Friday, August 31, 2012

Our Weekly Adventures - Week 13


In my life this week.....

Keeping 4 kids amused and quiet in a hotel room.....nearly impossible!!!  We are still on our trip.  I have a ton of blog posts that I am trying to catch up on.  We spent last Wednesday to Saturday in Philadelphia, Saturday we were in Washington DC and then arrived in Brentwood, TN for daddy's work on Sunday.  We are currently in Tennessee until Saturday, and then we will drive up to St. Louis for 6 days.  We had lots of adventures, but been chilling more this week.  Tomorrow, not sure what we will be doing.  I am in the process of planning.....we'll wait and see.

Mainly just working on sorting through the tons of photos that I have been taking.  I even took some portrait pictures of the kids for this year.  We were in a beautiful Botanical Garden yesterday and took advantage of it.  Also planning next week that we are in St. Louis.  So much to see there and not enough time to cram it all in...lol!

In our homeschool this week....

Been working on Math, Reading, Language Arts.  The boys haven't been doing much in Spelling.  Upset in routine and lack of computers here in the hotel, I didn't force the issue.  Lydia though has been working on her Reading Kingdom (watch for the review).  She kept up on all her studies, including starting our new American Girl study for American Girl Club.  We have almost finished Book 2 of the Marie-Grace & Cecile series.  We have also continued our study of the American Revolution in History.  Joey has been working in his chemistry book and Lydia & Caty have started section in their science book on sun,shadows and weather.

Places we have been going....

Well last week we took the week off from school.  We just read about the Revolutionary War.  We visited Independence Hall, Betsy Ross' house, the Liberty Bell, took a carriage ride around the historic area of downtown Philly, visited the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, drove past the White House and visited the Smithsonian American History Museum.  This week we visited a Treehouse exhibit at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, got frozen yogurt at this really awesome yogurt place and swam at the hotel alot!  A busy week...lol.

What I am reading....

Nothing....except books on the Revolutionary War and American Girl books...lol

What I am cooking.....

Well our hotel has a kitchenette, so lots.  We have made Beef Stew, Red Gravy New Orleans Spaghetti, chicken w/ mushrooms and croutons (a creation to make me feel like I can eat stuffing...it's a work in progress), french toast, pancakes, hm sausage gravy.  We even made microwave brownies (since we don't have an oven) for while we were watching Liberty Kids.

I am grateful for.....

The opportunity we have to travel with Joe.  The kids have gotten to see so much this last week.

What's not working for us this week.....

Changes are not working well.  For some reason Joey had a very rough time this trip.  And Brayden was more open.  But they still were resistant to some things.  Not sure why this time was different, who knows.

Our week in pictures......

Chilling by the pool....it got hot here in Middle Tennessee


We had school in our room.  Caty is working on some busy activities while I moved between kids.  Here she is putting together dinosaur eggs.  I took them apart and gave her the pile to assemble.  She really liked doing this!!


Math...math....math....
Lydia and I did a History Walk in downtown Nashville.  We thought they would include a ton more info....but there wasn't much in facts or info we didn't already know from our study of Tennessee or from visiting all the area plantations.

This is the Historical and Nashville's only Diamond Graded hotel....The Hermitage....

Look at the detail!!!


The outside of the building

Another memorial downtown...the entire plaza around the capital was war memorials.  This one was for the women that supported the troops.

Downtown Nashville Library!!  It's huge!!!!
A beautiful park in downtown Nashville.....huge and cool wall mural.
It looks like someone putting together a puzzle.

Doing her ABC sort
More math.....this is her most boring subject!!!!
The Letter S now.........We use these sheets to glue our Letter words on to make a poster we usually hang in our "classroom".  But this next week, we'll just pull it out.
I have a glue and trace ebook I found a while ago on Curriclick.  It's called the Glue and Trace workbook for Preschoolers.   And since we have such a sensory issue with liquid glue......I thought I would give it a try and give her a controlled setting for gluing...lol.

We continued doing reading on the American Revolution.  We are going to watch American Girl Felicity movie this weekend.  Yesterday we talked about life in the colonies and what a colony actually was.  I found a couple of great books to go along with our study.


While I was reading, they got out their Revolutionary War soldiers.  I bought the Toob Soldiers from Amazon.  Amazon sells a set for the Continental Army and British solider tube also.  They also got another set at the Betsy Ross house in the gift shop so that they could recreate as we read.
After we did our reading, we enjoyed microwave brownies.  No oven in the hotel.  So we used Bob Mills brownie mix and added Enjoy Life chocolate chips.  They were actually not too bad.
The kids played UNO (and of course not without fighting), enjoyed brownies and watch Liberty Kids! Brayden loves this show!!!

The kids have been chilling by playing their Wii.
This is our curriculum suitcase spilling out on the floor.
Lydia and I have been reading the Marie-Grace/Cecile American Girl series.  We are almost finished with Book 2.  We ordered the Just for Fun book that goes with it.  Some of the activities are too old for her...but others she is having fun with.  Here she is learning to draw Cochon (Cecile's pet parrot) and Argos (Marie-Grace's dog).
With just a small amount of help on each one, and then she colored them.
Joey played Roblox.
One night Lydia made dinner.  Since her American Girl Books are based in New Orleans this time, we found a recipe for Red Gravy spaghetti sauce.  We changed it a bit for food allergies (no garlic and onion...and no tabasco because the kids DO NOT like spicy).  But it was super yummy.

She browned the ground sirloin.
Browned the tomato paste with the ground beef until it was a darker color.
Added small amounts of water and let it simmer.
There were no leftovers....everyone loved it (except Brayden...won't touch sauce)
Here's another shot of Brayden enjoying his downtime.....

We had a great week and got our work done....so I am grateful for that!  We leave for St. Louis tomorrow.  And will be there a week.  Lots to explore and only half the amount of schoolwork to complete so that we can explore more in a new area!!!

Hope everyone had a great week!!!  Linking up with other homeschool families at the Homeschool Mother's Journal.

9 comments:

  1. WOW your really busy on your travel time. I am not sure we are even that busy:) My hubby has restrict to to a single back pack for taking school supplies on trips, otherwise he say I will take everything with me:)

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    1. I wish I could get it down to that much. Fortunately we don't fly, so I try not to kill myself when getting it in and out of the van. This is over 2 weeks worth of work, books and activities for 4 kids though....lol!

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  2. Wow! It surely must be interesting traveling and schooling at the same time! We LOVED St. Louis when we visited while living in Indiana. See if you can have lunch or dinner at Lambert's Cafe near by! Yummy!

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    1. Thanks for the recommendation!!! I will look for that this weekend!!

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  3. You said last week you took the week off school, but seriously, I think your kids must've learned at least as much doing all you did as they would doing their regular schoolwork! How fun to get to travel so much! We don't often get the chance, but we are all super excited about a trip next month!

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  4. I would MUCH rather visit those cool places than read a book about them. What a blessed opportunity to learn. I know road trips are great but they do tend to upset routine, don't they? I'm trying to plan ahead now for one we have coming up in December.

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    1. I should be getting used to this...we go to TN about 3-4 times a year with Daddy. But this trip was longer and a bit more hasty. But we got he opportunity to tour Philly and I couldn't pass that up considering we are studying the American Revolution! Plan...plan...plan....that is my suggestion! It does help!

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  5. How cool to be on a trip like this and to visit so many wonderful places. Makes me want to pack my bags. And Yay for traveling with Dad!!! What a treat for all. Blessings and safety on the rest of your trip.

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