Friday, March 16, 2012

Has Spring Sprung? : March 10 - 16

In My Life This Week
♪ ♬ Ch-Ch-Changes! ♬ ♪  I'm not sure if it's "cabin fever" or end-of-year burn-out (even with 30 something days left), but after several weeks of less-than-steller Sapling attitudes I made some changes around here. Impatient, negative, challenging attitudes tend to mean 2 things for us: 1) too much flitting from activity-to-activity with little free time or 2) too much unstructured time. Yeah, they do contradict one another, huh? So, I covered my bases creatively! ((wink))

The Great Melt! This POND was Our Driveway! Here are the
Boys Playing in the POND. (Fortunately it was Gone the Next
Morning!) And Yes, Those ARE the Hens in the Background!

When you go shopping do your kids ask for a treat? Candy? Toys? Well, my Balsam Fir asked for NAILS. Yep! And he used a WHOLE POUND of them to make what looks like a Hooverville in the front yard:

The Entryway 
Adding the Roofing WALKWAY to his House. And Yes,
THAT is the HOUSE. ((wink))

Don't you want one for the front yard of YOUR house?! LOL

And after a hard day of building your shelter, well, you need to don your Spiderman costume and vest and go roller skating. ((wink)) (Wonder what the neighbor's think? LOL)

Dog Wondering WHAT is Going on!

Makin' and Bakin' in the Kitchen
Buttermilk biscuits pinned from The Hungry Mouse! They were perfect! We served them with some scrambled eggs and BAKED bacon for Breakfast Night!

SQUARE Buttermilk Biscuits! I Couldn't Find the Round
Cutter. Don't they look GREAT?

Homeschool Happenings
School-at-home is exhausting! Have you ever tried to reproduce public school in your homeschool? I know - you're probably asking WHY? Well, because of  ♪ ♬ Ch-Ch-Changes! ♬ ♪! My relaxed approach wasn't working for the Saplings right now. A tight 8:00am-2:00pm schedule (with breaks for mid-morning outside play and lunch) was just the thing to kick-start those positive attitudes. Now they know just how lucky they are to have RELAXED days!

It was an ACCOMPLISHED week! The Saplings re-focused their energy on their school work, making a SERIOUS dent in their curriculum-to-be-completed this year!

Balsam Fir's Cell
Sugar Maple's Cell
White Pine's Features of the Ocean Floor Notebook Page

Balsam Fir read Put Me in the Zoo on my Kindle Fire. (We're borrowing it from the statewide e-book library. If you have an e-reader, you should check YOUR state for eBooks too!) Sugar Maple is reading Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff and White Pine is reading By Heresies Distressed (again) and A Mighty Fortress by David Weber and Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer.


Excellent Extras
❀ Girl Scouts ❀ Cub Scouts ❀ Boy Scouts ❀ Clarinet/Band ❀ Chuck E Cheese ❀

Streamin'


Favorite Resource Hint
Have I shared Macmillian/McGraw-Hill FREE K-6 Language Arts worksheets yet? I can't remember! LOL Anyway, Sugar Maple simply does NOT enjoy Saxon Grammar and Writing, but it's too late in the year to purchase something new so I switched her to M/M-H worksheets. She copies the rules into her Language Arts notebook and then completes the exercises either written or orally with me. Perhaps continuing next year for her?

One of Our Favorite Things
S'mores! After spending part of a BEAUTIFUL afternoon raking the yard and cleaning the coop, we lit the fire pit and made ooey-gooey S'mores - the first of the season! Yum!

Ponderings
Sometimes you just, well, "gotta" make changes! Sometimes you have to DECLUTTER your days and focus on those that are MOST important, erasing the rest off the calendar and enjoy less running around and more staying at home. Yes, sometimes you "gotta"!

A Photo, Video, Link, or Quote to Share

Linky Love
Favorite Resource This WeekThe Homeschool Mother's JournalFun Stuff Fridays
Tots and MeClassified: MomPinterest Monday From Musings From A Stay At Home MomHip Homeschool Hop Buttonabc buttonMagical Mouse Schoolhouse
Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packetslearning ALL the time!!Chestnut Grove Academy3Boys&aDog DEALS!Photobucket

31 comments:

  1. I think of all the things I ponder as a mother, the #1 is... Am I being to structured or am I not being structured enough? What is the right answer!?
    Looks like a fun week.. I am glad to see you guys are melting up there!

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  2. We just finished studying cells--well, who am I kidding? We are NEVER finished studying...I should say we just studied cells!

    Love the Hooverville reference! We have been watching The Waltons and learning more and more about the Great Depression and WWII

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  3. I love his "Hooverville!" lol. Very clever and creative! Good for him! Homeschooling is never dull, that's for sure!

    Good for you in getting them to get so much work done, even with the warmer weather. :-)

    Thanks for your kind comments on my blog. As for the powerpoint, my kids use the regular program and do a lot of animations! That probably is the best way to get your kids to enjoy doing it-- to experiment with the animations. They can get their words and pictures to move, twirl, etc. Mine have so much fun with it! :-)

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  4. Thanks for stopping by today! :) It looks like you guys had a great week. I too find we need structure here and need to cut back on running sometimes. Right now we are just relaxing and next week back at it! ;) Have a great weekend!!

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  5. Oh WHAT an awesome week! LOL that song will be in my head now LOL thanks... LOVE balsam firs house! :P how creative! and we LOVE put me in the zoo! (well we love all dr seuss LOL) Torch loves when I read it all silly and fast! He cracks right up! Yummy in the kitchen :P haha

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  6. I was just wondering if I could get away with washing winter coats and putting them away??! Probably not, it is only March, but we have enjoyed some really warm days! My son Jonah and your builder son would get along fabulously!!

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  7. S'mores sound so yummy! I do love the house out in the front yard! How creative:) happy weekend.

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  8. Looks like a great week! We get grumpy around here when we have too much going on, too.

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  9. I can't believe how much water is in your yard!! I laughed at your Hooverville! I love your square biscuits and your kids' notebook pages are super! Great week!

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  10. thanks for visiting my blog

    you have a very creative son and no I cant say my boys have ever asked for nails

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  11. My girls would LOVE to build a Hooverville house! Thankfully they can in the backyard! LOL

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  12. I love the Hooverville house :) Looks like something my girls would build! Thanks for linking up with Favorite Resources. I'm going to check out those worksheets next.

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  13. Fantastic! I love reading your weekly wrap-ups. The drawing of the cell is well done. The Hooverville House can't be touched. It is nice to see that my kids aren't the only ones dressing up for halloween year round:) Thank you for sharing.

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  14. LOL! This was by far the funniest post I have read this morning. I love the week you had. The house idea is so cute and it's awesome that you encourage his creativity and can sit back and smile about it. Such lucky kids to have you, and you them! Thanks for sharing.

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  15. That chicken collage is hilarious!! Hubby found one for pastor's and I was just chuckling!!!

    We love s'mores too! We fried up the grill and toasted a bunch the other day. My kids would totally be in your 'driveway pool' if we lived closer. Golashes, super hero masks, and all ;-) The only thing that keep my boys from creating such 'homes' on this property is that we rent... maybe I need to keep renting for a while, hahahahahaha.

    You know, I have discovered that there is a fine line of balance with my kids. The boys tend to need more structure and have responded well when we institute 'boot camp' for attitude adjustment. Meanwhile, the girl child and I need to be able to break free and just be around people. I didn't think you were being bi-polar ;-) I totally understand. We are having to double up on school work to be finished with testing before the move. Hang in there, you will be in summer break before you know it ;-)

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  16. you all have WAY too much fun!!! LOL Love the Hooverville and the Spiderman outfit!!

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  17. I am glad we're not alone! "but after several weeks of less-than-steller Sapling attitudes I made some changes around here."

    We took off for Spring Break and things didn't get real better. Can't wait to start a new schedule (and back to discipline)!!

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  18. What a great post! First of all, Keilee loves to build things, UGLY things in our yard. I just let her...learning right? :) Biscuits looks yummy, now I want breakfast for dinner!

    Love the ocean floor notebook page too. And I LOVE the idea of the 'streamin' list. What a positively GREAT idea! May I borrow it? Just downloaded those resources from McGraw Hill. Thanks!!

    And now..that song is stuck in my head!

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  19. Looks like lots of fun was had on your side of the mountain this week! Sometimes change is a must--glad things are working out better for your family.

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  20. Some times we just have to buckle down and concentrate on books also. This brings it back in to my children's minds, ok, we are home SCHOOLING, that is what we are suppose to be doing, schooling. A week or two and we get back on track.
    "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally?" order of opporations for Algebra, answered in detail on my blog.
    My children have asked for nails before, along with duck tape, hammers, rope, you name it they have probably asked for it.
    Great week you all had.

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  21. Loved the "house" your son built.
    I loved that sort of a thing when I was a kid...
    We are pretty structured with our homeschooling.
    Princess is 17 and likes having a concrete beginning
    and end to her school day. I think this type of thinking
    comes with maturity, or perhaps it's simply a personality "thang". Anyway, it's what works for us...I'm looking forward to Spring Break. I'm the one who needs a break! lol

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  22. Such a cool house! What a wonderful life your kids have.

    I'm just going to say that 11 is worse than 10. One of us might not make it and by that I mean her. lol

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  23. Sounds like a wonderful week. I love the drawings. We too are very structured in our homeschooling, but we just started at the end of January (last half of 4th grade) after only ever being in an academically intensive parochial school. I'm actually hoping to become more relaxed over time.

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  24. I love the drawings too :) hopping over from Pinterest Monday

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  25. looks like a fun week. Love the fort your son built.

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  26. Great drawings! I have spring fever too! Bad!

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  27. LOVE the square bisquits! Here from the homeschool hop and a thank you for visiting me last week!

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  28. I totally have that song stuck in my head now - thanks a lot :) lol - thank you again for linking up with us at Kids in the Kitchen! I love me some buttermilk biscuits - yummy! I think I like the squares too ;) (I use a glass - my grandmother always did)

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  29. Great idea doing square biscuits! They look super cool and yummmmmmy. I love buttermilk biscuits! And I usually use a glass too :D

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  30. I couldn't make a biscuits to save my life. They always turn out to be hocky pucks. I think from over working the dough. But yours looks great. Must try your recipe

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  31. Love the fort and all the wonderful schoolwork! Thanks for linking up with BTT!

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