World Math Day

Today and Tomorrow is World Math Day. How can it be today and tomorrow - well, that all has to do with time zones. World Math Day is March 4th as soon as it is March 4th at the International Dateline and goes until it is no longer March 4th anywhere in the world, so somehow that makes it almost 48 hours. I

I just discovered this website today from a friendly email from Math Mammoth and since it is a free event I quickly decided to sign my kids up after reading Maria's blog post.

I let them practice today - and it was a hit. Rebecca accumulated 785 correct answers, Emily 446, and Isaac 84. It was amazing, they are all excited to get up tomorrow and begin competing in the real competition just as soon as they can.

It is really a neat thing that they can compete in real time with other kids from around the globe, it even shows them where on the globe they are located. I found a great interactive time zone map at WorldTimeZone.com where we can check out the time zone's around the world in either 24 hour or 12 hour format. You can get a printable map here. This would also be a great week to talk about Daylight Savings time.

Time Zones from Brain Pop
Daylight Savings Time from Brain Pop
Daylight Savings Time from HowStuff Works
A Change in Time from Science News for Kids

You can sign up for a free 5 day trial from Brain Pop. We used it a few years ago through our virtual school and really enjoyed Brain Pop. However, you may want to preview some of the health videos before letting your kids watch them.

Hint Hint: A membership to a site like this would be a great christmas present from Grandparents.

Devotional

Devotional is the first part of our school day. It is such a great way to start our day. We have been memorizing scriptures ever since we started doing devotionals (actually, my girls had the articles of faith memorized when they were really young). I guess you could say scripture memorization is a family tradition. When we choose a new scripture to memorize we make it into a beautiful page to put in our recitation binder. Isaac choose this scripture to present in Primary and so he helped me make it into a new recitation scripture for our binder. I have many such pages if you would like me to email you some PDF's please let me know. I am working on a website for them, but it may be another week or so before I have that ready.

Singing a Song is Fun to Do

Melissa of singingasongisfuntodo has created two video's for the primary theme songs for this year. I'm sure that my kids will really enjoy watching these videos. I look forward to seeing other video's that she produces throughout the year.

My Eternal Family

The Family is of God

Grandma's Crochet Hook Produces another Made to Order Afghan

Kevin is now a "BIG BOY"? with a brand new blanket from his Grandma for sucessfully completing potty training.

Of course, most of the time he insists that he is a "SMALL BOY" because he wants help putting on his clothes after going to the bathroom. It isn't that he can't get himself dressed, I think it is just his way of making sure that he get's a little bit of attention amidst the chaos of the day.

For more information on Potty Training and Crocheting check out this post.

Hugs and Kisses

We end our day with hugs and kisses, and have for years. Somehow, as the kids grew up they stopped liking kisses, but hugs still remain a constant after bedtime prayers. Now, my kids journey every night to Grandma and Grandpa Mackley's room for their nightly "hugs and kisses." In this instance it is to hug Grandma and Grandpa and come away with a chocolate kiss.

I loved this article, "The Magical Power of a Kiss" by Gary and Joy Lundberg,and it reminded me of the importance of kissing. I have noticed in my marriage that when I greet my husband with a "honest-to-goodness I-love-you-to-the depths-of-my-soul kind of kiss" that our marriage and day to day life is much better! I'll have to have a good kiss prepared when Brad come home tonight.

Video Book Reviews

We had a book review to kick off our Reading Competition.
Everyone shared a book - and we took video's. Here are the kids. I'll post the adults soon!

Reading Challenge

We are issuing a reading challenge to our extended family. The genesis of the reading challenge was this article Book Challenge 2009 in the LDS Homeschool dated November 24, 2008.

Here are the rules for the Growing Georgeson's Book Challenge.

Read Age Appropriate Books
Reading buddies can split the number of pages
Can't count the same book twice unless you are under the age of 4.
Teams will be decided on Sunday 7th of December by a random drawing.
Page counts start on December 1st - so start reading and counting.
Keep track of Book Title, Author, and page Numbers.
Scriptures, magazines, books all count, internet does not.

Be prepared to give a short book commercial of 3 of your favorite books on Sunday. These could be taped in advanced and posted on your blog. (Think Reading Rainbow style, or use your own imagination.)