The Little Nemeceks

Last week we studied Libya, and learned all about camels in the desert. We ate a Libyan stew with lamb, sweet potato (it was supposed to be pumpkin but we couldn't get any here), chickpeas, and raisins. For dessert, we made magrood, a Libyan feast cookie made for Eid. They turned out much too dry, unfortunately, likely due to the flour substitutions we has to make to make them gluten free. Both boys wrote stories about an instrument for science and did a pastel watercolor drawing of an oasis for art.

Avila has been practicing her "smile faces"

Nathan's story, part 1

Part 2

Making the magrood

Cookies ready to bake

Libyan stew

Oasis art projects

Last week was pi day! Aka March 14, 3.14. Josh's work had set up a raspberry pi demonstration in the cafeteria, complete with a selection of pies for for everyone to enjoy. The kids did a Nintendo station, checked out the robot, tracked airplanes, and ate pie :)

It's time for a new continent! Last week we began our trip to Africa, complete with a video safari! The boys are two episodes deep into a six episode series on the wildlife of Africa and are really enjoying the show. Since it was an introduction week, there was no assigned meal, and I decided to celebrate Morocco with a Moroccan lamb tajine and almond cookies.  We also created maps of Africa, learned the flags of the countries we will study, and each kid drew a picture of what they have learned about Africa so far.

Nathan's physical and political maps

Lamb tajine

Notebooking pages

Moroccan almond cookies

This week we studied Peru and learned about the ancient Aztecs.  For art the boys attended Art Your Way in town, taught by a friend of ours from church.  They will have weekly art classes starting in April.  For their starter class, the boys created a color wheel and had to isolate and match a color from a magazine using only the primary colors plus white & black.  We listened to pan pipes from the Peruvian highlands, and ate Lomo Saltado (stir fry beef with peppers, red onions, and french fries) and Tres Leches sponge cake.  Nathan was sick this week, so I only have pictures of the meals, but he is feeling better now and ready to begin Africa next week!

We are back to school again after our February break, and this week we studied Brazil.  We learned about samba and capioera music, made Carnival floats for our art project, and had galinhada (chicken & rice) and quindao (coconut egg custard) for our special meal.  We also started learning about fossil fuels and renewable energy for science in addition to our homeschool science workshop.

The boys busily color the tribal costumes for their notebooks

Nathan's float making

David also worked hard on his float

The boys' finished carnival floats

Brazilian galinhada

and coconut custard

We were pleased to be able to sign up for a Discovery STEM workshop for homeschoolers this week.  Nathan got a two hour session, in which they had a bridge building competition, built and launched foam rockets while determining the best angle for launch, made "elephant toothpaste" out of peroxide and bromine, (Nathan was pleased to tell everyone how the reaction was exothermic), and created doodlebots using a motor, can, and markers.  David had a one hour session in which he had time to work with the bride building pieces (K'Nex) and build and launch the rockets.  Avila stayed with me, although I allowed her to play with the K'Nex pieces during David's session as she wanted "science" like her big brothers!

The outdoor elephant toothpaste experiment

Nathan constructing his doodlebot

Making some adjustments to the bot

David constructing his rocket

Avila plays with the K'Nex pieces

David's finished rocket

David turned 7 years old this week!  He was very excited for cake and birthday presents :).  David received a renewal for his Kiwi Crate monthly craft projects, a new tablet (which he received a week early when his old one died), and two Disney Infinity figures.  He had a great birthday at our Discovery Stem session (see next post) and is still working on finishing off his cake ;)

A birthday morning picture

David and his cake

Presents!