Counting by 5s

The topic of counting by 5s has come up recently for Robin in Saxon Math K.  This has been quite challenging for him.  He needs a lot of repetition to learn things like this.  At the same time he has excellent pattern recognition skills.  We're supposed to use nickels, but it was just confusing him terribly.  So I got out the hundred number chart and showed him how to put a nickel on each multiple of 5.  He understood how to do that immediately, and once he got that he had no problem figuring out how many nickels it takes, for example, to make 35 cents.

I read to Robin and he read to me.

Including a bi-lingual retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk.

And a book about a boy who assisted the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.

Robin jumped on a trampoline, walked, biked, played kick-ball, used a batting cage, and played miniature golf (Happy Birthday, Patrick!)

We read a book about rainforests and one about animals fighting.

Metal Detector

Robin found a magnifying glass/metal detector kit at the thrift store for 90 cents.  We weren't sure it would work but he put it together with some help from his dad and lo and behold it works quite well!  We read books about meadowlands, lions, tigers and sharks.  We looked up ligers and tigons.  We also had a discussion about sextuplets (Robin's sister is very interested in multiple babies).  

Robin continues to work with Saxon Math K.  This week's topics included tangrams, and we worked on counting a lot.

We read a book about markets around the world.

We read a book about the Great Depression.

Robin walked, roller bladed, and biked.

Magnetism

Robin got really into an experiment we did with magnetism:

The paperclip is defying gravity (well, sort of)!  We also visited the Battle Creek Cypress Swamp in Calvert County with our homeschooling group.  And read a book about owls.

We celebrated Pi Day on 3/14.  Robin worked on Saxon Math K.

I read to Robin and he read to me!  This is still so exciting.  We 'catch' him reading things occasionally, too, although he claims he is just 'guessing'.

We read a book about the Underground Railroad.

Robin and his brother had quite a jam session with a drum and the piano.

Robin walked and rode his bike.

Marble Run

This morning, after arriving at our house at 6:30 in the morning from our 2 week trip to Texas (we drove at night) Robin and his brother were inspired by an episode of Curious George to take our recycling and some tape and design a marble run.  I am especially impressed because they did it ALL by themselves, while I was unpacking and decompressing from the 36 hours in the car.  (Excuse the lousy photo - I forgot the camera was on manual!)  Robin did several puzzles, including one up to 550 pieces.

We spent the last two weeks on vacation, driving to Texas (through Virginia, Tennessee, & Arkansas) and visiting family in Austin and Roby.  Robin was quite interested in mapping our trip.

He learned about the history of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, TX.

Robin walked a lot, including in neighborhoods and along Lady Bird Lake.  He also did a lot of bouncing on giant trampolines (trust me, this is a major workout.)  He used his grandparent's apartment building's exercise room, too.

We visited the Texas Memorial Museum, a Natural Science museum including fossils and minerals from Texas (and dinosaur footprints!)  Robin also went to the Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin.