Building Big Ben and Stone Henge

These photos are from our unit study of the British Isles. We pulled out our Landmark Flashcards (from the Target dollar bin) and showed the children Stonehenge and Big Ben.

A fine example of the post and
lintel architecture of Stonehenge.

I got out the classic building blocks and suggested we build Stonehenge and Big Ben. The children did the rest! Little Nephi insisted on a more colorful rendition of Big Ben.

Big Ben immediately prior demolition.

Later, we watched Disney's Peter Pan, which shows the Darling children land on the hands of Big Ben. Little Nephi squealed, "Big Ben! Big Ben!"

A Book a Day . . .

keeps, ah, illiteracy away?

The school psychologist referred to his tested reading level as "near genius." I'm not fully sure what that means, but I do know he reads the scriptures out loud much more smoothly than a few adults I've heard at church.
Super K.'s latest habit is reading a book a day. Seriously. Since he brings home the 3rd grade level chapter books, it only takes him about an hour or so after school. Yes, he can read much, much more advanced books, but he likes to choose something he can finish in one sitting. Otherwise, he'll just pick up a different book or start in a different place or skip a few chapters when he gets back to it.
We might want to work on developing taste, though. Monday he brought home Attack of the Shark-Headed Zombies, and didn't start his homework sheets until he was done.

Lego to See the Temple

Seattle Temple with fountain and red car.

This might be a good activity to keep hands busy while listening to LDS General Conference at home this weekend.
I've seen elaborate lego temples before, but we only have a handful of white bricks, and I was building with a five year old, not a ten year old. This is what we came up with.  Those are extra small figures from the Lego Harry Potter Game (hey, gray suits and ties!), and please tell me you can tell that's a fountain out front. And a red car.
Specs: The base of the temple is 2x8; Those dimensions go 6 layers up, then center 2 layers of 2x4 bricks, then center 1 layer of 2x2 brick. The next lego is a specialty brick, a thin 1x2 plate that goes over two pegs, but on top has one centered bump up. Onto that plate, stack 3 layers of white 1x1 bricks, then add one yellow 1x1 to imply the Angel Moroni statue.
We added a covered entry by putting a 1x8 brick on stilts.
M. added green bushes, and we used colorful "caps" for the foundation flowers.

For a list of creative Book of Mormon or Old Testament Lego Ideas, please see my post: October 2015 General Conference Plan.

General Conference Prep

Okay, so now that FHE is done and the kids are in bed, I know our scripture study for the week. We'll use a picture of President Monson from the Gospel Art Book to memorize Amos 3:7 ("Surely the Lord God will do nothing save he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.")
I downloaded a free pdf workbook on the life of Thomas S. Monson from Book of Mormon Discovery. I might work on that with the oldest boys during their personal scripture time this week--or try to do it during family scripture time. And now, I might encourage them to learn the names of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve with this somewhat amusing video clip.
Now all I need is to figure out what to do with the kids during conference.

MEP Math

Adding alligator teeth to
the "greater than" sign.

We have discovered MEP Math. The "Mathematics Enhancement Programme" is a little-known British jewel available for free online.
Mia is using Year 1 (Kindergarten). There are 4 days of 45 minute lesson plans per week for 35 weeks, the 5th day being devoted to review (or skipping ahead, if applicable.) I actually have not found the lessons to take nearly that long in our one-on-one setting. Unless she wants to color-in everything on the whiteboard and her worksheet, or wants our counting song played ten times over, we're done in about 20 minutes.
So, what's special about this math program? Well, it's free, for starters (not counting your ink). It doesn't require $60 worth of manipulatives (they have printable cuisenaire rods and suggest using a set of small toys, buttons, shells or other objects as counters). It only requires one worksheet a day, unlike some math programs where all the work is in worksheets. It introduces kinesthetic ideas I hadn't thought of (knock on your desk as many times as I jump. Tell me the opposite word when you catch the ball).

Using shapes from our art box,
we compare quantity.

Year 1 starts with a review of preschool concepts, like "as many as" and position relations. Then it moves into counting and comparing small groups of objects. It uses the traditional greater than/less than/equal to signs. Some of the worksheet problems are logic puzzles. Then it works toward addition of small quantities. By the end of the year students are studying number bonds and calculations up to 20; multiple-step calculations (i.e. 1+4+5=10); addition using traditional numbers and roman numerals pre-algebra, and more advanced logic puzzles.

I printed off the first 30 pages of her practice book (black and white outlines--not too ink heavy), hole-punched them and put them in our "math binder." There's about one page per lesson. Cory saved the first 30 lesson plans as a PDF and downloaded them to my kindle--PDFs are bulky files for Kindles, so I'll delete it when we're ready to download the next 30 lessons. I do need to glance over the lessons in advance, sometimes I need to put something on the whiteboard (or BB as they abbreviate it), or it may call for number cards that I haven't printed yet.

Comparing height of 2 "classmates."

Family Fun Saturdays

Last Saturday we went to a local swamp. My favorite part was our canoe ride through water-lily infested waters (seriously. you get mired in the lilies). The water is black from the tree sap. It isn't really that deep. I saw one wild alligator in the distance, but it quickly submerged and all the family could see were the bubbles.

Guess who was sure we would sink. 
He's the one not smiling.

We walked through the gardens, enjoyed the butterfly house and reptile "zoo," and watched the captive alligators get fed. It looked like the keeper was throwing whole, raw, chickens into their pond. Do they ever choke on bones?

Playground School

It was supposed to be "bike school" for the day. It almost was. We packed read-alouds, flashcards, workbooks, and our fabric world map (thanks Mom!) in backpacks with snacks and water bottles. Mia and Nephi had biked almost halfway to the park when we realized Mia had left her backpack at home. I wasn't sure if Nephi had the stamina to bike to the park after that, so we just got in the van and drove there.

Little Nephi enjoys his snack while
Mia matches analog time to digital.
The world map? That was for shade.

                  

I can't say it was especially comfortable teaching school at the top of a playground slide . . . but the kids enjoyed the change of pace for the day, which is really what it was for. Maybe next time we'll use playground school as an incentive to do great M-Th, and then go on Friday.