What can you make with spaghetti and marshmallows?

Joshua and Brian read a wonderful Usborne book entitled, 100 Science Experiments. They decided do one of the experiments that involved making stuctures out of spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. Joshua made several different stuctures and even tried to build a tower strong enough to hold a toy car. Brian was able to help build one tower, but it was a little challenging for him. Lucas was wanting to be right there in the middle of the action.

This is the structure with a piece of paper on it on which he was going to place the car. Will the building stand?

It could not withstand the weight of the car. So sad. We will try another day....

Christmas Pancakes Anyone?

I decided to make some special pancakes for each of the boys for Christmas Eve.  Each boy had a pancake in the shape of his initial and a Christmas tree pancake.  Find your favorite recipe for pancakes, place in a bottle with a nozzle (kind of like a restaurant ketchup bottle). I found one at WalMart in the cooking section for less than $1.  Warm up the pan and make the shapes that they want.  It's pretty easy and they loved it! Yummy!

If You Build It, They Will ...Eat It

 

 

Here is Joshua starting with the icing.  He was the project supervisor.

 

 

 

  Brian was in charge of the candy and where it should go. 

 

 

    

 

 

                               The finished product! 

  Lucas was not happy until it was time to EAT the gingerbread house. 

How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

I found a wonderful post on The Simple Dollar about making your own liquid laundry detergent and thought that I would give it a try.  The cost per load for a front-loading washing machine is only about 1 cent and a little over 2 cents for a top-loading machine.  It turned out wonderfully, but it didn't start off so well.  I started the water boiling on the stove while I helped Joshua shred the soap.  I looked up and out of the corner of my eye I saw flames!  I had caught my hot pads on fire by turning on the wrong burner.  Keith was sick and was soaking in the tub trying to feel better when I yelled out, "I'm on fire!"  I have no idea why I said that, but it came out.  I quickly poured some water on the hot pads, turned off the burner and all was safe.  Joshua told me, "Wow, that's the first fire we had."  I took this as an opportunity to "teach" the kids what to do in case of a fire. :) Ahh, teachable moments...

Update:  I have used this detergent for a little over 2 months and it cleans wonderfully.  The clothes look, smell, and feel clean.  I think I may still be able to use this batch for at least another month (for a family of 5).

Small House Movement?

We live in a 3 bedroom, one bathroom home with 1350 square feet and no garage.  We have 5 people in our family and 4 of us are there almost all of the time, since we home school.

I recently read a blog post on The Simple Dollar about The Small House Movement.  It was what I needed.  I get antsy sometimes and want to try to buy a larger home or build an addition onto our existing home, but I forget the long term benefits of our smaller, more modest home.  We are able to pay off this home much quickly and save thousands of dollars in interest and taxes than in a larger, more expensive home.  We have been able to pay off nearly half of the value of our home, and may be able to pay it off within 7 years!  Yay! 

We are also being green by staying in a smaller home which uses less electricity and gas.  I like that!  I don't know if I agree with Trent that it is easier to clean.  I think it is easier to get cluttered with things, so I have to constantly be evaluating the benefit of having something inside our home.  It does force us to live with less things, which is also a money-saver!  Hooray for our little home!

Science Center Trip

We were in St. Louis for an eye appointment, so we took the opportunity to go to the the St. Louis Science Center for the day. We hadn't been there for a while. It was a beautiful day and we were able to play and learn outside as well as inside. We got to see two science shows. The first was the Science of "Peeps" (the marshmallow candy). They did a lot of different things to the peeps and compared the end result to the control peep. The boys were amazed at what the liquid nitrogen did to the peep and then they got to feel the floor after the instructor poured some on the floor. Dry and cold...very unexpected.

Joshua got to volunteer in the second science demonstration about Carbon Monoxide. He turned the crank to make electricity for light bulbs. They compared different types of light bulbs. Joshua did such a great job ;) that they gave him a compact florescent bulb to take home. He is currently using it in his room. He was disappointed that we had "the wrong kind of light bulb" in his closet. He is going to help us be Green one light at a time! :)

The St. Louis Science Center is free and if you are ever in the area, I would highly recommend it.   Find out what is in your area and have an adventure!

A Couple of Big Turkeys

Joshua and Brian made these beautiful turkeys to decorate our Thanksgiving table out of a Pringles can. Their dad said he made a Pilgrim and Native American out of cans as a child. I looked for a template online and could not find one, but I found this site that offered a cute turkey template. They had a blast doing this!

St. Louis Zoo...Free, Hands-On Education!

The boys and I went to the zoo this afternoon and had a terrific time, as always.  I cannot speak high enough praise for the St. Louis Zoo.  We focused on insects, primates, apes, and reptiles on this trip.  The boys on a sculpture outside of the Insectarium.

Resting for a bit outside:)

  The "begged" me to take their picture with this statue.  They loved the snakes, especially the Burmese Python. 

On the gorilla statue before the real thing.

Ahh...brotherly love...with sun in your eyes.

Ready to go home????

When I Grow Up, I'd Like to be a Fire Fighter

A local fire station had an open house this past weekend that the boys absolutely loved!Joshua and Brian exiting the "smoke house."

They got to put out a "fire" with a real fire hose! 

We also rode on the back of a fire truck...totally awesome!

Brian is Reading!

 

Brian reading a book again that he read yesterday for the first time.

I let my kids guide me on how much and fast they want to learn how to read.  Joshua really took interest at 4 years, but started to pull away from reading while he was 5.  He read bare minimum.  I think I was pushing him and I stopped.  Since he's been six, we found a series of books that was difficult, but he loved them (Nate the Great Series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat).  We started by Joshua reading most of a page and then I would finish up when I started sensing frustration.  I would read an entire page, then it was his turn again.  This helped him get to hear some of the story which helped keep his interest.  We would then move to him reading 2 pages then I would read 1.  We would continue this way until he was reading them by himself.

Brian has decided he wanted to do what his older brother is doing since he was little.  One day I realized that he knew almost all of the letter sounds and names without going through curriculum with him.  He loved playing games with letters.   I had bought an old Hooked-On-Phonics complete set from eBay for$25 and Brian took off.  They both loved the HOP books.   We never listened to the CD (or in my case, cassette).  We used the cards for the games and used the parent book a little, but mostly we read the books.  We borrowed a copy from the library to try it out, then decided that it was better than anything we had tried.  That is what ended up working for us. 

We supplement with TONS of books from the library.  I use the accelerated reader list as a guide to what reading level each book is at and worked my way through the list.  We also have several computer games that require reading, as well. 

For more information about teaching your child to read, there is a wonderful post at www.yarnsoftheheart.com that is entitled, "Teaching Your Child to Read."  You should check it out.   

It's All Relative

The kids were pretending to be scientists today and calling themselves Dr. Einstein, Professor Einstein, and Baby Einstein.  I asked them if they knew who Einstein was and they knew that he was a scientist.  This started us on a quest to find out some more information.  We discovered a nice article for kids about Einstein and the theory of relativity.  Joshua really seemed to latch onto the example of an infinitely tall building in which you are in the elevator  falling.  It doesn't feel like you are falling at all, but if people saw you from the outside, they would see you falling.  If you saw them, they would look like they are flying up.  It seemed like things were really clicking with the boys and how it all depends on perspective.  Brian then stated, "It's like when stuffed animals come to life."  Oh well.  I guess that is one perspective.