The Letter H

The boys and I have continued our letter investigations amidst the packing and turmoil at our house. We just took a little bit longer than normal with the letter H, which is okay, because it's a very special letter. H is for Henry, after all!

For the past two weeks, we've explored the human body and houses (did I mention we're moving??). We started off last week with a trip to the Health Museum. The boys loved it but we didn't stay long because they were having a special event and it was very crowded. The boys did get to sit inside a mouth, test their sense of smell, and walk inside a brain!

After our short trip to the Health Museum, we decided to kill some time at the science museum before meeting some friends for lunch. It was perfect because we walked through the chemistry hall and explored some body chemistry.

At home, we traced the boys' hands and covered the capital H with their hands. We also read lots of books about the human body. Our favorites were Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin, Jr. and Parts by Tedd Arnold.

Last week, Sid the Science Kid focused on the human body as well, so we watched some Sid episodes and did some science experiments. The best one was our digestion experiment. The boys (with some help) squeezed lemons and poured the juice (the stomach acids) into a plastic bag (the stomach). Then they broke up some saltines and tossed them into the stomach

and mushed them around and around until it was one big wet soggy mess in the bag.

We also added bananas and raspberries to the mix and now the boys truly understand how digestion works! It was a really fun experiment, and Will recorded it all in his science journal!

We have also been talking A LOT about the new house. Even though our house isn't new, we read Building a House by Byron Barton along with many, many books about moving. For a craft project, we turned our lowercase h into a house.

Henry decided to put his windows above the house. Maybe he's thinking of skylights?

Will drew a door on his.

And in the spirit of cleaning out the freezer before the big move, Gene and Will made some yummy garlic halibut for us all to enjoy.

And now, we'll take a short break from our letter studies and focus on moving, getting settled, and celebrating Christmas!