Having fun with school!

After school today, Jack made this comment to me: "Thanks for a fun day of school, Mom!" That really warms a homeschooling momma's heart! Jared tends to agree with Jack. He has been heard saying that "school is getting more fun all the time!" What are we doing that they think is so much fun? Well, let me show you.

After having a "duh" moment while reading my friend Rhonda's blog at Alston Academy, I went out and bought Jared a box of play money to help him in that part of his math lessons. It's so much easier when he has something tangible to touch & use rather than trying to learn an abstract concept. Here he is counting money during a math lesson.

This week in social studies, Jared & Justin have been learning about farmers & how they serve the community. Yesterday they made a barn book with pages of different kinds of farms & what we get from them. We have pictures of a rice paddy, an egg farm, a banana plantation, an orange grove, a dairy farm, and a cattle ranch. We discussed other types of farms as well.

And here they are with a picture wheel they made today depicting the process of how we get milk...from the dairy farm to the grocery store.

I promise Justin does know how to smile & he has a beautiful smile, IMO, but for some odd reason he likes to get all goofy for the camera and just looks like he's in pain. lol

In science, Jared & Justin have been learning about the weather. Last week I shared a picture of them setting up a water cycle. This week they made a cloud in a jar (or glass in our case).

First, we poured a glass full of very hot (steaming) water & then poured out all but about an inch. Then we covered the glass with plastic wrap.

Then we topped that with ice.

And watched the glass "cloud" up. The boys thought it was super cool. :)

Just for fun, Jared & Justin sat down with a wooden gingerbread man kit & put these together.

The hole in the center is for a picture, but we haven't done that part yet.

Jack is still plugging away at his Middle Ages study & he's working on a lapbook from Hands of a Child to go along with it.

In science, he has been learning all about cactus deserts and the animals that live there. He's been working on a lapbook from Homeschool Share on desert animals, and finally finished it today.

He's very proud of himself, and very well should be! He did this lapbook completely on his own. He did all the reading, cutting, writing, arranging, and gluing himself. I'm very proud of him as well! He thoroughly enjoyed doing this project.

Now for some big news for Jared.....he finished his first whole book today!!

Just look at him beaming with pride! It took him a while. The book was 143 pages in length. But he persevered & finished it. I couldn't be more proud!