Inch by Inch

Is it just me, or does it seem a rare talent to be able to measure?...

It's just me...I have independant children who are constantly telling me they know how to do things, but then they get hung up on simple things like measuring. Our math life this week has been focusing on correct measuring and understanding/applying real life measurements. What is real life you ask? For us this week, real life was moving furniture and cooking. Yes, that's how easy it is to incorporate school into your daily life...

The kids have known for a few weeks that there was a very special addition to our learnosphere and it was time to install it. It was....drum roll...

A microscope! Bata boom!

We had to decide what kind of table was most appropriate, how much room it would require, if we had enough room and the right thing. Don't tell them...I was pretty sure it was going to work beforehand. But they did all the measuring, checking, dismantling, carrying, shifting, and installing. 

Through this process, it became abundantly clear that they needed help understanding the measuring involved in the process. We undertook a diagram project that took over the rest of the morning. It was rough, but we got it done. By the end they were able to measure 1/8 inch, 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch, and multiple increments of each. We were also able to practice adding, multiplying, and dividing fractions, and had a whole lot of experience doing all of it. Our diagrams were not to scale which complicated everything. So it helped that by some random serendipitous turn of fate, both appropriately aged padawan learners ended up with the same measurements to half, half, and half again to make a diagram of the inch. 

In other news:

We've been pouring over cookbooks lately. lot's of tiny ripped up papers for tabs in pages filled with delectable things, which is Ada's favorite word this week. Delectable. We've been planning our menu for the next 3 to 5000 months. Nahuel really wants to learn how to make sushi. Ada is a lover of soups, and Astor is good with anything that has a high sugar content. Leonardo just really wants to manipulate dough, so there are sure to be many sugar cookies in our future. Today though, Nahuel obsessed until he gathered the materials and measuring spoons, cups, etc. to make pumpkin pie. So more measuring, multiplying fractions to double the dough recipe etc. Real life math.  

Thank Heavens we did a few other things this week. Along with a lot of youtube videos about how to treat and use a microscope, we collected leaves for future science experiments with light and photosynthesis, and started a new read aloud book. We also took a break from home to visit Rowleys Big Red Barn to take a ride through apple  orchards, get lost in a corn maze, and go down a big slide...

This is not in fact, an apple from Rowley's Big Red Barn, but 1 of 2 surviving apples which were still on our apple tree from this years late freeze.