Here are our March homeschooling highlights. We studied the Ancient Andes Mountains for the first half of this month.

We started with a trip to the Library together and picked up books about llamas, alpacas, Machu Picchu, and Peru. We read these in addition to our History Quest chapters and our books from home about Jungle Animals.

MsC and MsE learned to tell the difference between llamas and alpacas. MsE is the household expert on this now. We read some books, watched some video, completed a quiz from the Llama facts book, and then made some various llamas.

First we used a paper pattern to Decorate Paper Llamas. No two llamas were decorated the same; there were a variety of decorations to chose from, which were then coloured, cut out, and taped/glued on.

Our next project was yarn winding Peruvian Blankets for cardboard llamas. MsE made her blanket a perfect rainbow with no overlapping of strands. MsI and MsC followed the overlapping instruction making it look more like Peruvian weaving. MsI loved this activity and made a number of them.

We also used the Andes Mountains to study geography and geology. The girls found Peru and the Andes Mountain on our Wall Map. We learned about geology by reading "Rainbow Mountain." This mountain in the Andes has 7 colours of rock. We learned about how sedimentary rock forms on the surface of the Earth, and looked at which colours indicate which minerals are present in the rock layers on the mountain.

To see how Tectonic Plates played a roll in how the mountain was formed, we ran our finger up a finger on the other hand until we got stuck on our knuckle. We pushed until the fingers slipped over the knuckle to illustrate how earthquakes happen.

The girls all coloured and filled out "What I know about Peru" booklets to wrap up our Andes Mountains study. MsC also completed the quiz below.

Boxes of "Stick 'Em" connectors arrived in the mail. The girl's each used the guide to build working Catapults. MsE figured out the instructions when the rest of us got stuck. She also tried to throw the largest object, Hei Hei (the rooster). The catapult worked best with small things.

MsE can tell analogue time to the 1/2 hour. We should probably move on to by the 1/4 hour. She was able to set all these times easily below and reads the wall clock if it's close to the half hour. We have 3 time zones on the wall. She can usually remember that our local time sits above Singapore on the map (our farthest East clock).

MsE was also learning about fractions. The Littles used our magnetic fractions on the fridge. I just gave them the 1, 1/2's, 1/3's, and 1/4's. Our set goes up to 1/12's.  They really wanted to used the magnets to make random pictures so it took some cajoling to get them to just put them into the proper forms (circles and lines)

MsE likes to work when it's quiet. "I need no distractions. Close the door.," she says. The other day I read her out the instructions and hung around for a while, until she said, "You can go. I don't need your help now."  I came back about 30 minutes later expecting her to be finished and playing in her room. Instead she'd finished the work assigned, flipped the page and was almost done a new page of mixed addition and subtraction. It's so different than working with MsC, who wanders off or moves onto something entirely different, if I am farther than arms length from her.

MsE thinks these Minecraft jokes at the bottom of her Math pages are hilarious. MsE doesn't use counters to figure these out now. She can count up and down from a number in her head.

MsC is so close to finishing her first Beast Academy book. She doing addition with multiple set of numbers. We finished reading the last instruction story and she just has a few practice workbook pages to go. Before, we can crack a new set of books. MsC baked muffins and made homemade lemonade, and sold with friends.

The Littles decided to make Fairy Gardens. I pulled out a bag of soil I had in my bedroom clothes closet, they will some pots and used a lot of little loose parts to make a space they figured a fairy would love. We intend to plant some seeds and see if the "Flower Fairies" will help them grow. MsE gathered some rocks, sticks and dry leaves.

The girls also entered our condo's Children's Art Contest. The theme had to include what they see around our condo. Winners will be displayed in the Clubhouse. I gave them the pencil crayons, and oil pastels.

MsE also read her first book entirely herself. I overheard her reading to MsE at the table and I was pretty sure she was reading and not just making up the story. At bedtime she climbed into bed turned on her lamp and I heard her read the whole story to herself. MsE was trying to go to sleep in the bunk bed below. She told MsE, "You need to to be quiet and learn go to sleep." MsE replied "I will read in my head," but a few minutes later she was quietly sounding out words aloud. I didn't want to interrupt the process by sushing her. When MsE finished the book, "Jay Saves the Day," she just turned off her light.