Quote for the week:

Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
 
We spent 3 afternoons this week (and really an entire day too) enjoying the unusual warm sunny weather here in NY! It is now back to dreary and 50 so I am glad we took the chance while we had it!
 
Monday: This is Week 2 of my tooth unit with Ava. We are really enjoying learning about teeth. You can check out Week 1 of our tooth unit, and in a few days I will have Week 2 up….just a sneak peek….we even did a fun science experiment this week!
 
Below is a photo of our lapbook in progress. Of all the color choice she chose black for the folder so I am trying to spice is up with plenty of colored construction paper!
 

 
Tuesday: After working very diligently in the morning, we headed outside in the afternoon to take advantage of the nice weather. It was 75 and sunny here in NY! Ava suited up and was ready to hit the pool! Which if you live in NY, you know there are no neighborhood pools open in March! The ground is usually still snow covered. Instead, the kids got out buckets and tried to squeeze their butts into them! When that didn’t work so well (for Jayden at least) they decided to just dunk their heads into the buckets!
 

 
Wednesday: This is the week that Jayden has been waiting for in science. We are making rock candy this week! Ever since I had done it with Chloe’s book club, Jayden has wanted to do it. I told him he would have to wait until we get to it for science. He is thrilled to be checking on the progression of the crystal growth every day, anticipating when it is large enough for him to eat!
 
This is really simple and easy to set up, although I never seem to have as much luck getting the crystals to grow on the string like they should!
 
You need a glass jar, 3 cups of sugar, 1 cup of water, a piece of yarn (since doing this I have been told that pipe cleaners work better, we may try again to test that out), and some sort of weight to hold the yarn down. We gently brought the sugar and water mixture to a boil, stirring frequently until the sugar was totally dissolved. The kids added food coloring at this point (you don’t have to, it doesn’t alter it in any way) because they wanted their “candy” to have color. Then you pour the mixture into the jar with your yarn, making sure the yarn is not touching the bottom. Now we are spending a week peaking in to see how the crystals are growing. It is best not to disrupt the jars by moving them so be sure to put them in a safe spot, but one where you can easily view them and draw/write about their progress.
 

 
[image width=”208″ height=”144″ frame=”simple” align=”right”]http://www.startsateight.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IHeartAGoodGiveaway.jpg[/image]
I also have an A+ TutorSoft 4th Grade Math Curriculum Giveaway that started today and runs until 3/31/12. If you are looking for a math curriculum that helps take some of the teaching load off of you, this is worth checking out.
 

Thursday: What a beautiful 80 degree sunshine day we got to spend at the park. Ava had her Girl Scout meeting and then we stayed to play with friends and enjoy the weather. Besides just running around on the playground, the kids tried double dutch, and bocce ball too.
 
Friday: We had the opportunity to take a Bluebird Nature walk at a local park and nature center. I have lots to share, with facts and photos, but will do that in a post coming up in the next week or so.