In My Life This Week
Lots and lots of pumpkins! This afternoon we joined a group of homeschoolers for a C-H-I-L-L-Y day at the pumpkin farm. After learning about the life cycle of corn and pumpkins, we took a hay ride out to the patch and each of us picked out that perfect pumpkin. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the petting barn, zipping down the Frankenslides and playing with the wooden sand scoops. After corn chowder for dinner, we carved our pumpkins and roasted the seeds, and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Love fall!
Lots and lots of pumpkins! This afternoon we joined a group of homeschoolers for a C-H-I-L-L-Y day at the pumpkin farm. After learning about the life cycle of corn and pumpkins, we took a hay ride out to the patch and each of us picked out that perfect pumpkin. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the petting barn, zipping down the Frankenslides and playing with the wooden sand scoops. After corn chowder for dinner, we carved our pumpkins and roasted the seeds, and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Love fall!
Whatcha Making Wednesdays
(Click on the Whatcha Making Wednesdays sidebar button to share YOUR recipes!)
Well, we didn't actually COOK on Wednesday, but we did make some fabulous crockpot chunky cinnamon applesauce with our softening Macs and Delicious apples. Super easy! (We used 1/2 the suggested sugar! Why sweeten up something already naturally wonderful?)
And Jag and his buddy T___ made these little BAKED cinnamon-sugar donut "gems" from Raising Leafs. Again, super easy! And we FINALLY used our donut-making "cookie sheet"!
(Click on the Whatcha Making Wednesdays sidebar button to share YOUR recipes!)
Well, we didn't actually COOK on Wednesday, but we did make some fabulous crockpot chunky cinnamon applesauce with our softening Macs and Delicious apples. Super easy! (We used 1/2 the suggested sugar! Why sweeten up something already naturally wonderful?)
And Jag and his buddy T___ made these little BAKED cinnamon-sugar donut "gems" from Raising Leafs. Again, super easy! And we FINALLY used our donut-making "cookie sheet"!
Homeschool Happenings
Jag decided to shake things up a little and do "America: The Story of Us" Monday and Tuesday instead of Earth Science. He's a TOTAL history buff! (I'm not even really concerned with DOING History because he does so much of it on his own!) "Episode 4: Division" is complete! And now it's onto the Civil War. He did get the Earth Science later in the week, almost finishing up Chapter 3 Rocks.
We "pelted" Mercury (i.e a mound of all-purpose flour) with asteroids (i.e. rocks from the driveway) to make craters in Astronomy. Sweet Tart and Sprinter learned about terrestrial and gaseous planet classifying. (Sprinter found the word "gaseous" QUITE funny. Boys! LOL) And then we moved onto Venus.
And we started our unit studies of Colonial America. Again. I think this is my 4th or 5th time over the years studying Colonial America, but to keep it "new" I change things up a bit each time. For me. The kids love this period of American History and Sprinter is just getting into it. This fall we're going to try creating a PAPER DOLL play called "A Native American Welcome" by Sandra Widener from Pilgrims: Complete Them Unit Developed in Cooperation With Pilgrim Hall Museum. This is a COMPLETELY new experience for us so it should be, um, interesting. ((wink))
Sweet Tart did some real life writing this week, composing thank you letters to family and friends for her wonderful trip to Florida. And she started a Letter to the Editor for her Girl Scout citizenship badge, encouraging readers to not litter. I love when I can make "lessons" out of every day life experiences!
I borrowed The Cat in the Hat from the library on Wednesday for Sprinter. He's ready for longer, more challenging books (but with "controlled" vocabulary). So, I printed out a special bookmark for him and away we went. I can't say he was super excited to read this book - the length and number of words per page were intimidating for him - but it went OK!
Jag decided to shake things up a little and do "America: The Story of Us" Monday and Tuesday instead of Earth Science. He's a TOTAL history buff! (I'm not even really concerned with DOING History because he does so much of it on his own!) "Episode 4: Division" is complete! And now it's onto the Civil War. He did get the Earth Science later in the week, almost finishing up Chapter 3 Rocks.
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| Jag's Civil War WonderMap! This computer program from Bright Ideas Press is AWESOME! |
We "pelted" Mercury (i.e a mound of all-purpose flour) with asteroids (i.e. rocks from the driveway) to make craters in Astronomy. Sweet Tart and Sprinter learned about terrestrial and gaseous planet classifying. (Sprinter found the word "gaseous" QUITE funny. Boys! LOL) And then we moved onto Venus.
And we started our unit studies of Colonial America. Again. I think this is my 4th or 5th time over the years studying Colonial America, but to keep it "new" I change things up a bit each time. For me. The kids love this period of American History and Sprinter is just getting into it. This fall we're going to try creating a PAPER DOLL play called "A Native American Welcome" by Sandra Widener from Pilgrims: Complete Them Unit Developed in Cooperation With Pilgrim Hall Museum. This is a COMPLETELY new experience for us so it should be, um, interesting. ((wink))
Sweet Tart did some real life writing this week, composing thank you letters to family and friends for her wonderful trip to Florida. And she started a Letter to the Editor for her Girl Scout citizenship badge, encouraging readers to not litter. I love when I can make "lessons" out of every day life experiences!
I borrowed The Cat in the Hat from the library on Wednesday for Sprinter. He's ready for longer, more challenging books (but with "controlled" vocabulary). So, I printed out a special bookmark for him and away we went. I can't say he was super excited to read this book - the length and number of words per page were intimidating for him - but it went OK!
On Our Bookshelf
Helpful Homeschool Hint
Local libraries are FABULOUS places to enrich your learning. Many libraries even have free book clubs, arts and crafts, music times, and offer puzzles, board games, eReader books, and even the occasional class. Don't hesitate to ask your librarians about purchasing a book or video. Many of them would LOVE suggestions! Check out interlibrary loan for those hard-to-find resources. And if you have middle school or high schoolers, volunteering at the library is a wonderful way for them to give back to the community.
Local libraries are FABULOUS places to enrich your learning. Many libraries even have free book clubs, arts and crafts, music times, and offer puzzles, board games, eReader books, and even the occasional class. Don't hesitate to ask your librarians about purchasing a book or video. Many of them would LOVE suggestions! Check out interlibrary loan for those hard-to-find resources. And if you have middle school or high schoolers, volunteering at the library is a wonderful way for them to give back to the community.
Places We Went and People We Saw
- Soccer is winding down for the season! Tomorrow Sweet Tart and Sprinter play their final games of the season. Are we ready for some hoops?!
- Jag hung out with his buddies on Saturday before heading off to the last night of Rec Center Saturday night hoops. Oh, we'll miss this!
- Our neighbor's boys came over to ride bikes, dig in the mud (during a rainstorm), and run around with Light Sabers. Nothing more fun for young boys than Star Wars, on bikes and trikes, with mud to ride through! LOL
- Scout meetings for all 3! Sweet Tart and the Juniors worked on their citzenship badge and helped clean up the elementary school gardens. Sprinter and the Tigers are "Trunk or Treating". And Jag
- Sweet Tart had a clarinet lesson at the Elementary School on Tuesday. She's missed 2 weeks of lessons and practices while in Florida and has some catching up to do.
- Library! Oh, how we've missed you since you closed down for 2 weeks! There are bags of books and videos on the couch to be enjoyed.
My Favorite Thing This Week
Sweet Tart is home! After 13 days away on her sunny Florida vacation with her grandparents, she arrived home Saturday afternoon! Her thoughts, "I forgot how cold Maine is!" Yep, but it's sunny. Most days! LOL
Photo(s), Video, Link, or Quote to ShareSweet Tart is home! After 13 days away on her sunny Florida vacation with her grandparents, she arrived home Saturday afternoon! Her thoughts, "I forgot how cold Maine is!" Yep, but it's sunny. Most days! LOL
"Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present" - George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation
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What a fun full week! We also had sword fighting kids in our yard (just minutes ago).
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks without a library sounds horrible! My son would be so upset.
We lov the children's branch of our local library but (after two years) are having a hard time finding books there. We are plannin on adventuring to the main library downtown. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteJumped over from THMJ.
SO glad Sweet Tart could go to Florida!! We are still trying, maybe will go after Thanksgiving. Did you get any snow? We didn't yet, but our old town in NH got an inch or so & are expecting 6-10 inches on Sunday!!
ReplyDeleteWe almost live in our library, especially with our internet issues.. Great place <3
Love your setup on this post! The donuts look delish, and I had to chuckle at your reference to doing Colonial America over and over (and over) again--I'm finding that daunting myself. And I love the library volunteering suggestions. Our librarian is WONDERFUL and my older kiddos have enjoyed "giving back" by volunteering at story hour and doing the summer lawn mowing.
ReplyDeleteI love it when Cub Scouts goes along with school too! I can't wait to hear about your paper doll play.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing week. You seem to have so much fun learning together!
ReplyDeleteYou accomplished sooo much this week! (Those donuts look oh-so-tempting!) It was fun to "meet" you--thanks for stopping by Contented at Home.
ReplyDeleteLove your week wrap up! Pictures & resources - YEAH!! I would like to invite you to link up at my linky party - http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/search/label/Linkey%20Parties
ReplyDelete~Beth
Frankenslides!?!?! I need to move north! ;)
ReplyDelete...danielle
Sounds like a great day at the pumpkin patch! We love our library too and George Washington's rules. :) Are you all ready for snow? I'm afraid our jack o'lanterns will have to sit on a snow bank. Something is very wrong with that image!
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome week! What fun you are having with your children. I love all of the goodies you made. They look delicious! :-)
ReplyDeleteThat donut cookie sheet sounds dangerous!! Glad your daughter had a great time, such a blessing that she is able to travel with grandparents. I'm just getting ready to order some Dr Seuss books for my younger readers. Glad you had a great week!
ReplyDeleteLove the muffin recipe...we'll have to try it:)
ReplyDeleteGreat advice! We are huge library fans here too. We spend very little on curriculum and school stuff because we can get so much from our library system:) We're library hoppers too- we visit all of the surrounding libraries as well as our small local library.
I would love yo live in Maine. Your doughnuts look fantastic I need to buy a donut cookie sheet so I can try some
ReplyDeleteFunny--I am doing a crater activity with my co-op class tomorrow. We are using piles of dirt instead of sand, but I love the way yours turned out.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great week! Your donuts look delicious. Thank you for stopping by our blog.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great week! I LOVE Wonder Maps!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great week :-) Thank you so much for linking up to Whatcha Making Wednesdays!!! We are making the same donuts in K4 today...Can't wait!!
ReplyDelete