Week 7 Homeschool Report

October is here!! I decided to start our week of learning by introducing theme for the boys because both of them can learn together. Ethan still have his regular works to do. His works are listed as below:
Grammar: Learning about Contractions
Reading: Comprehension worksheet
Writing: I am using Daily 6 traits writing book from Evan Moore to introduce him the writing technique.
Math: Review Time and Hour. Daily skill practice including addition and substraction. I found the worksheet online.
Science: Learning about weather.

Week 18 Fish

Library is our main book resource for the weekly theme。 I check out many books about fish and ocean animals to read to the boys。
These are the books we read this week。


Evan decorated the fish as if it is a rainbow fish that he read about from the book。



Letter of the week： Qq

He made a queen for the letter Q。 I got this idea from a homeschool mom。

Science： Magic balloon
I found this fun experiment from a science book。 The materials can be found around the house。 One packet of yeast， some warm water， some sugar and a balloon。


First， we mixed the yeast with sugar and warm water in a glass bottle。 Shake it and put the bottle into a pot of warm water。 Wait for few minutes， the balloon starting to blow up as if someone is blowing it but actually not。 This is because of the reaction between yeast and sugar and the warm water produce carbon Dioxide。


He was so excited to see the balloon starting to become bigger and bigger。


I am starting to videotaping Ethan for each experiment as if he is doing a presentation about the whole process。




This balloon stop blowing up because the water is coolingdown。



Matching ABC。

They were counting how tall they are with the cards。

The fishing game： This is a easy to made game。 I use long chopstick or you can use any kind of long stick and tied it with a long shoe lace。 At the end of the shoe lace， I taped a magnet。

For the fish， crabs and seahorses， I drew them on different kinds of color paper and cut them out。 The boys help me to decorate them and putting different number score。
They competed with each other in fishing game and see who got more fish。 For bigger kids， they can add up the number on the fish and see who got the higher score。

Grouping： I asked Evan to group the sea animal into three group。 He grouped them into fish， seahorse and crab categories。





Art time： Painting with the play dough。

Week 17 Boat Theme

Evan is not feeling well this week. His skin flares out quite a bit and I do not let him do much works for this week. Ethan still continue with his daily routine. This week, the boys learned more about boat.



I drew a boat and label the number on certain parts of the boat and let Evan colored it by numbers. He still cannot read the words but he recognized the color. He managed to color the boat according to the numbers.



Art project: Mosaic boat


I introduced the mosaic technique for the art and craft this week. I precut the color paper into small pieces and show them how to paste the small pieces of paper onto the paper to form the boat.



Ethan did not like to do the mosaic at first because it seemed like taking a lot of time．But after seeing his little brother did the art piece， he finally sat down and started finished the work。



We have a tangram set with the boat picture。 Evan matched the shapes well。





Our Science Experiment： How strong is the egg？



This experiment is to show the boys how strong is the egg shell is。 Before the experiment， I cracked two eggs and break them into halves and cleaned them。 I put four halves egg shelves on the table and asked the boys to guess how many books we can put on the egg shelves until they break。 They all think that two to three books will break the eggs but they were amazed to see it took about 27 books to finally break the egg shells。


They were putting more books on the egg shells。



Since they were having fun with the eggs。I let them did another experiment with it。 This time， I asked to hold the egg lengthwise （ on the pointy tip of the egg） and used all they might to break the egg and see how hard it was to break it。



Then， I asked them to hold the egg in the middle part and they broke the egg easily without any problem。 But of course，they felt yucky with those slimy egg white and egg yolk。

Ethan report： He drew me a pictures to show me where is the strong part of the egg。


Math：Number 2。
Evan had to find two of each items that I mentioned below 。

He then had to follow my direction to place those items around the house。 For example， I asked him to put the yellow book under the pink table and he did it without any problem。


Estimation： I put several items into four different bottle。 The boys had to estimate how many each of the items。

Week 16 Butterfly

We learned about butterfly last year with Ethan. This time, Evan is the one who learn it more.
He used the playdough to make the butterfly by using the butterfly mold. I let him used two color of the playdough to make different butterfly sizes.







Connect dot to dot by number. I found this worksheet online and it is in butterfly pictures. He is learning the numbers now and this is a good chance for him to practice his numbers.



Playing playdough and making butterflies.


Grouping the butterflies by colors and sizes.





Making owl. O for Owl.


Letter of the week: Qq

I got this craft idea from one of the mom. She is so creative and I like this craft and so did the boys. The instruction is here.





Craft time: Making picture frames.
I am using used cardboard to cut into frames shapes. Then wrap it with aluminum foils to make it shiny. The boys drew some pictures and put it in the frame. They design the frame by drawing some cute pictures on the aluminum foil.






Using kitchen tools: This is fun for small kids. He was so happy to see the beans go through the funnels into the glass bottles.
I let him do this activities while the big brother is doing his worksheet.




Sorting the black and white beans.