River's Edge Urban Academy

Homeschooling 4 kids ages 9, 6, 4 and baby while working as a postpartum nurse and lactation counselor.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

I have a few high points to get on the record and then I should run so here goes...
Last Thursday, instead of our regular math review day activities (graphing, math games) we invented Teacup Math. Joss and I took her four teacups that go with her tea set and she called them her children. We then used marbles to figure out things like how many pieces of candy each "child" should get if there was 12 candies and how much candy all together if each child got 4 candies. We then learned a new way to write that information down (equations). It was all very fun and I couldn't believe that Joss was actually understanding what multiplication and division are.
Saturday we entered a kid's invention contest at our local toy store. Joss invented a "Weight-ma-zall" which she says supports and measures weight! It is three different sized cylinders attached with tons of yarn and little bits of tinfoil and marker drawings all over it. I would estimate she spent about five hours over the last few weeks working on it and it is a masterpiece!! Zeff and his daddy modified our corkscrew to be a "robot" with pipecleaner antennae and a chopstick in one hand and a bubble wand in the other. I of course thought they were fabulous but even I was surprised and proud when they both won first place in their age categories! They each won $20 gift certificates, science toys, certificates of acheivement and blue ribbons. And the very best part: Their inventions will be displayed at The Bakken Museum. We are soooo proud of our kids, and this is not diminished in the slightest by the fact that Zeff was the only entrant in his category! Nor by the fact that it was a "people's choice" award and our whole family (except Keian) got to vote and guess who we voted for!
Today was nice too. Ceramics in the AM, library and post office afterwards. Quiet afternoon w/full Calvert lesson. Now if daddy would just get home so we can have supper and finish our valentine's!

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