Maps in Three

The goal of the first lesson was to produce a scaled map of the interior of our house.  W enjoyed using the tape measure on the walls, and I did the work of translating the measurements to a floormap.  I motivated the lesson by letting W know that we would be using the maps in the second lesson to do treasure hunts.

The treasure hunts were a blast!  I photocopied the map and gave W one of the maps with an X on it.  At the X, he found a candy egg and another map for the next hunt.  I spent a lot of time with W showing him how to orient the map and determine the general area in a room where the X was.

In the third lesson, I printed out Google maps of our town, state, country, and world.  On the town map, I circled our property; on the state map, I circled our town, and so on.  After looking at these maps and discussing them, we went out on the road for a drive around town, with the task for W to navigate our way to the ball field (where we threw a frisbee around) and back.  W did a good job of keeping track of where we were on the map and letting me know what the next road would be, but he had trouble with determining whether a turn would be a left or a right.  Since we were doing a big loop, he eventually learned that every turn we were making was a left turn.

Maps are a great way to learn concepts around abstraction, spatial reasoning, and data visualization.  They also help us explore and learn about the world around us, and they can be employed for activities that are actually fun.  I suspect we'll be seeing lots of maps in future Daddy lessons.

International Postcard Swap for Families

We will be participating in an international postcard swap organized by Zoe from the Playing by the Book blog. On the postcards families will be sharing childrens' book recommendations from around the globe. This is not homeschool specific so any family can sign up, just click the link below to check it out! Sign-up ends May 17th 2011.

Salt and sugar

During dinner, W asked about the differences between salt and sugar, so we thought up a few experiments and executed these after our main course. 

We began with the sensual experiences of each: how does each look and feel?  How does each smell and taste?  Thinking back, we should have also tried putting our ears up to the little heaps, but I guess we were not expecting any auditory properties.

Having established that sugar tastes sugary and salt tastes salty, we explored how they behave with water.  What happens when a tablespoon of each is mixed into a glass of water?  What happens when a little of each is placed onto an ice cube?

Then we searched ingredient lists to see if various food items had one, both, or neither of salt or sugar as an ingredient.  After a few items, and perhaps a pattern established, we turned it into a game to try to predict the inclusion of salt or sugar.    

snow day (no fooling!)

Today was probably the longest that C has been happy playing in the snow. The power was off and on this morning but with most of the snow off the tree limbs I would be surprised if it goes out again. The temperature was warmer than it has been after most of the snow falls this year considering it is April after all. The boys enjoyed making snow angels and running around in the snow. I saw some wild turkey foot prints in our driveway but this time no other evidence of the bird was left. At least this snow should melt soon and potentially be beneficial to the maple syrup producers.

Last week we rowed The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf for FIAR Volume 2. Check out this post from last year about Ferdinand which recently celebrated it's 75th birthday, and check out the cartoon based on the story. The book is one of my favorites.

Last week we also took a field trip to Parker's Maple Barn with a homeschool group to see how maple syrup is made, and the trip finished off with a delicious pancake and cocoa. We will likely make this a tradition since it is a fun place to visit and there is nothing like the smell of a sugarhouse. W celebrated his 6th birthday with a party this past weekend and spent some time this week writing thank-you notes to his family and friends. Unfortunately this week the boys have had runny noses so I hope no colds were spread to the other little ones during the party. They had insisted on going outside and running around in the cold much to the dismay of the parents.

This week we have been reading The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift (what a name, love it!) W has been recalling some of our big trip to NYC last spring and learning about lighthouses, rivers and geography among other subjects. He has finished chapter 25 in the Math-U-See Primer and we have the Alpha curriculum waiting in the wings for later this spring. We are in the planning stages of our next vacation later this spring to SC, with perhaps some stops on the way back north in VA & PA. :)

   

Now We Are Six

Happy birthday to W! We have spent part of the day reading poems by A.A. Milne from the book Now We Are Six, making and eating frozen homemade juice pops, making paper airplanes, cleaning for the party, playing, and watching the movie Cars which he has proclaimed his favorite. We are about to make cupcakes and W insisted on waiting for his gifts until after dessert this evening. It is snowing here in NH. Just flurries (I hope!) C is Mr. Crankypants having skipped his nap in order to watch Cars so I will try to put him down so we can get started on the cupcakes.