Lunar Eclipse 2008

Did you see the lunar eclipse tonight? It was very cool to watch, and I'm glad that it occurred so early for us - between 6:30 and 7:30 pm. Perfect for Jaymi to stay up and watch part of it.
It was interesting watching it change...watching the moon disappear more and more...and also watching how much the moon moved (Jaymi found that amazing) so quickly. I was tracking it with my camera - set up on a tripod - and every time I went to take a picture 2 minutes later, the moon had moved.
Jaymi also found it very interesting to see real pictures of the moon closeup. I guess it's different when we have taken them ourselves - more real to her.

Blast Off!

We have taken a bit of a break from any formal homeschooling but are back into it now.
Yesterday we went out to an open field to see if Mark & Jaymi could launch the rocket that they built together. It was finally a sunny, dry, non-windy day - perfect for rocket launching.
It was awesome! I have never seen a toy rocket launch before and it goes pretty far up. So far that I could barely see it before it began descending. Unfortunately, on the way down, the parachute didn't open properly and therefore one of the fins broke off. So, we launched it one more time and now it's off to the rocket repairshop (a.k.a. the garage) to be fixed and launched again one day.

Stay tune later today or tomorrow, for more info. about our current studies - we also started a big "Art Week" yesterday.

Knight for a Day

The main event of today (after going to an open house on the new ferry - very cool) was a friend's birthday party. Yes, another birthday party!
This was a medieval-themed party, where each child had to come as a knight or a maiden. Jaymi insisted on being a knight, the reason being, because maidens had to wear a fancy dress and there was NO WAY she was wearing a dress! So, she came as a knight.
It went great! Her two girl friends who were at the party, immediately asked Jaymi to come and save them from the dragon, which she was quite willing to do.
And by halfway through the party, one of the girls had decided to change into a knight!
Yep, that's my little girl - the leader, definitely not the follower!

Let's start off with a parade!

This morning went I went to get Jaymi, she greeted me with, "Mommy, come on up...I have a surprise to show you in my room!". She proceeded to show me a very detailed group of stuffed animals, all dressed up in costumes, an audience of Littlest Pet Shop animals and dolls, chairs set up, and two 'buildings' in the centre of the room, which the parade of stuffies was going around.
We had to sit in our designated chairs while we watched the stuffie parade. She put classical music on and we sat there and said, "Ooh, look at that funny costume the cat is wearing!"..."Aah, that caterpillar is wearing a wig!"..."Hey, I know that person...hi!"..."Wow, what a lovely parade!".
(The whole time of course, nothing is moving. We're just pretending it all.)

It was fun, diving into the imagination of a 5-yr-old for a while. She set the parade up later, downstairs, along the carpet runner of our main floor. We had to watch the parade again, of course.

It was amazing, the amount of set-up this must have required in the morning. There was a Garfield with a Christmas headband on, a car with a tutu around his neck, a lobster doctor, a cat with handcuffs on, a cat dressed as a tiger, three turtles dressed as firefighters in a fire truck, a caterpillar with a clown wig on, a Serta sheep dressed as a cat, a cat with braids, and many more! And the whole group was marching around a bank and a pet store.

We were so busy today!

Well, today started out as a school day, and turned into a homeschooling day! The power went out an hour after school started, (just enough time for chapel and music) so I got a phone call to pick Jaymi up and bring her home.

So...we got tons of stuff done today!

Jaymi made all of her Valentine's cards today,












she did a bunch of time/clock worksheets (decided to hang them up in her room),












finished decorating her and Daddy's rocket with stickers (her idea to pose like this for the picture),


















made a rule list (I was making one for our household - what is NOT allowed, and she decided to make one for her room),
read a book about Louis Braille, touched some real braille, and pretended to be blind to see what it would be like,


















did a bunch of math word problems,



















took a break after lunchtime, for ice cream :),
did some errands - post office, grocery store, health food store, etc.,
a couple of loads of laundry,
took a bunch of pictures while blowing bubbles (she learned how to use the camera remote).


















Whew! We got so much accomplished and had so much fun! Jaymi said "the minutes flew by!"

Some Great Books

We have read some good books about space in the last week, and I thought I'd share them with all of you.

"My First Book About Space: A Question and Answer Book" by Dinah L. Moche
"Amazing Space Facts" (A Golden Look-Look Book) by Dinah L. Moche
"What Does the Sun Do?" by Jean and Cle Kinney
and another book about space - it's an Usborne book but I don't have it with me right now.

Of course, the NASA website was very helpful, and the Discovery Kids website as well.

Blast Off!!

We did tons of space work today.
We learned a lot about the solar system...which planets are hot and cold, what the atmospheres, skies and surfaces are like, how long it would take to travel to each planet, etc.
We reviewed our knowledge of the Space Race between Russia and the U.S..
We did our own version of astronaut training (Jupiter Jumping Jacks, Solar System Stretch, Pluto Push-ups, Lunar Leaps, etc.) - we trained hard, and passed our astronaut test.
We made an awesome spacesuit (for Jaymi) which she wore for quite a while, complete with space boots (rubber boots covered in bubble wrap, gloves and a hood (we couldn't make a helmet properly), and a space pack (Fedex box) with oxygen tanks (paper towel rolls).
Of course, we learned all of the reasons that you need a space suit to protect your body.

We pretended the space under Jaymi's loft bed was the space shuttle, and we took quite a few trips to the moon, including doing a full system check (learning how to talk on the radios), counting down, blasting off, laughing when Garfild (who came with us) forgot to strap himself in and floated up in the air, and landing on the moon (watching out for meteors of course).
We explored the 'moon' (her room), collected some dirt for analysis, and returned to earth.

Through the whole space experience today, I have to mention that Jaymi insisted on being a space CAT. She was a cat astronaut - check out the tail in the picture!

Another Mixed Up Day

We did a bit of everything today.
We had pancakes for breakfast.
Jaymi learned how to work the nail gun.



















Jaymi and Mark started building a real rocket!
We had a playdate with some new friends, went to the park,
and went out to dinner with them!

Detour

Well, we didn't do any space stuff today, although I had planned on it. We'll have to do it tomorrow. We took a bit of a detour from homeschooling today.
We found out last night, that Jaymi's best friend was in the hospital for a few days, having had a seizure. He just got home yesterday and she wanted to do something special for him. So, we went to the store, bought a little Webkinz (she chose the one he would like the most), some flowers that she chose as well, and a gift bag, and she wrote the best letter to him.
"Dear C***: I hope you are feeling better. I love you C***. Do you love me too? Feel better soon. You are my best friend. From: Jaymi."
She wrapped everything up and we went to visit him and give him his present.


















The other cool thing that we did today (we cleaned the house for the rest of the day, oh yeah, and Jaymi sorted coins as well) was making these awesome tortilla snowflakes. It was fun! You just gently fold a soft flour tortilla in half and in half again, snip wherever you want with scissors, unfold, bake on a greased baking sheet for 5-7 minutes, and then sprinkle some icing sugar on top, shake the excess off, and eat!
Mmmmmm!