Thursday Math Club with Maria

Math club continues to be thought-provoking AND fun.  We made a series of stars all with six points..6-0 all the way to 6-6, then lined them up on the floor.  The kids noticed that a 6-0 star (which isn't a star) is the same as a 6-6, and that a 6-1 is the sames as 6-5...and followed the progression.   Then the kids recreated the stars out on the trampoline, by sitting as points around the circle and passing the ball depending on the star formula.  That probably makes NO sense, but the kids totally got it and it was fun.  Ava wore her devil horns to the coffee shop on Friday and made more stars while she waited for Jessie to pick her up.

Using chips to find equidistant placement around the circle.



Connecting the dots.



Ava discovers matching stars with different formulas.

Family Fun at NCMA

The North Carolina Museum of Art hosts a family fun day on most Saturdays.  A mini tour is followed by an art class geared towards family participation.  Jessie joined us on Saturday, much to Ava's delight!  This week's theme was "patterns" and we viewed the Roman mosaic tile floor, a modern art sculpture of a dress on stilts, and some old clay pottery.  Then we hit the studio and rolled up our sleeves to build our own mosaic piece.  We started with a drawing that we each contributed to.  Then we spread the adhesive grout onto a board, and added rocks, shells and glass beads.  Ta daaaa!  Our friends Gail, Sydney and Maddie were also there, and we stayed after for a picnic and stroll in the museum park. 

This was the first visit to the cloud chamber for Gail's family.  The cloud chamber is  mud and brick hut set in the woods with a small hole in the top of the domed roof. The sunlight coming through the hole creates a camera obscura effect by projecting the trees and sky onto the walls, ceiling and floor of the hut. Way cool. 

Yoga + Pumpkins

Ava is working on headstands again in yoga. Watching them makes my various joints twinge in horror.  Her yoga teacher, Jen, sings a litte song to teach the Sun Salutation sequence--brilliant!  After yoga, a visit to the pumpkin sale at Highland United Methodist Church.  On the way home, Ava named this pumpkin Nanny McPhee.  Hopes she keeps some of those warts.

Tuesday Tales

The Cameron Village Library hosts an hour for homeschoolers once a month, and it is worth trying.  Today, the theme was natural disasters, and the librarians read books about tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes.  The hurricane book was one of my all-time favorites, Two Bobbies.  The librarian got choked up reading it--and I haven't been able to read it aloud to Ava without doing the same thing! Such a great story.

The kids used oreos to mimic sliding tectonic plates, a slinky to demonstrate primary and secondary waves, and bottles of oil and colored water to view wave action.   Then we were off to yoga!

Girl Science and Cinnamon Buns

Ava loves her girl science club every Tuesday at her buddy, Ellison's house.   Ava also takes the same curriculum in a labratory classroom in Chapel Hill..here they are making molecules on Monday, then from Tuesday, Ava's CSI sheet with her fingerprints (of the loop and whorl variety) and her artist's rendering of a suspect that closely resembles, hmmm, herself? And, almost as good as the zipline in the back yard, warm cinnamon buns after the meeting. 

 

 

Book Club, Math Cult, Art Tour with "Collapsed" Woman.

Ava's off to spend the night with Jessie.  I am looking over the pictures of the week.  Wondering why the heck it is 96 degrees in late September.  Worried that fall--the very best time to be alive-- will last all of 10 days..and then thunk, winter. 

 

We got frozen custard while we were in the neighborhood. 

 

Wednesday's book club was fun--the book featured a pig who slept in bed with her owners.  Of course a kid who lobbied hard to have her goat sleep in bed with us was charmed.  Pig origami...and next month's book is about a horse!  Ava was woofed about that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday we went to Camp Chestnut Ridge in Efland, NC, with a group of homeschoolers.  Can't say enough about the camp or the program.  It was amazing!  $16 for all day (9:30-4pm) and even though we left early for math club, I had to have a nap when we did finally get home. 

 

Dog skull...cool!



This pygmy goat really made Ava homesick for Nevis!



Ava preparing to shoot me in the face with a marshmallow. 
Isaac Newton, something something something.

Balloons racing on a string. 
Isaac Newton, "For every force there is something something something."

I want a trebuchet.  I could return the neighbor's roaming chihuahua in STYLE.

 

Predators & Prey class followed by Force and Motion...complete with marshmallow launchers and balloon races.

 

Math club was also a blast.  I loved it when Maria tied the kids together to form a pentagon at the top of her driveway.  And then tied each kid to every other kid to form the pentagram in the center. I bet the neighbors were waiting for us to sacrifice a chicken.  Or one of the kids.  We're keeping them guessing.

 



Maria is from Russia.  She always offers the kids hot tea. 
You've heard in Europe the kids all drink wine?  In Russia, they drink tea.



 

And today...Friday at last...we hosted a tour at the art museum.  Ava and 19 of her homeschooled compadres blew the socks off of the docents that led the tours...asking lots of questions and making some interesting observations.  Or so I heard--I stayed in the lobby and chatted up Colson's mom, Laura.  We picnicked afterwards.  And wished it was about 15 degrees cooler. 

 

Off to the movies!  There is a large tub of hot buttered popcorn calling my name....Bob thinks I may be a little too happy to be eating directly out of a bucket.  Do you think...? NAAAAH!!! 

  

Ava with Lynda, our favorite docent at the art museum!

Monday, Tuesday

Monday morning we drove to Chapel Hill for Ava's science class.  We left the house in time for me to take advantage of Caribou Coffee's $1 Monday special.  This is crucial. It is an early start to the day, and on the road this time Ava spent her time studying her new spelling list and designing a personal crest for her Sunday school assignment--each quadrant showing a symbol of one of her favorite things: Hobby (Ava riding a horse); Food (sushi); School Subject (a flask with bubbles and a tube coming up out of it) and Family Member (her brother, Alden).  Nice job, Alden, you made Ava's coat of arms!  Ava read her book on the drive home..so far, the driving time is well-spent.

The Monday science class was all about stars and galaxies...Ava made some marshmallow constellations and blew up a bubble galaxy with some help from her lab partner.  She's not crazy about her lab partner.  Some things don't change.

Tuesday's science class was her "Girls Only" science club where they played with states of matter and dry ice again...then ended with fun on the Estrada family's zip line and pineapple upside down cake.  Nice, huh?! The cake made the top of Ava's "best parts of the day" list.

Also yesterday and today: Tuesday Tales for Homeschoolers at the library featured two birders, Audubon and Lorenz (aka Gooseman).  I learned along with Ava that Gooseman Lorenz discovered "imprinting" and John Audubon discovered "homing" by banding nesting birds.  The kids played duck, duck, goose with the two librarians.  That was a good chuckle. They hardly EVER let kids run around in the library.

Part Two of Emily's art class...fun at yoga...and tossing dough at Stromboli's (kids eat FREE on Tuesdays!) I am exhausted.  But we are having fun.