Going for a Walk with Great Gramps

Oil Change Picnic

We had an 8am appointment to get the oil changed in the van so we took our breakfast and a picnic blanket.

The boys watched the auto maintenance show and learned all about differentials.  I asked Elliot to point to the differential - I'm no expert, but I think he got it.

Interspersed between maintenance topics there were clips from the Big Bang Theory.  Those held the boys' attention as well.

Broccoli Snowman

E is for Ecuador

Peter found Ecuador on a map and on the globe.  We talked a lot about the equator and how the climate is different there than nearer the poles.  Peter drew a path to show how to get from Grand Rapids to Ecuador.  Then we talked about a native Ecuadorian dish: Llapingachos.

We made llapingachos in about as inauthentic a way as possible.  It seems in Ecuador they start with white potatoes and then add a native berry for color and flavor and then top them with fried eggs or salsa or other things.  We made ours out of sweet potatoes so they were already the right color and we didn't top them with anything.

Everyone liked them and willing ate sweet potato, so they worked well enough from my perspective.

E is for Elephant

We are mid-way through our E unit.  Peter made capital and lower case E's out of pattern blocks.

Our E proverb is A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place.  We read The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room and Peter dictated a book report about what happened in the story and what lesson the cubs learned (spoiler: it is more fun to play in a tidy room).

Peter did a cut and paste puzzle of an elk.  He spontaneously started talking about animals in the elk family.  He came up with moose and deer.  I added caribou.  We talked about the size differences between the various animals, but could only agree that deer are littler and the rest are bigger.

Then, Peter and Elliot did some craft time together.  Peter cut random artistic shapes and arranged them into an elephant and Elliot poured, dumped, sorted and gnawed on crayons.

Getting Back to Normal after the Holidays

We started off our E unit with a baking soda and vinegar experiment.

Then after lunch we went outside.