Our Week - Week 8

On the road again....we are in Chicago this week.  We will probably be here a month.  With a couple weekend visits home because we are very close to home here.  I don't know what we would be doing without the internet.  We can stay on track for school and stay in contact with friends and family.  Of course, without the internet....my hubby might not have a job either...lol.

So this week, we visited the Jelly Belly Factory in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, went to the Chicago History Museum, Peggy Notabert Nature Center, the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Lincoln Park Conservatory.  We may get a visit into Chinatown tomorrow, but not sure yet.  We are going to visit a couple art museums next week, and just hang out and relax.  Our hotel has a pool and basketball court which the girls and Joey have been enjoying all week.  Brayden doesn't swim and he doesn't play basketball anymore either.

I also got a new laptop this week.  My old one was acting up and my hubby was able to fix it, and he needs a better machine for lab work.  So I gave him his old laptop back (it's a Power Mac), and I now am trying to learn this new Windows thing.  It took most of the weekend to transfer my information from one machine to the other, and I don't think its all transferred yet.

I have a ton of work to get done this next week for Homeschool with Minecraft Classes.  I need to get all the fall classes uploaded for the next few weeks.  I got a few done this week, but Caty has decided that this week she will not play by herself at all.  So I have been spending a lot of time playing extra board games, which is good but I am having a hard time getting work wedged into my day....lol.

We spent two days totally at the hotel this week.  I think we all needed to chill out.  For the most part we kept up on "school".  The two days we didn't do school, we learned plenty of nature and science topics.  And the day at the History Museum, well was full of history.  We learned several chunks about the Chicago Fire. I would've liked to have gotten a couple more days in, but it's just book learning...lol.  Nothing like a little life skills on driving in rush hour traffic in a busy city.

We are continuing to use Discovery K-12 as a base for our learning and then doing a more child led direction for history, science and art.  This week Caty loved learning about space.  So we read a lot about space (because of the planetarium visit last Friday).  Lydia was still interested in fashions through history.  Her interest was peaked because of Discovery K-12 and we were able to see some great displays at the Museum of Science and Technology and the Chicago History Museum that she enjoyed.  She has kept watching the videos in her lessons too.

We also watched Magic School Bus Takes Flight and learned more about airplanes this week.  We are staying near Midway Airport, so we have seen a bunch of planes taking off and landing.  Plus Joe has worked by O'Hare a couple days too.  So we really got up close to a few planes as they were landing and taking off this week.  The kids really enjoyed that.  So we took advantage of that interest...lol.

Our hotel had a pool which was a welcome addition after 3 weeks in New York without one.

 Brayden, of course, will not get in.  He hates swimming now, and we don't know why.

 Another welcome addition to our travels.  Used almost everyday since we got it.  It's a 3-in-1 Cuisinart crockpot that has the brown/sautee feature.  LOVE IT!!

 We had a LEGO Family day Sunday afternoon. It was cheaper to go and buy some new LEGOs than take the kids to LEGO Discovery in Chicago.  Plus we didn't have to worry about lines!

 Caty built this entirely by herself!!  She was very proud.

Caty was practicing her beginning sounds with this sorting game.  Each paint stick has a letter on it.  She has to match the pictures to the right letter.

 She also found a new Goldie Blox to add to our collection.  She LOVES Goldie Blox.

 She even made a banner for the parade float.

 The girls and I have played basketball a few times.  Our hotel has a small court area.

Brayden decided to work on LEGOs today while he was listening to Dr. Doolittle.  I am getting classic literature in him somehow....lol.  Thanks to Audible!!!

 Joey working on his Minecraft Presidents class.

 Caty has decided she likes Looney Tunes Click N Read Phonics better than Reading Eggs.  She actually asks to do double lessons!!

 Lydia working on her Math...Teaching Textbooks.

 We found this LEGO Life of George game on clearance at Toy R Us on Sunday.  It has been a huge hit.  The kids need to build a project, they scan it with the tablet and it's graded.  They can get up to 5 stars for Awesomeness.  Caty has been playing this everyday.

 Lydia is getting more into it.

 Caty found this magnetic animal mix-up game at the zoo yesterday.  After the bird trauma and the flip flop disaster, I gave in and bought her this.    (I was literally attacked by a bird around the pond at Lincoln Park Zoo....twice.  The kids watched as I had to keep swatting and run to protect them.  My scalp was scratched by the toes of the bird and it's beak.  It was scary because I normally don't scream like that and it freaked them out big time.)

 There was time spent in the exercise room.

 This was a New York find.  It's a puzzle game.  The kids find it very challenging, which means it's a great addition to our "therapy" games.

It has been a good week for the most part. Normal meltdowns, and some allergy issues.  At least the traffic was a bit more bearable than New York.  But Joey was quick to point out that people were just as rude.  He was a bit freaked out about big cities anyway.  He watches the news too much.  At least we don't have to live here permanently....just a month.

Everyone have a great weekend and hope your week's were wonderful!!!