Saturday, October 13, 2012

Our Weekly Adventures - Week 19


In my life this week....

We took it sort of easy.  I have tons that needs to get done, and guess what....didn't get them done.  The girls have a set of bunk beds we need to put together and the boys room needs rearranged for a new couch.  None of which I can do by myself.  It has been a pretty bad fibro week because of the up and down temperatures.  Every step is painful, but been at least trying to get the minimum done.

Saturday is going to be room rearranging day!  Lots of stuff to get done!!

In our homeschool this week....

This week was math facts and grammar games.  The girls and I worked on an American Girl project for Marie-Grace and Cecile.  We started reading Book 5.  We also did a state spot on our US Map and started our state postcard wall.  We watched some tourism videos for those states, and enjoyed themed meals each day with dishes either inspired by those states or created there.  We didn't get one dish done, and that was choco chip cookies for Massachusetts.  I was out of GF flour, so we'll make those this weekend.

Lydia and I watched some videos and did her Scholastic Newspaper on Christopher Columbus.    We watched a great video on Christopher Columbus that is part of the Animated Classic Hero Tales.  It was pretty good for elementary.  We also watched the one on Beethoven to go with our Music/Art Co-op on Friday's.

Today is Friday and the girls and I have a busy day of Co-op, Nature Walk, and then ballet.  We'll be gone until about 7 tonight....Friday's are such long days right now.  I can't wait until ballet is over.

What I am reading.....

I attempted to read, but then got distracted.  So this week I spent time researching 2 artists for co-op in November and December.  I volunteered to teach the art portion for 4 classes.  I also did some tax work too.  Wow!!!  Am I living in the fast lane???

Oh and I started reading book 5 of Cecile and Marie-Grace with the girls....does that count as pleasure reading?

What I am cooking....

This was an interesting week.  We made lots of state dishes.  Maryland Chicken, hm Boston Clam Chowder, Delaware Chicken Salad, Shrewsberry Cakes w/ hm lemon jelly, Boston Baked Beans....it was a yummy week!!!  We made deluxe crab cakes and Joey made hm blueberry muffins.

More on our weekly activities.....

Lydia and I talked about Columbus Day.  Her Scholastic News was on that topic this week.  So Monday we read and completed those activities and then we watched a great video on Christopher Columbus that is part of the Animated Classic Hero Tales.


She and I also played Sum Swamp
And practiced rhyming with a fun matching game.

We also worked on that ever important shoe tying.....this is just something that she is struggling with...no big deal though.  This is a video she watched and practiced on our Melissa and Doug shoe.


For some reason, Lydia hated Sesame Street when she was little.  She barely paid attention to it.  Now she will sit and just stare at it.  It's rather comical!

We changed things up about states.  We are still reading and finding them, but not necessarily quizzing about all the details.  The kids know land marks.  Caty recognizes any picture she sees of the Arch....she will scream until I stop walking if she sees it on a package or in a magazine.  Every few weeks, we will have a week devoted to certain sections of the US.  This time we are looking at the Northeast.  (Thus all our meal options this week......lol)

We watched Tourism video on Delaware, and looked at pics from where we crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge into New Jersey.

We visited Maine with this Tourism video.
All the kids, except Brayden had a cooking project this week.  That was Brayden's choice though.  Caty and I made Shrewsbury Cakes.
 Delaware chicken Salad
 Our finished Shrewsberry Cakes
 Lydia made deluxe Shrimp and Crab Cakes. (Yes...I did the frying...she did the mixing.)
 Joey made hm blueberry muffins using Bob Red Mills Pizza crust mix (minus the yeast), because I ran out of GF flour.  They were actually very yummy.
 We made a powdered sugar glaze for them.
 Lydia hanging up our postcards that we have received from the Northeastern Part of the US, and marking the states on the map.
 Working on her face mask for an American Girl project.  We also made doll masks.
 Lydia finishing her Grandma Moses project for Co-op class.
 The girls and I went on a nature walk around our neighborhood looking for oak leaves and acorns.
 Then we went to a local farmer stand and bought pumpkins.  We didn't do a full fall unit this year, last year we did.  So this year we just talked about the pumpkin life cycle and the parts of the pumpkin.  We also talked about how important bees are so that we can have pumpkins.  Then we put the pumpkin in the oven, baked it...then make pumpkin pie custard with it.  It was super yummy!!!
 At co-op this week, they looked at works of Monet and talked about coloring mixing.  Which we just studied, so Caty was pretty excited that she knew the answers!  Then we went on a nature studies walk at a local metropark.  Caty found a bumblebee and she had to carefully touch it's wing.
 Starting out on our hike.  She always wants the map.
 We had a large group today!
 We collected maple leaves this week.  Then they did leaf rubbings.

The mom that does nature study brought a parachute and the kids had a blast playing in the leaves. It took all evening to get them out of Caty's hair!


This is all out of order....sorry......

Joey and I played Inference.  Which was a very cool game.  He did really well.  I was proud of him.  He actually answered all the elementary/middle school level questions correctly.  He didn't start having trouble until the really tough high school/college questions were being asked.

The girls and I worked on their Fire Safety project for Girl Scouts.  Monday we are visiting the Firefighter Museum with our troop.  We watched some fire safety videos on You Tube.




Be Cool about Fire Safety Part 1 and Part 2.

For co-op we are learning about Beethoven, so this week we watched the Animated Hero Classic on Beethoven.  It was very interesting, and fun to see the girls reaction to him not being able to actually hear what the orchestra was playing.  He couldn't even hear the applause.  

It was a busy, yet more relaxed week.  Just another thing about homeschooling, being able to adjust how and what we are teaching quickly.

Linking up with other homeschool moms at Homeschool Mothers Journal.


3 comments:

  1. This year is really just whipping by! I DO think it could mean we're living in the fast lane! But then...it's nice to be busy sometimes. Oh...and my daughter learned to tie her shoes this week too! :)

    Have fun re-organizing! We're actually doing the same...and I'm already feeling happier!

    ...danielle

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  2. What a good idea to look at the state's tourism videos as part of learning about the states!

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    1. Tourism videos show you all kinds of great things about the states. They are wonderful for highlights. We also look up country tourism videos. Youtube is full of a tourism video for almost every area. I always preview them first...lol. Just to play safe.

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