I have not blogged here iin awhile, but keep this for archived posts.

If you want to read my current homeschool blog go to:

http://kabersblog.blogspot.com

It's easier for my parents and inlaws to read and note us there.

THANKS

I slept in this morning. I had a headache.

We did some chores around the house to get ready for Breakfast. Even Manuel did work. Connor and Gavin made Breakfast.

 The school day started with Brain Gym. With my headache, I put the boys in charge. Ki led Criss Crosses, Connor led Body Scales (these are not a Brain Gym activity. It is a sensory activity made to help Ki's dyspraxia.). Ki always wants to lead these, but I only can let him lead them if I do a round first. (to make sure it gets done as needed to work, LOL). Manuel led Lazy 8s with arms. Gavin led Hook Ups.

  I made word worksheets for Ki while they did this. I used Puzzle Maker(free to use website) and plugged in Ki's spelling words for this week. I made a word search and a crossword puzzle with his spelling words.

  During Brain Gym., I also used Babelfish to give Manuel his writing assignment. Babelfish is a free language translator online. Id does dozens of languages , but it's not perfect. You have to think carefully about your wording. If you type. I was right (meaning correct) it will translate the ord RIGHT ad the directional word. (right or left). So I have to think carefully about how to word things. and sometimes it's still a bit off, but if I use the correct wording it does a good enough job that Manuel can understand it.

 After Brain Gym, I gave the boys their writing assignments. They had to choose an event from a short list I provided, as I have learned long ago, an open ended choice leads to 3 hours of trying to decide for my younger 2. They had to write a list of what happened in order. Gavin needed 25 things, Connor 20, Ki 15. Tomorrow they will turn their list into a story. I will Ki make a comic book story- less words, yet he gets the story writing concept. They all wrote more than needed. The seemed to enjoy iy. I had Manuel write 10 sentences about going to Danny's house on Sunday. (The boys' friends). Ki also choose their day at Danny's house.

  Manuel was done first. I found a book with instructions on dinosaur origami. I started with the easiest in the book. The dinosaur snapper head. I helped a lot with the first time. He thought it was SO NEAT that flat paper made a 3-D toy! So we did another one, with him doing most of it. Then he did one all on his own. Connor loves these snapers and son all the boys were making them.

ORIGAMI ONLINE FOR KIDS

Link to Video of Connor folding Dinosaur Snapper

Then it was time to do Manuel's therapy and my boys to do their reading. it keeps them occupied and focused while I am off with Manuel.

That brings us up to lunch.

The rest of the school day will be boring to report. Miquon, Math Detective CD, Beyond the Code, Ingles in 10 Minutos, Online Science Study.

 I put the online science studies together for my boys. Here is the CELL one that Gavin just finished.

Lesson 2 Cells

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Go Here- read, take notes, explore-

http://www.tvdsb.on.ca/westmin/science/sbi3a1/Cells/cells.htm

Click on the link for Unit Membrane- Read and click NEXT to get to the next page. Continue this. Some pages have little animated diagrams with a PLAY feature. Make sure you watch them.

At the end is a quiz, Take it. Record your grade- Correct if needed.

Click on the Studying Cells Tutorial-

 read, click Scientific Method and read.

List the 7 steps in your notebook.

Click- Size & Biology Read

Click Major Events Read

Click to Test yourself

 Click on each of the 4 areas to test. record your grades I your notebook.

NEXT- Go the following Site- http://www.cellsalive.com/cells/3dcell.htm

 Read, take notes, follow links

GO HERE- http://www.cellsalive.com/gallery.htm

Read and explore

NEXT URL- http://library.thinkquest.org/3564/

CLICK ON LESSONS- Do one at a time, starting with the first- Take all of the quizzes and record your grades in your notebook..

CLICK ON VIRTUAL CELL LINK- Explore- Click the PLAIN links and watch.

NEXT URL- http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/science/sciber00/7th/cells/sciber/intro.htm

Read, take notes, don't do the Enrichment Links

PROJECTS to DO-

http://library.thinkquest.org/19037/making_a_cell.html

We went for a walk at the nature reserve place . Lots of nice pics. The boys skipped rock, caught insects, looked at fossil, climbed trees and swang on vines. I locked my keys in the van. Brian's dad had to come take us hone, I got the spare, then drop me off at the van. I took the boys to lunch. everyone wanted Panera except Manuel. So we went to Panera (becuase we almost always go where Manuel wants and I think it's not fair to my own kids if Manuel is always chosen instead of them and it's not good for Manuel to always gethis way)

So he sat and pouted the whole time and refused to eat. Kids are kids no matter what country they live in....Ki is like that, too when we don't go where he wants. Now he is crying. Poor kid.

Conor was reading in the bedroom and I didn;t think I should always kick Connor out of his room everyday. He's been getting upset and sad that we always kick him out of room 2 times a day to do Mannuel. So I let him stay and did Manuel's massage and therapy on the sofa. I told the boys to make sure they didn't come into the room.

This tree had long thin roots that were just drapped across the path!

SHELF fungus put to use!

A big, fat lightening bug That crawled on Ki for half of our walk. He had a little green inchworm on his face after this.

There was some large shelf fungi at this place!

Swinging on a vine

A better vine !!

Connor had wiped most the blood from his finger already.. Manuel and Connor got cut skipping stones...

A cool tree!

--Kimberly

Manuel is SO MUCH happier than last week. As you can see in the picture- he was pretty sad. He could barely walk and was having lots of pain from his skin graft.

Now he is able to ride a bike and do all his therapy and it doesn't hurt. He can bend his knee 120% which is EXCELLENT!

He loves listening tomusic. I bought two Spanish CDs for him.  A Child's Bible Songs and Alex Rodriguez. Manuel requested Spanish Christian Music. He seems to prefer my tobyMac, though. He calls it "C.D. muy rapido" and goes around singing lines from it, thathe doesn't understand.

He now will ask for food if he's hungry and ask for medicine if he hurts or is itchy. He also asks to borrow my CD. He can make his own corn tortillas (even though it's the 'woman's job' )

He LOVES the Star wars movies. Infact, we are renting SW6 tinight for him to watch. We have a few, but some are on VHS and don;t have the Spanish. So we rent the DVD so he can listen toit in Spanish.

He pretends to use "The Force" to change traffic lights.

Sometimes he talks to me and gets frustrated. Poor Kid. I do know a LOT more Spanish than I used to, though. (which was none). Most tiimes he can get me to understand, sometimes he doesn't and gets upset and tells me "Yes you DO understand me!".. well, he just says "KIMBERLY SI COMPRENDO!!" but I think that's what he's conveying...

and sometimes I realy do- well, once I remember what the word he used meant. Sometimes Ihave to search mymemory back befor a word comes tome.

I like how he says my oldest son's name. His name is Gavin. Manuel says "Gabi".. well, he almost says the final 'n', but it usually just sounds like Gabby. He spells it with a b, as well. Though Gavin has shown him manytimes it has a v. He thinks of Vs and Bs as interchangable. Or actually, he sees them BOTH as Bs.

He has been working to earn money. He has over 1,000 lipera (is that the spelling of their currency??)

He is good at math. But like a normal kid, he never wants to do school. And like a boy he loves to burn things with the magnifying glass!

 He swears our boy cat is a girl and the girl cat is a boy. It makes Connor mad. I think that is why Manuel contiues to tell Connor his cat is really a girl.

I need to go read what he wrote today. If babelfish works..... I actually think I figures most of it out myself.

This is what he wrote:

1. Connor y Gabin estan en una fiesta.

2. Brian esta tomando foto.

3. Tambien esta la amiga de Brian.

4. Kimberly esta sosteniedo la camera.

5. connor le esta pegando a la piñata

6. los amigos de los muchachos etsan viendo.

7. La piñata esta en el arbor.

8. el arbor es de color verde

9. un muchachos esta can una pelota de basket boll

10. Brian, Kimberly, Gabin, Connor, y los amigos estan feliz.

most of the words I know, some I 'get the drift of' and some I guessed becuase I know what the picture was.

Don't forget to read my other blog from today:

Our School Science from This Morning.

The only reportable events from yesterday are the Mentos Experiment and the fact that we were given a pop up camper trailer. It sleeps 8 and has a fridge, stove, sink….. The man is a friend of my husband and was thinking of asking $100 for it but decided to just give it to us. He said his family got more than their money’s worth out of it and hopefully we will get lots of fun, too.

Yes, I know- this expeirment was the big thing about 2 yrs ago.... And we just NOW finally got around to doing it...

 MENTOS:

Gavin-

SODA BOYS & MENTOS

Add to My Profile | More Videos

 Manuel-

Today we watched a few videos of the Mentos Experiment and read an explanation. So now we know ways to make our Mentos Experiment better. We will try it with diet coke and Mentos nd also try it with salt. I think I will assign the boys the task of figuring out how to implant a delayed trigger (like on the videos- whish are AWESOME and linked at the end of this blog)

And Manuel was singing a Tobymac http://www.tobymac.com/ song. He only knows 2 lines and slurs the third line all together. It’s funny because he only speaks Spanish (he does know a handful of English) and he has no idea what he’s saying. He sings “Shake it---Don’t break it….” the next line is “took your momma 9 months to make it”- but he can’t quite say that line. He calls the Tobymac my “CD Muy rapido”

Soksey brought a bird to us. I guess he thought we were hungry. I really wish he’d eat what he kills.

 Ki got a 95 on his spelling test. I told him to study his words, he did, said he was done studying. I asked if he was sure, he said yes and told me to ask him his words. So I did. He spelled them all except for one. I gave it to him again and he got it correct. I figured he spelled them for me out loud and it counted as his spelling test. He missed 1 out of 10- then corrected it and got it right- so I gave him 5 points for it. Told me had a 95%. Later I had him spell a few words with his feet; using his foot to ‘draw’ the letters on the ground. I think I’ll add that activity to his spelling routine- It will be good for his SID. After that, Ki made French Toast. He made the batter and made his French Toast, then the other boys cooked theirs. Ki helped Manuel with his. Connor finished book 5 from Cat Warriors.

 CatWarriors Barnes&Nobles

His reading has gotten so much better. He’s been able to read since he was 4 or 5 (it’s hard to tell exactly with autistic kids). He was always able to read on grade level. but he was very, very slow and had very poor retention and comprehension. I changed his Language Art program around _I used a reading program that was 2 grade levels lower than his reading level- but on his comprehension level. It is a Silver Burdett book and workbook-Going Places) and I added lots of things like doing puppet shows, dioramas, drawing book covers, etc… for each of the short stories. And now he just ZOOMS through books on his reading level with great comprehension. He thought he couldn’t read this book 5 on the 3 weeks you get from the library- so he bought the book. He read it in 6 days. Ki has started reading ‘real books’- no longer those 10 words a page kindergarten readers. He wants to read the Cat Warrior books, too. He reads the titles (this book is called ‘The darkest Hour’) but he can’t read much more. He has read a couple other books that are about 3rd grade and he reads a passage here and there or bigger books.

This is why I don’t force my dyslexic kids to read 30 minutes a day of books that are a bit too hard. I do not push at all. I let Ki read simple Dick and Jane type books over and over and over and over and let him progress when he was ready and wanted to. same with Gavin). and it happens. One day (towards the end of 4th grade, they just decide they are now ready to go very simple Kindergarten pre-readers to reading on level AND the WANT to.. They are excited to read, they have the desire. I know they wouldn’t have the reading desire if I was continually pushing them to read before they were ready. Today was spelling tests and math tests and Science Experiments.

 For Math tests- well, lately I have the older two doing Saxon- but JUST the examples and practice problems for that chapter (and make up 3 of their own problems), so I decided on Fridays they will do the Problem Set at the end of the last chapter they did. I’ll grade them later- we’ll see if this works.

 We did more science fun today.These are things we have doe in the past, but i thought Manuel would enjoy. He says science is no fun,,, boring..

 Last night I put a little water in one of the 2Liter bottles and topped it with a balloon. I put it in the freezer overnight. We took it out this morning. The bottle was sucked in on the sides and the balloon shrivled. it's hard to tell with the small picture-

 but the ballon and bottle are both shriveled.

Then we put it in a pan of water and watched the balloon fill with air as the hot water melted the ice in the bottle.

a little more air into theballoon

  enough to make it stand upright!

  a little more air.....

It's getting quite full now...

  The balloon at it's max. Though I think it would have gottenbigger once the water IN theballoon boiled. At the end the bottle itself was swollen with air so I turned off the stove. I didn’t want it to explode.

  Not sure if you can tell, but the upper portion of the bottle is expanded and fat with air. It was bulging quite a bit.

Then we did the Ghost in a Bottle trick…. Here is a poor video. You can’t see the coin hop- but it does.

You can hear it.

 It does tiny hops as the ghost is trying to escape. Freeze a glass cola bottle (we used IBC) then take it out the next day, put a drop or two of water on the rim. Put a coin on it. As the air warms and tries to get out, it pushes the coin.

URLS for cool Mentos videos! MENTOS & COKE

MENTOS & COKE Holiday

MENTOS & COKE Dominos

DON’T Do this one at home with your kids- but neat to watch- MENTOS ROCKET

Tuesday May 1, 2007

 It's almost National STAR WARS day!!!! Once again, the boys took to digging their underground house before breakfast. School didn't start until after 10. well, the 'in class sitting down' type of school. It is good that they were digging before school. The physical work is good for them The brain needs the body to work. Learning is more complete when both there is physical activity, too.

We started with Brain Gym and drinking water. Manuel was able to do the criss-crosses much better this week! Connor is just an annoying little goof. He ended up doing extra Brain Gym because he was just playing around and being so silly.

Then we went over Spanish/English words and phrases. The boys enjoy quizzing each other. My boys say a word in Spanish and Manuel says it in English- and he says an English word to them and they have to say it in Spanish. Manuel is much more wiling to try English words for my kids- then for me. I guess it's less embarrassing to mess up with other kids than with a 'teacher'.

We didn't do spelling today. We did story writing. While Manuel read with his foot propped up, I did a little lesson on time sequence in story writing. I told them what it means to tell a story in sequence of events. Starting with the first thing that happened and moving on…. to the end. First I told a little story- part of it. I said something like":

"The alarm sounded early in the morning. With my eyes still closed, I rolled over and turned it off. I took a deep breath then opened my eyes. I went to brush my teeth and hair. Then I got dressed."

 I then asked the boys questions about what happened first and next and last. Connor (12)didn't do well. He just sat there. He couldn't figure out what happned first and next. Kids with Asperger's often have trouble with time sequence and with his bothers jumping into to answer he just sat back. So I directed some questions to him. Just for him and was detailed and tried to lay things out in for him. He did better that way.

Then I gave the boys a list of out of order sentences for the next part of the story. They had to put them in order. Then they had to write 5 more sentences to finish the story. Here are the sentences they had to put in order:

-I followed the drops into the kitchen.

- In front of the fridge I found a bone.

-As I stepped into the hall, I noticed drops of blood.

-I picked up Soksey.

-Soksey was eating a chipmunk by the door that leads to the garage.

Ki wrote 3 sentences (I told him he only had to write two or 3). He made them out of order for ME to figure out. He had"

? I put Soksey outside. ( Ipit sokey ot siid)

? blood fell on my shirt (blod fal on my shrt)

? Soksey brought a bird in. (Soksey brot a bord in)

Connor wrote: "Soksey had 79, 258,010,236,547,721 chipmunks. It took me 79, 258,010,236,547,721 seconds to count them. Soksey was very happy. The lanet exploded. Then Soksey was sad! Soksey was sadder than me because he lost 79, 258,010,236,547,721 chipmunks." He gave himself a HUGE RED A+

Gavin wrote: "But he didn't like it when I picked him up, so he bit me on the hand. I yelled and dropped him. He finished eating the chipmunk. Then I closed the door and locked him outside, but before I could close the cat door, he came inside. He ran under the bed and took a nap. I made breakfast and woke the boys. They ate breakfast and we started school. Soksey woke up and tore up the school books. We did a little work on blank papers. We made lunch and ate it."

Then it was time for Manuel's therapy and the boys did their reading while I took care of Manuel.

After that I wrote a list of schoolwork for the boys and took Manuel to Taco Bell for doing such a good job with his therapy this past week or so. I really enjoy spending time with Manuel. He opens up and tries hard to learn English and also to explain and teach me Spanish when we are one-on-one.

After taco Bell we went to a School Supply Store. They had one of those 9 tile puzzles with a split picture on each side and you have to match the tiles…. B-Dazzle Puzzles He loved it. He would get it almost done and the last 2 or 3 wouldn't match up and he laugh about how easy it looks but it's really very difficult. The he'd rearrange them and laugh when the birds had 2 heads… picture is link to website. bdazzle-

I finished my purchase and we stopped by the dollar store in search of index cards, to no avail. So we went to the little coffee shop to do sit and do his schoolwork. They had one of those triangles pieces of wood with the pegs that you hop over each other and try to get one peg left. I taught him that . he really enjoyed it. He played it over and over and over. He got one left a few times and would say "YO GANA!" We worked in his Ingles in 10 minutos a dia book. We read outloud back and forth and he wrote things out.Then we did math. I couldn't get him away from the peg game… I told him if hw could win again (one peg left) he'd not have to do his math today…LOL. He had 3 left…

so I used the pegs to demonstrate the math concept. having groups og 4 or 6 pegs, making equal groups, taking one of the groups away, etc... He couldn't get it for awhile.

 I finally was able to make him understand the problems. They were problems like: ½ X 6 = 6 - ? he didn't understand ½. I went over and over it, with pictures, and using the pegs showing that ½ is the same as 3/6 (and 2/4 and 4/8…) Finally we stumbles upon the word medio… and I finally got him to understand…medio de sais = the same as 6-3…. He finally caught on. He was getting confused my the word HALF. He is great with math as long as there is only an equation on ONE side. So we are really exercising his brain here. Teaching different ways to see things. I wrote out a few more problems and he did great.

½ x 10= 10-?       ½ x 6= 6-?     ½ x 50=50-?........ etc..

I think I had 7 for him. So I moved onto ¼ x 4 = 1 out of the group of 4 pegs…. same with 1/3 x 3 =1 of group of 3 pegs… THEN we went to 1/3 x 6 =2 (if you double the 3(6)- you double the answer of 1 (2). so he was able to get the answer to ½ x 12 = ? just by seeing to double the answer again. We finished. He played the peg game again and won. And then said that because he won, he doesn't have to math tomorrow…LOL. We'll see….

Ki didn't have his work done, but I knew he wouldn't. I sat him in my lap and we worked on it together and he did well.

Manuel rested with his leg elevated (it is still swollen) and watched Star Wars 2.

Connor was asleep when I got home. and still coughing. I bet his antibiotics aren't working… I'll have to take him back to check in a day or two (he has one more pill left) And I think he has impetigo. He is a face picker.. a scab picker.. he used to have open sores all over his face until he was 4 or 5. He doesn't scab well, so wounds stay open for a week often…. anyway, he finally got out of the face picking habit….. until he had chicken pox two months ago… now he has open scratches on his face again and can't keep his hands off….. just another autism issue…

THAT'S IT from me today! it's TACO TUESDAY here!

How often do you see cool science experiments online videos???
How often do you see perfect, easy science experiments on kids' science TV shows??
How often do you read (see illustrations) of awesome and fun science experiments in books?

I bring you- REAL SCIENCE experiments-- the ones you try 6 times and they still come out a bit not-correct...

Bill Nye I am not. I am just a Bill Nye Wanna-Be.

Today we did 2 science experiments. The first was creating a vacuum in a glass bottle to suck a hard bpiled egg into it. It is a GREAT experriment... if the egg and bottle are correct sizes. My egg was too big... or maybe my bottle too small. Iused a Snapple Teas bottle and a large egg. If I can get a small or maybe medium sized egg, it may work.
We tried 4 times to get the flame IN the bottle, but it kept going out as soon as we put in there. The 5th time, Connor left his hand on the egg the whole time. so you didn;t get the effect of the vacuum sucking the egg.... it culd have been Connor pushing it. So we did it AGAIN! and I saved the footage. But I need to hire a more compatent camera man. This one was too close, so he couldn;t get the entire bottle in the frame. So you either saw the fire at the bottom or the egg at the top. He wiggled when the egg was starting to be sucked into it, but if you look closely you can see it. And JUST as the egg was being sucked the rest of the way, he TURNED IT OFF! You can hear the start of the suction sound, though.  You see Manuel (in red) and Ki in the background. I have the fire, Gavin puts the egg on the bottle (I straighten it). The camera man will remain nameless.

Then we floated citrus fruits. Limes and Lemons to be exact. This was another experiment that didn't work. ACCORDING TO THE EXPERTS (just who are 'they' anyway??) the limes sink and the lemons float. SEE VIDEO of REAL EXPERIMENT If you cut their rinds off and try just their rinds, both float, if you try the lemons and limes without rinds the lime still sinks, the lemon still floats. Limes are more dense (compact mass) and are heavier than the water so the sink. Lemons are less dense, so they float. We have dense lemons. They stood sort of upright at the bottom of the bowl.. didn't float all the way- didn't sink all the way. WAIT!! We were supposed to use the WHOLE lemon and lime I think!! DOH!.
Then we floated mangos pieces and rinds... (no pics of that)

I LOVE MY GLASS BOWL! I bought is with science experiments in mind. So many need a big bowl for water and this is smooth and straight and clear- so you can see right in. I also use it for mixing things (like a double batch of waffles)- most science experiements with water are food items anyway.... water, juice, baking soda, cabbage juice/lithmus tests...

Manuel has been in the hospital since last Wed. His surgeries went well. He has a mild rash from the sulfur. He should get out Friday.

Connor still has a cold and has fluid in his ear. Let's hope it doesn't become aninfection.

Brian has had a cold, too. And he is having some intestinal tests done today.

Gavin is getting a cold, too.

hopefully we'll warm up soon and kids will start feeling better!

Brian stayed home till 11:30. He was using the school table to fix a car part. This threw my school schedule off. And I had to all the hospital about Manuel's leg. I wasn;t sure hpw deep to get into somethinguntil I knew if we'd be gone all day.

I had Manuel do about 5 pages in Miquon. He was coloring fractions and writing fractions to go with pictures.  While he did that Gavin did his History CD and Connor did his Saxon Math. G&C continued while I did  massage with Manuel. Then they all played outside with magnifying glasses.

I called them to do another round of school. Gavin and Connor did online Science. Gavin's went well. Connor was too distracted by Gavin's to do much on his own. Though he didn;t learn much about human anatomy, he learned a bit about atoms and chemistry from Gavin!

I found a Picture Encyclopedia for Manuel. It's Spanish. He read 6 pages and I told him to write something down from each page. He wanted to copy everythng from every page. Hey- I didn't tell him he had to, but more power to him! I'm sure he learned more by copying it all.

Ki and I played Word Card games, then he wanted a "SpellCheck" for his story he is writing. So I read through it and wrote down the correct spelling of words and he corrected them.

LUNCH and Recess (Ki an Connor fought)

Then we finished school.

To Start I had Ki do 4 laps on the Joint Compression Ball. Then he played Game Goo while I did spelling with C&G. I had Manuel choose if he wanted to read or use the LEap Pad. He choose Leap Pad 'Party en le Casa'. It is a Bilingual story with vocabulaty and word games.

Afer that Ki had one page of math and C&G read.

I was much happier with school today!

The boys woke up around 7:30 and did their morning work before they got on the computer. I woke at 8. I decided that on Mondays breakfast will be at 9. So I gave the bos extra time to be on the computer. They each got 20 minutes.Morning computer is a special privledge to those who get up extra early nd get their work done. They often think they are all 3 entitles to it. I have to explain, htey are not. It isn;t a right. It is something extra they get if they put forth the extra work (in getting up early and being disciplined) on their own.

I woke Manuel at 8:30. We had scones and boiled eggs and bacon for breakfast.

I read from Little Pilgram's Progress while they ate.

*** I made YUMMY homemade scones for Easter. Some plain sweet scones and some blueberry scones***

Then we did our Brain Gym. I had Ki do joint compressions as he had a bad SID weekend and I wanted to make sure he had the JC for today. He no longer needs them everyday, but I need to make sure he gets them on his bad days.

The boys copied their spelling words down. I had Spanish-English words/phrases for Manuel.

Ki chose the words GAMES for his word of the week. He then wrote a little story using his words. The other boys wrote a few sentences as well.

Then it was massage time for Manuel. I bet my husband would like leg massages twice a day...LOL. His pressure garments didn;t dry completely last night, so I have him doing math in his stockings. His garments shoule be done soon.

Ki is did 3 pages in Miquon, Gavin did his chapter in Saxon math and Connor did 3 pages in his reading comprehension notebook.

Manuel is doing a Fractions Booklet from Miquon. We also did some work with problems that have different opperations....like  2x4+3x5.... I showed him to do the multiplication first (2x4)+(3x5)... so its 8+15.  Then I showed him how to work with negative numbers. He had never worked with negative numbers before. I drew a numberline on the board from -5......0......6 and did some probelms without negatives to show how touse the numberline, then some problems with negative numbers.

His garments were dry by then. The other boys took a break while he donned the pressure garments. I had him doing them all on his own, even the hard part over the foot.

After the little break, Ki and Gavin worked on Critical thinking sheets and Connor played Math Detective and Manuel read. That is pretty much the school day. Everyone did reading, spelling, writing, math and 2 did Critical Thinking.

I don't feel super happy with school today. I felt too pulled to help anyone effieciently.It felt 'hurried through to get done.' I need to re-eval the day, find out exactly when/why I feel it didn't go smoothly and correct that for tomorrow.

Normaly on Mondays we have to be out of the house by 1:15 to go to drama and computer- so I want to be done with school by 12-12:30 for lunch.

And I still have trouble with not doing every subject every day... I feel so incomplete.

The boys will do other things today. Brian downloaded a new CAD for Gavin. Ki and I will go shopping for the fabric to make his Costume. Connor is designing melee characters for a game..

I gues they don't color eggs in Honduras...

Manuel can not understand why in the world we color eggs!!

I was boiling flowers and he asked  'why... was I going to eat the cooked flowers?'

I said no, they were for the eggs and showed him a colored egg... He just looks at my like I am CRAZY!!

He said Chickens don't have red eggs or purple eggs.... why do I make them like that. And they must be no good to eat...

 When I said we do eat them I think he figured we must be aliens or something.

I did get him to dye an egg blue, he thought that was funny and has no intention to eat the egg that he ruined with blue color!

Then he says under his breath... Chickens don't (lay) red eggs......

I was up to 2AM Last night talking to Manuel. He told me all about the accident. It happened Dec 24. They have Christmas on the 24. He was playing football (soccer) with his friends (Rigal, Jose and another). They had been setting off fireworks. He had stuck one in his pocket. I'm unclear as to why or what he was doing with it. He mad e action that loked like he was whittling it. HIs pants caught on fire, he was screaming and smacking it withhis hands. HIs friends were too scared to help. His Mo one else was around. Finally his brother, Digno(28), foundhim and took him to his house. His wife put salve on his leg. (We think she is 38 yrs old). The took him to a hospital in a close town. The hospital turned them away. They went to a second hospital. He was there a month.

I learned thathe had two older brothers that died  before he was morn. (He's 13, Hid oldest living sibling is 28). His sister Carolina lives in a house on his proprety with her husband. Theyhave 2 kids. 3 yrs and 7 months. HIs sister Lourdes (19) lives in a bedroom at the end of their house with her usband. She is very pregnant. Carolina's first daughter died. She was throwing up a lot. She was a baby. I wonder if she just died of dehydration. Digno's wife wasmarried before. We think she is at least 10 yrs older than he is. Her oldest child is 23 and Digno is 28.

In his yard he has lots  of banana trees, 3 mango trees, 2 coconut trees, a lemon tree, an orange tree, a guava tree, a nance tree and apple trees. The apple tree(s) doesn't have fruit on it. They have a chili peper bush, too. They have no flowers because the chickens eat them. The chickens sleep in the trees at night. Ther have 2 pigs that get tied to a tree.

 Manuels works on Saturdays cutting sugar cane. He has school for 10 months and on the other two months he works 6 days a week cutting sugar cane. He makes 500 Limpiras a week. 19Limpiras is $1 American. When he is working all week, he has to buy his own clothes and stuff. But if he doesn't have enough work to to buy his won needs,his parents take care of it. He rides a big truck that holds 60 people. All standing and crammed.

This week is Semana Santo (Semana being week) I guess it is a holy week. No school and not many people go to work. His dad still works cutting the sugar cane and will get paid double. The rest of his family will go tot he river to swim and play.

His brother LooLoo (sp?) lives in San Pedro and is 23. He's not married.

I heard about how Beti (8 or 9) broke her arm. His dad was in a car wreck (drunk driverhithim) and his dad's car rolled and he was inthe hospital for awhile.  He said his dad had a bad heart and passed out and they smashed onions for him to smell and he woke up. Not sure if it was really  his heart if he was fine without a doctor. He said he broke his shoulder playing soccer. He described it and whatthey did. I think it was pulled out the socket, not broke. He didn't need to see a doctor.

On September 10 the schools have a big festival with a pinata and everything. I guess it kicks the school year off? Beti goes to a school that is 10 minutes walking distance. Manuel's school is 30 mins by foot, 15 by bike. Schools there only go  up to 6th grade.

Sometimes we use dice for math (and grammar, but that's a differen post)

Here are some pictures of our math dice.

These are 10 sides dice with another 10 sided inside.(the '0' is the '10') So if the outside lands on 6 and the inside is 3, the number is "63"  They use 2 or 3 of these and add, subtract, multiply and sometimes divide. usually I use the 3dice divided by a 2dice

The top 3 dice here have 3 inside. These are the ones we use for dividing. There is also a 6sided inside of a six sided in the picture.

Here are our fraction dice and our math operation dice. Also shown are the decimal dice. Sometimes we use both types together and they have to change the decimal to a fraction or vice versa.

These are our 12 sided, 10 sided and 8 sided. For when I want them to have numbers bigger than 6.... or 66...

Here is an example of double 8 sided and the operation dice....

A more simple math sentence with dice......

and our many 6 sideds... I often just tell them to use 3 to make the BIGGEST number they can and then 3 to make the smallest number for subtraction (usually Ki) or division (the other two)