'18/19 Weeks 7 and 8

This is the cats' IMAX. They love to lounge on top of our new bookcase and watch the goings on outside. For us, the bookcase means more organized and streamlined school day. 

       Nothing notable has happened in two weeks. Kind of boring, yes, but very productive at the same time. Kids have been busy doing their school assignments, going to their various extra-curricular activities, and caring for all the family pets. Somehow, they carved out time to play with friends as well. 

Our constant study companions.

LA. Learning about hard news articles and feature articles.

There's a whole generation growing up getting their news from other sources but newspapers. We dedicated a whole class to just looking at the newspaper getting to know its different parts. 

The kids chose their favorite articles for analyzing.

And then, they wrote their own straight news and feature articles.

Science. Andrew made a grabber -- a balloon filled with sugar would mold itself around an object and make it easy to lift the object.

Lifting a bottle with the grabber.

LA. A short geography review in our language arts class -- we went over all the states, their locations, and capitals.

Science. An experiment that did not succeed. Andrew did his best to build a robotic arm, but it did not work out this time. We might try it again (with Mom's help this time) as soon as we have some time.

'18/19 Week 6

The kittens have adjusted to their new home and seem to enjoy their new surroundings.

      The sixth week was the toughest yet. We were out and about every day doing out extracurricular activities, plus a yearly eye appointment Saara's first volleyball game on Saturday morning. The kids were amazing. They did all of their assignments without complaining and on time. 

Lending a helping paw.

Science. Andrew's new lab assignment was to build a hand.

First win 3:1

Building a partitioning off a section of the dog pen for our new rescued dogs.

'18/19 Week 5

A full rainbow. The kids were in awe watching the arc as long as it lasted.

      We have fallen into a comfortable, though intense, routine. The kids know their daily schedule and are learning to manage their time accordingly. We do have lot going on this semester. Saara started her ballet class which was also the last extracurricular activity on the list. Now, we will be just chugging along until November when volleyball is over. The time will fly fast -- I cannot believe, we are more than 1/9 done with school year already!
     

The Cardinals have an extraordinary coach this time and Saara is learning a lot.

History. Saara finished her studies of Texas regions and resources. As a final activity, she had to put together a map. 

Science. One more experiment that did not quite work the first time. Andrew was supposed to build a simple machine that used gravity to move. We had to make some adjustments to this walker for it to start working properly. Once it did, its stride made us laugh out loud.

On top of the two stray dogs we adopted recently, we now have a pair of cats that the dogs found abandoned in our forest.

'18/19 Week 4

Science. Saara explaining how respiratory and circulatory systems work together in our bodies.

      We had the good intention to go to our first field trip this week, but it never happened. The day we were to visit the exhibition at our local museum, Saara was feeling poorly, and we decided to postpone the trip. 
      Thankfully, she recovered fast and was all ready for her first choir practice on Friday. It felt like a reunion for all of us. We had not seen our friends all summer, and there was a lot of catching up happening between practices. 
      Also, this week, Andrew and I had a spontaneous Science class one morning. I had heard some odd squeaks coming from the underbrush, and after investigating I found a small ribbon snake trying to swallow a huge frog who was letting out the squeaks. We watched the goings-on for a while and then checked back every now and then to see if the snake really swallowed the frog or decided to let it go. It swallowed it.

PGM. First chimes practice this semester.

After his own practice, Andrew stayed to help in the beginner class of chimes.

Science. He is building something again.

This time it was a simple solenoid electromagnetic device. The nail inside the straw was supposed to be sucked into the  straw.

Which it did.

This is how we found the pair.

About 20 minutes later.

About an hour later.

About an hour and a half later.

Two hours later.

'18/19 Week 3

This week, both kids decided to practice home economics. Andrew used his cookbook to make dinner and a breakfast for the whole family.

       The first three weeks have been rather intense. The children have done a lot of writing (three essays already!), two math tests, Saara has finished one Reading book, three successful science experiments, new belt rank in taekwondo, started up piano lessons again, and the list goes on. I believe, we need an additional day of rest which the Labor Day next week will provide. 

      Week Three was a rather quiet one, no major high-lights. I did finish reading to the kids a book by Beth Hilgarnter titled A Murder for Her Majesty -- a gripping mystery set in the Elizabethan England. We finished the book a week before the schedule mostly because the story kept us all in suspense, and we wanted to know what happened next. So, we kept on reading. I already picked up the next book I will read to them, and it looks to be a page-turner as well. 

Saara's home ec consisted of sewing small gift bags for her friends.

Science. This week's science experiment did not work out at first. Andrew followed the recipe for 'robot skin', but the outcome was far from satisfactory.

Instead of being a pliable mass the concoction looked like a sticky goo.

We decided to start from scratch. This time we omitted water from the recipe. The result was better, but still not quite what it should have been.

An then, Andrew added just a tiny amount of warm water. The glob that we were about to throw away became stretchy and pliable, just like it was supposed to be. 

Andrew had fun playing with this 'robot skin'.