11/4/14

Lessons Learned:

(11/3/14)
Science: We were going to do an experiment on melting chocolate.
I got a chocolate and microwaved it for 10 minutes.
Well, apparently, it didn't say to microwave it.  It said to put it in shade for 10 minutes.  So we failed the experiment.  The microwave survived, luckily. The result of our 'failed' experiment was that we all learned that there should be adult supervision and make sure that you read directions correctly.  It's definitely worth an extra look for two.

Math: We did some timez attack today.

Myanna: I read more of my "Little House in the Big Woods today."  My reading is getting faster and easier.  I still mess up on some words, but I like this story!

Debany: I did some study Island today, too! As well as Spelling city.

Today, Mom was sick. So we did what we did and tried to get back into the swing of things.  Things will pick up more tomorrow.

Report for October 27-31

Hi, Debany here. I returned from vacation at the coast on Tuesday. My birthday was on Monday! On our way back home, we stopped at the ranger station.  We got our badges on Monday for our age range. Tuesday, I got the younger age ranges to earn more badges.  Here's what I earned!

After we got home, we had lots of holiday plans and recovering from our trip.  We put things away and cleaned up our home and organized for school.  While doing this, in my off time I read some. Grandpa quizzed me on math. and we wrote cards to family. Looking forward to next week!

It's me, Porter! Here are my badges I earned from the coast and cascade parks! We got home and participated in holiday activities and cleaned up from our trip. I am looking forward to our school next week!

 I, Myanna, got home on Tuesday from our vacation at the coast for the last week and a half. Here are my badges that I earned on Monday.  When we got home, we had holiday activities and cleaned up after the trip.  We read some and did some math. I'm sure looking forward to school next week.

** We also had a meeting about our struggles with reporting.  We discussed ways to make it easier for us to report on all of our subjects regularly and keep track of our progress.  So we decided that one blog was perfect for our 'home' school.  So we put our new blog together and got caught up on missed assignments during our vacation.

Robotics: Hungry Alligator

We were on vacation while this project came due.

BUT...

Here I am! 

I was excited to make this one!

I put the legos together 

and watched videos on alligators.

Did you know that alligators have 'U' shaped snout, 

like to show off their teeth when their mouth is closed, 

eat fish and DEER (and other animals too).  Deer are big! Wow!

My lego alligator's snout is even u-shaped.

Then I plugged in my alligator to the computer and programmed it to open its mouth and close its mouth.  

First it was triggered by pressing the letter a.

Then I made it trigger by motion. 

I made fish to put in its mouth.

It totally caught me off guard the first time I put it in his mouth.  It almost got my hand!

Alligators are dangerous!  Even Lego ones.

Report for October 20-24, 2014

This week we drove 7 hours over to the coast to meet our new cousin and see what the Washington coast is like! We left at 7am and got there a little after 3 (we had to make a few pit stops.)

We walked out over Deception Pass...

We learned that the logs that float up on the beaches protect the lands. 

Some people build forts for shelter, too.

We climbed on a douglas fir tree that is HUNDREDS of years old!

Next, we went to another beach...

...Where there was lots of climbing!

We even saw a seal!

And a nice man with a dog taught us to fish!

We also went to the pumpkin patch (especially since we missed going on the field trip there in Utah).

At the laundry, we worked on our time and money math skills!

While on the coast, we left Whidbey Island and travelled across the ocean/bay to Port Townsend by Ferry. That's when you drive your car onto a big boat that can carry cars across the ocean. We saw 5 otters diving for their food (fish), lots of different types of birds (especially gulls and ravens), and a WHALE (orca)!

It was fun to watch the ferry leave and connect to the land.

We practiced our art skills by picking designs to carve in our pumpkins!

And through all of the week, we worked on earning our Junior Ranger badges from the Cascade National Park and WA State Parks. 

(This is a picture of lots of different badges. This is what we want our junior ranger vests to look like.  So far we have 6, I think. Maybe more.)

Here we are taking our oath to be awesome Junior Rangers!

Report for October 13-17, 2014

This week, we picked apples for the deer.  

The apples are bitter and our grandparents said to 

pick them, put them in a pile, and watch for deer.

So we picked them. And put them in the yard.

And the deer came! And we watched one eat the whole pile of apples.

We learned to not put such big piles, or else we would run out of apples and the deer wouldn't come back.

We watched them out of the windows.  

They put the apple in their mouth, chomped them in half, and then ate a half at a time.

Porter did some Lego basics for his robotics class.  

This one is his crown gear!

We had fun science experiments going on in the kitchen.  

Debany and Myanna started by coming up with their own experiments:

mixing things with water: soap, glue, and oil.

 And she wrote down her results:

 Myanna's experiment was to attempt to make a cake/cookies without a recipe.

She knew the ingredients and learned what they do!

Afterwards, they found a website that has lots of science experiments.

They made a floating egg and a parachuter.

We also did our usual things:

reading, writing, math, study island, and spelling city, reading plays, theater, art, legos.

Report for October 6-10, 2014

This week, we have been doing lots of Timez Attack and reading.

On Monday, we had a birthday!  We had a piñata, but no big tree to hang it by.  So we had to come up with a simple machine to make the pinata work.

 It worked great!

 Myanna has been reading from "Little House in the Big Woods", Porter has been helping find words in his beginner books, Debany has been reading her plays and Anne of Green Gables.

 We regularly went down to the lake and kept moving the stick to the end of the water.  It has risen over 3 feet this week! We love measuring it.

 We also had a new cousin born! 

We got to support our Uncle and Aunt Wilson when they had their baby Terra.

It's been a crazy week.  We didn't know when we were going over to the coast (7 hour trip) to go see our newest cousin. So, we kept doing our school and packed to be ready to go when it was time.