Friday, December 2, 2011

Getting Back Into the Groove: November 26 - December 2

In My Life This Week
My Trees and I meandered back home from the island on a gloomy Monday morning, stopping at our favorite sweet and novelty shop on the way for saltwater taffy and fudge. We were excited to return home and see the new eggs that another hen started laying while we were gone and to get back into the swing of things.

Whatcha Makin' Wednesday!
(Click the sidebar button to share your cooking with kids!)

I'm slowly phasing myself out of the kitchen! LOL Not really, but it's nice to have 2 kids able to prepare healthy, filling meals and snacks. Balsam Fir is feeling a little left out though so he made a dinner this week. We'll call it Spaghetti-and-Meatball Bake with tossed salad.

Balsam Fir and I cooked a box of plain ol' spaghetti, draining the noodles before adding them to a 13x9 dish. Balsam Fir added in a jar of Prego sauce with mini meatballs, mixed, then sprinkled the top with shredded mozzarella cheese. We baked it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes (or until bubbly). Voila!


Homeschool Happenings
Back to the books! Sometimes it's hard to get back to our studies after a break, but besides a few grumbles and a late start on Tuesday things went OK. Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic...and all the Rest!

White Pine worked diligently on his America: The Story of Us episode 6 vocabulary flash cards and comprehension questions, and his chapter on volcanoes in Earth Science by adding lots of interesting, labeled drawings to his notebook.


Nannie Tree taught Sugar Maple some crocheting basics. She's making a doll blanket, but aspires to make a scarf next time.


Balsam Fir started learning his 0-9 SUBTRACTION facts in Saxon this week. We've focused mostly on addition so for the first few days he used CEREAL as edible counters to help him figure out the answers. He's got it all figured out now, but still insists on using the cereal...to eat. ((wink))

We also did some Art! Have I shared our newest Art curriculum with you - How to Teach Art to Children? We've tried several, but this one is TOTALLY working for us! It's simple, but has GREAT projects to learn the 7 elements of Art...and there's also 24 famous Artists to study! Anyway, we've studied line and shape so this week we STARTED learning about color. Using small glass bottles of water we used food color to make primary and secondary colors, coloring in a graph. And then the kids made primary color flags to represent themselves.

On Our Bookshelf



Out-and-About
♥ Blue Spruce and Balsam Fir went to a Cub Scout pack meeting, and White Pine had a Boy Scout Court of Honor banquet ♥ Sugar Maple had a ball at basketball ♥ The neighbor's boys came over to play ♥ Sugar Maple and I had doctor appointments ♥ PJ Storytime and Crafts at the library for Balsam Fir (and time for the rest of us to grab new books and videos) ♥ Field Trip Friday: Model Train Celebration, Maine State Museum and Children's Discovery Musuem ♥ Town Christmas Tree Lighting Celebration with Santa, ornament-making and cookie decorating ♥  

What's Working/Not Working for Us
After a rough night of difficult breathing and a persistent, dry cough, I brought Sugar Maple to the ER TWICE on Saturday. She was diagnosed with "acute asthma" and given 4 breathing treatments and steroids and sent home with a "rescue inhaler". We followed up with her Pediatrician on Wednesday and found out she also has an ear infection. We'll be heading back to the Pediatrician on Monday. An exhausting week for Ms. Sugar Maple, but she's been a trooper!

Questions/Thoughts
Do you have some favorite FREE educational apps for kids ages 6-12? Please share!

Photo, Video, Link, or Quote to Share



Linking up to These GREAT blog hops:
The Homeschool Mother's JournalWeird Unsocialized HomeschoolersHip Homeschool Moms ButtonChestnut Grove Academy

17 comments:

  1. Oh no! 2 ER trips how scary so glad everything is ok. I might check out that art curriculum we struggle with art, thanks for blogging about it.

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  2. Hi from waddleeahchaa.com!

    How nice to have so much help in the kitchen. That's great. I'm very impressed with the crocheting. I've never had the patience for that. And I totally love the volcano drawing. Wonderful learning! Busy, busy, busy! :)

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  3. Your art curriculum sounds great! I hate to admit that's a subject that frequently gets dropped around here. . .

    And I love the helpers in the kitchen. My 5yos made a batch of choc chip cookies today *almost* by himself. He was so proud! :) (and they were yummy!)

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  4. Ohh no, 2 ER trips in one week. Glad she is on the mend. Hope she continues to get better.

    Glad you were able to conquer the week and get things done!

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  5. ER visits are NEVER fun but especially when they come back to back! Ugh. Hopefully, everything gets figured out this week and you guys won't have any more hospital trips.

    Re: apps. Coincidentally, I've been slowly updating my iPad app list. And I try to post when great apps come up free. Alot of the apps right now are for Trevy (although shhhh...don't tell anyone that the bigsters play with them too!) but if you scroll through the list you might find some.

    http://www.raisinglittlerhodies.blogspot.com/p/ipad-app-loves.html

    Also, if you haven't heard of Digital Storytime yet you totally should subscribe. They email daily digests of free apps. :)

    ...danielle

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  6. Ugh, 2 ER trips?? Yucky and exhausting!!

    Oooh, my daughter and I have recently asked a friend to teach us how to knit. We are quite excited. We did get our first quilting lesson... we'll see how that goes ;-)

    I really like the font you are using!! Very nice and easy to read.

    Someday my kids will be in the kitchen cooking. My oldest does lunch a lot right now. They want to learn and I am happy to teach them. How old did you start them with full supper honors??

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  7. I love the volcano picture. Some of my children are fascinated by volcanoes. Hope your daughter improves soon.

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  8. beautiful volcano pic.

    Hope your daughter gets well soon.

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  9. Sounds like a great week, munis the trip to the ER. I hope your daughter is feeling better!

    We have the same art book:) We pull it out when we feel the mood strike us; I love that we can do what we want, when we want and still benefit so much from it!

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  10. That's fun the kids are cooking meals, I can't wait till mine do that - 'cause I hate cooking! Lol! And the volcano diagram is awesome! We did volcanoes this week too. I'm sorry to hear about the asthma, my son had several bad asthma attacks when he was little, it's scary. He hasn't had any problems in about 3 years, so praise God for that!

    And you asked about the coloring Advent book. It's from Usborne Books, I'm an independent consultant (www.HeyJadeBooks.com), but it went out of stock nearly a month ago because it was so popular. It won't be available again until next year (HOPEFULLY they bring it back anyway!).

    Hope you guys have a great week!

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  11. Sorry about the trips to the ER. I hope she's feeling better. Other than that, it sounds like you all did well getting back on track after being away.

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  12. I am still laughing at your chicken obsession ;)

    I need to get my weekly reviews done

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  13. I like the way you list your "Out and About." I might start doing that. My 11 year old lover of youtube will appreciate your videos later when I show him. AND I don't think I said this before, it's fun that your kids have tree internet names because we've been actually trying to come up with a tree middle name for our upcoming baby boy. :)

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  14. I am sorry Sugar Maple has been through so much lately. It must be scary and draining for both of you. (((Hugs))) Jessy.

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  15. I just found your site through Hip Homeschool Moms. I am kicking off a curriculum/children's book review board in January and I wondered if you might be interested. For more information send me an email - savannahmcqueen@ymail.com

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  16. Hi!! :)

    Norlands was great.. I remember going there when I was in school. We went on a day open to the public, it was there Christmas program of sorts. Not a lot of hands on, or explanation, so I was a bit bummed. But the kids had a blast. If you look on my (Main) Facebook Page, there is a link with a video from the paper, that has Little Monkey spelling "FOR". :)
    I'm thinking of maybe putting together a trip in the spring for Homeschoolers.

    Yes Mummifying a chicken! It is from the SOTW curriculum. The kids think it is cool so far. We are still in the drying process. They changed the salt again today.. and now it has to set for like 5 more weeks, before we "wrap" it. LOL
    I'm going to try to post about it here in there... on my regular blog and the school blog.

    Cookies, yes! I have them coming out my ears. I made some for Girl Scouts, and then I had to make a few dz of both Sugar & Gingerbread for a cookie decorating party we are having this weekend. Then I had to make another 66 cookies for a 4H class we are doing, Plus 66 Cupcakes!! PHEW! Not sure I'm going to want to cook again after that. :)

    Would you email me that Peppermint Fudge recipe? The3kidsandme@Yahoo.com (Thanks!!)

    Your week sounded crazy.. Hope Sugar Maple is feeling better soon. Middle Monkey has asthma and it can be rough.

    Talk to you again soon!!

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  17. So scary with the ER trips :-( We just did that with Braeden about a month ago... I hope she feels better soon!!!

    Thank you so much for linking up to Whatcha Making Wednesdays!!! :-)

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