Sunday, May 29, 2011

From the Desks of Isaiah, Elijah and Hannah-Art Show

Another week down...we can SMELL summer...literally! We are getting close to wrapping up official school. But there's still so much more learn! Good thing we are not bound by a school calender. We have a super awesome summer planned, including a HUGE vacation back to MAINE! But the learning goes on and on. We finished our section on circuits in our electricity unit. Here the boys are testing to see if salt water has electrolytes and can conduct electricity...and YES it can.


What about sugar water? YEP What about milk? YEP



This was fun! Put a wooden yard stick on a spoon, takes some practice to balance it on there. Then "charge" you balloon with your hair. Hover the balloon over the yardstick and move it to the left or right. The yardstick will start to move. The boys had it going pretty good...around and around it went.

Friday was the boys last art class of the year. I can't tell you what a blessing their art teacher Brenda has been.She is amazingly talented and very gifted with children. The boys have had so much fun and learned so much. All of their amazing art speaks of that. I can't believe how many treasures we have from this year.


So Thursday night the art students were part of an art show at the local library. The kids each chose one piece to be submitted (that was hard) Then family and friends were invited to have snacks and view all of the art. It was HUGE hit, so much so that the library invited the children's artwork to remain up through next weeks adult art show. It was really amazing. We were so proud of all the work.



The reflection isn't great but here is Elijah's snowman picture he submitted. I had the art professionally matted and then we bought special frames to display.



Here is Isaiah's owl. I love the brown mat in the black frame, it looked sharp.



Here is a display of all the artists holding their most recent work.



The kids were all smiles at the show.


The boys and their art teacher Brenda. We love her!





All of us!


Saturday, May 21, 2011

More Amazing Art

For May the boys were asked to bring in an object or picture to paint. It was so interesting to see what they decided on. There were so many choices. They did an amazing job.





From the Desks of Isaiah Elijah and Hannah plus Guitar Recital

Spring was amazing this week in Washington. Beautiful blue and sunny skies. Yesterday it reached into the 70's. It's really hard to stay in to do school with weather like that but we managed. We took full advantage of the weather, walking to the park, and playing outside. The end of the school year is so close I can taste it. Elijah "charging" the balloon
In the pie plate is oil and dill. When the charged balloon was placed over the plate, the dill moved wherever the balloon did.



This little device is like the game operation. Remember that one? You had to extract bones without touching the sides. The boys "nerve detector" worked in the same way. They had to move the loop all the way through the curved wire without setting of the siren. And the siren was loud!



The boys have been taking guitar lesson since September and it was time for their spring recital. The videos are really hard to hear but if you listen really good you can hear them playing.

Elijah getting ready before he went on.


Isaiah looking over his sheet music.


Nice face Hannah! Hard to keep a toddler still and quiet.


Elijah on stage with his teacher Mrs. Cole. He played three songs "London Bridge, This old Man and He's got the whole world in His Hands.


Isaiah with his teacher Mr. Cole. Isaiah played two songs. They are both Spanish songs so I can't remember the names.










Friday, May 13, 2011

From the Desks of Isaiah,Elijah, and Hannah

What a week! Jammed pack with learning and adventures. And that's just the way like it this time of year when we are in the homestretch for SUMMER. We started our unit in electricity. This was our first attempt at lighting an led light with a battery pack. Since I know NOTHING about this stuff, I didn't really think it through. When I bought the supplies they didn't have a 2 AA battery pack but they did have an 8 AA battery pack so I bought it. So lots of energy...itty bitty LED light bulb=


A pop, fire,smoke and a stinky smell. We blew the bulb. TOO much charge from the 8 pack. Opps! But it was fun and no one was hurt. The boys loved it.


Day two, we now have the 2 AA battery pack. The boys gathered things they wanted to see conducted electricity.


They made their own "switch" from a note card, paper clip. They really liked this.


Time to hook up the motor.







Where we live there are always events going on for us to take advantage of. This week we went to Hovander Park for the a Civil War reenactment and demonstrations. It was amazing.


There were many stations that our group rotated to. The first was taking up arms. Here is Elijah getting his "riffle"


Here is our "drill instructor"


Isaiah in line,he's in the basketball sweatshirt.



Hannah taking up arms.



In battle.


Fighting the War was too much for Hannah and she fell asleep.



Learning about the underground railroad.


Learning about how the soldiers received medical care.



This was the highlight for the boys. The set off a cannon. It was loud and smelled horrible.



Our Tuesday and Thursday night for the past month or so have been filled with baseball. Both boys played this year. Isaiah's season is done. Elijah has a few more games. Here's Hannah at the field...with her puppy of course.


Isaiah getting ready to bat.


Elijah in the outfield.



Elijah is proud of his dirty pants.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Sorry No Star Wars for YOU!

We were "wicked" excited to see the Star Wars exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. We picked a Saturday that worked for us and our dear friends. It just happened the be the last weekend it was going to be there. We got there and it was sold out until midnight. SIGH so disappointed but we have never been to the Pacific Science Center so we decided to go ahead visit while were there. Outside the Center
Hannah thinks the world revolves around her...typical for a 19th month old.


3...2....1....blast off.


This was neat, the ball had images on it that changed. One time it showed all the earthquakes that were happening right then...very interesting.


Rocking the universe.


They loved this. So it looks like Elijah is floating in mid air. He has on leg on one side of the mirror and he lifted that leg up. It was so fun to see their reaction to this.



Another fun one.


A place just for toddlers. She loved the water play. She even through her puppy in the water TWICE.


The sun came out and the kids enjoyed some cotton candy and popcorn under the Space Needle.


Hannah is so West Coast....I love it.


What is this stuff? I don't know if I like it.

YUMMMM I do like it.



Me and Hannah...can you find us?


Peter and Ryan discussing the Bible. I love it!


6 amazing kids between us. They love eachother so much. What a blessing.