So Many Experiments!

We have almost completed our first two weeks of school.  Since we didn’t have all of our subjects yet, it was a nice way to get into a routine, but not overwhelm us.  Nicholas has been doing well with his math and spelling.  So far it has been a lot of review.  I think the fact that we kept those two subjects up over the summer made it so much easier.  There was no struggle to try and remember how to do things. 

Nicholas has also enjoyed a new subject – vocab.  In the past, this was just incorporated into our reading program.  This year I have us learning two new vocab words a week.  So far, it has been working well.  He will also have some vocabulary to learn when CC starts for his afternoon class.  I’m looking forward to adding some new words to my vocabulary too.  A lot of the CC words are beyond the 4^th grade level!

Daniel does 1-2 subjects a day.  The rest of the time is for playing.  And, he has been keeping himself busy.

Fun with bubble wrap

Fort building

Puzzles he does all by himself.

Science is something they both love this year.  We learned about matter, mass, and density these past two weeks.  One of our experiments involved eggs, water, and then salt water.  We learned that salt makes water more dense then the egg, so it floats.  Without the salt, the egg with be more dense and sink.  Daniel may not be able to tell you the definition of density, but he can tell you which glass of water the egg will float in.

We also learned about buoyancy (the ability to flow) using items around the house.  We also made boats out of aluminum foil and tried to see how many coins they could hold.

Our final project of this chapter was to make lava lamps with water, oil, food coloring, and alka-seltzer. 

We still have the eggs in the glasses so they can look at them.  I told them the experiment is going to be cleaned up soon.  They’re not too happy about it.  I'm just praying the lava lamps stay in the water bottles and not end up all over the floor.  At least they are loving learning.

This week we also went to our orientation for CC and met their tutors.  There are some new families this year and one has a boy Nicholas’ age.  He is excited for a new friend.  I feel a weight off of my shoulders this year as I don’t have to worry about all of the tutoring responsibilities.  

The boys started practicing their presentations today that they will give on Monday for CC.  My goal for Daniel is to just get up in front of his class and say something.  This year for Nicholas I expect less show-and-tell type presentations and more well thought out ones. 

We’re looking forward to Monday though.  We realized at orientation how much we missed seeing everyone on a weekly basis.  So, first day of CC pictures should be on the blog . . . sooner than later.