The Old Schoolhouse Warehouse Wipeout

The Old Schoolhouse is having a warehouse wipeout - fabulous sale on back issues with tote bag and other freebies. TOS is a great magazine chock full of resources. Check out TOS today!

Lego Creations 101

After printing out some relatively easy step-by-step building instructions from the Lego site I was finally able to let Joseph have his Lego-time freeing me up to give the girls a little more help with their lessons. What a difference a little organization and pre-planning on my part made! Joseph was able to work independently on his project while still being in the room with us. There have been a lot less distractions since starting this and it’s educational too. Lego-Time is a success!!!

For his first creation he chose the alligator. Notice he didn’t stick with the colors in the directions, but instead went with a bit of individual creativity – I like that!

Phy-Ed Fun

Warmer temps here in Wisconsin mean it’s time to move Phy-Ed back outdoors again. We added a few new “toys” to the equipment closet. The first one we tried out were these awesome Giant Retro Space Hoppers from Wild Creations.

Cute, right?

They start out small, but with a little help from the included foot pump they get pretty darn big.

And boy did the kids have a blast!

Balancing…

Bouncing

More Bouncing…

and even a little Leaping…

Since introducing these a couple of weeks ago they continue to happily spend an active half hour or more playing with them whenever the weather permits . As a matter of fact I’ve even gotten a few workouts in, especially when playing Bumper Balls with the little dude. Lots of fun for the whole family!!!

Goalsetting...

I've decided to put this out there as a way of making myself more accountable. I've got a few goals I've been trying to achieve, but I haven't been able to make any progress. Hopefully knowing that I may not be the only one that knows about these goals will motivate me to get to work. So here goes...

1. Workboxes - I set up a modified workbox system, but have yet to start using them. My goal is to just jump in. Stop waiting for them to be perfect and just do it!


2. Plan ahead for a week. Simple right?


3. Start up our Latin again. Still not sure why we stopped.


4. Sign the kids up for private swim lessons. Soon.


5. Blog more. Let the kids blog.


6. Start the art program I got from http://www.pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/. Why am I waiting? We have all the supplies ready to go...

I'm sure there are many more goals I could set for myself, but I think I'll stick with these for now.

Blood Model

In a recent unit on the circulatory system Mackenzie made this very cool blood model using Karo syrup, redhots, sprinkles, and one single white jellybean.

Science Try This

Apologia's Anatomy & Physiology is chock full of really fun and simple experiments. You'll find them throughout the whole book labeled as a "Try This". Mackenzie just finished up the Nutrition and Health chapter which was especially fun since she was able to play with her food. Check out the results of this Try This focusing on fats...

She had to take different foods of the same approximate size and place them on a 2" piece of brown paper bag. Next she rubbed each item on the paper for 20 seconds each, then left it to sit for 2 hours. She chose to use a slim jim, saltine cracker, mayo, and ham. I think it's pretty obvious which had the most fat content, right?

I can tell you that after this she isn't slathering the mayo on quite so thick.

What's in the Box?

There's something really exciting about getting a package at the door. Especially when it's new school books! The kids got excited when they saw the box with the cute sticker in the upper left corner...of course my son (5) thinks it's a new toy for him. Sorry little dude, this time it's for me. Um, yeah, I meant to say it's for school...






I took a lot of time researching just the right things to order. Hopefully we'll all be thrilled with our newest curriculum choices - a new science from Apologia, a poetry memorization from IEW as well as their writing seminar.