Three sick kids, sunshine, a holiday, and a field trip

We've spent most of this week in the house, with all three kids sick with fevers, colds, and/or coughs. DG was traveling for part of the week for business, which meant that I was truly trapped, in the house, with no escape with 3 sick children. In general we like to keep busy by getting out every day, whether it's to a class or lesson, the library, to have lunch out with family, or to spend some time exploring nature, so being in the house for days on end makes me feel that I am slowly losing my grip on reality.

However, we did manage to make it outside to spend a beautiful, sunny March day playing a fiercely competitive game of family soccer. It was so nice to see the sun after so much rain and cold this month. We celebrated Saint Patrick's Day by reading about the myths, legends, and life of Saint Patrick and the history of Ireland. We did some art projects and a cooked a somewhat authentic Irish meal. We finished our unit study of Chemistry, read lots and lots of books, made some music, and squeezed in a few math lessons when the kids were up to it.

We ended our week by finally getting out of the house! Today we visited the Sandwich Glass Museum. I'm hoping that everyone is on the mend and that we will begin next week with renewed energy. We'll be learning all about the Galapagos Islands as we get ready for our HS group Geography Fair!

Why I like art

D says:I really like art. I take art lessons once a week with a really great art teacher named Bettina. My favorite medium is colored pencil. Why do I like pencil so much? One reason is that you can erase pencil if you do something wrong, unlike paint and other mediums. I go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston every month. My favorite thing to look at at the MFA is the mirror that reflects the very high, painted ceiling.

Jaws Revisited!

D says: Yesterday I went to a shark lecture that was all about great white sharks in Cape Cod. Why are there so many great white sharks in Cape Cod? Because the gray seal population has grown. I love learning about sharks!

Icky Chemistry

D says: Don't try this experiment at home (even though we did it). First I filled a cup with water. Then I put two scoops of color crystals in the cup. The solution turned pink. Next I put two scoops of sodium bicarbonate in the cup. The solution turned blue. Last I added one scoop of citric acid. The solution turned purple. When I tasted it, it tasted absolutely horrificly disgusting!

I learned that:
1. A solution is a mixture of a solid dissolved in a liquid.
2. When you mix an acid with a base it neutralizes the acid.

A day at our Homeschool Co-op

We spend most Mondays with other local homeschooling friends at a co-op run by homeschooling parents. Right now D is learning about rocket science, marine science, and is participating in a theatre class. J is taking a botany class and gets to listen to the music of Mamasteph, who provides a wonderful half hour of music making. K is my teaching assistant and fellow music enthusiast. Today D learned about gyo-taku, Japanese fish-print making, and J learned all about seeds. They both made some great art!

Figaro Figaro Figaro Figaro Figaro Figaro Fiiiiiiiiigaro!

We spent the afternoon enjoying Boston Lyric Opera's performance of Barber of Seville. We've been humming Rossini all day :)

Homeschoolers granted asylum in the U.S

Check out this article about homeschoolers from Germany who were granted asylum in the U.S because you are unable to homeschool legally in Germany. For some reason Blogger will not allow me to add an active link, which is really annoying, but I can't figure out how to fix it - any ideas from anyone (who is clearly more tech-savvy than me) out there as to how to fix this problem? Anyway, you can cut and paste the link below to read the article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100302/us_time/09171196809900

Water is all around us

D says: Water IS all around us. To experiment, we put ice cubes and water in a glass. Then we waited for 10 minutes and when we came back there were little water droplets on the outside of the glass. So what happened? Since there are water molecules in the air that are always bumping into things (I think they are clumsy), they hit the side of the glass, cooled down and stuck to it. Then they condensed from gas into water. This experiment was kind of boring compared to making polymer goo and pretending it was a giant booger, but I did learn something new.