy.  At one point the boys were trying to skip count by twos but couldn't get very far.  I handed TJ a hundreds chart so he could keep going.  He then tried counting by 5s too.  Then he went off to make a board game with his chart. TJ's game was like snakes and ladders (but with only slides to get to a higher number).  He also kept changing the rules on me as we played.  I didn't mind at all because it was just for fun and he was counting lots.

MJ had never seen a hundreds chart before.  He was so excited to keep counting all the way to 100!!  He too tried to make a game but I had no idea what the rules were. That weekend they also worked through most of our maze book.

I haven't been having much luck strewing activities around the house.  It can get rather cluttered here and when I put things out they often go un-noticed.  I decided to set up an activity for the boys to discover.  I had no set plans other than to set up a little thing for them if they wanted to check it out.  We have used our balance scale before but this time I aded a jug of coloured water.  The boys tok turns weighing different amounts of water. 

They also discovered that our weights float.  MJ even weighed his tractors and water.  Oh these adorable togs are olive tongs that I found at the dollar store!

The next day I put out some mirrors I had taped together on the coffee table with pattern blocks.  The boys made some beautiful patterns. 

I had also seen on Pintrest an idea to make snowflakes.

MJ made a cute dog with pattern blocks.

We joined up with a group of homeschoolers to go tobogganing.  Everyone was so friendly.  The children all shared their sleds and had a wonderful time.  We had so much fun that we went back the next day too!

I had bought a clock kit just after Christmas and thought it might be a good time to bring that out.  The boys and I fund a new appreciation for all the work daddy does at work.  Part of his job is to repair school clocks.  Our clock too patience but we finally got it working.  Later daddy checked it over and helped us to get the chime to work correctly (we had put a part in upside down).

I am always so amazed at how my boys naturally enjoy math.  MJ wanted to collect 100 rocks for his farm.  He asked if one of our baskets had enough so I suggested that he start counting and find out.  We used an abacus to keep count.  When he ran out, MJ took another basket of items to keep counting.  TJ joined in as we neared the end.

TJ was feeling a little bored one day so I presented him with a challenge.  I put out a balance scale with some weights and a rock.  I told him to try and keep the balance level at all times (so what ever he did to one side he had to do the same on the other), then try to find out the weight of the rock.  He tried several different things and came up with a number.  I showed him how I would have approached the problem too in another way.  This got his interest and he asked for more.  I used the same rock but different weights.  To his delight the answer was still the same.  

Of course we then tried the same trick with a math gnome.  Still looking for a challenge I used the rock, math gnome and weights.  Telling TJ to find the weight of the gnome.  He got stuck but when I reminded him that he already knew what the rock was, he figured it out.  Algebra isn't really too hard.  I showed TJ the math equations for what we had been playing with.  He was totally shocked...

X + 5 = 20 so he found that X = 15

Y + 35 = X + 40 we knew that X (our rock) was 15 already so Y = 20

We had a wonderful time visiting with my mom, sister and all the boys for a Valentine party.  TJ made some cards for the retirement home we were going to visit.  MJ made cards for his church friends.

The next morning we made some crayon resist water colour cards (draw with white crayon and paint over with water colours).  We joined some friends from church to visit  a local retirement home.  The children handed out their Valentine's cards and some flowers to a group and stayed to chat.  We had a lovely time.

Our week ended with a very busy fun visit from a little girl who was part of our home daycare a few summers ago.  The kids made a huge fort in the middle of the play room.  They went camping, played Playmobil, painted sun catchers, baked cookies, went tobogganing, read stories, watched a short movie, made cards and played even more!  Wow what a great day.  Our little friend had so much fun she really didn't want to go home.  We are looking forward to a visit from another little girl to start off next week.

After such an exciting week with loves of visitors, we spent the first part of the weekend cleaning, and putting the house back together.

TJ discovered some awesome random parts under his bed to build a robot.  He was inspired by the shark on MJ's body project to make a large cardboard shark.  And daddy gave to boys tape measures so they have been measuring everything in sight.

I'd love to hear from you:  Do you prefer the blog posts with lots of photos like a collage or ones like this with fewer (but larger) photos?????