Our Week - Week 12

This has been a crazy busy week.  I am not getting done with tasks that I need to get done.  It's almost vacation time.  My to-do list is getting longer and longer.  The pain attacks though were in full force this week, so most days every movement was a challenge for me.

We did get a lot of schoolwork accomplished though.  There was a couple more projects I would've loved to have finished, but we they are ongoing projects for next summer, so it's fine to keep working on them.

This week was the start of teaching more cooking skills.  The girls were asked to help to several cooking projects throughout the week.  They helped to cook lunches and even bake cakes for a bridal shower this weekend.

I never use box cake mixes, but I also never bake gluten cakes anymore.  I knew most people would not like a gluten-free cake, so I opted to buy some cake mixes.  This was such a novelty for the girls.  Here Caty is making a Pink Camo cake mix that we got as an experiment.

 Frosting the cake

 Not too bad, didn't look like the box that's for sure.

 Now she is trying her hand at decorating tips.

 Lydia made New England Clam Chowder (from scratch) and gluten free biscuits.  This was to go with our lighthouse unit this week.

 I got them some new nylon kids knives to use for chopping.  One skill they worked on this week was cutting up tomatoes.

 For lunch another day Lydia made cheese quesadillas and chile chicken soup.  This went with our Josefina - American Girl reading.

Caty learned about making hamburgers also.  They love doing cooking activities.  I had a hard time not totally freaking out.  I have such severe food sensitivities that I watch everything so close in the kitchen to avoid cross-contamination.  I bit my tongue constantly.  Of course, they wanted to do it their way first. They had a hard time trying to stop and listen to how I was trying to show them the correct way.  The new knives helped out immensely with some of my sanity.

The girls worked on a couple different projects this week.  Caty was learning about flight and Lydia was learning about Lighthouses.

We built various paper airplanes to see how they flew

 We did the rocket experiment with the balloon on the string.

 We put vinegar and baking soda in our rockets and shot vinegar across our living room...lol

 She built a small LEGO kit on her own.

 Lydia finished up her chapter book on sharks this week.  She was able to read a good 95% of the words on her own.  There were some harder ones that she couldn't get, but she also still doesn't try and break them down.

 We also built some gliders we bought at the Museum last week.  Then daddy was able to take a few minutes and come outside to try and fly them with us.

 Caty was working on her sight words.

 Lydia learned about lighthouses this week.  She is writing a report on a lighthouse keeper and what they do.  Since we will be visiting the OBX soon, she built Cape Hatteras out of modeling clay.  It's a work in progress because she is building the gazebo and turning it into a shadow box.

We did a little lighthouse science.  We learned about the gas lamps and how much work was involved.  We burnt a lamp to see how a dirty the globe would get.  Lighthouse keepers battled this problem all hours of the day.

 We also learned about the viscocity of liquid mixtures.  We mixed various liquids together in jars and made "snowglobes" to see how long it took for the glitter to settle.

We used liquids like water, corn syrup, glycerine and vegetable oil to create various mixtures.

 We also learned about the "fresnel" lens and how it helped lighthouse keepers get the light out further to sea.

 We also learned a little more about poetry.  She wrote a diamante.

 We read parts of this book to learn more about life at a lighthouse.

Caty and I read about Amelia Earhart and she created a project all about her.

Lydia is working on money and trying to keep coins straight.  She decided to set up a store with her Saige doll.

She had a doctor appointment that afternoon.  She was working on typing her "report" in the van on the way there.

 We went bowling with friends on Friday and they came back to our house for pizza.  Here Lydia and Caty were pretending to be Little Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf (Caty has a tail on her skirt).

Brayden fought hard all week to do as little as possible.  I need to look at what he is struggling with.  I am working on lesson plans right now for after our 2 week break.  See what I can do to avoid the frustration from him and my own.

Joey is almost finished with his presidents class on Minecraft.  He is doing really well on the Wordly Wise program I started him on.  Some is a little too difficult, so I just adjust it and have him do what he can handle.  Math is a real struggle for him right now.  It has been really bad this week, even the Comic program I bought him is a problem for him.  So That too is something I am looking at.

We do have some projects we are working on.  Caty is building a model next week of the Wright Brothers first plane.  Lydia is finishing her lighthouse art.  Joey is going to finish his Minecraft Presidents class.  Oh and we are going to be working on our Pompeii material for their Traveling through History with Doctor Who History class.  I don't want to get behind before we get started.

I think we are all looking forward to a 2 week break.  I won't be able to leave as much work at home as I thought I would, but it'll still be enjoyable.  Lots of exciting adventures coming the next couple weeks!  Then activities start back up and we are very excited to start back with some of our groups and seeing our friends more often.

I hope everyone had a nice week and has a great week next week.

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