racing for schoolwork, what fun!!

Amelia's speed racer, not the fastest, but creative anyway;)

Julianna's racer was the longest, the ultra stretchy racer:)!!

Daddy and G's jet propelled racer, winged like the bat mobile!!

I am sure all of you have been waiting with bated breath to find out what we have been doing in homeschool lately, so wait no longer here it is: we have been playing with Legos, lots! Really, we have built a whole themed unit around Legos, and the race cars pictured above. It is lots of fun for the kids, and the girls are learning practical lessons about construction, planning and the dynamics of wheel bases and aerodynamics. It seems a bit above them, but through Mia's disastrous efforts(truly the girl never builds a car that goes far, poor baby!:), the girls have learned that a longer wheel base goes further and faster, and if you put your windshield too close to your wheels the car does not go anywhere. Daddy and g have been building cars too, and daddy has been teaching the girls about how things go and how best to put them together for the best results. Then comes the racing part, very fun, with lots of tough talking and not much performance, all in good fun of course!! They girls are really having fun with this theme, and they have been writing about their cars, and doing car and racing spelling words, as well as telling me about the races they have won and lost so we can keep a record. It is really fun doing this, and the girls can be occupied for over an hour with just eh building process, so I can have a free hour to get other things done, thanks Honey!! Next we are getting books from the library about the first cars and how they worked, then maybe a race car book too, we will see. From here we have discussed moving into aerodynamics more, and exploring planes and rockets, so soon you may get to see pics of homemade paper planes and balloon propelled rockets, I can't wait!! Really this whole themed unit stuff is really easy, and the girls love to write stories about their racers, and they really love telling me long and rambling stories about their cars build and features, they could fill pages;)!! Over all we have been pretty busy on the schooling front lately, and the girls are progressing smoothly into reading and writing dynamos, math we still lag in, but daddy has been incorporating more counting, adding and subtracting into their building and play. G is really good at math though, and struggles with his letters still, but with a specialty pencil grip he is finally able to hold up a pencil and make very large circles, and many straight lines on his paper. Apparently for boys writing skills and the hand muscles that control writing ability come much alter to boys than girls, so we will just keep practicing with him on recognition for now, and of course we go through reams of paper for him to color on!!
Well I gotta go, I would like to try to get to the gym today before lunch time, and this afternoon we might try out our new family activity, geocaching, I will let you know how it goes!!