Living With Live Wires

Today we were supposed to go into the cities to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to have a tour lead by their art teacher. But, the trip was canceled. An Alberta Clipper has been immobilizing most of the U.S. It was 20 degrees below zero and roads had black ice . Tony broke his all-time record for longest commute time yesterday with 3.5 hours on the way to work and 2.25 hours on the way home. His commute takes 45 minutes in good weather without traffic jams. The arctic cold is really taking it out of us. We have had several weeks now of 0 and below zero temps since the beginning of December. Where is that global warming when you need it?

We started our day slowly with our usual chores and breakfast. Sean and Sophie finished up some math assignments and were very happy to complete another math book. They both did a happy dance.

Today I decided to get motivated to do some of the lessons and projects that have been repeatedly put off due to our busy schedule and illness during the last few months. We started a geography program last year that they like, and it is finally time to get back into it. It is called Geography Matters. (do a review of this and have links to the website) We only made it through the units covering, the world and North America lessons last year.  I added a lot of supplemental materials to make more comprehensive and interdisciplinary lessons. We supplemented with Earth science units and U.S. History and cultural studies covering Canada, United States and Mexico. Today we reviewed the work that we did last year to get ready to continue with new units. Our Discovery Education United Streaming subscription is now over, so I signed up for a 30 day trial of United Streaming Plus, Discovery Science for Elementary School and Discovery Science for Middle School. This will help get us started before we have to pay for an entire year subscription. They watched videos about different kinds of maps and how they can be used. It was a helpful review to begin thinking about geography again. They also watched the Magic School Bus goes Cellular for a fun video to support our cellular biology lessons from yesterday.

Lunch and playtime were spent making fudge and preparing for our afternoon activities. I have wanted to do more with our TOPS lentil science books. The experiments are easy, but I usually find that they are very engaging and fun for the kids.  I found one experiment that will combine the subjects we are studying today. It is creative and active, so Sean and Sophie will love it. The experiments in lentil science are done in job boxes. This is cardboard boxes to hold the lentils.  We use (clean, never used, of course) cat litter pans. The exercise involves a review of landforms, creating landscapes and townscapes, drawing a map of their worlds, writing out directions to their map, telling imaginative stories about what happens in their lentil worlds, and writing the story.

We managed to do a little science, art, creative storytelling, mapping, spelling and writing in one afternoon activity. They enjoyed the entire activity including the writing assignment because they were able to write about something meaningful to them – their world that they created. We also prepared for experiments tomorrow by planting wheat and bean seeds and getting everything ready for chemistry experiments.

The tastiest part – we had fudge for a snack! A very special treat. Sean and Sophie kept asking what fudge was because they had never had any.  We talked about the differences between how various candies and cakes are are made. I shared with them the stories of my Mom making fudge at Christmas time when I was young. All the Christmas candy was stored in a breezeway where my nephew and I spent time sneaking candy before Christmas dinner.

Cooking and preparing projects and experiments can take a lot of time, but the payoffs are REALLY worth it!