What a strange month.

February has been a strange month. Rushing to get things done for a friends shower, ordering gift and making cake. Cake was finished, order held up and then it was postponed.
School has been getting tad monotonous for us all. So to shake it up I stopped our unit on Monarchy. We will likely touch back on that for the upcoming nuptials. In the meantime we head into March like a lion. And look at green science. Is it earth friendly? Or color related? We are doing it. School elective swimming starts again so I have a schedule that looks like this. Experiment day one, swim day two, experiment day three, Lego club day four and experiment on Friday. And again to ease the minds of those many wondering well meaning people yes the three r's plod onward and upward. DD has taken to writing sentences on the white board for spelling/reading and then illustrating her finished work. DS is moving ever forward. I look forward to more outdoor time and pray the Groundhog was right and that spring is around the corner.
I am behind in our flat travellers and need to get them packed and returned soon. DH just was laid off from his regular job. Not that that is new he usually has some slow periods with the type of work he is in. However this time he agreed to seek other employment. So far he has lined up a possibility with a temp job for the time he is laid off. It's in his field so that would be nice rather then depending on the less then stellar EI our government gives out. I think the silliest part of our EI or unemployment is that the government wants us to work yet insists we don't for a full two weeks when we first file for EI? What is the point, merely to save them some paperwork. It's ridiculous and unfair.
I am meeting a lot of fabulous people lately and feel very blessed to make their acquaintances. I hope that some of them will lead to some lasting friendship for myself and my kids who are started to feel the effects of two whole months with no electives other then Sparks which has been sporadic at best due to a death in the Leaders family.
I am not certain I will put her back in Sparks next year. It seems to be alright but DD isn't forging any relationships with the other girls as I had hoped. I may try to get her into the ballet homeschool class instead. She has been wanting to learn more 'moves' lately. My ballet isn't as graceful as it once was many moons ago at seven.
So February was strange and March looks busy with electives and DD's birthday. I do hope the snow starts to melt some. But to occupy my time I am planning the year end party for our homeschool group. More on that later.

Read More

Winter School Blahs and Life.

Our Lego club was off and running this past week. We had two families come for a total of eight kids. The free play was nice. Next week though I have a questionnaire for the parents and will make more of a formal meeting out of it. An hour goes by fast when fiddling with Lego.
One of my dear friends is having a baby shower next weekend. I had agreed to make the cake. My cakes seem to be popular around here with friends. I have plans to make a round tiered cake topped with buttercream icing. I am going to sculpt babies in pink, she's having a girl, out of fondant and place crawling all over the cake. Because the party is also going to include children I am making cake pops for the first time. I hope they will turn out as I envision them. Although I was a little disappointed that the local candy store didn't have as many 'quins' or candy sprinkle choices as I had hoped. I also am making a gift bag specially for the baby Daddy as he will attend also. Mums' the word on that until after the shower in case she is reading this.
I have put together a unit for this week to cover Littlest Pet Shop. I hope the kids will cooperate and have fun with it as well as learn somethings new. I took some pictures of our Oceanography bulletin board from our last unit which the kids help put together by coloring images. We divided the ocean into three distinct layers or zones and put twisted green construction paper on like a kelp forest. I liked it a lot and was sorry to see it go in favor of February's Valentine board.

The kids also made  a couple of beautiful dioramas for their Oceanography unit. Pictured below are images from my DD's. DS took pics of his but they turned out fuzzy. The yellow pipe cleaners poking through the top are illustrating the sun's rays in the daylight zone. I admit to helping with hanging and sculpting one or two of the salt dough creatures at the request of my daughter. I certainly can't sit by and watch them have all the fun. However the painting was all her. And she wanted to entirely sand the bottom of the box. So we mixed sand with white glue to the bottom. The green pipe cleaner in the front near the pinkish seahorse are representative of kelp or seaweed.

If you are thinking of doing a unit on life in the seas then may I suggest a couple of sites  to print out for free paper crafts. I did the living fossil Coelacanth fish with the kids help. A glue gun generally is the best way to put these together. It dries faster then waiting for white glue.

It's in an Asian language but if you click the images they will come easily enough.
Canon also has some wonderful printable paper crafts
Yamaha Motors has paper crafts too. All sorts of animals and vehicles.

Monday, Valentine's Day I am going to have a  surprise party for the kids. I got red balloons and a tablecloth to go on the new classroom desk. I have left over from years past some special napkins, cups etc. I will post pics next week when I have time.
Spring is around the corner and already I feel busier then I have in years. I am enjoying it immensely though and can't wait to see what each day brings.

Read More