Sunday Centers

I've posted a lot about Sundays and have gotten some good advise about to make them better. One friend mentioned doing "centers." I remember reading about that in the Friend awhile back, but couldn't find the article so I just made up my own. I took all the ideas from my friends and some of the ones I found and put them into simple centers that the kids can rotate through. Then after centers we can do something together. Today was our first day. Corbin hopefully asked if we would get to do them again next Sunday. I think they were successful.
Today's centers were:

Coloring pictures

Visiting www.friend.lds.org

Doing puzzles (pictures cut-up into puzzle pieces)

Looking at the Gospel Art Kit picture book with dad

Reading the Friend

I wanted activities that each kid could do by themselves--except for Faythe, she hung out with me. I will rotate some out so they don't get bored. After centers, the kids played chess. Being organized with ideas makes a much smoother Sunday.

Who Loves the Dentist?

My kids do! Have you ever seen a kid get excited about going to the dentist? When I told the kids that we would be going to the dentist I got a "Yippe!" and a "Woo-Hoo!"

Friday was our 6 month check-up. We go to a dentist that sees our whole family. We really like the office and they take good care of us. The kids each got a coupon for a kid's meal at Chick-Fil-A, a new toothbrush and some stickers. Unfortunately, Braedi and I will be going back to get some cavities filled. YUCK! It will be Braedi's first. Maybe she won't be so excited to visit next time.

Igneous Rocks, Metamorphic Rocks & Minerals--OH MY!

Continuing on with our unit on rocks. . .
We discussed igneous rocks (Molten rock sometimes comes up through cracks in the earth. Then it is called lava. When lava cools it is called igneous rock. Igneous means "made by fire.") and then melted gummy bears to see how this type of rock is formed.

Then we talked about metamorphic rocks. They are igneous rocks or sedimentary rocks that have been changed by heat and pressure. The igneous rock granite changes into gneiss. The sedimentary rock limestone changes into marble. We looked through the rock kit my dad gave me and found some igneous rocks (and sedimentary rocks) and then the metamorphic rock that it changed into. We also made a simple sedimentary rock with layers of bread and chocolate chips. Then the kids used the heat and pressure in their hands to change it into a metamorphic rock.




Then we started learning about minerals. We went through the box and found several minerals then learned what everyday objects they make. Sulfur can be made into matches, copper is used in electrical wires and pipes, halite is used to make table salt, and magnetite is an important ore of iron that is in steel. We talked about mining minerals and how we have to be careful to keep the Earth as intact as possible--being good stewards of the Earth. We've learned about conservation in the past and being good stewards of what God has given us. It was a good reminder. We experimented with mining. The kids were given a chocolate chip cookie (the Earth and the diamonds that needed to be extracted), a toothpick (their pick ax), and a marker (their hammer), and they had to get the chocolate chips out without destroying the cookie. This activity is supposed to be done with the crunch Chip's Ahoy cookies, but I didn't want to buy them, so I made some. They are softer, but I think the idea still got through to the kids.




We will do more with categorizing minerals next week.

Silly Sentences

We didn't have much time for writing today, so I pulled out Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye and found a short writing activity. I divided my big marker board into a grid with 5 columns and 6 rows. The top row had Who/What, Action, Where, and When. The next 4 rows were filled with stuff that the kids said. It ended up looking something like this:

# //Who or What// Action// Where// When

1 //Corbin //ate a fly //at the store //Tuesday.

2 //My sister //chased a cat //to or at McDonald's //yesterday.

3 //My brother //lost his tooth //at the hospital //after school.

4 //A dog //chicken danced //on an iceberg //this morning.

5 //The robot //walked //to his house //during lunch.

Then they had to roll a die 4 times. The first time they would write something from the first column--the words that corresponded with the number on their die (a number 2 on the die would be My sister). The second time it was from the 2nd column and so on. If they rolled a 6 they got to make-up their own words that went along with the title of that column/turn. They had a good time with it and came up with some silly sentences.

Braedi: A barbie walked to the mailbox yesterday.
Corbin: Corbin chicken danced to his house this morning.
Dyllan: My sister ate a fly at McDonald's this morning. (She even had a gross picture to go a long with her sentence--complete with goozing blood).

Lots of Kids

Whenever I go shopping or out to eat or to the library or practically anywhere with my 5 kids I get a lot of comments. Here are some things I hear:

• Are they all yours?
• Are there more at home?
• Are you going to have more?
• You've got your hands full!
• I'm glad it's you and not me.
• Don't you know what causes all those kids?
• Your kids are so well behaved.

Usually I just smile and try to be polite, but my friend pointed me toward a website with funny things I could say back instead. (They are in the form of T-shirts)

Not that I'll ever have the guts to say something like that. . .

What's for Breakfast?

I like to have a variety of things for breakfast and am willing to try new stuff (my kids aren't always thrilled with the different things, though). I have a generic menu plan in place. This allows me some structure (I know what type of meal I will cook) and freedom (I get to pick how I cook the eggs or what kind of hot cereal or what I'll put in my pancakes) at the same time.

Sunday--pre-cooked muffins or frozen waffles
Monday--hot cereal
Tuesday--pancakes
Wednesday--eggs
Thursday--pancakes or waffles
Friday--eggs or cold cereal
Saturday--french toast

Food City had apples on sale the other day and Lola gave me about 5 pounds. Not enough to go through the trouble of making and canning applesauce and too many to eat before they went bad, so I started looking for crock pot recipes. Here are two favorite sites: http://www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/crockpot/index-5b.html and http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/. I found a recipe for Apple Granola--perfect for a Monday morning.

Ingredients:
4 med apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I didn't peel mine)
2 c. granola (I added raisins--you can add other dried fruit)
1/4 c. honey (next time I'll use less)
2 T. butter, melted (I used half that amount)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
optional: serve with a dollop of whipped cream
Combine apples and cereal in crock pot. Combine honey, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg in bowl then pour over apples and mix. Cook 6-8 hours on low.
My crock pot runs hot and I didn't want to over cook it, so I asked Jonathan to turn it on before he went to bed. OOOPS! He forgot. Oh well. The kids had cold cereal for breakfast and we tried the apple granola later for a snack. It was super yummy!

Freezer Jam

Fry's had strawberries on sale this week and I had some packages of pectin in the cupboard, so I decided to make some strawberry freezer jam. I enlisted the kids help and they totally loved it. They cut up the stawberries into smaller pieces then mashed them and stirred in the pectin. Next they helped pour the jam into the jars and seal them. Their favorite parts were probably getting to eat the strawberries and also trying the jam on rolls.

The First Olympics

We've been studying ancient Greece, and today we learned about the first olympics. The kids got to compete in some events. And by compete I mean COMPETE. Us moms were surprised at how competitive the kids got. They really wanted to be the fastest and throw the farthest and be the strongest. There were foot races,

a horse-race (wheelbarrow race),

shot-put,

javelin throw, long jump and wrestling (arm-wrestling).

I love the face on that one!

Here's an interesting fact: the Greeks would participate in the events naked. It had something to do with showing respect to the Gods. Our kids opted to keep their clothes on.

At the end they were crowned with laurels.

Fun times!

Sedimentary Rocks

We just started a unit on rocks. My dad (a geologist) let me borrow a teacher's rock kit with ideas for teaching, and I also got some ideas from Core Knowledge and KONOS.

We've been talking about sedimentary rocks. Here's a definition from A First Look at Rocks by Millicent Selsam and Joyce Hunt:

Everywhere on land the wind blows and the rain falls.

This makes rocks crack, break and crumble.

Bits and pieces of the rock tumble down into streams.

The streams carry them to the rivers

and the rivers carry them to the sea.

The bits and pieces can be small as sands grains

or as big as pebbles.

These are called sediments.

Millions of tons of these sediments pile up

layer upon layer.

The top layers press down on the lower layers.

Over millions of year, the sediment becomes sedimentary rock.

Yesterday we sorted though the rock kit and found the sedimentary rocks. Then we gathered some pebbles, sand, dirt, grass and soil and mixed them with water in a jar. It was a way for the kids to see how sedimentary rocks are formed. It's supposed to show their layers, but the kids couldn't really see them (too much grass and not enough pebbles).
Today we made some Seven Layer Magic Bars--another way to show the layers on a sedimentary rock. I must have made them wrong because I couldn't see the layers. At least it was a yummy mistake. Here's the recipe and what they should have looked like:

Next up: Igneous rocks.

One Funny Thing

I don't have anything to say today. . .but Ephram said something cute. It must be a funny age. My friend posted something recently about the funny things that her 3 year old said.

We were all kneeling down for a family prayer. Ephram has been trying to keep his arms folded and head bowed and eyes closed. Tonight's prayer was a little longer than usual and Ephram did well holding still, but at the end of the prayer he started crying and complaining, "You made my neck hurt!" I guess it was too long for him to sit in one position.

Our Sick Weekend

Early Sunday morning, Faythe started throwing up again. Then during breakfast it was Dyllan's turn. YUCK!
That Sunday was the day my brother was blessing his son and I wanted to be there to support him. So, I took the 3 healthy kids and made the 1 and 1/2 hour drive out to Florence. It was a tough drive--boring, I was tired and my allergies were making me miserable--but worth it. It is always a pleasure to see my brothers/brothers-in-law/husband use the priesthood. My mom let me use some Afrin (nose spray) and I was in heaven the remainder of the day. We had a nice dinner after church and got to visit.
At home was another story. . .Dyllan was a champ (never complained), but Faythe was miserable. Here's a picture of her crying because Jonathan won't give her a drink.
That night Ephram started throwing up. It's funny because Braedi and Corbin FREAK OUT whenever someone throws up. Braedi didn't want to sleep in her room because she was afraid her sisters would throw up again. She wanted to sleep on the floor in the boys' room. It's a good thing she didn't though because that is where Ephram aimed. T the first sound of Ephram throwing up, Corbin jumped out of bed and huddled on the floor by the door plugging his ears. Corbin said that he plugged them so hard that they started hurting. Ephram was fine by morning, though, and was able to eat some food for breakfast. Faythe and Dyllan were fine, also. Corbin and Braedi have yet to get sick. Monday night while Jonathan and I were watching a movie, I heard Faythe throwing up again! She hung out with us and threw up 2 more times. She didn't have much of an appetite all day, but acted fine. I have done so much laundry over the weekend. I hope that the rest of us are able to fight it off.

Braedi's Baptism

Wow! What a special day for Braedi (and me). I can't believe that 8 years have gone by since Braedi was born. . .and now she's baptized and on her way to growing up. We were lucky because there were no other children from our ward being baptised today, so Braedi got her own personal baptism. Her grandmas got to give the talks, and when the primary president spoke she spoke to Braedi and about her experience of having known her since she was 3. Braedi had to be baptized twice because her foot came up. She had a lot of friends and family there--she is lucky to have so much support. After the baptism we had a lunch under the ramada and visited.




PS. I used both baptized and baptised--which is the correct spelling?

Curtain Call

Our ward primary does a talent show every year. The primary kids get to preform or display their talents for the ward. Over the years we've seen a lot of talents: art work, cooking, lego creations, singing, dancing, piano playing, joke telling and even armpit farts. This year all my primary age kids participated.

Braedi displayed an art project she made during art class,

Corbin made a lego ship, Ephram wrote a book, and Dyllan sang a song.
(there is supposed to be a video here, but I can't get it to upload--anyone know how to do it?)

It's such a big deal for any of my kids to perform in front of people, so I was really proud of Dyllan. It was fun to see every one's talents!