Symmetry and More

This week started with a trip to the Mall of America. John was off work so we brought the kids to go on some rides for the day. Ava got to try a new ride with John now that she meets the height mark for it. Noah did his favorites, the car and train rides.  Amora got to go on her very first ride (the school bus).  She clung to me through the whole thing, not really loving it, but not crying either. And the best for last, as always, John brought Ava and Noah on the floom ride. So it was a great family day out!

Tuesday, Ava had art class. She has three classes left now and she is sure that is NOT enough classes. She loves art class so much.

Today my van was in the shop so we couldn't go anywhere even if we wanted to. Somehow we still got a lot in between some chaotic moments!
After getting some ideas from another homeschool blog called Adventures in Mommydom, and Joyful Learner we worked on symmetry. I drew half of a heart on paper and the kids held it up to a mirror to see the rest of it appear due to it's symmetry. I drew some symmetrical shapes and the kids drew symmetrical designs onto it. Ava had the idea to cut them out along the line of symmetry so she could see the two identical halves. We also talked about how people are symmetrical too.

We then worked on grouping. This was a challenge for the kids so it was a great introductory activity. I printed and cut out a bunch of little bears, we would make them "dance" to music, then when the music stopped I would call out a number and that's how many groups they would have to form. It took the kids a few tries to understand what three groups meant, and not just counting a group of three bears. I loved watching their brains working to understand this new concept!

In the evening they worked on their sock puppet kits and then did some computer learning games. Ava did some word matching and then later we practiced some sight words. Noah did a Dora math game on his computer and we worked on some letters and number recognition. And that was in addition to the letter recognition Noah and I did while cleaning the giant mess he made of the letter sticker tote!!! See, there is learning in everything! haha...

Not bad for being cooped up for the day with three small hyper kids.