June 23, 2012

Day #2 of Maine 4H Days included lots of Lego Robotics, Physics side show, GPS usage and way more....

 

 

Day #172/175 Days

June 22, 2012

Today was Day #1 of Maine 4-H Days. We went to these for the first time last year and it's amazing. The boys had a great time.

Homemade lava lamp

Bike Rodeo

More lava lamp

Homemade bouncy balls - it does eventually stop being sticky.

Playing games

The boys favorite part of today (at least the two younger ones) - the bike rodeo.

Lego-Man was off on his own for much of the day so no photographic proof of him today.


Day #171/175 Days

June 4, 2012

Our 4H club has been working very hard to get ready for Fair Season. Our educational project is about ballistics. Today we made catapults. We started with the above materials and ended up with what you see below. The big one is a rat trap. The other two are mousetraps and it was "boys vs. girls." 

After they were constructed the fun really began. Using mini-marshmallows as ammo, the kids went outside to see how far they would fire. They went far!!! This was definitely a fun time.

We used the tutorial on this website to make our catapults.



Day #162/175 Days

May 21, 2012

Our 4H club is working on ballistics. Today we decided to do the fun and messy Diet Coke and Mentos experiement....with a twist. However, we decided to test all kinds of soda and both mint and fruit Mentos. We then graphed the results. We found that generic Cola actually worked way better than Diet Coke. Thankfully we had a brave teen in our club who was willing to do some of the experiment as well as a Dad who had the day off. That left the moms to take photos and help with the graphing.

  

Day #155/175 Days

May 14, 2012

We had our weekly 4-H meeting today (2 hours).  We decided to focus on ballistics this year. Today we made our own safety glasses out of clear 2-liter soda bottles. 

The kids are really looking forward to the next step...making catapults out of mousetraps!



Day #151/175 Days

May 7, 2012

Our 4-H group has set up some pottery classes at a local store. It's a pretty small studio so when all of us show up, we pretty  much fill the space! The neat thing is it's located in the old county jail building. The studio  is located in the garage space where the police cars would pull in to bring prisoners to the jail. This was a fantastic late spring day, so the garage door was open which made it feel a bit more open and airy in there.

Anyway.....

This class was one of two where the kids were making mugs. Today they created them. They will be fired and then we'll go back and paint and glaze them and they'll have one more firing.

My boys really enjoy these classes. As a bonus, it helps the boys with their Arts & Crafts Project Record for their 4-H program.

Day #148/175 Days

April 23, 2012

Happy

• Complete Lesson 28 in Math
• Practice the piano
• Complete handwriting page 59
• Work on AWANA verses
• Work on CapJaxMathFax for 20 minutes

Lego-Man

• Math: Complete rows 1-4 on pg. 172 and #10-12 on pg. 173 in Lesson 82; Complete rows 6-9 on pg. 174 and #10-14 on pg. 175; Complete Bridge on pg. 63 in Life of Fred
• Complete handwriting page
• Review Day #26 of Sequential Spelling and complete Day #27
• Read and complete pgs. 61-63 in Vocabulary book
• Read and complete pgs. 107-110 in Grammar book
• Complete Grammar page 47
• Read pgs. 195-210 in George Washington's World
• Read Psalm 26 and write out one verse
• Science - read pages 129-138  and finish study guide
• Practice piano

Pilot

• Work on CapJaxMathFax for 20 minutes
• Read Psalm 26 and write out one verse
• Complete handwriting page 137
• Complete writing pages 267-268
• Read next two chapters in My Side of the Mountain
• Read pages 67-81 in The World of Capt. John Smith
• Complete Grammar page 45
• Complete Day #23 in Sequential Spelling (back side of paper), review errors on Day #24 and complete Day #25
• Practice the piano

All

• 4H meeting

Day #141/175 Days

April 9, 2012

All

• Read Psalm 22 together
• Calculadder Drill
• God's Great Covenant
• Amazing Science Experiment (Lemon Battery)
• Practice piano
• 4H Meeting
• Discussed Educational Fair, Educational Exhibit, & Fair Dates

Day #134/175 Days

February 13, 2012

At our 4H meeting today the kids discussed Food Safety. Here the instructor, Gail, is showing them what happens when you cut one food (apples) on a cutting board and then do something else without cleaning it (chicken) and how the germs can get transferred. She shared many other food safety tips as well.

They also had a hands-on workshop of making their own chocolate candy. Needless to say, they had a fantastic time!

Day #94/175 Days

December 16, 2011 - Field Trip

Our 4H group headed north today for one of the best field trips we've had in awhile - the "Bread Man's" bakery. Karl runs a family business right from his home. A fellow homeschooler, he began baking and selling bread a few years ago to support his family after a job change. 

We all piled in to his commercial kitchen - just off the foyer to his home - and watched as he and his son created the bread they needed for the Farmer's Markets they would attend the next day. It was simply amazing to watch and even better to smell!

This scale is used to weigh the dough.

Loaves ready to go in the oven

That is a LOT of dough! Karl is getting ready to 

cut and measure it and then form in to loaves.

Going in the ovens

Getting ready to cook

All done!

Snack! 

Yes, they cut open a fresh, warm loaf of bread...we added butter...oh.my.gosh! There is a reason I don't make homemade bread on a regular basis. I would eat the whole loaf! Karl was also generous enough to send home Stromboli with each of us. Yummy!

Day #59/175 Days

October 21, 2011

Today was another "Life Skills" day. I gave the boys a choice...either do schoolwork or help with chores around the house. We worked outside making hay bags for the sheep out of old grain bags, cleaning out stalls, feeding them, and just doing some more general maintenance.

We also worked inside. Aside from the outside work I also had a lot of baking to do so the boys helped with that as well as did some inside chores (dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning bedrooms, etc.).

In the afternoon we headed to church. Our 4-H Achievement night was tonight and we were able to secure our church's gym to use this year. Our club did all the set-up and clean-up. It was a fun night and we learned about more opportunities for the kids to participate in via 4-H.

Our club was also suppose to take care of the entertainment. However, due to illness a few had to back up so it ended up just being Conductor. I brought in our electric piano and he played one piece he had done for lessons last year. He was adorable.

Day #42/175 Days

Day #175/175 Days

We had a lot of fun on our last day of school for the 2010-2011 school year.

The morning was spent at our County Extension Office. The younger kids in our 4H group participated in a Fun Food class where they learned about how to make healthy choices and learned a lot about eating fruits and veggies. They also created some fun crafts, played some games outside, and made a yummy snack to eat.

Coloring while we waited for class to start.

Sorting board for veggies by color.

The goal was to grab a "dragon tail." The person who lost their tail

had to do five jumping jacks before they could keep playing.

Hula-hooping!

After a quick picnic lunch on the lawn outside the office, we headed in to town to play mini-golf! Earlier this year our group participated in a fundraiser and we used those funds to buy tickets for all the kids to play. Including younger siblings we had 18 kids! I took more shots than the two I'm sharing, but since there are other kids in them I can't share them here on the blog. 

While I'm calling the 2010-2011 school year DONE, we will be starting our "summer session" here very shortly. That will consist mostly of just basics (reading, writing, and math). We'll also have some fun things like swim lessons and field trips to add as well. I'll be spending the next couple of weeks figuring out what we'll be using for next year and our schedule. It should be fun!