Food Pyramid

This evening at dinner, DS1 taught me about the food pyramid. He learned about it at Tiger Cub Scouts Monday evening. We hadn't talked about it since DH and he discussed it on the way home Monday night. DS1 told me the names of the different food categories, how many servings were suggested in each, what foods went in the categories, and what the shape of the category was on the pyramid. I asked him to draw it for me, so he did, including labeling each place with the initial of the category as he told me the category name. He also analyzed dinner, telling us in which category each food on the table belonged.

I am so pleased and impressed that he remembered so much detail from something that he learned 2 days ago and hadn't discussed since. I'm also very impressed with how well he articulated that knowledge, both to me and to Grandpa later in the evening. I am pretty sure that this was his first exposure to the food pyramid. If I am wrong on that, then it was at least 2 years ago when he was attending daycare when he was 4.

When dinner was over, I told him that we had just had a science lesson, and he had been the teacher! I wrote on the back of his food pyramid diagram, describing the discussion, and I will save that one for his "records."

P.E. class

DS2 participated in PE class today! The past few weeks we have had PE outside at a park, and DS2 was more interested in the playground equipment than the class. However, it rained very hard on Monday, so the coach decided to go to a gym this week. We were the first ones there, so the boys had a chance to just play around before class. I asked DS2 if he wanted to play games in PE class with the other kids or stay over to the side with me, and he chose games. I reminded him that he needed to listen to Coach Dave, do what he said, and play nice. I was so proud of him! He was a little distractable at the beginning, but by mid-class he was playing well, following directions, and no more distracted than any of the other 4-6 year olds. Yea!

What a great day

We went to Old Cowtown for a 1870's style county fair this morning. The boys liked the midway games, bowling, water pump, sack swing, and May Pole the best. They also noticed/saw an organ grinder, the blacksmith, a seamstress, the saloon, upstairs bedrooms over a shop, the carpenter shop, a hand-pump train car, the telegraph office, the Wheel of Fortune, the Tent of Wonders, and the modern fire trucks.

We had a map and used it to find a few specific things, then the boys circled all of the places that we visited. Before we went in, they did a good job of staying close to me and out of trouble while I was collecting money and checking in the other homeschoolers in our group. After we were finished we stopped by the funny airplane/cow "barnstorming" sculpture near the parking lot.

We drove through McDonald's to pick up lunch and ate a picnic in the basement. In the afternoon they taught me how to play SuperCow, which is a pc video game that we got from Nick Arcade. Later in the afternoon we played outside, drawing in the driveway, then shooting hoops, then we created a bowling game. The target was the bricks between our 2 garage doors. Then scoring rings (expanding diameters) were added. The scoring and rules became more interesting and complex as we went along. The best part was that they were cooperating! They were being active and creative and cooperative, all at the same time.

When Daddy came home, they explained the game to him, and all 4 of us played a round. DS1 wrote down the scores in columns (some individual scores were several added together because if you got a double digit hit, then you got another turn), then added all 3 numbers together.

After dinner we had "movie night" with Toy Story and popcorn.

If we were a "subject area" focused HS, I bet there wouldn't be an area that wasn't touched today.