Junk Mobile

Sushi had this project in school to build a Junk Mobile using things around the house and incorporating at least 2 Simple Machines out of the 6 - lever, inclined plane, pulley, screw, wedge and wheel/axle. Anyone who says their 7 year old can do this entirely on his own is baloney. You should be happy if there's at least some cheering of support from the one would be taking your project to school and present it like it's his. While this was the first thing on my mind when I wake up each morning until its deadline, dear son just gave me his utmost trust of deliverance, lots of hugs & kisses, and constant "Mommy knows best!"

Had my thinking cap on each night after supper and released the Handy Manny in me.

Simple Machines: wheel/axle, lever and screw
Materials: Pencil (red), Kleenex box (orange), kitchen sponge (yellow), letter bath toy (green), Teddy Bear (blue), pompoms (purple), Tinkertoy wheels, BBQ sticks, and hook screw.
It is by accident that we have picked technicoloured materials that spelled each colour of the rainbow. So Sushi named it - The Rainbow Wagon.

Disclaimer: This is not the most A-deserving project, but this tells me I can build something out of nothing - sans talent, san idea from Google images =[  Just think outside the box.

HomeWork

Sushi who's now in Gr2 doesn’t get much homework from school. So I supplement it. He knows that every day when he comes home from school, he’ll first have snacks and do homework before playing, sports or screen time. He also knows that he may not have any homework from school, but he has “homework from Mom”. Tsk tsk tsk. Our after-school activities, a.k.a. homework, includes but not limited to the following:

• Math worksheets – now it's multiplication with carry-over, graph and charts, problem-solving
• Science – Dinosaurs workbook, One Million Things encyclopaedia, or the atlas
• Journals – may be in paragraph form, time table or calendar

• Computer – Raz-Kids (assigned by school) or NBA SIM
• Writing – makings lists; and now he's tracing numbers in Mandarin : 一，二，三，…九，十
• Books – at least one a day, and should be able to retell or predict the ending
• Free Choice – now he's so into baseball cards,writing baseball stats and players
• Grocery – should be observing and participating, but most times he just plays DS =[ 
• Library – borrow sports/auto magz, books, DVDs, check-out himself & note the date they're due (he has his own library card)

• Talking Current Events –  i.e. 9/11 Attack, the wedding of the Duke & Duchess, Gaddafi's death, natural disasters and sports talk with Dad
• Prayer – before bedtime; proper structure of praying – A.C.T.S.
• Movies – animated or not, any one that stimulates the thoughts. Last night we watched The Truman Show. He was fascinated when I told him the plot of the movie, real vs fake, fact vs fiction.
  
  
  
  

  
  When It Rains, It Pours on Truman
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The kids laughed so hard in this rain scene. It was priceless watching them. Okay, this is off-topic.
  
  There's a lot to learn from the everyday things, not just from textbooks. You'd think I’m being the Tiger Mother.  Far cry. I do infuse some fun into these activities. I seriously do! But also, I want to instill a good discipline with homework and time management. It’s tougher when he gets to higher level.