Meant To Teach

Ahhhhhh!!! That's all I heard after I downloaded the sound meter app on my phone. The girls wanted to make their screams get up to as much decibels as they could on the meter. Can you tell we are learning about sound this week? We've learned all about sound waves and how sound travels. Oh and ofcourse, the measurement of sound. We did some music fun, too. We made music with water and glasses. Each of the glasses had a different tone when hit with a spoon. The glass with the most water had the lowest pitch while the glass with the least water had the highest pitch. The girls understood that the vibrations are made when you hit the glass, this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone. But we aren't done yet...by the end of the week - Chris has a customer that is an audiologist and hopefully going to let the girls come and peak around and learn stuff in their office. Let's not also forget about plugging Helen...

The girls have had fun with this!! Ashlyn is more than halfway there, but Kylee learned them in a week in alphabetical order. I'm, ofcourse, a proud mommy! I must tell you that this comes from a song called "The 50 states that rhyme." When we were listening to the song, it was to the tune of Turkey in the Straw. Here are the lyrics, in case, you want to give it a try: Alabama, and Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas California, Colorado, Co-nnecticut and more Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho Illinois, Indi-a-na, I-o-wa ...35 to go... Kansas, and Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine Maryland, Massachusetts and good old Michigan Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, and Montana Nebraska's 27, number 28's Nevada Next, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, and way down, New Mexico There's New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, now let's see Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee Texas and there's Utah, Vermont, I...

Well, the past couple of days, we've been learning about matter and the three states of matter (Solid, Liquid, and Gas). We sang a little song to the tune of "Wheels on the Bus." The girls loved it and it can be quite catchy! It goes like this... The three states of matter are solid, liquid, gas, Solid, liquid, gas; Solid, liquid, gas. The three states of matter are solid, liquid, gas, All day long. The floor is a solid; you can jump up and down, Jump up and down; Jump up and down. The floor is a solid; you can jump up and down, All day long. Water is a liquid you can drink right down, Drink right down, Drink right down. Water is a liquid you can drink right down All day long. Air is a gas you can breathe right in, Breathe right in; Breathe right in. Air is a gas you can breathe right in, All day long. The three states of matter are solid, liquid, gas, Solid, liquid, gas; Solid, liquid, gas. The three states of matter are solid, liquid, gas, All d...

So we did it...our first lapbook. My oldest daughter loved it! She loved the time we spent together doing it and she loved the artsy part of making it her own. She designed a beautiful cover for her lapbook, too. For vocabulary she learned about "echolation" and a "pod". For spelling, she learned words that have the "ph" sound. You can also see that she did a bar graph comparing dolphins to other whales. She did the anatomy of a dolphin and so much more this week. We've really had fun with this! Lapbooking will certainly be a family favorite. We also put a small one together for my youngest. She had fun with it as well.

I know what you are thinking...lapbooks have been around. Well, I had always heard about them but never knew HOW to do them and where to find what to put on the folders. WELL, I found the site www.homeschoolshare.com and I am in heaven!! I think my oldest daughter will love doing these!!! She can't stand doing "book work". She gets bored too easily and I may have just hit the jackpot. I guess I'll let you know next week how it turns out. She's such an artsy girl, I think this will be right up her alley! We are going on vacation in a month or so...so guess what we are studying for science before we go. ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE OCEAN!! So our unit for next week is DOLPHINS!! Do you ever get that feeling of once you found something that you can't wait to start!! I wish we'd start it today, but I told the girls they could have the day off. I know I'm a nut, but its just so exciting!!

My oldest daughter has been learning standard form, expanded form, and word form in math. So, I printed off some fake checks and she started writing some big fat checks to practice the word form! I love that she knows how she will be using this in real life in the future.