Rats!!!

Rats of Nimh that is :) Seeing as how my children are kinesthetic and visual learners, and they needed to learn how to compare and contrast things to write papers; I thought it would be fun to start with movies. We started at the beginning of the month by watching the original version of Witch Mountain, then the newer version, and talking about the differences. I wrote down the differences on our white board, as the kids noted them. I used a simple Venn diagram to show the differences, and similarities.

Next we moved onto one of my childhood favorites: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh

This time were reading a book first, before we watch the movie, so our compare and contrast will be more thought provoking. To make sure their paying attention, (but because I'm sneaky about it) I've been having them paint/draw/sketch their favorite part of the chapters that we read each day. It's working out great!

My Bunny is painting the rosebush that the rats live in.

 Orion is painting the rat carrying a black cord to the rosebush.

 Raymond is painting the rats carrying the cord to the rosebush.

Were halfway through the book now, and I have the movie "The secret of Nimh" (it's based on the book) ready to be sent out next week from netflix. The kids have been so captivated by this, and have been literally begging to read 3-4 chapters per day, so I've already lined up another book and movie after this one. I think I might keep this going using as many of my favorite childhood books as I can remember.

Our big science project that we've been working on lately, well.... hasn't really been much of a project.

We've been trying to grow crystals, emeralds to be exact, and it's just not working lol. I think I might have mixed it wrong, or maybe our water wasn't hot enough? Ugh, it's quite fustrating, especially when you have 3 children journaling the event and every time we check on it, it looks the same. I'm ready to toss in the towel, and label this one our first science fail :( I bought a backup project to start, but sadly when I went to gather our supplies, a cat who shall remain nameless *ahem* Ninja *ahem* had broken 2 of the clay pots I bought to plant flower seeds. I'll make a trip to the store next week and pick up some more to start then.

On a different note, the books I ordered for History next year (June for us) arrived, and the kids can't wait to get started. Orion poured through all of the books, and begged to start early. That made me so happy, because usually it's quite difficult to get him so interested in history... I think I made the right choice :) I'm still missing the story of the world activity guide though, so we'll wait till June to get started, since I buy our books a little at a time.


Other than that, we've been trucking on as normal around here. I'll be back in a few days to share a post about progressive phonics. I've been using the alphabetti series with Bunny for 3 weeks now, and she can read a few words, and sound things out on her own now. Orion is using the intermediate series, and I'm surprised at how well he's able to retain the sounds. He's doing so much better using these books than hooked on phonics, it must be the repetition and all the activities. But more on that later!