Tomie dePaola Day

My kids and I love books.  We love to find an author who we all enjoy, and then we like to do an author's study.  We read about the author's life and career.  And, of course, we read several of the author's books.  Tomorrow is Tomie dePaola's birthday.  He is by far one of our favorite authors.  If you have kiddos (and even if you don't) I encourage you to check out some of his books from your local library.  Tomie uses his life experiences and turns them into whimsical stories that we all can relate with.  He also has a talent for taking old stories and giving them a timeless touch. 

Today, the kids and I read 14 Tomie dePaola books.  We watched a few YouTube videos of interview with him.  The kids have worked on comic strips, book reviews and some of their own dePaola-esque art.  We also had some Strega Nona Noodles for lunch...she's one of our favorite dePaola characters!  We hope you go out and find an author you and your kids enjoy and learn a little bit more about that person!

Play with your food!

Do you remember when you were younger, and your mom would say, "don't play with your food!"?  I remember because I say it to Titus at almost every meal.  Titus can turn carrot sticks into a soccer game, grapes into race cars, and French fries into football games.  Almost everyday, I am saying to Titus, "please pay attention and stop playing with you food!"!  A couple of days ago, I was prepping vegetables, and I noticed how pretty the design was on the bottom of the stalk of celery.  I know that sounds strange, but I couldn't help but notice it.  I was reminded of the wonderful artist God is, and how He even made produce pretty!  The idea popped into my head that we could do an art project using some of our vegetables.  I kept the bottom of the stalk of celery, some broccoli, and I sliced up some tops of carrots into different shapes.  Yesterday, I put out the paint on the table along with paper and the vegetables.  I told the kids we were going to paint with vegetables.  Cecely immediately lit up, and Titus said, "that sounds gross".  I told him we weren't going to eat the vegetables after we paint with them and that these were parts of the vegetables that usually end up in the trash or compost pile.  That rational worked for Titus, and so, the painting began.  The kids had a great time and the end product was pretty neat!

Disney Appreciation

The Disney "Bookstore"

There are a few things that I really do love: my kiddos, homeschooling, and anything Disney.  The past couple of weeks, I have been able to combine those three things for the perfect storm of magical learning fun!  Once we arrived at the "20 Days Until Disney" countdown, Cecely and Titus lost focus and interest in school work.  I decided to take a break from our normal studies and write out some Disney Appreciation Lesson Plans.  It has been so much fun for the three of us.  I used some resources from TheMouseForLess.com as well as FamilyFun.com.  Both of these websites had some great activities for writing, exploring, and creating.  I was able to use our "movies of the day" to put together math word problem worksheets.  It is amazing to me how much more interested in adding together double digits and multiplying my kids become when their favorite characters are the stars of the math problems! 

Titus is all "ears".

With our upcoming trip to Disney World, I thought it would be fun for us to have a Disney movie marathon.  Each day we watch a couple of Disney movies, follow up with arts and crafts, have a writing assignment, and do math.  We have really enjoyed watching the Bonus Features on the DVDs and Blu Rays.  We have learned a lot of Disney history and watched some really neat footage of the olden days of movie making magic.  We have compared and contrasted princesses.  We have discussed the differences between computer-animated movies and hand-drawn movies.  We have learned of many of the pioneering efforts of Walt Disney and his cohorts.  It has been very educational as well as fun.

Our informational chart about the World Showcase.

On this upcoming trip to Disney, we are going to spend a day at EPCOT.  Last time, we weren't able to enjoy all of the World Showcase.  But, this time, we are planning on visiting every country.  The World Showcase at EPCOT has been a great inspiration for this week's learning.  We discussed geography, culture, and language.  We categorized which continent each represented country is on.  We looked up what kind of money each country uses, what their flag looks like, what their capital city is, and tried a few native words.  We also made our own EPCOT passports for the World Showcase.  In each country, we are going to look for some kind of sweet treat, write it in our passport, taste them, and rate them.  If the country has a ride or movie, we are going to participate.  If we meet any characters, we have places for them to sign our passports.  I have read that there is a fountain in each country, but some are harder to find than others, so we are going to check off every fountain we find.  Finally, we also have a spot to ask a Cast Member for a stamp of each country!

Our EPCOT passports (I could not get the image to adjust for some reason).

While we won't be going to the Animal Kingdom Park this visit, we are staying at Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Upon arrival, we will get a field guide of all the birds and animals who live on the different savannas.  We have made our own field guides where we are going to locate the animals, take some notes (was it sleeping, eating, playing, relaxing?  Was it alone or in a group?  Did we see it in the day or at night?), and attempt to draw the animals.  When I told the kids about this project, Cecely lit right up.  She said, "We'll be just like Jack in Magic Treehouse!".  I LOVE that she made that connection!

Animal Kingdom Lodge Field Guide

So, as we anxiously await for our departure to Disney World, we are filling these last couple of days with a few more movies, making a few more crafts, and enjoying all of those fascinating Bonus Features.  We are also beginning to prepare around the house.  Today, the kiddos wrote (or drew) their packing list for the trip.  Tomorrow, we will begin the adventure of packing...I'm going to try my best to NOT be a control freak and let the kiddos be in charge.  Wish me luck!

Fun art from FamilyFun.com.

Our chart identifying where Disney movies have taken place.  For example, Three Caballeros is under South America, Peter Pan is under the U.K., Cars in under U.S.A., Mulan is under Asia.

Fun Fraction Food Friday!!!

I do love using alliteration in a title...over the course of this week, we have been working with fractions.  The kiddos and I have used all kind of manipulatives and played different games using fractions.  We have also spent time talking about how we use fractions in real life...the most common place I find fractions is when working with food.

We also have been reading about Italy this week, and the most famous food from that country, Pizza! We've read stories, watched documentaries, and made some pizza art.

So, today, we had Fun Fraction Food Friday.  We combined our themes and made semi-homemade pizza rolls, performed fraction problems with goldfish and marshmallows, and ate a Hershey's bar 1/12 at a time.  Tonight, we are going to make a dessert pizza using chocolate chip cookie dough, strawberries, and Cool Whip!!!

Step 1: unroll crescent dough, then spread sauce

Add cheese

Roll 'em up

Time to bake!

Goldfish fraction work

See, math can be fun!

Recording data

Pizza Rolls hot from the oven

Dessert!

Titus has 1/12 of a Hershey's Bar in his mouth

Make that 1/6

Possibly 1/4

Dr. Seuss Week

This week has been lots of fun.  We've been reading Dr. Seuss books, doing activities, and watching Dr. Seuss movies.  I love Dr. Seuss.  His books are amazing.  Of course, they teach great writing skills: using creativity, descriptive words, silly words, and rhyming.  But, more than that, his stories are loaded with amazing lessons that are timeless.  And, it's not that hard to tie Dr. Seuss' lessons to those from the Bible.

One of our favorite stories is The Sneetches.  We watched the old cartoon that used to come on CBS, then we read the book.  This tale is full of real-life problems...all about prejudice and discrimination.  The kids and I talked about the "star-bellied" Sneetches and how they thought they were better than the other Sneetches because of their stars.  We talked about how the Sneetches "without stars upon thars" wanted to do what they could to be like the Sneetches.  We talked about how God made all people unique.  We all have something special, and God DID NOT make any of us superior to others. 

Another one of our favorites is The Lorax.  I know that some people have negative views of it because of the strong environmental themes.  But, I believe The Lorax can work right along with the Bible.  God has blessed us with a beautiful earth full of animals, plants, and amazing places.  The Lorax "speaks for the trees", and I believe God has given us the responsibility of taking care of the wonderful Earth He created!  We really enjoy the book, the classic movie, and the new movie!  There is a silly App for iPhones and iPads...check out the kids!

Cecely as the Lorax

Titus as the Lorax

We really have a good time reading all of Dr. Seuss' stories.  Today, we are using Green Eggs and Ham as our kick-off.  I made Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Sandwiches this morning.  We've watched the old cartoon, Cecely has read the story out loud, and in a little while we are going to talk about green food, how to use similes, and maybe even write a poem using green things.  It's going to be a wubblulous-wondermous-fantasmical week!

Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Sandwich

Thoughts before the 1st bite...

Here we go!

I'm thinking the smiles mean they like it!