Wacky Wednesday

I wanted to do something to celebrate Leap Day, but we have a busy week and are going away Friday morning for the weekend so I had decided to just mention it to the kids without doing anything. Since Friday is Dr. Seuss' birthday, I've been trying to do a few things for that this week. I remembered that there is a book by Dr. Seuss called Wacky Wednesday and since Leap Day was Wednesday, I thought it was a good way to combine them both. At breakfast this morning, I told the kids it was Wacky Wednesday and they could wear anything they wanted and use some color spray we had from something else. They were really excited about picking out crazy clothes.

When I decided to let the kids do this, I thought it worked well because we didn't have to go anywhere Wednesday. Then I got an email that some books I needed had come in at the library. I told the girls they could change, but they wanted to go like this. Colin wouldn't go dressed up though. The girls got some funny looks at the library.

Our Week: Franklin, Pennsylvania, and Neutralization

When I found out Colin's hockey games on Monday meant leaving the house at 10:30 a.m. and not getting home until 9:00 p.m , I was afraid the week would be ruined. Usually if Monday doesn't start well, the rest of the week falls apart. Of course, we didn't get much school done on Monday, but the rest of the week ended up going great. The weather was really nice so the kids were very motivated to get their work done and get outside. We had three days in the 70s. The kids spent lots of time playing outside, the girls and I did our walks/runs on the trails, and we met friends at the park one afternoon.

History/Geography

We continued studying Ben Franklin, primarily using Download 'n Go. We read lots of books about him, did an electricity experiment, drew the U.S. seal with a turkey instead of an eagle, and played with kites. We also used some lapbook pieces from DNG and Homeschool Share for our notebooks. We still need to paste them in so I'll post pics of those later.

Static electricity experiment

Seals with turkeys

Kites

We started reading about Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to finish it. It went along well with studying Ben Franklin this week. We finished reading our books, and the kids did the flag coloring page and the other pages for their notebooks. They also made their own Liberty Bells.

Liberty bell art

Science

In chemistry, we read about acid and base neutralization. We did two experiments this week. The first was testing items to see if they are acids or bases. The second was adding a base (ammonia) to an acid (vinegar) to make it neutral.

Making an acid neutral

Acid or base?

Valentine's Day Celebration Part 2

When the kids got up, they found monkeys, balloons, roses, and a bag of candy that Chad left before he went to work.

 

Breakfast pancakes

 

I found these on pinterest and they're so easy. Just divide the batter and color half of it. After you make the pancakes, use a cookie cutter to cut a heart out of the middle of each one and then switch the cut out hearts so they're in different colored pancakes. I also put a little food color in their milk to make it pink.

 

Lunch: heart shaped tortilla pizza with pepperoni cut to spell I <3 U, strawberries, strawberry applesauce with a few Valentine sprinkles

 

Books we read

 

The girls' flowers and mine.

 

Table set for dinner

 

We always have a special dinner where everyone dresses up, we light candles and turn down the lights, and Colin acts like he's our waiter (always with a fake moustache). Makes me a little teary seeing this picture because I know it won't be long until he can grow a real moustache and that there can't be many years left where he'll want to spend Valentine's Day with us.

 

After dinner, we all played Valentine bingo.

 

 

 

The kids made lots of Valentines for us and each other. The girls made so many that we each got a gift bag full of them.

To see some of the fun things we did before Valentine's Day, see part 1.

Our Week: Ben Franklin, Chemical Reactions, and Rapunzel

Our week went pretty well. I'd really like us to get started earlier in the mornings though. The kids have been sleeping later and I've had to wake them sometimes. I need to just set a time to start every day. I get distracted by other things and don't realize it's getting so late. I know as the weather gets nicer, they're going to want to finish and get outside in the afternoons.

Science

We did an experiment about chemical reactions that went with the chapter we read last week in RS4K.

Most of the things we mixed weren't too exciting, but here are a couple that bubbled.

 

 

We read about bases, acids, and pH.

In Colin's biology class, they're learning about the parts of a plant. This week, they dissected a flower to see the parts. 

History

History this week has been all about Benjamin Franklin. We read about him in A History of US and lots of other books. We're doing the Download 'n Go study. We've done days 1-4 and will finish the other day next week. All week I've had trouble getting the videos in it to work. My hubby tried everything to see what was the problem with my computer. I just saw that it's a problem with our internet company. Hopefully, they'll get it fixed soon and we can watch the videos we didn't get to see. I'll post more about our study once we finish it all.

Everything Else

We read books for Valentine's Day on Tuesday. We also had a special breakfast, lunch, and dinner to celebrate. Of course, there were some gifts too. I still need to get my pictures uploaded and post about the day.

Today we got to see Rapunzel at the children's theater. It's one of the girls' favorite movies so they really enjoyed it, and so did Colin and I. I'm sad that it's our last play for this school year. We've been to five there this year and they've all been really good.

 

We've had some really good weather this week except for yesterday when it rained all day. The kids have liked being able to play outside.

I'm working on the Couch to 5k program. I've finished week 3. I haven't run since high school so it's taking a lot of work. The girls are loving this extra time on the trails in our neighborhood.

Colin has a hockey tournament with games on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday so it's going to be a busy weekend.

Valentine's Day Celebration Part 1

I bought these cute platters and bowls on clearance at Target last year and wanted a reason to use them so I decided to have a little family Valentine party yesterday afternoon. We hung some decorations and made some snacks. The girls had fun helping us make all the stuff.

 

 

Pink heart shaped Rice Krispie treats, marshmallows dipped in pink chocolate, and pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate.

 

 

The girls made some heart crayons. I've been collecting broken crayons in a container for a while. They unwrapped them and put them in these ice trays. We baked them in the oven at 200 degrees until they melted. Then we let them cool and popped them out of the trays.

 

 

I made some heart shaped banana muffins for breakfast this morning.

 

Our Week: Marshmallow Molecules, 100 Days, and Cupcakes

This week seems to have gone by really quickly. My hubby was away in Canada for work so I expected the week to drag by. We were all glad to have him come home Thursday night. Colin was excited to hear about anything hockey he saw while there. He also brought some gifts for the kids.

Colin started running a fever Monday around noon and felt really tired the rest of that day and Tuesday. Thankfully, that's all he got and so far no one else has been sick.


We had a Valentine party with some homeschool friends. The girls decorated these cupcakes for the party.

We also had our 100th day of school (at least it was the 100th day that I've remembered to mark down). It's not something we normally pay attention to, but I got the girls one of those countdown posters at the beginning of the year. We've been really bad about remembering to put the apples on. Molly asked to do it on Monday so I decided I better see how many we had missed. Our state requires I keep an attendance sheet for the kids so I went through and counted the days I had checked and found that Tuesday was the 100th day. Since Colin wasn't feeling well, we waited until Friday to do anything. With the cake left over from the Valentine cupcakes, I made 2 circle cupcakes and a rectangle cake. The kids each decorated one of them and then we put them together to resemble 100.

Science

We seem to be staying a week behind with our chemistry experiments. This week we made molecules from marshmallows. The girls spent most of their time eating them though. Colin had to fill out things in his lab book to go along with it so he had to do more.

We read the next chapter about chemical reactions.

History and Geography

In history, we read about Isaac Newton, Locke, and changes in farming.

We started learning about Pennslyvania. We'll continue with that next week.

Colin is 12!!

I just can't believe my little boy is 12 years old today. It's all gone by so quickly. I hope the time slows down some for these next few years. He has grown up so much in the last year. He's just about as tall as I am.

I'm sure he'll have a wonderful day. He has a hockey game so he gets to do his favorite thing. He'll also spend the evening hanging out with his teammates at the hotel.





Happy 12th Birthday, Colin!!!




I hope all your wishes come true.

Our Week: 1/30-2/3

As I prepare for a weekend hockey trip and deal with the fact that my baby boy is turning 12 tomorrow, I'm having a hard time remembering exactly what we did this week. I had to look back in my record book to figure out what we did. My sister came to visit for a few days so the kids got out of some of their normal school for the last couple days.

Science



We continued learning about the elements. We read about the final two groups, lanthanides and actinides. The only experiment we did was using a magnet to make a dollar bill move because of the magnetic ink used in them. We also started back in the RS4K Chemistry book and read about how atoms become molecules and form bonds.

In Colin's Biology class he's taking at the local nature center, they've been learning about frogs. They sent home tadpoles two weeks ago. Half the kids fed them iceberg lettuce and the other half fed them spinach. This week they brought them back to compare the two groups and found the ones fed spinach had gained weight while the others lost weight. They also dissected frogs this week.

 

 

History



In history, we started the week reading about King Philip's War. Then we read about New France and their war with the Iroquois. We learned that Louis XIV saved New France by sending soldiers to help and later sending women to be wives. We also read about William Penn and his holy experiment, which resulted in the beginning of Pennslyvania.

Everything Else



As I wrote in a previous post, we read some books for Groundhog Day and made some treats.


Part of the reason for my sister's visit was that she wanted to take the kids to the circus since they had never been. They had a lot of fun.

 

 

Caleigh's face is because she decided she had a fear of clowns and said her cup was scaring her