Charlotte Mason in Santa Monica

Friday, January 9, 2015

Dig It Up! Woolly Mammoth

My daughter had fun playing paleontologist on our patio this afternoon. First, she got to dig up fossils, chiseling while Mommy brushed. Then, we followed the instructions and assembled the plastic fossils. Lastly, she introduced her mammoth to her kid's meal glow-in-the-dark triceratops skeleton.

The activity kit is the Dig It Up! Woolly Mammoth.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

The Complete Book of Spanish Grades 1-3

This is from The Complete Book of Spanish Grades 1-3. We've just started. Though my daughter knows numbers one through ten in Spanish, we are adding words like "circulos," "puntos" (because she couldn't fit lots of circulos in the little boxes, we modified the lesson so she made puntos instead), and "mariposas." (I think it's interesting/odd that this workbook doesn't include vocabulary like that, but I also think the book is gentle and easy to use.)

An Out-of-Doors Life

Today, we played at the beach. Daughter dug and dug while Mommy finished our current read aloud: Paddington Bear. We're looking forward to the Paddington movie coming out on January 16th!

Typical Day in the Park

Note the sword.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Happy Three Kings Day!

My good friend Anita had us over tonight for a slice of galette des rois, the cake of the king, in celebration of Epiphany, the night the kings arrived in Bethlehem. Tradition is that the youngest person in the house - tonight, my daughter - sits under the table and says who gets each slice of cake. In one slice is a Baby Jesus or ceramic trinket or - in tonight's cake - a chocolate covered almond. Anita's college-age daughter found the almond, but let my daughter wear the crown. The evening was tres magnifique!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Magic Science

My daughter got a Magic Science kit for Christmas. In this picture, she's seeing what happens when you mix baking soda (a base) and citric acid in cold water, and then in hot water. In cold water, you get a fizz, but with hot water, you get a fizz-splosion! The chemical reaction happened faster in the hot water because the water molecules were moving faster. The experiment illustrates why we refrigerate food - to slow down chemical reactions.