Windmill

Yesterday we tried completing this project but it was too windy and ended in injury (Cisco's fingers got in the gears, band aid followed). Today it was a little less windy so the boys were able to finish the testing which involved timing the lifting of the weight. So after a variety of blade positions and removing and adding blades....the most efficient windmill was discovered. And here are the results and some commentary!


The follow up activity was to make a top and use the weight and ratchet system to release the top.

a moment of beauty

today at homeschool, i was distracted by this beautiful moment

Thailand

Okay...so we were a little weak on our studies of Thailand. The library did not have a single book on the country...not a fairytale, not a cookbook. So we spent a lot of time online, which was actually very entertaining. We watched many puppet shows and traditional dances with the Thai fingers which gave us exposure to the art, music and dress as well. We looked at the many temples and beautiful architecture of Thailand which is stunning. The thing that grabbed the guys interest was this travel blog outlining some of the do's and dont's when traveling in Thailand. We also had a great meal with our friends at a local Thai restaurant followed by presentations in the park on a beautiful fall day. I guess our studies on Thailand weren't so weak afterall.

Geography Club: Israel

Backing up a month! Last month our geography co-op studied Israel. After gather quite a large quantity of books from the library, the boys seem to both be interested in the subject of kibbutzim. It was interesting. The subject led us to other topics, I didn't think we would be touching on just yet: Socialism, Communism, Zionism (lots of ism-s), community and the importance of agriculture. So, we did a project together, it seemed fitting, and put together a diorama.

Today's Lego project

Dinoland at Zilker Park

Today the boys and I decided to hit the traveling exhibit Dinoland before it left Zilker Park Botanical Gardens. This has been an intense week so I felt like a field trip was in order; they chose it over park day with friends. I believe the older guys learned quite a lot, as they took time to talk to the people that were there to discuss such things. And I heard them interjecting their own dino-knowledge too! In fact, Cisco was telling me about one creation from a distance saying it wasn't really a dinosaur at all, it was confirmed by the time we reach the exhibit. Oh, Discovery Channel! Anyway, Cisco and Leo were debating the use of this particular creature's sail with dinoland man. I was keeping Santiago from going beyond the guard rails. Those dinosaurs looked good enough to touch, reasoned my two year old! So his lesson for the day was not of dinosaurs exactly but of boundaries. Because there was also this very tempting wagon that we kept running into as well.

Afterwards, lunch and a quick sqeeze from Daddy at Whole Foods. Then home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Let there be Legos

A quick post on the Lego Educator Mechanism Set. This was the street sweeper. They had to switch out gears and blades to find which set up worked the best. There was also a safety experiment where the gears were replaced with pulleys.

Simple Machines

We have been enjoying very full and productive school days! Although this leaves very little quality brain juice for the mom at the end of the day, its has been really fun for the boys and I.

We started a Lego Education unit study. I purchased a mechanism set through a group buy and we have been having such a great time with it. The set is made for two students to build separately then when they have their individual element finished they fit them together to complete the device. They are asked to make predictions, measure results, rate accuracy and change the device with different gearing or extensions to find improvements.

Before we got the set, the boys started building models of the basic simple machines to go over the principles. We took some pictures. I am hoping we will have a nice scrapbook when we are all done. This is Leo's class three lever:

This week is all about weather

We started every morning this week huddled around the computer checking out The Weather Channel. We have come up with every kind of slogan revolving around "I like Ike". The good news is rain for our very dry bit of earth and I think the bad news is obvious and makes the good news a bit heavy with guilt. The education value of these experiences -- and most life experiences -- is huge! So even though we made some very cool simple machines (pictures coming) it was difficult to focus....landfall very soon. Hold on to your hats!

Labor Day

Early Monday morning the boys approached me..."So Mama, Ryan (neighborhood friend who goes to school) told us that today is like a holiday or something." Long pause. I asked them if they wanted to celebrate it and Leo said, "But we don't even know what Labor Day is!" So after a quick computer search and a discussion of unions and child labor, we took the rest of the day off. Why not!

pictures!!!

Witte Museum Leonardo DaVinci Exhibit

Today we drove on down to San Antonio and checked out the Leonardo exhibit since we love all things DaVinci AND we are studying mechanical science. The museum is very nice, situated on the river in Brakenridge park and boasting Umlauf statues out front, it was easy to find and had safe and shaded parking.

The kids science area was really fun! After a school group cleared out we had the place to ourselves! They rode a bicycle across a cable, uncomfortably close to the river's edge and two stories high. The first floor was dedicated to simple machines--perfect!--then there was the energy basement, weather floor and the sound rooftop. Also, outside was cool river exhibit and a treehouse.

We had fun. We got snacks on the way at an HEB Plus, just to check it out being grocer-heads. Cisco helped me learn how to use the Tom-Tom and we finished listening to the second Lemony Snickets book. Then we listened to some Django Rheinhardt and talked about our geography studies of France. Pretty good day!

This is it....

For some reason, people like to ask those "what does it look like" questions. And when my children are asked why they aren't in school or if they are glad that they are not in school they are always willing to volunteer the fact that they are homeschooled and well, those questions don't really apply to their thoughts of happiness.

Today, the boys were checking out a website about simple machines, it had some cool interactive games, and Santiago joined in. It was just a perfect moment. It was simple and, for me, beautiful. i started snappin' the camera...Cisco got a little cheeky...that is what homeschooling looks like for us.

Not Back to School

Today we started to officially sit down and do schoolwork for the fall semester. Homeschoolers were wishing each other a Happy Not Back to School Day across the area and the web. I prefer the school work that is not workbook or sitting down related, so I really wasn't looking forward to that part. But like Scottish dancing, it was more fun than I had anticipated! Leo even looked at me and said this is fun at one time. I must be doing something right.

It's scary how much you can forget over the course of the summer. I had to back up a few times trying to go forward in math. Decimals! Oh well, it comes back. Knowledge, information, seems to come into the brain in waves, coming and going, until the tide comes in and its all there! But...well, the tide also goes back out again, into the nothingness, unless you've made some fortifications. But that's why we write things down--that's why I write things down! Age seems to be weakening my minds fortifications or maybe it's the Texan sun.

Tomorrow will be day two and after that hopefully we will stop counting and just enjoy our new schedule. Thursday we are heading down to the Witte Museum in San Antonio to see an exhibit about Leonardo da Vinci's machines. We are doing mechanical science this year and we thought this would be a perfect field trip--"perfect" was Cisco's descriptive word and Leo and I agreed.

Scottish Dance Class

Well the boys and I braved going to a dance class with our geography club.

Each month we study a country, have a day of presentations and food, and also try to find an appropriate outing. This month's outing was a Scottish dance class! It was actually really fun. Santiago even had a really good time; running in and out of our formations. It was a lot like square dancing in that it is a social type of dancing that they do in the country. Our dance instructor, Sarah was really good working with a group as diverse in size and age as ours.

I wasn't sure how we were going to do, however, when it was over we all had had a great time.

Highland Games

Thanks to a fellow mom at Geography Club we have pictures of our kid friendly Highland Games from our Scotland day. We had caber toss, stone put and weight throw.

The boys and I had a very good time looking up the rules and methods of playing these different heavy events. You Tube provided us with many good laughs while watching people whirl themselves into hysteria doing the hammer throw or casually hurling a bag of straw into the air---sheaf toss.

The fact that it's an Olympic year is interesting too. The Olympians preform many of the events differently than they would at the Scottish events. So it took a bit of research on our part (being the point of the whole ordeal anyway). And the Highland Games attract these athletes on non-Olympic years.

Crawford Clan

Yesterday we had geography club at our house. The country of choice was Scotland and I decided we should learn a bit about our Scottish roots as well. My Great Grandfather came over to America from Scotland and I always thought it was very cool that my grandmother was a first generation American.

Learning about the fierce pride and attention to detail regarding these family clans was as interesting as the family history itself. Especially when recalling a conversation with a kilt maker in South Carolina and information I read online regarding the Lindsay/Crawford controversy. And our relationship to William Wallace.

We decided to keep our presentation regarding our family strictly informative. Thorlongus the Merse was given barony from King Malcolm over a beautiful area near Lanarkshire; Thor took the name of the region and the name Crawford was born. This was before 1100. The family motto translates to "I will give you safety through strength". Our family tartan is crimson, green and light grey and our plant is the boxwood.

We also talked about golf. Leo did a flawless presentation with clubs in hand. The days before our meeting I would ask, repeatedly, if he was ready. He would say, "Yes. Believe me." ever so calmly. We was so prepared and I had no reason to worry.

Are we starting school?

So we seem to be starting school.

That's not a good thing! I am not quite ready but we, that is the daddy and I , seem to be gearing up and giving assignments!