How to make watermelon smoothie with your car

Today little Penelope asked to make smoothies. She wanted to try using the frozen watermelon we had in the freezer. It was frozen in a iceberg like hunk in a plastic baggie. I explained to her why we couldn't put it in the blender like that. So as I pondered taking it outside and smashing it with a hammer I asked Penelope,

 "What do you think would happen if we ran it over with a car?"

Her blue eyes got wider and she said with a grin, "Let's DO IT!"

So we call all the kids up and down from various rooms of the house and tell them we have an experiment to try if they want to watch. Penelope and Sebastian some how get in our Excursion before I even get outside, the older kids must have opened the doors for them. I put the watermelon baggie in a plastic grocery bag because this is not the first time I've ran food over...LOL. (I've made breadcrumbs from croutons like this before! haha)

The little kids are all excited, I get in the car I start it up... wait it won't start. Big disappointment.  Some how the lights got left on and the truck is DEAD.

I call it quits and tell the disappointed little kids we have to wait for Daddy to get home and fix Mommy's car. Sage says, "Wait! Put it in neutral. We'll push it."

They start pushing...

Ethan and Layla join in, and Charlotte takes pictures (Thanks Charlotte! I didn't even know you were taking pictures of this! Awesome!)

They roll the truck over the bag with a splat. I brake and then they roll me backwards. We all gather around to see our watermelon had really splatted. I say, "Five second rule?"

All the kids start scooping watermelon off the ground, leaving most of the underparts that are touching the ground. We figured a little dirt won't hurt.

Penelope puts her frozen watermelon chunks in the blender.  

We added this really tasty fresh strawberry and lime drink Charlotte made this week that we had leftover. We also added a handful of blueberries. Which some of the kids thought might be dirt because of the dark flecks of blueberry skin, it was funny!

I just realized her swimsuit is on backwards. lol.

Super fun. Very yummy.

Summer School

Is it really summer? Because the kids have been doing nothing but exploring their world and asking lots of questions about life, science, social studies/history, art, religion, and more. Learning all the time (unschooling/homeschooling) means summer holds the same learning power as the rest of the year. Actually I'd have to say we are much more productive learning in the warmer months of the year. The colder months seem to bring us more wasted time, dark evenings, and lazy days than spring, summer, and fall.

The kids have been enjoying weekends with dad being home. They have had many meaningful discussions. I over heard some world religion ones, mentions of physics, Albert Einstein, Issac Newton, and some other guy --the name escapes me right now. LOL.


What sparked at least some of those subjects was Charlotte enthusiastically pointing out that this months issue of Muse Magazine had pages about Leonardo Da Vinci. What tickled her though was the page number for the section about him was written backwards. "Just like his notes he wrote backwards to keep secret!"


I love being a part of their discovery and learning everyday. I didn't always think this way, but now I see that public school keeps a part of my children that I wouldn't get. Just like daycare gets a part of baby or toddler hood from children. (yes I know some people need to use the services of childcare, I'm grateful I don't though, and I have opinions about it's misuse and overuse). I never wanted my children in daycare, I always thought about how much a parent (and child) misses by not being "there" constantly throughout the day. I now feel that way about public schooling too. I see things in a different way now that I have been homeschooling for years and I now know first hand that children do learn all about interesting important things without structured, planned lessons. My children are more excited about learning then I ever was! I am so excited for them.

Layla keeps up with the good questions too:
Layla asked me, "What is under the toilet?" So she headed off a conversation about septic, waste disposal, and health. This morning she also woke up sleepy eyed and crawled into bed with me like usual and said, "Mom did I brush my teeth?" "Yes Layla you did last night." She rubbed her eyes and said, "Oh good thing, cause in my dream I was eating food."

Hahaha. She is SO good about her teeth and tries to keep them brushed very well! And she is SO funny.

April 7-12 2008

WEATHER/SCIENCE:
Since a conversation about the weather and temperature came up we made a quick make shift chart for our wall that gave an idea of what different temperatures are like. For example in 20-30 degree weather we pasted a picture of a snowman and the word freezing cold. At the 40 degree weather mark we pasted a coat and the words cold. For 50-60 degree weather we pasted the words coat or jacket needed and the word cool. 70 degrees got a picture of a park and a guy riding a bike, 80 and 90 degrees got a guy swimming, sunglasses, and shorts. This took all of 10 minutes to discuss, make a wall chart out of our last strip of butcher paper and put it together. Online we also went to a few weather related websites. They also have asked about other various things I can’t think of right now, one such thing was about sonic booms, which we haven’t discussed yet as we got sidetracked.

READING: Ethan finished his 100th lesson at http://www.clicknkids.com/ YAY ETHAN! It really seemed to teach him a lot, and of course he has become a reader since starting the program. Sage still doesn't want to do the click n kids lessons. So we are still limping our way through phonics workbooks. Sage did really well with his reading flash cards this morning. He separated words he knows and words he needs help with.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Some 'disturbing' topics came up for some reason. Their thoughts/ questions are in parentheses: Cannibalism (does it really exist?), the death penalty (it’s legal in the US ?!), serial killers (they kill cereal?)

SATURDAY SOCCER: Charlotte had soccer today (2 games in fact) and it was 35 degrees with sleet. The other kids stayed home with Ricky and I braved the cold with my lounge chair, feather down coat, and a sleeping bag. I thought I was going to outsmart the cold, BUT I still froze my butt off. All my fingers actually went numb and they didn’t feel cold after that, just tingly and numb. The things we do for our kids!

IN THE KITCHEN: This week we made homemade cracker jacks and 3 glass pans of banana cake. SOOO goood! I am trying to make at least two things a week with some (or all) of the kids. Layla is a little baker. She loves baking.

LAYLA: When I fix something for Layla she exclaims in a really over exuberant voice, "Thanks SUPER MOM!!
I just love when she says that. :)

Science, Art, and the Bead Incident

THE BEAD STUCK IN THE EAR
Last week was interrupted with a bead that got stuck in Ethan's ear. Sage "accidentally" dropped it in his ear (they had been playing and throwing the beads). It did not hurt or bother Ethan, and the bead was clearly visible. We tried for 6 hours to retrieve it the first night before giving up. The next morning I called three hospitals and two doctors offices trying to make the right decision about where to take him. All but one place told me to take him to the ER. I wasn't convinced that the emergency room was appropriate action. It wasn't an emergency first of all, second who wants to go sit in the ER, third I don't want just any on call doctor digging in my kids ear (I had done enough digging already haha)! The children's hospital in St Louis suggested I contact a ear, nose, and throat specialist. Ah, brilliant! So we made him and appointment ASAP which actually coincided with my 30th birthday (at 8am in the morning no less)! What are the chances? I told Ethan I'd surely always remember what I did on my 30th birthday now! The specialist was nicer than we could have ever hoped for. We were in the exam room for all of about 7 minutes. She had the lighting, special tools, and skills that we lacked. She painlessly removed the bead with a smile and we were on our way. What we couldn't achieve in 2 days, she did in no time at all. Thank you specialists!

SCIENCE WITH DAD
Tonight at the dinner table the kids brought up and discussed the following; oxygen, hydrogen, iron, copper, zinc, the periodic table of elements, flammable elements, the basics of space travel, space craft construction and the use of asbestos. They learn a lot of things from http://www.brainpop.com/ and then discuss them with us and we fill in the blanks. I just love when they bring up so much science and social studies out of the blue, and they do it all the time.

ART
The kids have been playing with modeling clay and sculpey a lot. Charlotte made a fairy from sculpey and we baked it. Everyday the kids have been getting clay out. Even Penelope gets in on the fun.

SHOWS
On my birthday (after bead extraction took place) we saw a fun show of visual comedy which included some magic, juggling, imagination, and hilarity. Watching the kids laughing was as much fun as the show. Then we ate a late lunch and picked up a luscious ice cream cake.

The First Post: Science, Math, Life

We have two dozen chicken eggs in our incubator. I hadn't planned on us hatching again this year but we had a horrible dog attack on our chickens two weeks ago and we need to replenish our chicken/ egg supply. It was a real disappointment because these chickens were the eggs we hatched last spring, and they had just been laying really, really well for the past few months. They were great big hens. Now we start over. We used a flashlight to see the chicken embryos and we can see them really well! Renewing life is exciting. Spring is in the air for sure. Between a cat ready to drop kittens at any moment, baby chicks due in 13 days, and my swelling belly, everyone in our house is getting excited! We will be doing butterflies this Spring too. I haven't decided when we should send our live caterpillar certificate in though. I think we should wait until the chicks are hatched.

I started yet another new approach at homeschool organization (it's never ending and ever changing). I bought the kids all their own set of 5 colored folders, one for each day of the week. (Sage-blue, Ethan-green, Charlotte-purple, Layla-pink) I am trying to keep all their routine work and worksheets (math, spelling, reading, whatever) for the week updated in each of them. That way they can get their work on their own and they can do it throughout the day as time permits. Most days we have a 'plan' but we wing it for the most part. I am constantly pulling worksheets for one kid while others are waiting their turn, so this helps with that.

Yesterday we had a group art lesson and did a worksheet on a Monet painting. The kids' observations and ideas about the piece were great! We also did worksheet stuff but nothing overly exciting. The kids experimented on their own outside with water, some big plastic jugs, and knitting yarn. The boys came in and told me they were seeing how long it took water to soak up into a strand of yarn. GREAT! Science. Half the time they school themselves, honest to goodness!

This is the type of stuff I want to log about here because so much discovery and learning goes on when my back is turned. Today we have a "chemistry" set full of activities we are going to do.

We just started a math program called MathUSee and I love it. We all love it. I hate math, HATE it (and fear it). And I hide that fact from the kids. Well this program is awesome. So slow paced and perfect. Charlotte (11) and I are both doing the boys' lessons to relearn concepts and so that we can get the programs strategy for the higher maths.