Earth Day!

For Earth Day this year we made these cute birdhouses-they were super easy and I think they turned out really cute.  The first thing we did was tie twine around the neck of the bottles (I tied around and knotted then made a big loop and tied around on the opposite side) and then we (I) cut a 1/2 inch hole (a very jagged hole because the plastic was thick on two of the bottles) on one side of the bottle and then on exactly the opposite side (about 1 inch.)  Then, we decorated the bottles, found some sticks to stick through them and filled them with seeds.  We are hoping we will have some visitors soon!

 

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Kimbell Art Museum Family Educator Day

We had a great time at the Kimbell Art Museum, they held their Family Educator Day last month. It was organized, informative and fun for the kiddos. We met in the auditorium and got an overview of the three time periods we would be introduced to: The Renaissance, The Enlightenment, and Modernism. The boys got to make their own time-line with pictures and information on each time period. We then got a tour which highlighted some of the art that represented each of the three time periods. The museum staff & docents were helpful and the program was a good introduction to the time-line of art.

Critter Fest!

Our backyard is full of opportunities for exploring in our natural environment. The good thing about learning at home is that they ample time to explore and learn. They have caught and released many, many little critters including lizards, toads and frogs.

Nature Challenge 2011

For science, we are taking part of the 2011 North Texas Nature Challenge. So far we have done 3 challenges and they have been engaging and educational and best of all is that we get to get out into the great outdoors and the boys looove to be outside!

Art

These 3d puzzles are a great buy at 1$-2$ at the craft store. We use them for art and the boys really love to put them together and paint them.

For art, we paint alot but for the most part the boys like to sketch. We have many books on how to draw and they are getting the hang of drawing in steps. They truly could spend hours a day on art but some times I have to encourage them to put it up for later.

Nature Challenge 2011!

We are participating in the North Texas Nature Challenge this year.  I thought it would be a good way to study nature scientifically using our observational and recording skills.  The boys have enjoyed the two challenges we have done so far: Fort Worth Botanical Gardens and River Legacy Science Center.  Both have been scavenger hunts where the boys and I read clues or look at photos that show where we need to look and when we get to the point of interest there is information and questions that are posed to make the us think more deeply about it.  Their favorite so far was turning over logs at the Science Center to see what kind of life was sustained in that habitat.  We found a 6 inch long centipede and some worms of different sorts-the boys were stoked!  We have also had some great photo ops and MiMi and Uncle Alex joined us to make the experience even better!

 

http://fwbg.org/

http://www.riverlegacy.org/

 

Aviation Unit Study

We just wrapped up our broad study on aviation and although we did not complete all the projects we wanted to, the boys enjoyed the subject matter immensely.  I always collect some fun worksheets online-there are a ton of free, printable worksheets to choose from and so I chose some word scrambles, searches, and other fun stuff.  We read several airplane and aviation books from the library.  Mason did a short (1 page hand-written) biographical report on the Wright brothers.  I also found a great book at the library that offered some easy to assemble with stuff laying around the house or at least nearby projects ;) Last but not least, we took a trip to the C.R. Smith museum where the boys got to learn about American Airlines, but also about aviation and how planes fly with some interactive exhibits.  http://store.crsmithmuseum.org/store/

All in all we had a good time studying aviation and it was a good transition into Spring Break.  Fun!

 

             

The book we used had some wonderfully simple and interesting projects. Mason worked meticulously to build this airplane out of cardboard, straws, a stick and some tape.  C just whipped his up as quickly as possible (with my help) to see what it could do!