What we've been up to...

School is now back in full swing!  A couple of weeks ago, we started the week out with a day off on Monday in celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King.  Instead of wasting the day away, we learned more about Dr. King.  I reminded the children of our visit to his home in Atlanta a couple of summers ago.  Of course my youngest didn't remember, but I showed him photos.  We spoke about segregation and the civil rights movement in America.  The children had many questions to ask on these subjects and the older two were eager to share what they've learned from books they've read.

This month for art we are focusing on the artist Claude Monet.  We talked about how Monet was an impressionist artist at the turn of the 19th century and how he painted in dabs and short strokes instead of long strokes.  We spoke about the difference between impressionism and and idealism.  We used the video Art History In A hurry as a brief introduction to Monet.  Click here for the video. I think the video was excellent as an introduction and would recommend it as a good unit starter.    We've done three art projects so far, one a wax resist/water color, another with oil pastels, and the latest using chalk.  We've talked about the benefits and drawbacks of using each medium.

Our impression of Water Lilies using oil pastels

Water Lilies using chalk 

This month I introduced multiplication to my littlest one by way of the Montessori multiplication board.  He enjoys this work and doesn't  whine as much as he did for the snake game.  I am also going beyond the fraction skittles with him this month.  I found a free Montessori math resource/ album.  So we've moved beyond naming the fractions to writing them (knowing numerator/

denominator) and addition of fractions, next week we will get into subtraction of fractions.  Click here for the link to that resource.

My littlest one using the multiplication board for the four tables.

Labeling fractions

Writing fractions

Adding Fractions: As you can see, when asked to make his own addition problem, from his own curiosity he choose 0/4 + 4/4, he has figured out that any fraction with the same numerator and denominator is equal to one.  We used our  DIY fraction circles to illustrate all the addition problems.

In other news, we went to see our first movie in Kenya over the holidays.  We saw Moana  If you are here in Kenya, let me suggest you make that a frequent family outing!  Why?  You might ask.  Well they practically give away the tickets.  I love seeing movies in the theater.  But, we rarely did in States because for a family of five, it was so expensive!  The theater at West Gate Mall has so many deals!  First, the eleven o'clock movie is 300 Ksh.  That is equivalent to a bit less than $3 USD.  Then at other times during the week, you can get a movie with a meal for less than 700Ksh ($7).  Where I lived, you'd pay no less than $15 for a ticket.  No extras.   With that said, later today I plan to take the kids to see Sing, one of the newer kid's movies out.
Besides the movie, we will spend the afternoon learning about the Chinese New Year and I have planned several activities around that.  The children remembered celebrating the Chinese New Year at their other school and insisted that we celebrate this year. The year of the rooster has finally come after a daily countdown since the first of the month!

So, that's it in a nutshell, this is what we've been up to! More news to come!