Pizza Math

When our little wooden pizza was purchased, I had no idea how instrumental it would be for teaching. Today we used it in our practice of fractions. We saw how 2/6 was equal to 1/3, 3/6 was equal to 1/2 and how 4/6 equals 2/3. We also reinforced our times tables by putting different amounts of toppings on each piece and then multiplying them. This was a great way to really experience math in a pratical way. Tomorrow we'll try it with real pizza!





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Oleta River

Our nature adventures led us to Oleta River State Park in Miami last week. What a nice little park. It is great for young children as the waters are very calm and the beach area is shallow. We went for a walk to the river and got in the water. The kids got to taste some "sea lollipops and celery"- very salty. I got a good picture of an orb weaver. We see these guys everywhere! They are usually up in the trees and the webs are very large and easy to spot. After playing in the river we headed to the beach and played in the water there. We swam with all different types of fish, needle nose, sergeant majors and lots of minnow. There was a little pier by the beach area where the kids fished and while there, we saw a very large barracuda. I wasn't too excited about going back into the water after that:). Our wonderful guide Christy said that the manatee frequent this park and her son has had the pleasure of swimming with them. What fun that would be!

Needle Felted Dolls

Yaya and I made these cute little needle felted dolls with wool roving. She wanted hers to have pink hair. What a princess! It was really nice to spend some time with her doing a "girly" project.

These are from the Earthschooling site. Her curriculum is so much fun. There are so many great resources and ideas that you can't possibly use them all! We love it.

Well, I finished our happy little math gnomes! They are so cute and the kids have had fun playing with them. Yesterday we introduced them with a little story and then we practiced finding all the ways to make 48. We used some small smooth stones as "jewels" for counting. This, of course leads me to the story of the day! Yaya was playing so nicely with gnomes and the jewels on the table. Then little J comes up to me and has his finger in his mouth and a face like he was trying to tell me something. Hmm. I just had that mother's intuition that he may have gotten a jewel and swallowed it so I counted the marbles and we now only had 47. Oh no. I looked all over for that jewel but just couldn't find it. Then the day went on and when daddy got home from work, I told him the story. I counted the jewels again just in case I miss-counted. Well... now there were only 45! Okay I know I should have put them in a container and locked them up, but they were on the table out of reach. The one he may have swallowed probably fell on the floor, right? Well, no one really knows for sure, but the main issue here is that all three jewels have been recovered as of this morning. Yes... if you're thinking the most disguisting of options, you are correct. Now we will have to find some larger manipulatives to use for math and apparently less tasty!

September30th

Well this week has been a bit slower as I have been tending to some sick little ones. Last Thursday we did go on our nature walk at Hugh Taylor Birch Park in Ft. Lauderdale then we headed to Ft. Lauderdale Beach across the street. The waves were rough but the kids had a blast. Hours later P-Nut said he still felt like he was in waves. He had a good time playing with his friends and building sand castles. So did Yaya. The rest of the week was spent on Form Drawing and Language Arts studies of Saints and Heroes. We've also been using Character Qualities as our copywork (our Charlotte Mason influence). This week our focus was dependability vs. inconsistency. P-Nut copies a definition in his book along with a bible verse in this case it was Psalm 15:4. We like to use the Message Version. It is very easy for the kids to understand. Yaya doesn't do the copywork, but she loves to be involved in the discussion! Next week we will be starting our math block so I will be making some fun little math gnomes (this is where our Waldorf influence comes in) over the weekend :).

September20th.

Relaxing in the shade! Yaya collecting shells

P-Nut and Yaya painting the day away. We experimented with red, yellow and blue to make all the colors of the rainbow (much more fun than memorizing the color wheel:)).

The prominence of exotic pet trade in Florida has led to an established population of iguanas in South Florida.

P-Nut trying to catch some critters

Wow! We had such a busy week. This is just a sampling of our activities. P-Nut and Yaya are learning so much! We spent the beginning of our week learning about Saints, painting and form drawing (P-Nut's favorite activity). On Thursday we headed down to Virginia Key Beach to explore the Ocean Life. We caught a Blue Crab, baby iguana and learned about some interesting plants.

Female Blue Crab- females have "painted" red claws. The orange "blob" on top of this crab are eggs. Pregnant" female blue crabs carry fertilized eggs under their abdomen. From a distance these eggs resemble a sponge, hence they are termed "sponge" crabs. It takes about two weeks for the eggs to "ripen" and be released into the water to hatch. "]