Weeks 23 and 24: 100 Day Party!

We did a number of things these past two weeks, but really this post is all about our 100 Day Celebration!

First, I used last year's idea and scattered the numbers 1-100, written on apple Post-Its, all over the walls of our main floor. The twist this year is that the numbers from 51-100 were written as math problems for Harry to solve, to make it a little more difficult. With the help of their (stuffed) friends Hedwig and Scabbers, Harry and Ron made it through with flying colors!

Then it was time for 100-shaped breakfast items: eggs, pancakes, and ham!

Ron and Harry counted out 100 popcorn kernels:

And the popcorn became a part of our 100 pieces of snacks, which everyone counted out on their own:

Then it was estimation time! The question the boys pondered was which one of the three containers of candy had 100 total pieces:

I gave them the technique of counting out 10 of each and using that as the basis for their estimation:

(And yes....they did get to sample some of the goodies after the counting was done!)

Next, a quick probability exercise: what happens when you flip a coin 100 times?

An art project: what can you create out of 100 dots of paint?

Harry walked 100 steps from home...

...then drew a picture of himself at age 100 while Ron built a ship out of 100 Lego pieces:

Lastly, our celebration cupcakes: 10 cupcakes each with 10 sprinkles on top!

And that was our 100 Day Celebration! Lastly, on an unrelated note, I read The Grouchy Ladybug with the Ron and Dobby, and they painted these cute rocks to commemorate the story:

Weren't they adorable? =) Hope you had a wonderful week! We start Spring Break next week, hooray!

Week 26...and our 100th Day of School!

Well, I couldn't keep my own secret. I let the boys know on Monday that we'd celebrate our 100th day of homeschooling on Thursday, and needless to say, they were thrilled. I can't even remember what else we did this week...all the usual subjects...but this report will be all about our day of celebration! (Sadly, we have somehow lost our digital camera so I had to take these with a cell phone...apologies for the quality!)

I had star-shaped Post-Its leftover from another event, so late Wednesday night, I spread those all over the walls of our first floor and labeled them from 1-100 in random order. The boys' first task on Thursday morning, which they began while I was making breakfast, was to work together as a team, find all 100 stars, and place them in the correct order. They had a blast! And although perhaps they didn't figure out the most efficient way to go about the task, they did split up the work and demonstrated teamwork, which I was happy to see.


And of course, we had to eat something related to the number 100:


We read Psalm 100 during breakfast, a suggestion from another homeschooling mom whose blog had so many great ideas for celebrating the day. After breakfast, the boys finished the finding the 100 Stars, then we started working on our "100th Day of School" book, an idea I also borrowed from aforementioned blog! (Thank goodness for the Internet!) Aidan also got into the action by wanting to work with the older boys at the kitchen table:


Then it was our 100 P.E. Activities--the boys did the following to make 100 total:

• 10 jumping jacks
• 10 laps around the first floor
• 10 stairs
• 10 push ups
• 10 baskets in the basketball hoop
• 10 putts

• 10 hopping on one foot
  
• 10 air punches
• 10 touching toes
• 10 jump ropes
  

Then it was snack time! Of course, we had to have 100 snacks...10 each of the following healthy and nutritious goodies (hahaha....)

• 10 honey-roasted peanuts
• 10 Jelly Bellies
• 10 Goldfish crackers
• 10 pieces of ginger cookies (broken up because they were big)
• 10 Pringles
• 10 raisins
• 10 Nerds
• 10 organic chocolate bunny graham crackers
• 10 mini-marshmallows
• 10 Fruity Cheerios

After which, we attempted to do a craft with 100 craft sticks. This turned out to be an abysmal failure, which is probably a reflection on my total ineptitude with crafty activities! I wanted to give them the chance to use their imagination and make something together out of the craft sticks and glue--I even brought out a glue gun for the occasion!--but not having enough direction stymied the boys so I just scrapped that idea!

I had all these crazy idea for incorporating the number 100 into lunch, but I ran out of time so that will have to wait for next year. We kept to our normal Quiet Reading Time after lunch, during which I asked the boys if they thought they could read 100 pages total, which they each did, then in the afternoon, the boys had the 100 Blocks and 100 Cars project, which was to count out a total of 100 of each and then build something together. At first they were each taking their own set of blocks and doing something individually, but I intervened to encourage them to build something together. And here is what they came up with:

Harry had the clever idea to use the blocks to make the number "100":


And while they were working on this project, I threw some cupcakes into the oven and our last activity was to decorate 10 cupcakes, each with 10 sprinkles, to celebrate the end of our 100th day! The boys enjoyed this project the best, I think. =)

It's amazing to think that we have actually made it through 100 Days of Homeschooling; I never would have imagined doing so even a year ago! We've had our challenges and our struggles, as I imagine all homeschooling families do, but God has been faithful and an ever-present help. Hopefully by his grace we will make it to another 100 Day Celebration next year!