Mostly Mozart

You are what you eat? I know, I know, Halloween is long gone, but when I saw this at Value Village a couple of days ago, I HAD to buy it. It's absolutely hysterical in person - trust me on this.

MOZART IN THE MORNING: The day started with some good ol' penmanship exercises. (The kids - Annabelle especially - could both use some work on proper size, shape and spacing of their upper and lowercase letters.) So they each practiced writing some letters and sentences.

Next, we were back to fractions - halves, thirds and quarters. One of CJ's worksheets featured various groups of toys (balls, marbles, jacks, etc.) which he was supposed to evenly divide among children pictured. He started tentatively - not sure how to approach it. I reminded him it's no different than when he and Annabelle are dividing M&Ms or anything. One for me, one for you ... and so on, until they're all evenly distributed. By the time he got to the third problem, he realized he could get done faster if he counted by twos/doled items out two at a time. Smart thinkin'!

While the kids worked, I played "Mozart on the Menu," a fantastic CD with 16 of his works. When "Divertimento No. 17 for 2 horns" came on, Annabelle said, "I recognize that," and CJ chimed in, "Yeah, from 'Little Einsteins.' "

After they finished their math, I showed them the Visualizations feature of Windows Media Player (where you can choose the color, style and motion of graphics accompanying music playing). CJ was enthralled, saying, "Wow, I just can't quit watching." Soon, the kids were taking turns playing orchestra conductor, using a Swiffer duster as their baton. At one point, Annabelle asked, "Is that a piccolo or flute?" She also pretended to be a violin. Later this afternoon they asked me to cue up the music so they could have another go-round.

SASHAY AND STRUGGLE: While Annabelle was in ballet today, I lugged 13 books and 12 DVDs back to the library (it's about a four block walk). CJ was at the dentist with his dad and, therefore, unavailable to help lighten my load. I exercised restraint and only checked out 8 or so items.

PARK TREK: We had PE in "our" park today. CJ climbed boulders and Annabelle coaxed a 2 year old into following her around the playground.

WONDERMENT OF WORMS: We finally got around to another couple of chapters of "All About Sam." In today's misadventures, Sam shoplifted some gum from the grocery store (bad, bad Sam!), and adopted a pet worm. Having a pet worm piqued the kids' curiosity and we started talking about whether or not a worm would be a good pet. We soon realized we didn't know a lot about worms. (Do they have ears? Eyes? A mouth? Where?) So, I hopped online, of course. Within seconds we expanded our knowledge vastly - and got to see photos from a worm dissection - cool!

We learned that earthworms have multiple hearts, that they store food in their "crop" which is kind of like our stomach, before it makes its way through a gizzard before going to the intestine.

And next time we pick up an earthworm, we'll know which is its stomach and which is its back (the stomach is flatter, the back rounder).

As an added bonus, in the course of trying to learn about worms, I discovered the HomeScienceTools Web site. They describe themselves as "a resource for parents, teachers, and kids who want a better experience with hands-on science." It was founded in 1994 by a couple having trouble finding supplies to do science experiments at home. There are so many cool things on the site - I want it all! (The kids would probably like it too. ; ) )

ME AND MY SHADOWS: To touch upon some art today, I thought it would be fun to do silhouettes of the kids. I remember doing them back in my grade school days, and thought they were supercool. So I set up a station (spotlight, stool and butcher paper) and had the kids take turns sitting down for a 'portrait'. Annabelle was enthused by it; CJ, notsomuch.

BRAINPOP: Yesterday, thanks to a homeschoolers' email list I'm on, I discovered BrainPop. It's a slick Web site - yet another resource that makes me want to reach for the credit card. But first I need to spend more time kicking around the free portions of their site. I signed up to be able to access (free!) the portion of their site for educators (hey, I teach - albeit just my own children). It has video tutorials, professional development tools, graphic organizers and "best practices." On the student side of things, BrainPop says their content is aligned to state standards and easily searchable with an online State Standards Tool. It has good reviews from people on the list I belong to and it's won lots of awards. ...

I guess having too many resources to draw upon is a good problem, right?