Weekly Wrap-up: Week 14 - Back from Break with NEWS

EVERYDAY LIFE
Welcome to 2015! (Where did 2014 go?) I wish all of you a year of spiritual growth, good health, contentment with life, and laughter and love...

I got engaged! Eek! On December 20th, my BF asked me to marry him! I am SO blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life (and my kids'), one who is Godly, hard-working, selfless, giving. Despite life's bumps along the road, it IS good!

We all - my fiance and his kids too - spent 6 days with my family to celebrate an early Christmas. Weather was unseasonably warm and we took the kids to the Atlantic beach. No, not to swim, but to climb rocks, wade in the salty water with "muck boots", explore. It's not too often you can go to the beach in December in Maine! (Compared to this week when the Polar Vortex descended upon us and we had some -20s or so at night with wind chills. Vehicles were hard to start. Pipes froze. And schools closed.)

Photo Credits T. Skehan

We did some organizing, decluttering and rearranging in the bedrooms and closets. Sam is super happy to have a "livingroom" in his bedroom now. (He and Jake moved an extra sofa and coffee table into his bedroom, making a perfect area for him to build Legos or use his new Physics science kit.) Jake's bedroom went through BIG changes; a downsizing of stuff and a change of furniture placement. It took us a whole, exhausting afternoon, but so worth it!

We rang in 2015 with board games, an "Ice Age" marathon and yummy munchies.

And I whipped up a number of crochet projects (of course)! I created headband "ear warmers" (PATTERN) and a hat (PATTERN), with and without flowers (PATTERN), dishcloth scrubbies in greens and blues (PATTERN), and mid-sized mesh bags in sherbert ice cream and blue, mint green and white colors (PATTERN). I finished a cluster stitch bag for my daughter in harvest colors and another in orange, peach and white (PATTERN). I finished a cowl for me (PATTERN). And, finally, I am working on some coasters (PATTERN). Yeah, I'm obsessed. But my stash of yarn is getting low...

Check out this link to see why crafting, knitting and crocheting, is neurologically AWESOME for us

PEOPLE & PLACES
❄ On the Island (All) ❄ T__  Visited ❄ Lego Club (Sam) ❄ Jazz & Concert Band Practice (Cati) ❄ Cub Scouts (Sam) ❄ Patrol Leader Meeting (Jake) ❄ Bible Study & Fellowship (Me) ❄

HOMESCHOOL HAPPENINGS

It's always a challenge to get back into our every day activities and learning after a break, but especially so after 2 1/2 weeks of indulging in late nights and later mornings with unscheduled days. But we meander on. Our year is not quite half over.

Cati was blessed this Christmas was a MacBook. She spent a lot of time over the break writing stories on Wattpad. Have you seen Wattpad? I love seeing her delve into her creative writing with focus and excitement...and now she doesn't have to wait until my laptop is free!

Sam received a GREAT physics science kit as a gift. He has spent hours building and exploring on his own, but I thought it would be a great week for him to delve into the experiments provided by the booklet included. So, I replaced most of his Earth Science with Physics experiments this week.

It was also a review week for him. Those of you with unique learners know that sometimes a skill just needs repeating...and repeating...Sam reviewed multiple digit and multiple addend regrouping and alphabetizing with this game. Alphabetizing several words proved to be a visual challenge for him, one that not only worked his reasoning skills but his visual tracking. I came up with an adaptation for him: Write down the beginning letters then place them in order. All those letters needed visual "management" to avoid frustration and cognitive shut-down. I think he's got it now!

Cati

• English - Wattpad Creative Writing and Editing, Transitive & Intransitive Verbs, Active & Passive Voice, Adjective Prepositional Phrases, and Indirect Objects
• Pre-Algebra - Order of Operations with Fractions, Exponential Expressions & Radicals, Surface Area, and Scientific Notation
• Earth Science - Energy Resources, Fossil Fuels, Renewable Resources, Nuclear Energy & Energy Conservation, The Water Cycle
• Ancient History - Cyrus the Great, Sparta and Athens, Greece Around 500 BC
• Current Events - CNN Student News
• Phys. Ed. - Walking
• Creative Arts - Jazz & Concert Band, Minecraft

Sam

• Language Arts - Spelling Weeks 36-40 (1st grade) / Weeks 1-4 (2nd grade), Fables & Moral Copywork, Alphabetic Order, Grammar Ninja 
• Math - Addition Regrouping, Elapsed Time, Solve for Missing Addends, Multiplication Facts
• Earth Science - Rocks & Weathering
• Physics - Center of Gravity
• Ancient History - Cyrus the Great, Sparta and Athens, Green Around 500 BC
• Current Events - CNN Student News
• Phys. Ed. - Playing in Snow
• Creative Arts - Minecraft, Kinetic Sand

READING & VIEWING
❄ Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (Peppe) (Me) ❄ Quartet (Lowry) (Cati) ❄ Ben and Me (Lawson) (Sam) ❄

PONDERINGS

Happy Homeschooling!

As always, special thanks to these weekly link-ups:

Don't forget to check out my other blog posts this week!
Six Word Saturday: As 2015 Begins
Memory Monday: A Sticky Situation
Tuesday Coffee Chat: That One Resolution

Weekly Wrap-up: One Step at a Time

Cabin Fever. :sigh:

With winter lingering on, I couldn't wait to get outside anymore. I downloaded this awesome app for my Smartphone called Runkeeper. It uses GPS to map where and distance, and includes pace and an estimation of how many calories burned. I logged in 6.08 miles of walking the last 1 1/2 weeks. Considering I had to deal with an achy leg due to neurological testing, icy roads, and messy weather, I'm happy with that. I even dragged the kids and dogs along! Seeing those miles add up is a great incentive!

Have you read The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin? Awesome!

School Snippets

• Jake is building a steam-powered 'power plant' that will run a Lego train, gave a presentation in Social Studies, and is studying Mars for another oral and computer presentation
• Cati and Sam studied Quinten Massys and Raphael in Art Fraud Detectives: Spot the Differences, Solve the Crime!
• Both went swimming (in a heated pool)
• Cati played clarinet in a band concert
• Cati read The Fellowship of the Ring, and Sam read The Magic Finger and started Flat Stanley (again)
• Cati wrote terse verses for poetry and worked on her collection of inspirational sayings 
• Sam spend HOURS building and redesigning a Lego boat, then added a Technics motor and made it RC, and tested it in the bathtub for speed and maneuverability 
• Sam worked on time (minutes), fact families, place value, and word problems  

Cati and I finished our 2nd knitted scarves. What do you think?

She started another scarf, peach and cream striped this time, and I'm going to make some dishclothes. I'm using this You Tube video tutorial for the dishclothes. Again, for beginners.

I've joined a decluttering challenge called "40 Bags in 40 Days" here. She has some useful printables if you're up for some simplifying. I'm not sure I'll get to 40 bags as I've been doing this for a year, but there's always stuff that can go, right? TBC (Total Bag Count): 3

Instead of buying pre-packaged bars for my oldest son's school snacks, I made Jordan Marsh Muffins this week. You can find the recipe here at Cooks.com. I made blueberry, raspberry and strawberry muffins from berries we or my Mom picked last season and froze, and omitted the sprinkle of sugar on top. Perfect for snacking!

Photo Credit

As always, special thanks to these weekly wrap-ups:

 

Over the Long Weekend and Short Week

I was SUPER excited that we had NOTHING scheduled Friday through Monday. When does that happen? Never! I guess I'm a homebody at heart, and enjoy having days at home to catch up on projects, spend time with the kids...and, yes, sleep in a little.

Over the weekend Jake's best buddy T__ stayed with us. Can I tell you how AWESOME his kid is? He spent HOURS cleaning and organizing Sam's bedroom, just because. (Even I haven't been brave enough to tackle that!) He and Jake moved some household things into storage, fixed the back door, and finished winterizing the flock run. I'm grateful to have handy teenage boys around to help tackle projects!

Our Wellies are not longer chicks. They're beautiful brown hens with golden heads and red combs and wattles. They're laying teeny, speckled-tan eggs now.

Having the boys around gave ME time to plan meals, shop for this week's groceries and get some quick snacks and meals pulled together for the week.

● Breakfast: Oatmeal with Different Fixings, Egg, Turkey Bacon and Cheddar Breakfast Sandwiches, Cold Cereal with Skim Milk and Fruit

● Lunch: PB and J or Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches with Fruit and Veggies, Leftovers

● Dinner: Soft Beefy Cheddar Tacos with Mixed Greens and Rice, Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole with Broccoli, Chef Salad, Homemade Cheese Pizza with Herbed Crust

● Snacks: Fresh Fruit and Veggie Sticks, Hard-boiled Eggs, Nonfat Greek Yogurt, Wild Maine Berry Muffins, Air-popped popcorn

● Dessert: Almond-Orange Cake, Chocolate No Bake Cookies, Frozen Non-Fat Yogurt

Jake also had Tuesday off from B__ A__, so both his week and our homeschool week were short ones. A much needed recoup (for me) around here! A friend even came over with her daughter for hot mint chocolate, cookies, Skip-Bo, and Rummikub one rainy afternoon.

Jake received his first grades. They're not like other public school grades as they're based on projects goals, personal improvement, community involvement, understanding of the material, non-tested, cooperative teamwork...and ongoing. (Low scores are only an indication that the project is "in progress".) I'm pleased with his effort even if they weren't all 4s, the highest "grades"!

Homeschool? Well, we completed 2 1/2 days this week. Cati started a Life Science Experiment on the effects of fertilizers on fish tank water. (Special thanks to Sam's tropical fish for the water samples.) We already know what THAT effect will be, but it'll be interesting to see anyway, right? Sam flew through MUS lesson 13 on measurement (inches).  The boy who can wield a tape measure knows his inches! We skipped on through to lesson 14. Both read, reluctantly completed some grammar, and studied spelling words, and we even watched some NROC U.S. History videos about the War of 1812. (See my free resources tab for the NROC link.)

People and Places

● Clarinet Lesson and Concert Band (C) ● Boy Scout Court of Honor (J) ● 

Something to Share

As ALWAYS, linking up to these WONDERFUL blogs:

How to : A Travel Lego Box

It's a good thing that my kids like building and creating with Legos because we have about 300 pounds of those FOOT OUCHIES. With our trip coming up SUPER SOON, I wanted to be able to bring some for Sam, and fill some of those HOURS on the plane. 

I considered bringing one of our Lego Simple Machines kits. They're educational, but expensive. If one of those parts got lost enroute, replacing it would be a frustration (especially since I can't FIND the kits on-line anymore).

So, I improvised.

I found a see-through green 8 inch x 4 inch x 1 inch plastic box with 5 sections and an attached, latching lid. The PERFECT SIZE to slip into a backpack! It used to hold fishing lures from a kid's fishing pole kit we got YEARS ago. It's been bouncing around the house every since, used for holding beads, hair pretties, and STUFF.

Searching through the Lego totes, I found flat pieces in gray, green and blue. I used these pieces to make a road and parking area (gray), grassy places (green) and a lake (blue) on top of the lid. Hot Glue worked awesome to attach the pieces! I did have to cut (with kitchen scissors) on long green piece to fit 2 sections.

FYI: Make sure the glue does not spread out beyond the edges of each piece as you want them to fit SNUGLY next to one another.

I then searched for a "car chassis", a Lego piece with wheels, and specialized pieces that I thought Sam would like to build a vehicle. I included levers, windows, a wheel and boat rudder (and he could make a boat for the water too), red and clear single "bump" Legos (for headlights), antennas, and 2 Mini-Figures, and then threw in a number of varies sized bricks. All these I fit inside the box. And for now they're organized!

FYI: Don't forget a Mini-Figure or two for more imaginative play.

Voila! A Travel Lego Box with things we had lying around the house. And if a piece goes missing? No biggie! (No laughing at my QUICK build to try out the box's top! LOL And yes, that red-and-yellow THING in the lake IS a sailboat...)

Sam's Dream in Legos: RVing

Sam and I have a DREAM to explore the U.S. in an RV. We can't think a better way to REALLY see and EXPERIENCE our country than hopping in a camper and cruising. The open road, the natural world and a simple life call us!

We even decided on the RV we'd want (if the MONEY TREE ever starts growing :wink:).

All this dreaming inspired Sam to create a camper out of Legos. His spatial skills and attention to detail are amazing!

Since our DREAM RV has a slide-out, well, his Lego camper had to have one too. His original design had 1. I mentioned that 2 would give the camper more room, but I didn't think it would be possible to build a Lego RV with 2. Sam pondered for a bit, disappeared, and came back, having rebuilt the body with 2 MOVEABLE slide-outs.

"Mom, see! I can build it with 2 slide-outs!"

But the details didn't stop there! He created "chassis" storage, a driver's "cockpit", a propane tank area, and a "tow package" since we'd need to pull a small car while we travel to visit all those cool spots near the campgrounds.

And even inside the camper there was a steering wheel, sofa and bed!

Sam decided those that it would be REALLY awesome for his Lego RV to pull a TRAVEL TRAILER CAMPER too. You never know when family and friends want to come along too, right?

All this building and creativity has a downside though...

Perhaps his next building inspiration should be a BULLDOZER. :wink:

I'm linking this post up to Thrilling Thursday at The Family Blog. Nothing more THRILLING that watching delight-directed learning at its best. What's THRILLED you this week? Head on over and link up!

Also linking up with:

Flying Dragon and Monstrous T-Rex

Grrrr! 

Balsam Fir lost 2 teeth last week; one on Friday that I nudged out and another that he SWALLOWED while eating cheese pizza on Sunday. The Tooth Fairy left him a Lego set, which he was SUPER excited about (of course)!

It's a really cool Lego set because he can build 3 different PREHISTORIC HUNTERS from the pieces. However, don't mistake the dragon for the Pteranodon! ::wink:: 

"Mooommm! It's a DRAGON!" explained an exasperated Balsam Fir with a sigh. 

What do I know? ::laugh::

Anyway, he requested that I take some photos and "share with the world", so here they are!