Five in a Row- Hanna's Cold Winter

We just finished up this row.  It was a real fun row for us as the setting is in Hungary and I just found out that my husband and daughter have a lot of Hungarian in them.

So we spent time learning all about Budapest, Hungary. We read the manual, watched a documentary   and looked at video's and pictures of Hungary's folk art, folk dancing and traditional Hungarian music. We watcha short video of a Hungary folk tale  I have a few more websites we looked at for Hungary on my pinterest,  We both really enjoyed learning about Hungary.

We learned about history and what it was like in Hungary during and after WWII.  We learned about the Cog-railway that Tibor's family rode to get to and return from the zoo.  We also learned about the type of the fireplace they showed in the book was from that time period.  We combined science with this when learning about the cog-railway and friction.  We watched the episode of the Magic School bus on Netflix on friction Season 1 Episode 10.  We talked about how at one time people worked 6 days a week and that was normal.  Now if we work that many days its called overtime.  

For language arts I asked Samantha if she could tell me what point of view the story was told from.  Right away she told first person point of view. She was correct. We talked about the parts of the story.  What the conflict is, what the plot is and the resolution is.  We talked about how the Dad like to tell riddles and we looked up a few.  

We talked about the art of the book.  Who the artist was.  How she used water colors to create the beautiful illustrations.  We talked Poetry and said a real cute poem about the Hippopotamus.  We discussed Architecture.  She looked at the Lion Bridge and Cover building.  I then showed her pictures of those in real life and how they still stand today.  If you have time look up the zoo on google maps.  I had her do an oil pastel water color painting.  It came out very cute. It didn't turn out like the lesson I had found said it would the oil pastel repelled the watercolor unlike the lesson one.  I kind of thought it would.  It supposed to be the hippo in the water.  

We listened to some classical Hungarian music, Hungarian Folk music and looked up the musician Franz Liszt and listened to his type of music, rhapsody.  He used leitmotif which is a recurring theme representing a person, idea or event. We listened on youtube the famous piece of music called "The Blue Danube Waltz"  Written about the river Danube that flows through Hungary right down the middle of Buda and Pest.  It also flows through Austria , Germany and a few other countries.  

Science,  We talked about the Paprika pepper.  Then we used Paprika in our cooking.  I used the recipe in the book for Hungarian Goulash.  We also talked about hot springs, Hippopotamuses, and zoo history.  

The Goulash was very yummy I wish I took a picture of it but I forgot. Both Samantha and Steve said they would eat it again if I cooked it.  I have so far loved the recipes we tried from the manual.  

There were a few more lessons in the book. Some we did others we didn't.  We both really enjoyed the book and all that went along with it.  

Samantha turned 11

Its so hard to believe that my baby is 11 years old.  For her birthday this year she wanted to throw a charity party.  She wanted her friends and family to bring no gifts for her but to bring cat and dog supplies to be donated to the local animal shelter.  I was so proud of her.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

Samantha decorated the cake and cupcakes all herself

The kids all having fun creating their pictures

A few days later we went to the shelter and donated all the animal supplies and one of the painting from the party.  I am so proud her of.

Day Dreams

Samantha is a dreamer.  She will day dream during school, during car rides, during bath time well anytime.  Sometimes it can be a big pain that she is daydreaming.  BUT other times it works in my favor that she is... well one day she was doing a lot of daydreaming but she somehow managed to get 2 whole days done in math without realizing it.  I love those moments

Winter Nature Walk

I know this is getting posted late but its so pretty I had to share..

Samantha and I took a walk along the board walk.  The ice looked so pretty...

Math in action

I often try to show Samantha math in action. Like cooking with her, showing her how I use math in knitting or even math in her sewing projects.    

I was about to give her math for the day it was a worksheet on measuring in metric.  So instead of her just doing it on paper I had her go out and measure my car. Measure the width and length of it. Then measure the height of it and the measurement of the wheels.  She then had to come in the house and convert it all into the American measurements.   

Then another day she came up with an idea of wanting to make the cat a toy to play with.  I had her use math again.  She had to measure the clothe  to make it the right size.  I love seeing math in action

So how do you do school in your home???

I like to hear how others do school.  Its interesting how each family homeschools.  There are so many methods out there. There are so many different life styles.  Some homeschool parents are home all day others work.  Some spend a lot of time at activities others do many classes.  I try for a healthy balance with working part time, getting school done and doing the fun classes and activities.

Oh and add 2 cats into the mixture this is how Samantha ends up doing school some days. Other days the other cat will try and sit right on her school work.

I do have to say I came up with a new system that seems to be working for us.  Our days can get crazy at times.  Some days she begs me to keep reading history or science.  Some days she is on a roll with math and I don't want to stop that flow.  So I started making instead of a daily schedule but a weekly list of all that I want done that week so if something has really sparked her interest we can keep on going with no interruptions of me going to the schedule to see what pages come next.  I keep the list with each subject books.  It is working amazingly.  It also helps her see what needs doing and how much she has accomplished.  There are times when she gets all school done by Thursday and that means Friday can be fun activity day, get in the car for an adventure day or anything we want to do day.  

Beach Nature Walk

We have been trying to add more nature into our days. So when a friend text asking us if we wanted to join then on a nature walk  we went.  My challenge to myself is to get outside whenever we can.  

Drawing in their nature journals.