Finish Up One Unit and Starting another

Today started out pretty good.  We are wrapping up our sunflowers unit and gearing up for the start of the summer Olympics tonight.  Our unit study for the next few weeks will focus on the Olympics.

I set our morning aside to do errands and the boys gathered up the coins in their piggy banks to bring to the bank and get "real" money for (meaning bills).

 Ian added up all the coins in his bank and he had over $12.  I was so proud of him that he was able to add up all those coins and then proceeded to help Evan count up his!  So much math!

 Alec chose not to add his up and instead made breakfast for himself and his brothers, which I figured was an important life skill to learn as well.

Once at the bank I taught them how to use the coin machine and let them stand in line at the teller and handle their own deposits and money matters.  It's important for them to learn to communicate effectively with other adults and not always rely on me. 

They did a wonderful job! 
During lunch I read a few books to the boys.  One called A Field of Sunflowers to wrap up our sunflower and plant unit and then one simply called Olympics.  It was a great illustrated quick story that introduces how the Olympics started and what they are all about.  They go through the symbols of the torch and rings, the history of the Olympics, the events in both the summer and winter games.  It talks about all the jobs of all the people associated with the Olympics and the building of the arenas and villages.  It was quite comprehensive for just a short little book.  I learned a few things too.  I never quite knew the symbolism of the rings and had forgotten why they called them the Olympics.

We finished up our sunflower art work and then they pulled out the silly putty we had made, along with some play- doh and some noisy putty they found in the play- doh bucket.  They played for over an hour with these with relatively little fighting.

When it was time to clean up Alec and Evan asked if they could try an experiment and freeze the noisy putty.  I thought that was pretty inventive of them.  We'll have to check it tomorrow to see what happens when you freeze putty.

Before they left the kitchen  I made them clean it all up when they were done.  It took them almost another half- hour to clean the silly putty off the toys, table and chairs but I was glad they did clean it up.

I quickly asked them to write up a list of Olympic events they'd like to see over the next few week since we rarely write anything.  My kids hate to write.  And since Evan and Alec weren't that enthused about the writing "assignment" they started writing up Christmas wish lists instead but at least they were writing!

Ian then went outside to work with his trucks. 

Now off to enjoy dinner and then pop some popcorn to watch the opening ceremonies for the 2012 summer Olympic games!  I've already warned the boys they won't get to watch too much; I'll let them stay up a bit late but no way can they stay up until midnight.   


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