Friday, November 11, 2011

Go Away BIG, BAD Germs! : November 5 - 11

In My Life This Week
((sniffle)) ((sniffle)) A cold. ((shiver)) It's that time of year, isn't it? At least in our "neck of the woods"! Things were a bit slower this week as I tried to rest. ((cough))

(Psst! Don't forget to enter my FIRST EVER giveaway - My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software - if you haven't! I'm lovin' the software! A winner will be chosen through www.random.org on 11/18. Click here to enter!)

Oh, and I was nominated for the 2011 Homeschool Blog Awards! Please vote for me under #20 Nature/Field Trips here! Thanks! So exciting!

Whatcha Makin' Wednesday
(Link up YOUR fab recipes with the kids by clicking on the sidebar button)

Sugar Maple made a family favorite this week: Toll house Cookie Bars.  Look at the chocolate! Yum!


Homeschool Happenings
Sugar Maple's friend C__ joined us the Maine Wildlife Park on Saturday. (We LOVE visiting the park in the late fall when it's less busy!) This park rehabilitates sick or hurt native animals then releases them back into their habitats IF they can survive. We saw white-tailed deer, an albino raccoon and porcupine, a moose, a tailless Mountain lion, a Canada Goose with a broken wing, red and gray foxes, 2 Black Bears, a Golden Eagle and Bald Eagle with damaged wings, a turkey vulture, a Peregrine Falcon, different species of owls, and watched a raven taking a water bath. It was a beautiful day at the park!





Sugar Maple, Balsam Fir and I continued on with their Apologia Astronomy studies. We finished up Venus this week and started Earth. The Trees spent a couple of CHILLY nights outside with Blue Spruce looking at Jupiter and a couple of it's moons through the telescope. Pretty cool stuff! And White Pine finished up Chapter 4 sections 2-4 in Earth Science on Plate Tectonics.

Did you see our first week of Thanksgiving studies? We didn't have as much time this week, but we wrapped up our "background info" and started our PAPER DOLL PLAY! Parts and lines were given out and the younger Trees started to make the set! This is going to be a FUN project...if we can pull it off. (Did I mention that I've never been in a play and I've only been to a couple?)

We got off on a tangent with American History, watching "Liberty Kids" and "Schoolhouse Rock" on the Boston Tea Party. Balsam Fir especially like the videos.






On the Bookshelf


Place We Went and People We Saw
White Pine "hung out" at his buddy T__'s house overnight.
White Pine helped a fellow Boy Scout with his Eagle project.
Sugar Maple had "girl time" with her friend C__.
Balsam Fir ran around with the boy's from next door.
All the "trees" had Scout meetings this week.
Sugar Maple went to the state house with her troop.
Sugar Maple had a Clarinet lesson.
White Pine and Blue Spruce headed off to MA for an overnight.

Our Favorite Thing This Week
The unseasonably HIGH temperatures! We saw 65 sunny degrees and spent hours and hours outside. (If only the sun didn't set at 4:20pm though!)

Helpful Homeschool Hint
Recycle! Reuse! Reduce! Repurpose! Look at these handy-dandy containers with handles! All from household cleaner containers! Just wash out the containers, cut out an opening (leaving the handle), and ta da! Perfect for markers, crayons and manipulatives! (Thanks MIL!)


What's Working/Not Working For Us
Extracurriculars! I'm on the search for another, NEW activity for the kids, something that we can do together that isn't MILES and MILES away.

Questions/Thoughts I Have
So, I've decided - I think! LOL - on a high school Biology curriculum for White Pine next year, but he DOES NOT want to do the dissections. Any suggestions for virtual labs? And is Biology LAB considered LAB without the dissections even if other (microscope) experiments are completed?

Photo(s), Video, Link, or Quote to Share

Our hens Sassy and Roadrunner decided
to fly up and roost on TOP of the playset!

Linking Up To:
The Homeschool Mother's JournalWeird Unsocialized HomeschoolersHip Homeschool Moms Button

22 comments:

  1. awwww nooooooooooooooooooooo FEEEL BETTER girl ... im sorry everyone has the sniffles! :( ... get better asap! Loved your post! and YUMMMYYYYY ... hahaha I love baking! cute hen picture at the end!

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  2. Ooh, those cookie bars look delicious! Praying you get over your cold quickly, definitely no fun!!! Looks like a fun week!

    Stopping by from the HMJ! Find me at http://heyitsjade.blogspot.com

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  3. Those cookies look yummy! I hope you feel better soon, it is no fun to be sick while trying to homeschool....

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  4. 1. Hope you feel better soon!! 2. Great field trip pictures, love them!! 3. What a great idea with the handled containers! 4. Thanks for stopping by the Sit and Relax weekend hop. Feel Better!!

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  5. I'm sorry you haven't felt well. I hope you're all better soon. Otherwise, it looks like a great week. We loved the Maine Wildlife Park. I'm sure it's great in the fall.

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  6. Sorry you guys are sick. We have been sick for a few weeks now and we just can't shake it.
    I love the bear!
    LOL...we watched the same Liberty's Kids this week.

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  7. The cookie bars look yummy! I think I need to mix up a batch of those for us this weekend :)

    I am hoping to stream Liberty's Kids through Netflix once we get the right equipment, I know my kiddos will love the show.

    I hope you feel better soon. I am on the mend from the megacold I got at the end of last week...it was no fun!

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  8. We've all been battling the sickies here too. Plus, my mom has been having some hefty health issues...so now I need a new work-for-free-nanny too. :/ We've been LOVING the warm temps though! I love when the kids can run around barefooted.

    xo

    ...danielle

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  9. My youngest seems to have a cold now. She's camped out on the couch at the moment, looks like she will be most of the day.

    And oh - those cookies look heavenly! I could eat a plateful right now!!

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  10. Sorry to hear that you've been sick! Hope you are feeling better.

    Love the nature photos:)I've only been to Maine once, but it was absolutely beautiful.

    My youngest is all about Liberty's Kids at the moment!

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  11. Oh we love Liberty Kids!!! That Maine Wildlife Center looks amazing!! I wish we could see that! I do hope you are getting better and quickly. We have the snagging going on here also and that super warm spell didn't help the sinuses at all!!

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  12. First of all, I LOOOOOVVVVEEEE your new theme for your blog, the names of the kids being trees and such. It's so catchy!

    We have done some virtual microscope labs, which have been excellent, and for our The Way Life Works curriculum, I read a suggestion to use Froguts for dissections. The link for it's purchase is:

    http://dissect.froguts.com/

    It's $30 for home use.

    Dawson wants to do dissections, so we'll be ordering our stuff when we get to it. It will be a while still.

    What did you decide to use for Biology?

    Hope you get to feeling better! Brynne woke up with a cold yesterday, but with lots of green tea and rest she is better today.

    Nicole

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  13. My aunt found the reading strips at a teacher's store- school store. They are great for visual tracking!!!

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  14. For someone who isn't feeling well, you've sure gotten a lot accomplished.

    Come move here, we don't have a beautiful mountain but we have a beautiful ocean and lots of extras just minutes away. lol

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  15. Sniffles are no fun! Feel better soon.

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  16. The "sickness" has been going around at my house, too. I hope everyone is feeling better soon! :-)

    I just love the photos from the animal center. How wonderful to have it nearby to enjoy.

    We are doing Apologia's Zoology 3 this year. I know my younger kiddos will love doing the Astronomy next year. I'm looking forward to it as much as they are.

    The Schoolhouse Rock video brought back so many memories! :-)

    Hope you have a great week!
    Many blessings,
    Lisa

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  17. I love the idea of the wildlife park that releases them back in nature when possible. Thank you for the Liberty Kids reminder. I read your blog earlier today (then got distracted before I could comment), which made me think to check whether it was on Netflix streaming. Perfect since we are doing Abeka American History this year. We'll do the virtual dissections when it is time, as well, instead of using real animals.

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  18. I love how you have your kids names and descriptions, too funny. You cold probably see anything to do with biology and dissecting on Youtube. I know my sister-in-law's nursing class used you tube a lot. LOL

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  19. I haven't made cookie bars in a very long time. Thanks for the reminder. They look delicious! :)

    Hope you feel better!

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  20. Thank you so much for linking up!!! :-) What a busy week you had. I hope you feel better :-)

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  21. That wildlife park looks amazing! My boys would love it.

    I think I mentioned already that we are big "Liberty's Kids" fans too. My sister loaned us her DVD set and my boys watched a few times. My kids really learned from it!

    I hope you feel better soon!

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