Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Growing up I used to watch 60 minutes every Sunday night with my parents.  This is a tradition which I continue with my husband and monkeys.  This week there was an episode on sugar as a toxin.  It really caught the interest of my boys and they watched this lecture:

I am a huge believer in moderation.  It does worry me though that in this day and age there are so many 'hidden' sugars in our foods that even those who strive to educate ourselves about what we feed our families are often surprised at the high levels of corn syrup and fructose in our seemingly healthy foods.

This blog post by Small Footprint Family gives a great explanation of all the different types of sugar we can purchase and consume.  

Home Education: Across Guatemala

While we were in Guatemala the boys and I took Spanish classes.  For two weeks we each worked with a private teacher for four hours a day.  In the afternoons we did our regular homeschooling curriculum.  Some afternoons we did 'field trips' which I am featuring on the Lady Of The Arts blog.
Here are some photographs of the monkeys studying:

At the school where we did volunteer work- 

Studying Online

Wishing he was in the hammock- 

At the Panajachel library- where they had a large English selection

TED Talk: Birke Baehr

The boys watched this TED talk and found it very interesting.  I love that they were able to listen to a dialogue from a like minded same age peer.

Have you seen any interesting TED Talks lately? 

Play- dough

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of plain flour
• 2 tbsp. of cooking oil
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of salt
• food coloring

Directions:

• Add the food coloring to the water.
• Place all of the ingredients in a medium size or large pan.
• Cook slowly on medium to high heat and stir until the playdough thickens.
• Done, very simple!

Fun for all ages!

Micro Macro

Check out this cute mini science lesson made using food.
My monkeys enjoyed it:


Micro Macro from Encyclopedia Pictura on Vimeo.

What are some of your favorite educational videos?

Physical Education

One of our Home Education goals is to visit new parks in our city.  One such park had a really fantastic playground for the five and under set- The monkeys were not impressed and I was watching the day go down hill when I saw- literally 'a down hill'. 

We ended up spending almost an hour tumbling down this hill and the monkeys said it was the best day ever. 

Music: Guitar

Playing music is not my strong suit.  I played the flute for a few years in elementary school but never took lessons outside of school.  It is important to me to give the monkeys some sort of music lessons.  My older son took violin lessons when he was younger as part of a Suzuki program.  My husband plays the guitar and so we figured this would be a good instrument to start with.  At the very least they can play for the ladies in college.

They start they have been 'jamming' at home and had one lesson this week- Next week we start private music lessons in a more intensive setting.

I'll keep you posted. 

Reading and Writing

At the library

Book Reports

Book Reports

Working on a car trip! 

This month is going by quickly!

Geometry and Marshmallows

I got this idea from a math workshop we attended- Intent on 'buying myself some peace and quiet' I went to the dollar store and for two dollars picked up a bag of marshmallows (in this case chocolate?!) and a box of toothpicks-

The idea is to try and recreate as many two and three dimensional shapes as possible.

Then count how many sides the shape has and how many angles.

Constructing three dimensional shapes uses math manipulative's to give a clear sense of the faces, vertices's and edges of a shape. 

Try and make (2 Dimensional) 

Square

Rectangle

Triangle

Hexagon

Try and make (3 Dimensional) 

Cube

Rectangular Prism

Triangular Prism

Square Pyramid

By the end it was a free for all creative project that involved making intergalactic space ships.

One word of advice is to open the package of marshmallows prior to using them to give them the opportunity to dry out and harden a bit- 

Math Workshop

We went to a Math Workshop this week.  Again the instructor was able to cater to several age groups while explaining math number concepts to the kids.

The use of manipulative and games is a great way to make the children enjoy learning math concept

The teacher suggested several books which we subsequently checked out of our local library- 

They are all by the same author David Schwartz and the monkeys and I find them well written and informative.