INSTA-SNOW....just add water!

I kept wanting to bring real snow in the house and let the kids use their Arctic animals in it, but that didn't go over so well last year. Freezing hands, melting snow.....you get the picture. Thankfully, Aunt Trisha gave the boys Insta-Snow for Christmas. This "snow" looks like the real deal and is much easier on the hands. To make the snow, you add water to the Insta-Snow powder and watch it grow! If you add the right amount of water fast enough, you can make an exciting eruption. (Which we did.....over and over and over again.) Ready for the best part? Once it dries out, you just add more water and do it again. Good Stuff!

We also made an iceberg this week to go along with our sinking and floating unit study.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Corn is a Fruit, and Other Happenings

This week started out with a bang and fizzled....FAST. I am in the midst of the first trimester, can't ever remember being this tired in my life phase with the added bonus of children who do not nap.

Family Field Day to officially kick off our study of Nutrition, Exercise, Rest and Fun.

Thank goodness we had science class at my house this week and it was on Nutrition, which is what we are studying. Awesome!

Oh and it has been confirmed by a botanist, botanically speaking CORN is a FRUIT. Go figure. It can also be considered a grain. Technically vegetables do not have seeds and corn is a bunch of seeds.

We did some apple prints....that is the extent of my creativity these days.

Logan gave himself a black eye.
Taste testing some apples.

Yup, and this is the extent of our "academic" learning this week.
Painting from an areal perspective. That was Dylan's idea and a great one at that.

These paints are incredible! The colors are so vibrant!

Dylan started making this "Nutrition" game, I am excited to see how it turns out.

For more Weekly Wrap-ups check out Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Konos Attentiveness

We finished up our Konos Unit on Attentiveness last week. We learned a lot and made many wonderful memories!

We constructed some wind chimes

and a scale with water and glasses

Vibrations make things move!

Signs for our bikes

Bigger Ears = Louder Sound

Frogs have funny ears.

Wow, that is loud!

It works on the cello too!

...and the box

Our voices are powerful!

Field Trip to the Illinois Railway Museum.

Stop, Look and Listen

And of course, our crawl through ear

TotSchool Week 1

Nathan (40 months) had fun with this awesome little Fall Dice Game.

We are studying Nutrition with our big brother, so Nathan helped sort the food into the 5 food groups.





We explored symetry with reflective objects.

Corn: is it a fruit, vegeatble or grain? Your guess is as good as ours.
Logan (20 mohths) played in a ball pit at his brother's party.

Tried some lacing (and then threw them at me)
Got the hang of this puzzle!

Tried to steal his brothers markers! (SNEAKY)

Check out more Tot School!

Weekly Wrap-Up - Konos Style, Part 2

Our Konos Character Trait this week and for the next 4 weeks is Stewardship and our unit is NERF (Nutrition, Exercise, Rest and Fun). (Am I the only one who didn't know what that meant?) We had a light Konos week (mostly because I was recovering from Dylan's party), but we did manage to learn the 5 food groups and have an intense debate about corn. Is it a fruit, vegetable or grain?

If you aren't familiar with Konos it is a HANDS - ON approach to learning. In that spirit, KONOS suggests emptying your fridge and grouping everything into the food groups. While I think that is a very exciting thing, not happening here. Besides not wanting to be paranoid that one of my food allergy kids got hold of something, the idea of dragging my meat and dairy products onto the floor....ewww. We compromised with pretend food and a handful of boxes from the recycling bin. I think to make it more concrete for the boys we might go through and label all of the food in the cabinets and fridge during Logan's nap, but I am so not dragging all of the food out.

Sorry KONOS.

Corn, What is it? Fruit, vegetable or grain? Anyone?

Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more Weekly Wrap-ups! Now if I could figure out how to get that cute Weekly Wrap Up button, we would be all set.

Chore Charts

I am a HUGE fan of having kids help out around the house. Every few months, I come up with some new system and I really like this one. Around here, anything works for a season and then we need to have some new twist to make it fun again. Our Race Track is loosely based on Vicki Bently's Everyday Family Chore System and Accountable Kids. Basically, each child has three "checkpoints" and once they reach a check point, they put a sticker on a chart. After they earn 25 stickers, they get to go mini golfing with Dad.

The great part for me is that I don't have to remember who hasn't brushed their teeth, put on their clothes or had breakfast. I can just ask, are you at Check Point 1?

Old Claypots, Meet Old Craypas

I wanted to use up the last Craypas in order to justify opening our shiny new craypas that I bought at ICHE.

Decorating clay pots with craypas or oil pastels is awesome! The colors stay bright even through rain (and snow).

Model Railway Garden

Chicago Botanic Garden's Model Railroad is an incredible place AND it is free on Wednesdays which makes it even better.

Logan could not stop yelling Choo-Choo!

Amazing, isn't it?

He was a little bit excited.