Blogging drought is over. In attempts to squelch the downheartedness that comes every winter, especially on snow days, I am devoting myself to memory preservation. I actually pulled out all of my scrapbooking supplies last night and scrapped for the first time in probably two years. It was very enjoyable. It reminded me that I hadn't blogged in two months either. In addition to not blogging, I have not been taking many pictures. Would you believe I do not have ONE picture from Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?! Here's what I do have and a brief synopsis of what we've been up to for the past few months.
This is King Monkey. He is Isaac's favorite stuffed buddy and has been since the crib days. Jason and the boys have been doing some wood working and they built this little throne for Monkey!
Ian drew these guys one morning on the white board. I thought they were pretty funny.
Sick of the same pencil and paper routine, Miles and Ian have done some of their spelling and phonics work on dry erase strips. I have to take pictures of it to remind myself that we did it!
We had a terrific Science club meeting a while back. We studied different types of rocks and how they are formed by making some edible rocks. We made igneous rocks by melting chocolate and observing it reharden. We made sedimentary rocks by layering crackers and peanut butter and we made metamorphic rocks by applying pressure to gum drops to form a rock. It was fun and yummy!
After making our rocks we had the opportunity to crack open some geodes to see if we had crystals inside! Easier said than done...we ended up smashing them directly with the hammer outside after unsuccessfully trying to crack them by tapping the screwdrivers with the hammer.
To cap off our study the TLC Academy took a trip to the museum a few days later to study the rocks there and identify what types of rocks and minerals are on display. We of course had to check out the rest of the exhibits too!
Digging for dinosaur bones.
My little geologists working hard!
The upstairs of the museum had a fun exhibit of Christmas Trees decorated by community organizations and businesses. Some of them were amazing! These were a few of our favorites.
This one is actually made of books!
Hannah loved the inflatable Turkey on one tree. She really wants an inflatable turkey of her own. Who wouldn't?!
Dressing up as Native Americans for a little rain dance is always a favorite stop at the museum.
The innovation room inspired them all to be extra creative.
Speaking of creative, we had a great Art Club around that time. We studies a painting by Seurat called Sunday Afternoon at La Grande Jette. It was painted with the pointillism technique so we all gave it a try. I personally find that kind of detail ridiculously tedious. I would have gone insane before finishing one painting!
Isaac found it a little tedious too...
Isaac turned 7 since I blogged last! We bobbed for apples and had apple pie for his birthday per his request. Such a cutie! I can't believe he's 7! He got a swiss army knife for this birthday. He is such a responsible young man about it. He is very quick to spring into action whenever he see's a possible opportunity to use it because, of course, its a tool, not a toy and cannot be used for no reason.
As I mentioned, I haven't been very good with the camera lately but I HAD to take it out when Hannah and Amira gave us all our Christmas presents. They made TLC Academy t-shirts for each of us. They even have our names on them! Yeah, we're pretty cool.
Not a very traditional class picture, but we're not a very traditional school so it works.
We had a nice cuddly day just before our Christmas break.
Then Christmas came and went without ONE picture. I regret it already.
Then right after Christmas we got a sizable snow storm. The kids and Jason were elated. I didn't share their enthusiasm but I did go out and play and had a little fun.
This is the best part of playing outside in the snow...the cocoa when you come in. I'm certain Ian goes out sometimes just hoping to get cocoa when he comes back in.
Vacation over and back to work. We started our week with a fun Spanish lesson about fruit and we made individual fruit salads. Yummy!
Bella had an optional project assignment in one of her history books. It instructed her on how to build a Spanish mission out of toothpicks and clay. She took on the challenge and did a great job!
We celebrated Miles' 7th birthday too! We've known Miles since he was pretty little...hard to believe he's a big 7 year old now!
I reorganized our schedule a bit and we are restructuring for organization. That includes being more diligent about cleaning up after ourselves and doing the dishes! I've said in the past that I need a janitor but really, I just need to be more diligent to teach the children how to pick up after themselves.
We have started some fun literature studies and are making some lapbooks. While the boys and I are focusing on a book called
Atlantic the girls are independently doing a lapbook for
The Courage of Sarah Noble. It's going well so far but we're falling behind schedule due to snow days and life in general...
Well, off to shovel. Good times. Like my background? It's where I want to be right now!
