Week 49 - It was for the Birds....and it's all about the food...

It has been a busy week at home.  The weeks we are home, it's a bit of a struggle to get things done.  I have to switch between hotel mode to full house mode.  That means I have a lot more area to keep clean.  Other than that, it's the same struggles on a trip as we have at home.

I have a huge to-do list this week.  I am continuing to clean up the fall/winter clutter that I let develop this past winter.  I was still really sick in the fall, and so I did a bare minimum which allowed piles to develop all over the house.  Currently the pile is centrally located in the office area.  After a full week at home, I cleaned out areas of the office but add three tubs of curriculum for sale.  Listed a few pieces on ebay, moved around the summer clothes for the girls and I and cleaned up Joe's clothes.

We had quite a bit of outside work to do.  But I snapped this picture of the beautiful blossoms from the pear tree.  They were so pretty!

I wanted a kitchen island for the one side of our kitchen, but didn't want to spend at least $400.00 for one.  Found this nice table, which isn't much bigger than an island at a yard sale for $25.00.  Big enough for the girls and I do work on schoolwork at also. It the right height for them for food prep also.

 Caty continued her study of medieval times this week.  She learned about knights this week, and how hard it was to become one.  She worked on her castle all week.  It's almost done.  She is watching a Bugs Bunny King Arthur video on Youtube while working on it that day.

We read this book by Gail Gibbons and also the Ms. Frizzle book on Medieval life.  

 For her "art" this week, she made the first letter of her name into a Celtic Letter Art Activity from Education.com.  She didn't want to get as fancy as they did.  She said she liked it rather plain.

For a Medieval themed meal, she and I made rosemary roasted potatoes, baked chicken (since the store didn't have turkey legs or pigeon she said), and we were going to make an apple tart.  But the apple tart is on hold since the boys finished the last of the apples without mom realizing it...lol.  We wanted to be more adventurous, but with allergies many of the medieval recipes were hard to convert.  I forgot to get a picture of her potatoes though.  It was all pretty yummy.

In Math we are working on addition and subtraction facts.  She is doing pretty good in this area.  It's mostly review, but we are going to spend the next few weeks on it since it was part of her math curriculum.  We are using this book to help her practice and remember tricks.

In Science she is taking a Spring Sleuth class on Currclick.com this month.  This week was on Gardens.  It's mostly review, but I love live classes on Currclick.  She gets the feeling of being in a coop, without me worrying if we are going to be in town for a class.  Her assignment this week was to plant a bean seed and watch it grow.  She planted it Thursday afternoon, and she already has a sprout.  She also needs to plan a mock garden (since we won't have one this year), and draw it up.  We are doing that on Monday.

The girls did a bird mini study unit to go along with the big kids 4H group project.  We learned about backyard birds.  It was fun.  Lots of little videos.  We are finishing up by going to the local park and bird watching on Monday.

 These are the videos they watched.

 Lydia got this LEGO set as a present from Grandpa and Grandma last month.  It was perfect.

 Lydia's finished hummingbird

 Daddy and Caty finished up her robin also.

Lydia worked on her 4H Snack attack book this week.  She made a bean dip from the recipe book.  She and daddy enjoyed it.

She also made oatmeal muffins with Grandma (since we have allergies in our house).  The kids that could eat the muffins LOVED them.  I thought Caty wouldn't stop.

Lydia also worked on her 4H Horseless Horse project.  She had riding too.

Practicing her 2 Point.  My legs would be killing me if I had to do this!

She watched this video on horses and started her breed study this week.  That is going to take a couple weeks to go through the most common breeds of horses in North America.

Joey is working on multiplication again.  We stepped back and now are attempting it again with him.  Math is not his strong point.  But I wanted to break up his money math a little before it got too monotonous for him.

I really like this show on the Smithsonian Channel.  It's called Aerial America.  So along with How the States Got their Shapes, the boys will be watching an episode a week.  It's an hour long episode on each state.  This week they watched the episode on Washington DC.  It was very interesting to see all the places we have been.  There was only one place in the video that we haven't been to see, and it's a school you cannot tour.

In his 4H project, Joey worked on a lesson on magnets.  It was pretty easy and review for him, but he enjoyed it anyway.

 Seeing if the magnet would have resistance.

He was able to move it with the magnet wand.

He also worked on more of the food section of his 4H Staying Health unit.  He isn't enjoying this as much, but life goes on.  He had to post a few polls on Facebook this week for it.  (remember he is not a fan of numbers....lol)  I also don't necessarily agree with all the information on nutrition, so we read through the 4H book and then I explain that there are multiple opinions on the proper way to eat.  This is how I think the proper way to eat is.  They are both pretty used to me doing that.

I do have both boys working out of the same Health project, so I can help them out.  He is almost done with two of his project books.  I am a little behind in his gun safety, but plan on catching that one up this next week with him.  He feels overwhelmed, so both boys are full hands-on when it comes to their 4H project books.

Brayden plowed through another Magic Tree House book this week.  He used to lie to me and tell me he could only read 1 chapter a day.  It was too much.  Brayden doesn't read by time, but measures books by chapter.  I caught on to him and started assigning more and more each day.  He is working on a more simple 4H project for him.  But it is his speed.  In his project book this week, he worked on the parts of flowers.

Both boys were learning about weather in Science this week.  Lots of videos, and they like that.  It's all about visual learning for them.

We had a couple fun food themes this week.  One day the kids made their own pizzas.

 Even Brayden enjoyed this. He wasn't sure about the dough, but he had fun once he got enough flour on it to stop it from sticking to his fingers.

 Lydia's ended up heart shaped when it baked.  It wasn't planned, just sort of happened.

 On Tuesday, we did our Star Wars Day.  They had cinnamon rolls (Princess Leia buns) and green juice for breakfast.

They had Chewbacca cookies for snack.

 For lunch they had death stars and vader tators, but I didn't get a picture since I wasn't home.  The girls and I were at riding.

For dinner was yoda stew and lightsabers sticks.  (And Caty did cry when she thought it was really ground Yoda meet...lol)

Overall we had a fun, but very busy week.  My to-do list was a full page long almost everyday.  That pace will continue this next week as I keep cramming in as much home stuff as I can.  We will soon be off on our next adventure.  So I only have a week to get things done.

Hope everyone had a great week!!