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Thursday, March 5, 2009

100th day of school!

So, its almost spring and I can't wait. There is no good blog background for the 100th day of school so I decided to go with the uplifting beauty of grass in all it's glorious greenness. I can't wait to see, smell and feel the grass again! I'm even looking forward to dandelions this year because I am planning to make dandelion root tea, and add the leaves to my salads. I also read that you can make magenta colored dye with dandelions! I think a natural tie dye day may be in the works this summer. Who knew such a pesky weed could be so useful?!

We had a great February Vacation, very relaxing to have some down time. The highlight of the week was seeing our cousin that lives in NY and visiting the giant sandbox in the mall near my mom's house which has been a February Vacation tradition for 3 years now. Bella and Angelique bought matching shirts and flip flops while we were at the mall, how girly and cute!!
Our first day back to school after vacation we had a super fun field trip to the local Karate Dojo. Many of the kids in our homeschooling group take karate there and they got to demonstrate some of the things that they are learning. My kids loved it and Bella and Ian are both interested in taking karate in the future when time and money permit. We really enjoyed watching Hannah and our friends Declan, Corey and Samuel show us their moves and getting to try some too!






We have been counting...waiting...and it finally arrived! We had our 100th day of school! The TLC is together 3 days a week and everyone has "homework" to do on the days that we aren't together so all 5 days of the week are school days. When we are together we add popsicle sticks to a can for each day of school and count them during our morning meeting making a bundle every time we get to 10. We knew it was coming up and over vacation the kids had to make their 100th day of school projects.

Hannah made a 100 piece puzzle, Nova made 100 paint dots, Isaac glued 100 Kix to a paper and Isabella made a spiral on her paper with 100 beads. They all loved having a project to do and everyone did a great job.


I put the kids in charge of the camera first thing after they arrived and told them to take 100 silly pictures throughout the day. They didn't get quite 100 and most were super blurry close ups that I couldn't make out but we did get some pretty funny ones too.






After free time we settled down for morning meeting and officially counted our 100 popscicle sticks. They were so excited. I don't think counting by 10's to 100 has ever been so celebrated (except by every other classroom of kids celebrating their 100th day of school lol).


We started working on our 100 piece puzzle right away, know it might take all day to finish it. We also started a 100th day of school book that included pages like "What would you do with $100.00 and what will you look like when you are 100 years old. Priceless answers as you can imagine.

We had a fun snack. I set out 10 bowls of different things to make a snack mix and the kids had to count 10 of each thing into their bowl. They were so diligent and patient to count each thing, some of them were really small, like rice krispies and hard to grab just a few but they did a great job.


We worked our snack off by doing 10 sets of 10 different excersizes. How pathetic is it that I was actually sore the next day (that's what happens when you can't afford to renew the gym membership, have a living room too small for workout videos, and 2 feet of snow on the ground, a lazy butt and someone that's good at making excuses)!


Some of our other fun activites included a list of 100 things we are thankful for and a beautiful pattern block design using 100 pattern blocks. We also had 100 seconds of complete silent (a delightful part of the day in my opinion) and estimated how many times we could write our name in 100 seconds. I was impressed with the estimates and how close they were to the actual amounts. It showed a great understanding of the length of time and of their own ability. I was particularly impressed that Ian guessed he would be able to write his name only 3 times, knowing it takes him a little while. He usually estimates 45 for anything and everything, this showed thought and consideration on his part and he was close, he was actually able to write his name 5 times in 100 seconds. Everyone else was very close to their estimate too.



To end our day we decided to bake 100 chocolate chip cookies! I was particularly excited about this because my friend Don Farley recently blessed me with with a brand new stand up mixer!! I have always wanted one, and despite my affection for baking and how often I would use it, I could never justify the expense. Don redeemed many many Coke Reward points for this beauty, for which I am so thankful! It made cookie baking w/ the TLC so easy! The kids made cookies of all sizes to get to 100. They all enjoyed eating them and taking some home to share with their family.


Last but not least everyone worked fast and furiously to finish the 100 piece puzzle. Seven came in and saved the day by helping. In the end it turned out to be a 99 piece puzzle because we lost a piece somewhere, but it was a great accomplishment and a great way to end our 100th day of school...now just 80 more to go!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your mixer - I love mine!

Anonymous said...

Dear Missy,

The way God blesses these children through you - THAT's what's beautiful! You are certainly a blessed Mom of 3, but you're also like a second mother to so many others. These precious children will never forget all the teaching, blessings, and love you've given them their whole lives!

I love you, my dear younger sister in Christ, and your awesome husband (Da Man) and children! God bless you in Jesus!

- Don F.

P.S. It was worth every trip to the bottle redemption centers to get you that mixer. I missed my first chance to get it for you, but not the second - God provides so well and graciously!

amynaj said...

Congratulations!! What a great way to celebrate!! You are so creative....you should write a book!

Anonymous said...

Happy 100th day of school! I admire your creativity in every project you do with the kids! I wish some of my teachers had cared half as much as you!!!!
Mallory