Platform Lego Theme

There are three levels of pain. Pain., excruciating Pain and stepping on a lego." - lego quote

The boys are doing these city type creations lately.

The Little Man is doing this one for the lego competition.  He had two choices for creations. (1) Do a theme on your own.  (B) Pick a place in our state and make a theme out of legos.  He decided to do a water fall and lake hole in our state.

The Gentleman has been all about Knights the last few weeks
So, he has done a Knight battle field with Castle. 

Thinking about Legos and Brain Science

"The Gift in You... discover new life through gifts hidden in your mind." - Dr. Caroline Leaf

I recently took "The Gift in You" book test by a Christian Brain Scientist named Dr. Caroline Leaf. Her research shows that there are 7 areas of your brain in which you think to process information. She states that the way you process information is your gift from the Lord and it is what makes you uniquely you.  She remarked that in Proverbs 9:1 it talks about wisdom being built on seven pillars. She thinks this is totally exciting as the Scripture is once again giving insight to Brain Science!

As  a Brain Scientist she knows that the brain is stimulated to sequence and process a thought in seven areas of our brain. And, the way each of us sequence and process a thought isn't the same for each of us.  The area of the brain stimulated to handle each one of the seven steps is different for each of us.    She says that our brain has 7 main areas. And, these areas are the columns or pillars of the way we process information and think.  Does that sound familiar to Proverbs 9:1?

Many people say that your gift is your talent. Not necessarily accurate way of describing how God has made you!   Your talents come out of  your gift of thinking and how you process information and what experiences you have been given to cultivate that talent.  Your brain processes a thought through all 7 pillars but each of us processes the information totally different!  So, to say you are just Visual or just Kinethetic is not accurate.  Her test is not some Intelligence test that psychologist and sociologist try to push us all into a box to give us labels.  Her test is to explain what is the first dominant area you process information, and then she explains how you go through in order through the other areas of the way your brain processes information through the other columns and pillars to show you how you uniquely process information and how this can help reveal and cultivate the areas in which you could be talented in. This also helps to understand people (particularly children in a school setting) as they are learning new information and processing old information and making connections!  It gives insight on how and why that little child in the corner is tapping on the desk for a little bit when he or she is getting new information,  why the other little child  is moving around in his seat, while another child is humming through the timed math test, and why that little child is not looking at you the entire time (darting eyes to you and darting them away)  as he/she finds looking at you while he is processing information distracting.

Your way of thinking is your gift from God! No one thinks like you. 

One of the sections is Visual/ Spatial Intelligence.  Under this section she has 30  yes and no questions to answer.  One of the questions read this way.  "Do you love building blocks, origami objects, legos, models and bridges."  I smiled.  In any other season of my life, I probably would have said, "I don't mind them. But since I don't use them I would have said no."  I chuckled and said a loud "No!"  And, I giggled!  They are regularly all over my house!  So, the truth is I have a love/hate relationship with them.

The boys passion right now is legos!  And, the Children will spend oodles of hours playing with them on a table set up in our garage. They make the best creations.  I love seeing all the neat things that their imagination comes up with on any given day.   But, when the legos get transferred to the other areas of my house, I go nuts and the vacuum is threaten with a daily diet of them.

The other day they decided to make secret boxes.

Some how I missed photographing the Little Gentleman's box.  He loves legos the most. And, come to think about it, I don't think he even came in to show me his box. He rarely leaves his lego seat!

But, here is the Little Man's box castle.  If you slip your finger against a lego  at the top (which is located under the horse) it will  reveal a secret living compartment complete with table, chairs and cups!  A perfect resting spot for the Knight watch man! The bottom is all see through lego glass and it is the guard area that makes it look like they are really officially guarding.

The Little Lady does not play with legos often but was challenged by the boys to make a box. So, she took up the challenge.  This is the box.

 

You can lift the lid to find a little compartment of flowers and such. 

But, if  you remove the side handle on the box......

You can slide the upper compartment out  to find animals hidden at the bottom. 

I am pretty sure if I give them the test,the boys are high on the Visual/Spatial Intelligence and probably the Logic/Mathematical Intelligence.  They get this from their Dad!  As he is high in the Logical/Mathematical section.  I  am not surprised that I scored relatively low in these areas! Matter of fact, the Logical/Mathematical section was the very last area that my brain processes information.

The pillars are:  Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical Thinking, Kinesthetic Thinking and Musical Thinking, 

He Creates

 

Keep Calm and Build On - Lego Quote

 

He has asked to enter our State Fair Lego competition.

He spends hours in the garage creating. 

By the time the State Fair comes around, we will have to narrow it down to just one.

 

 

He likes this one the best today.

Milk Carton Pool Boats

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker

With record breaking temperatures, it is just too hot to go outside.  So, since we are still camping until we can move into military housing in August, we are trying to stay as cool as possible during the day.  This requires us to do inside projects, lots of reading, and working through our school work. 

Yesterday's project? Milk Carton Pool Boats.

                                                            Cut and Paint

Assemble with a straw and cardboard sail

Then, they were taken down to the pool to see if the boats really will float.

Sure do!

Model Airplane Kiddo Kit

All of the top achievers I know are life long learners and looking for new skills... "  H. Waitley

Learning a new skill....

They have been zooming their model airplanes all over the house.

They have crashed several times and they have rebuilt them again and again.  

Finally,  I asked Beloved, "Aren't they supposed to build them and then hang them in their room or place them on the stand?"

He smiled, "The only time they are on the stand is when you are building another model. My model airplane kits use to have glue upon glue in all sorts of places too!"

No more house TV

All television is educational television. The question is: what is it teaching? ~Nicholas Johnson

We just arrived home a few days ago and I am still organizing all of our stuff we used the last 4 months while camping.  So, the Little Ones needed something constructive to do so I can be prepared for school tomorrow.

So, I said, "Beloved,  They are destroying my house and the Little Gentleman asked if we could go to Goodwill to buy something that they can take apart. Could you find something they can destroy?

Beloved brought out the TV that got damage recently. The screen cracked but we were not heartbroken at all about it.

This my friends would be our ONLY house TV.

The point of no return....

The littlest of hands were helping.

Beloved only helped when absolutely necessary.

Speakers, Circuit boards, Wires, oh my!  So Fun.

One of many circuit boards that were stripped clean.

Dakota has hidden all day. He came out with all the giggles and excitement! He has seen them take apart things before and knows that there will be wires that they will dangle at him.

Down to the screen only... The End.

Hammers and Fire Safety

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to look at every problem as a nail. - A. Moslow

Typically on the first Saturday of every month Home Depot has a building project for Children to do with their Parents. They are very easy tool projects. As you can see Beloved is helping the Little Gentleman put his together.

This month's theme was Fire Safety.

 So, they built a Rescue Helicopter.

They learned about fire safety by going through a little building where the Fire Men gave them a little talk about Fire Safety and had them do a few things to demonstrate their knowledge.

Of Course, they also were able to sit in a Fire Truck.

Home Depot Craft Saturdays are perfectly fun!

A great thing to do any time but especially when supplies are limited while RVing.
They are free, educational, and they do all the clean up!
.

It definitely doesn’t work now

"Fun isn’t always educational and education isn’t always fun, but when the two come together - it just doesn’t get any better." Tom Jackson, Conducting Group Discussions With Kids

It all began with a broken DVD car headrest, yesterday. The replacement had arrived for it and so we still had the old one.  I saw Beloved taking a little bit of it apart so he could dislodge a DVD that was stuck. It was at that time, I said to Beloved, "Why don't we give it to the Little Man to take a part?"

 Beloved called the Little Man over and set him up with some tools. 

The Little Man had such a good time finding all sorts of things in the DVD headrest...

Of course, everyone else wanted to get in on the dismantling of some sort of gadget.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Beloved give the Little Gentleman my 20 year old bedside alarm clock which was in perfectly good working order and used every morning!!

When asked why he didn't sacrifice his ancient black alarm clock, Beloved smirked and said that mine didn't match our decor and he never liked it because it was white!

So, now, we are down to one ancient black alarm clock with a broken button because my old white alarm clock is now *resting* in pieces.

The Little Lady wanted to take something apart as well.

I was really surprised to find Beloved reaching for the weather monitor.

I thought the double A batteries only needed to be replaced.

It used to work well too.

In the end, each Child ended up having something unique to share with the others that they didn't have in their item! The Little Man liked the small fans that keep the DVDs cool in the head rest. The Little Gentleman liked the clock speaker. The Little Lady found a digital device and some copper wiring.

They had a good time and really enjoyed being destructive! Beloved enjoyed it as well. He used to take things apart as a Child too! Now that he is an adult, he can't get into trouble doing it either -- well, that is if he remembers not to donate anything else of mine to the inquiring minds. (wink!) 

I think that supervised destruction time will probably be a common thing around here! It looks like I will be in the market for small items at Garage Sales for the sole purpose of giving them something to take apart so I can keep everything I own intact!

Toppling Dominos

You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower, US President

As usual in our house no matter what item we try to build with the Little Ones always say,  "We just don't have enough."

King of his Castles

"A man's house is his castle." - J. Otis

He has been going around building and drawing castles all week and wearing a really funny kings crown. I don't know but I go with it!

Cardboard Creations

"Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." - Theo Levitt

Stormy weather weekends drag on and on for us when Beloved is on a trip. So, we didn't get out. This meant I had to bring out some different type of entertainment.

I hadn't broken down the cardboard for the recycle man to pick up so I carried in some of the boxes for the Children to build something "Space" related. Space related because the Little Lady just finished up with her Astronomy Unit.

I was amazed I got this Space Ship to slow down enough for a picture! As you can see the "motor" mouth was still idling.

The Little Lady wanted to be the Pilot in Command. So, she built space seats for them all to sit in while eating lunch. This was a huge hit!

A Block Castle

"Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put your foundations under them." ~ Henry Thoreau

They never dreamed they could use every block when building a castle.

I never dreamed my 21 century children would graffiti ... oops!
I mean modernize it!

Space Diorama

Diorama is a three-dimensional miniature or life-size scene in which figures, stuffed wildlife, or other objects are arranged in a naturalistic setting against a painted background. - Diorama Craft Ideas

Three of the four Little Ones made Space Dioramas.
However, don' t think the Little Miss wasn't into the thick of things!
I can assure you that she wanted to help!

They have Astronauts and the Space Shuttle hanging from strings.
Some did Astronauts walking on the Moon among Moon craters and Rocks.

I really need to do a better job at doing the Little Ladies Homeschool Portfolio. It would keep all these little projects from having to be documented on the blog! ;)

Lincoln Log Play

"Lincoln Logs were invented in 1916." ~ Lincoln Log

The Lincoln Logs were recycled back into the house so a few other toys could have a break for awhile. The Little Ones have been playing with them all week. They have come up with some neat little homes. If they were "life size" I wouldn't mind living in them!