fiance, student, homeschool retiree, preschool teacher wannabe, Senior Living Coordinator, writer of many things unsaid, blogger, lover of the creative, most cheerful depressed person, devourer of books, crafty wanna be, amateur tech support, internet junkie, facebook stalker, tweeter of tweets, Pagan, friend, sister, daughter, aunt, karaoke super-star
Happy Veterans' Day
to all those who have served!!
Thank you so much!!
I am getting this posted really late, but if I can push the Publish Post button by midnight...it counts right?
The photo above is my oldest son Josef, he wanted to be a Marine for halloween. The jacket he is wear is actually his Grandfathers unifirm from the 60's. He looked so handsome and I love that he would be willing to serve out country and knows that is an option for his future.
A few days ago the boys and I went to a presentation out at
Gowen field hosted by Idaho Military History Museum. We had never been there before. It was a great museum! They had many displays ranging from the civil war to present. It was fun pointing out the different branches of the military to the boys and the various wars and which of our family members served and at which time. There were also so gun and canon demonstrations the video below is of everything going off at the same time, again the weapons range from those used in the Civil war to those used in the present. We had a great time and learned a bit of military, world, country, and family history. We also couldn't hear very well for a while after all the canons and guns were done. : )
I made up these quick copywork masters of the 13 Articles of Faith for my 7 and 10 year old to use. They are also memorizing these for their
Faith in God award, so it works nicely to use them for copywork, dictation, and memory work.
The font is similar to that used in Handwriting Without Tears. You'll need to download the PDF file to view and print.
Articles of Faith Copywork Mastershttp://www.mediafire.com/?vy6lddb1aufvvu9
I just love Halloween candy!!
I dress my kids up all cute and walk them door to door letting them beg for candy from our neighbors.
Then we come home and I get to raid their buckets for my favorites.
Hey, I am owed!
If I have to put up with thir sugar high and then low.I better be sugared up too.
I don't take all their candy, just a few favorites.
Number one confiscated candy being the chocolates, like mini Snickers bars and tootsie rolls.
I also am fond of those little cinnamon bears, which are really too hot for kids anyway, mine always spit them out...so really I'm rescuing them. Its a charitable act.
I enjoy red licorice too, especially Twizzlers which are SO 1980 something.
Two of my very favorites are the Green Apple Blowpops and Apple Jolly Ranchers, because they taste like 6th grade. One taste and it's spring one more month till schools out, I am on the bus ( which smells like rubber, exhaust fumes, and stinky feet) riding home from middle school my window half rolled down, whispering with a friend about some cute boy.
My all time favorite candy to find in my kids Halloween buckets would have to be Banana Laffy Taffy. It is king of taffy flavors and you just can't beat the bonus joke on your wrapper. My sister and I used to read these jokes aloud and just roll on the floor laughing, not because they were all that funny, but it was just fun to laugh.
Unfortunately it is November now and all that's left of the Halloween candy are the stuff no one wants to eat. I'll have to wait till next October for a bite of nostalgia for my sweet tooth.
We got this great idea over at
Latter-day Homeschooling blog. She found it in a book called Blast Lab or under a second title Super Science Lab by Richard Hammond.
Soap Monsters
Basically you need:
bar soap (no strong scents) We used Lever 2000 because we had it on hand
knife
plate
paint
paint brushes
Cut the soap into a chunk. Place on plate and microwave for up to 2 min on High. Let dry for 30 min to an hour. Add details to your monster with paint to make it come alive.
Some tips we learned when doing this project
- use smaller pieces of soap (you could quarter one fullsize bar and get good sized monsters)
- No need to microwave for a full 2 minutes just stop the microwave when you are happy with your monsters look, if you do for full time you risk burning the soap and it smells REALLY bad
- Place outside to dry ( it was cool here so they set up faster)
- Use dry brushes with the paint, the water makes the soap dissolve
This was a great project for learning about the nature of water molecules. We watched this
little video over at TeacherTube before we started to review. Then I wouldn't let the boys paint the monsters until they told me why the soap turned into a monster. They were all able to tell me. I think this is much more graphic way to show that water molecules expand when heated then other experiments we have done.
We got this great idea over at
Latter-day Homeschooling blog. She found it in a book called Blast Lab or under a second title Super Science Lab by Richard Hammond.
Soap Monsters
Basically you need:bar soap (no strong scents) We used Lever 2000 because we had it on handknifeplate paintpaint brushes
Cut the soap into a chunk. Place on plate and microwave for up to 2 min on High. Let dry for 30 min to an hour. Add details to your monster with paint to make it come alive.
Some tips we learned when doing this project - use smaller pieces of soap (you could quarter one fullsize bar and get good sized monsters)
- No need to microwave for a full 2 minutes just stop the microwave when you are happy with your monsters look, if you do for full time you risk burning the soap and it smells REALLY bad
- Place outside to dry ( it was cool here so they set up faster)
- Use dry brushes with the paint, the water makes the soap dissolve
This was a great project for learning about the nature of water molecules. We watched this
little video over at TeacherTube before we started to review. Then I wouldn't let the boys paint the monsters until they told me why the soap turned into a monster. They were all able to tell me. I think this is much more graphic way to show that water molecules expand when heated then other experiments we have done.
I am officially the mother of a TEEN!
This last Friday, we went out to
Eagle Island State Park with some friends for a Fall nature walk. We had no lessons in mind, just to see what there was to see and observe nature. We found some great examples of trees with fall foliage to identify. We gathered some cattails near a stream to play swords with. I showed the kids a few of the local plants that were edible and we taste tested them and I also pointed out some red berries that were NOT edible. The kids found some leaf cutter ants to watch as they walked up and down some leaves. They crossed a creek via a tree that had been downed by beavers. We spied a few butterflies and grasshoppers along the way. All in all it was a great outing! I'm not sure about the kids, but for me it was so centering to get out in nature for a bit and find the wonder in it.
