Snow Day and Snickerdoodles

Well, we didn't get much snow, but I do not like to drive in it. We did our usual language arts and math, and then followed it up with making cookies! Making cookies also counts as math and science in that we measured and mixed things together in hopes that everything turned out yummy.

MMM.

Rolling the dough in cinnamon and sugar.

Almost done.

Ready for the oven!

Snickerdoodles!

Yummy!

Art with my feet?

We read a book about feet. Nothing too scientific, just the basic parts of the foot- heel, sole, ball, toes, and arch. In the book, it asked the kids to balance on their heels, their toes, walk around on their heels and then their toes. At the end of the book, it said to try to draw with your toes! So off the socks went!

Strange?

Trying not to use hands.

Ta Da!

It was quite a challenge because, "It doesn't look good! Maybe I should use my hands." I asked her if she wanted to do more and the answer was no because "I'm no good at this." Sigh. My little perfectionist.

Bird watching

 We spent the first 20 minutes of school checking out this fellow:

He's pretty big.

Red tailed hawk?

He sat patiently while we took pics.

10, 20, 30, 40

Today in Math we learned how to count by 10s. We watched the MathUSee DVD, and about 2 minutes later, she was doing it on her own.

Excitedly working her way through the lesson.

Her writing is getting better

This is easy!

She did 4 lessons in one sitting! Go Shay!

Ohio...John Glenn...Neil Armstrong...SPACE!

Last week, we studied Ohio. Ohio is cool. The things she picked up on the most about Ohio, is that 2 famous Astronauts came from there! As soon as we looked at the map in the front of the Ohio book we checked out from the library, she saw the icon for the Armstrong Air and Space Museum. "Mom, can we go there?," she asked me as if we were going to jump right in the car at that moment. That's the thing about 4 year olds, instant gratification, right. "Maybe someday, dear," was my reply.

I'm sure she learned a lot of other things, but we watched 2 dvds on Space, and if you ask her about Ohio, I'm sure she will be happy to tell you about the astronauts.

The first dvd we watched, "Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon" was made for the IMAX about 5 years ago. Too bad she wasn't born to see it then. We don't have an IMAX theater in our living room, but she was pretty awestruck. The special features were pretty cool too. Tom Hanks was involved in the making of it, and I really haven't found much that Tom Hanks has done that I didn't like.

The second dvd, "In the Shadow of the Moon," was presented by Ron Howard. How can you go wrong with anything Ron Howard is involved with?! It's a documentary with most of the astronauts from the Apollo missions, 40 years later, recalling their days with NASA and the missions, plus real footage of the missions. Just shy of 2 hours, Shay was disappointed and exclaimed "That was a short movie!"

I guess I'm going to have to check out symposiums for her down at the Air and Space Museums!

School in the closet!

While cleaning out the garage this weekend, I found our beloved Melissa and Doug art easel. It was well loved last year, but was moved out to the garage to make room for the Christmas tree- Christmas '09! Well, 11 months later, it has returned. We still have no room for it, so I put it in the office closet until I could find a place for it. Guess who found it?

 

Math Problems!

She worked on different equations before breakfast. All self driven! I don't teach on Sundays. Although, I did sit back with a cup of coffee and enjoy my daughter "teaching" me.

I'm glad she's enjoying Math! We just started working on writing addition problems on Wednesday!

Being Lady Washington

How much did Shay get out of her Mount Vernon Trip? Take a look:

Knitting a scarf for one of her grandchildren.

Cooking over a fire!

Being a gracious hostess.

Making sure everyone had good food.

Thanks for stopping by Lady Washington's house.

Mount Vernon

On Friday, November 5th, we went to Mount Vernon for Homeschool Day. It was a cooler day, a little windy, and boy was it packed. I heard one worker say there were over 7,000 people there! We got there around 10:30 and waited in line for probably 15 minutes to get in. Shay was awestruck!

After getting a quick pic with a statue of George, Martha, and the Grandkids, we headed out to the Pioneer Farm Site. It was near the water and so it was a little chilly. That didn't stop Shay from having fun!

She churned butter.

She did a maze.

Played a game of hoops.

Found out that 4 years cooked!

Made cornmeal.

 After long uphill climb, we reached George and Martha's Tomb.

Met up with George?

Checked out his ride.

Played a game of hoop and a stick.

Waited in line forever! 

Took a quick tour of the house after waiting in line to wait in line! Sorry, no pics allowed inside the mansion. Did you know that the exterior of the house is wood painted white with sand in the paint to give the illusion of white brick? Me neither.

After all that waiting, Shay needed to run around and check out the view.

Running.

And running. Might make this girl a runner yet!

What a view! 

Her favorite part of the day happened around 2pm.  We got to meet Martha Washington!

Is she the real deal? Shay thought so.

Lady Washington sat and kept up her needlepoint while talking with the children and answering questions. Shay wanted to stay there all day, but it was 2:30 and we still hadn't eatten lunch. So off to the Mount Vernon Food Court. They had a deli, bakery, burger and nacho place, and of course Pizza Hut. What did Shay choose?

That's my girl- the veggie lover!

After lunch, we went to check out the museum (no pics allowed) and then to the educational stuff.
This hologram was creepy. George's face followed wherever you went:

She has her hand on the book like George!

We were all dragging after the educational experience and was bummed that we missed the hands on kid's room (it closed at 4!) It was 5pm and they were closing, so a trip to the gift shop and the Awesome Christmas Tree display.

Check out the tree!

At 5:15, we headed back to the car, with a very tired 4 year old saying "I'm not leaving!" All the way to the car she was pleading to come back tomorrow. No sooner had we left the parking lot, she was out like a light! I'm so proud of how well she behaved and that she never complained about the weather, being hungry, waiting in line, and took a 6.5 hour tour of the property.

For those of you who have never been there, check out this map of the property to get an idea of how big it is.
http://visit.mountvernon.org/images/media/PDF/Visitor%20map.pdf

Did she learn a lot? Check out the next post to find out.

Hiking fun at Catoctin Mountain!

This weekend we took Shay for her first hike. Her uncle Troy was in town, and he loves the great outdoors. Plus he's strong, so if she got tired he could carry her. Although that didn't happen, she out hiked us all. We did two 1 mile trails, complete with some slight hills. She had fun collecting leaves, acorns, and some other assorted things. Her favorite thing to collect was "Canada Leaves!" We also walked by a park ranger who was explaining how to tap a maple. Unfortunately, he wasn't tapping this weekend. Shay was disappointed. She also did not want to go home and wanted to hike all day long. The old people in our group were ready to go home.

 We did manage to learn some new things:

We counted rings to find the age of the tree.

We checked out rock formations.

We observed towns in the distance.

We had some opinions on other's conversations.

We enjoyed a new hiking food- Slim Jims!

We all had a great time. We're hoping to get some more hiking in before the winter hits. It's been a weird fall so far, so who knows how many more great weekends we have left.

Did I mention we love these magnetic letters?

Magnetic letters purchased at the school store for $18= hours of fun learning!