Kitchen Learning. A List.

Reading.
Measuring.  Estimating.  Fractions.
Reactions.  Thickening.  Thinning.  Effects of temperature.
Kitchen vocabulary.  Rolling boil.  Simmer.  Saute.  Roast.  Puree...
Nutrition.  Balanced meals.
Multi-tasking.  Dice onions while rice simmers.  Clean spinach while onions sautee.
Kitchen management.  Onions are gone.  Put onions on grocery list.
Improvisation & creativity.  No pasta.  How about rice?
Pride in creating something.
Sense of accomplishment.
Joy in creating something together.
Smells.
Eats.

Curriculum. Lesson Plans. Worksheets... Just.  Can't.  Beat.  This.

Week of 3/19/12

1. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 1 at Lifeprint - we're almost done with Lesson 1! 
2. Cooking with mom (see this post for quick thoughts on "Kitchen Learning")
3. Genetics game using Punnet Square - Crazy Plant Shop at Filament Games
4. Creation of original Star Wars comic (see this post for details)
5. Board games

Sight Words Discovery Jar Bingo

I got this idea from the mama at Mom to 2 posh Lil Divas.  The sight word list is from Super Teacher Worksheets (Dolsch, Pre-Primer level).

J & S really enjoyed it.  the number of words in the jar and on the bingo/word card was a bit overwhelming (next time I'll use less words).  Even so, they were able to stay excited and curious with the involvement of myself or big brother C.

Here's a picture of C helping J find words.  The big jar is filled with rice and individual, laminated sight words (about 1 square inch in size).

J working on a "blackout" of his bingo card

Leprechaun Traps!

We didn't catch any, but we sure did try...

A Garden Planner

C and I used Sprout Robot to help us decide what seeds to plant, when & where (start indoors versus outdoors directly in the garden bed).  Then we made this cool planner to keep all of our information and seeds in one place.  This was a fun project that came with the added bonus of providing our family with a really useful tool!

We printed a calendar page for each month of our planting/gardening season, then indicated by picture (C *loathes* writing) the vegetables we would be planting in the week Sprout Robot recommended.

Following each month's calendar page we made a storage space for all of the seeds we would need in that month.  We just glued an envelope to heavier, card stock paper and tucked the seed packets in the envelope.

Here are the cover and all of the calendar pages with corresponding seed storage before assembly

And here's the planner all put together.  C made the cover page.  I love the planting/growing stages he included up at the top!

Week of 3/12/12

1. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 1 at Lifeprint
2. Spelling activities (First Grade, Lists 21, 22 & 23 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
3. Clone Wars Adventures online game
4. Vegetable garden planning with the help of Sprout Robot
5. Vegetable garden planner/book (see this post for photos)
6. Seed planting

Week of 3/5/12

1. Addition (No Carry, Simple Addition Carrying, Version 1 from Dad’s Worksheets)
2. Addition (No Carry, Addition Without Carrying, Version 1 from Dad’s Worksheets)
3. Addition (More Complex (w/carry), Two Plus One Digit Addition, Version 1 from Dad’s Worksheets)
4. Addition (More Complex (w/carry) - Two Digit Addition, Version 1 from Dad’s Worksheets)
5. Solar System video and quiz from cookie.com
6. Scale Sun and Earth video at Khan Academy
7. Mars video at BrainPop
8. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 1 at Lifeprint
9. We got some new board games recently (Sorry & Trouble) so we spent quite a bit of time playing them as well as our old standby, Uno.

Week of 2/27/12

1. Rush Hour - board game with brothers
2. Writing - three blog entries; favorite ride at Disney World, concept amusement park ride, concept amusement park resort with ride)
3. Subtraction (Spaceship Subtraction H, Version 1 from Dad's Worksheets)
4. Practice writing equations vertically
5. Surfing BrainPopJr.com 
6. Counting Money
7. Uno - card game with brothers
8. Painting - acrylics on canvas
9. Movie - Turtle: The Incredible Journey
10. Lego project with dad
11. Spelling activities (First Grade, Lists 19 & 20 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
12. Drawing - concept amusement park ride and concept amusement park resort with ride
13. Clone Wars Adventures (online game)
14. Building Leprechaun traps with brothers

Week of 2/20/12

Some kind of crazy virus (Perhaps Noro?).  Lots and of rest and recovery