Proof of snow

Here's our proof that we did finally get a little snow this winter.

Agent E build a snowman right outside the front door to greet me. LOVE!

Agent H & E's snowmen.

The General tipping his head back so he can see me. :)

Expedition Earth: Brazil

Here we come Brazil! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

I'm kind of jumping out of order here since I still haven't posted about our study of the Poles but the boys had so much fun working on their rainforest diorama I wanted to post this quick.

I have some foggy sense of what South America is all about - I think jungle and hot and then I kind of get stuck. I think that's going to change thanks to E.E. So what did we study this week?

Christ the Redeemer (amazing!)

Brazillian animals (like the armadillo - CUTE! Red eyed tree frog - que the "Go Diego Go" music.)

Drinking straw flutes (ours flopped, I guess you need the right kind of straw).

Brigaderiros - cooling in the fridge, almost ready to be rolled in coconut or sprinkes. Agent E was my stirring helper.











Native face painting
































The rainforest - here's our diorama of the levels of the forest



















The Emergent













The Canopy













The Understory













The Forest Floor (Just ignore the fact that the natives are American natives, Agent H really wanted to add them in. :) )













And a heart that hurts for people of Brazil. So much pain. I didn't show the boys the video because of the sensative topics included but Operation World really opened my eyes to the need for prayer. Check my Pinterest board (below) if you want the link to Operation World.

Here is the link to my Pinterst board for Brazil.

Valentine's 2012

I loved how the boys' valentines turned out this year! Our homeschool co-op's Valentine's party is a highlight for us every year. Who doesn't love delivering valentines and then diving into your own box of special notes?

Agent E's valetine is a "Lego my heart". The General's was a cute elephant that he water-colored.

Agent H's penguin made with heart shapes turned out super cute. He's such a penguin-lover!

Agent E is about to consume one of the amazing cookies that he got at the party. Look at the edible glitter!

And Agent H's special cookie. :)

Our family Valentine's dinner resembles what we used to always order at the Olive Garden and bring home to eat in a less caotic environment: Chicken Parmesan, pasta, breadsticks, and sparkeling juice. The cake was a hot milk cake frosted and covered in pink coconut.

Science: Bone study

We recently started the next book in our God's Design for Life science curriculum: The Human Body. We really LIKE this curriculum! Here are a few photos of our week studying bones:




















Here we took some chicken bones and tried to guess how to put them back together. There is a neat blog post on Wired where a father and son actually glued an entire chicken skeleton back together.














One afternoon we doned our swim suits and wrote out the names of the bones on ourselves. The General was a most willing model! I usually catch him coloring on himself so he was thrilled to have Mom color on him!














I got in on the action.

I guess I don't have any pictures but I cut a few paper dolls out of black construction paper and the boys drew a skeleton on them. I got that idea and a printable toddler size skeleton puzzle from Spell Out Loud. I also printed off some neat X-ray samples for the kids to study from a blog called Chasing Marcus but when I went back to get a link it looks like her blog is invitation only now.













Agent H is putting the finishing touches on our bone model "Sandy".

The boys (esp Agent E) liked the Dem Bones movie on YouTube. "The head bone is connected to the neckbone, the neck bone is connected to the shoulder bone . . .". Yep, that one. :)

Here is my Pinterest board for our bone and muscle study. Muscles are coming up this week. We are putting all our little paper bits into a lapbook or notebook for review later. One thing I want to say about Pinterest, yes I love how it helps me to organize my school ideas, but I also very much like how you can watch Youtube videos directly on their site, thus missing out on all the suggested videos on the side when you watch directly from Youtube's website. Less screening to be done . . . Bonus!

Expedition Earth: Mexico

Here we come Mexico! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

Hola!














































I love it when I catch my kids reading. :)

We studied Tenochtitlan, Chicken Itza, sipped Mexican hot chocolate (just add a dash or two of cinnamon to your regular hot chocolate).

Here is my Pinterest board for Mexico. It's a little sparse. I think I was feeling burnt out from all the birthday celebrations that we have in January.

Expedition Earth: Good old US of A

Here we come United States! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

The Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Old Faithful, the Washington Monument and my favorite site to visit . . . The Grand Canyon (though I've never been there). Have you seen the sky walk there? I don't know that I'd have the guts to actually walk out on it!

We listened to an old Wyatt Earp radio show from Western Wednesdays on iTunes. I think the noise the kids were making while building forts compaired to the noise of the gun shooting in the story! Here the kids are working on their Navajo sand paintings.








































Remember to think twice before leaving your three year old alone with glue and any amount of colored sand!! You would think that's common sense but some days I think common sense illudes me.

Here is a link to my Pinterest board for the United States.

The sick bed

The General came down with a case of pink eye. He spent the good part of 4 days in our room keeping to himself. He quite enjoyed the "royal treatment"!

Expedition Earth: Canada

Here we come Canada! Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth for a great journey!

I'm going to do some Geography catch up here. I hope I can remember all the neat stuff we've been doing! I also hope it doesn't sound too cut and pasted but I've got 5 places to catch up on here. :)


First off here are our attempts at making ice hotels out of colored ice cubes. Our inspiration came from: Hotel de Glace. Agent H did get dressed that day he just pulled his robe on over his clothes to warm up - all day long.


















































Our best attempt at an igloo (it's been a warm and mostly snowless winter)

























Trying out our monster show shoes as seen here. Note: I tried to go the easy route and use cereal boxes - don't do that if you want them to actually work. I'd go for a corrigated box next time.



















Homemade ice cream topped with maple syrup. MY new favorite!













Here is my Pinterest board for Canada. It includes links to some Youtube clips of the singing of the national anthem, mounties on parade, inuit throat singing, a super cool igloo made out of plastic milk jugs that almost makes me wish we drank regular milk just for the jug!

Looking out the window

Shortcake in a red velvet Christmas outfit. Studying something outside the window.

Homemade Challange

In 2011 I did a Facebook challange to send something handmade to whoever commented on my post about the challange. Of course it took me till December to really get the ball rolling but I did manage to complete the challange. This is what I made:

For another homeschooling friend: Hand sewn felt fraction manipulatives






















For some other friends: Hand sewn felt initial ornaments

December School & Math Stations

We took the month of December off from geography and found lots of other fun things to do. The boys each got a clip board with a few activies clipped to it. A few math pages that we had left to complete, some Mind Benders, Book 1 & 2, etc.


We set aside our usual Bible study and picked up Hind's Feet on High Places (the kid's version). This book was so beautiful! I have memories of my mom reading this to my brother and I when we were kids - good memories!



One day I set up math stations. The boys saw bits and pieces of what I was doing and were anxiously waiting for them to be set up and ready to go. It took forever to get them all set up the first time so when we were done I put everything in a box for a faster set-up next time. This is what they looked like:

Station 1: Egg Carton Place Value (or counting practice if you were The General)





















Station 2: Roll the Dice (still trying to find my source for this one)











Station 3: Popsicle Place Value by Sunny Days in Second Grade.






















Station 4: Discovery Toys Think It Through Tiles











Station 5: Read a living math book











Station 6: Snake by Sunny Days in Second Grade.
It looks like I didn't get any shots of this one. I remember Agent H "going easy" on Agent E so he wouldn't get frustrated.


Station 7: Practice counting to 100 on the abacus











Station 8: Domino War By Sunny Days in Second Grade. They played this one forever - loving it all the while!






















Station 9: Multiplication/Shape Lacing Paddles









Station 10: Place Value File Folders
Opps, looks like I missed getting a photo of this but if you click on the link above you can see hers. :)


Station 11: Balance scale











Station 12: Cash Register - it has addition/subtraction/money games on it












When they completed each station they earned a ticket. The tickets were spent buying toys out of the "You left it laying around so it goes in Momma's bin" bin. They were very happy to see some of their old toys!

Here is a link to my Pinterst board with many of the math games above and more that I'd like to put together: Homeschool-Math

That week we also watched an oldie DVD from Netflix called: Look & Learn, It's A Plus: Learn to Add.