Homeschooling in December

This past Monday we met our friends at the Space Center for a play date. We LOVE space center. Perfect for a laid back play date. Which has been awesome, because save for this play date I would have nothing to post about.

I am almost beginning to think that trying to school during December might be an exercise in futility. And it has nothing to do with the kids, this one is all me. Being "Santa's little helper" is exhausting work. It tends to eat into my time. This is my FAVORITE time of year. I can barely stand it, I want to do everything, wring all the holiday cheer out of the season that we can. And I find that my mind is just... elsewhere. I am the one with the sugar plumbs on the brain. Plus, we have had wonderful field trip opportunities. So, although we have managed to squeeze our reading in faithfully, I have been elfing around on the rest of it.

It was also probably a mistake to give the family the Wii early. We knew we weren't going to be able to do Christmas on Christmas day, so it just got to be "why wait?". Well, to be honest, I was the why wait person and being that we are both HUGE gamer nerds, it wasn't hard to talk Brian into it. So, I should amend that to: "We have faithfully done our reading, and our PE on the WiiFit". (I highly reccomend that PE part, we have a BLAST!). Also, I might have Wii elbow, and that is embarassing. I have been officially injured by a video game, and hoping it will heal, I don't look forward to explaining that to a DR.

So, I still wanna have fun. I am not overly worried, we do school all year round, but I would like to do a tinsy bit more of our regular work so I can save us the awful "review period" after the holidaze. How do you cope with Decembers?

Nutcracker 2009

I left my camera at home and had to take the pictures with my phone. So the quality is lacking. We went to see the Nutcracker this week. The kids had a BLAST! The performance was
wonderful, and I loved how they stopped at intermission to explain how the props, costuming, and stage managers contribute to the show. The second picture is of the device they use to create realistic snow. Is sifts the fake snow down onto the stage in a realistic manner.

I also realized it has been awhile since I have posted. Man, the holidays, or the holidaze has set in full force. Thankfully, I have all the shopping done, most of the crafting done, and all the presents are already wrapped. So I am looking forward to settling back down to school this coming week!

Weekly Wrap Up

Well, I am starting to think that our schooling this week was like a wagon slowly sinking into the mud. Seemed like the more we attempted to move our wheels and make some progress, the deeper in we stuck ourselves.

On Sunday, I took Emma to the Urgent Care center. She had been either bitten or stung by something on her little finger and it had swollen up to scary proportions. So we got some steroids. The week before we had been fighting off some kind of cold, so Sunday was supposed to be my catch up day. Wave goodbye to the catch up day Mommy. Because of that, Monday we decided to do basic school so I could attempt to catch up. We did manage to do a candy experiment.

On Tuesday we were still catching up, so we ran errands and did our basics (spelling, reading, phonics, math). Which was probably a good idea since the child who had started her steroids was having emotional meltdowns every fifteen minutes. As a mom, even though I know its medically induced, its still emotionally draining. When its 10:30am and the patience fund has run dry, that is whey you know its going to be one of those days.

On Wednesday I had another root canal (we are up to #4) on the same tooth. Oh Joy! Since I don't really respond well to heavy medication, we decided to take the day off totally. Unless playing the playstation could count as school? Please?

On Thursday, we had fun!!! Thank Goodness!!! We went on an Aquarium Field Trip. We had a blast, it was a ton of fun and very educational.

Today, we spent a quiet day at home. We did our basic schooling, and I am finally caught up around the house (for now, I should be knocking on wood). I think we will take some of the fun stuff I had planned for the week and do it over the weekend.

I don't think the week was a total loss, we did get our basics done. But I really do like to have more "fun" in our schooling each day. The kids vote for fun too. We had less fun and more errands. Apparently, even if you throw in a slushy from Sonic, its still just errands. According to my kids "you just can't make that fun, Mom".

Too much Halloween Candy? No Problemo.... Hello Science

We have a lot of Halloween candy we can't eat. So we decided to do experiments with the candy we couldn't eat because of the colorings in it.

Our first experiment was "Does it contain Acid?". We took candy, put it in water, then we added baking soda. If the solution bubbles, its an acid. If it doesn't, its not an acid.

Nerds are definitely an acid. M and M's are not. It was fun, the kids loved playing mad scientist with the candy.

We plan to do more experiments this week. We have a whole bucket of candy to make it through!

The AD Players: Secret Garden Play

We went to see the AD Players presentation of The Secret Garden. It was wonderful, the girls loved it. They both posed for pictures with "the acting bug". Chloe got autographs from Collin and Mary. This was such a huge hit, we can't wait for the Christmas play.

Fire Safety Unit Study

I recently had a brainstorming session, where I tried to come up with all the skills/info I thought would be important for the kids health and safety. So we are covering those areas this semester. Our germ unit was a part of this brainstorming session too. This past week was fire prevention week, and this unit study seemed to be a natural progression. We visited the firestation and got some great handouts from the firestation that will supplement our curriculum here and we had a GREAT time. This unit study is probably best for preK- elementary aged children.


Books:

• Fire! Fire! by Gail Gibbons
• Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins
  

Activities:

• have kids practice stop, drop and roll. Explain why it works.
• have a smoke crawl race.
• what does fire need to burn? air, fuel and heat. Light a candle, place a jar over it... why does it go out? Explain how this works with stop, drop, and roll.
  
• check all the smoke alarms and change the batteries.
• explain to the kids what a fire fighter entering the home might look like with the fire mask. Stress the importance of not hiding from the fire fighters.
• learn our address and phone number, and how to call 911. What to report to the person at the 911 call center. Reinforce that you ONLY call during an emergency, discuss what would constitute an emergency.
  
• dramatic play: let the kids pretend to be firefighters.
• Visit your local fire department.
  

Making an Escape plan:

• explain to the kids why it is important to have a plan use this handout.
  
• stress that in the event of a fire emergency they are to get out FAST, not to try to save any belongings.
• Fires can be scary and confusing, you might not be able to see well. Smoke may make the house, or their room very, very dark.
  
• create an escape plan that includes at least two ways out of the house. Then practice using those escape routes. Especially practice taking out a window screen, or lowering a ladder. Actually go out of the house using your two escape routes.
  
• Include information about feeling the doors for heat, and the doorknobs for heat.
• crawl low if there is smoke along your escape route (run through your escape routes practicing crawling).
  
• pick a safe spot outside for the family to meet.
• discuss how important it is to stay outside the house no MATTER WHAT. Don't go back in after pets, or toys.
• Do a fire drill at night, when everyone is asleep to see if the smoke detectors wake the children, and practice using the escape routes. Read this article for the reasons why you should do this.
  

Coloring Pages:

• DLTK

Crafts:

• Fire truck Egg carton Craft
• Fireman toilet Paper craft
• Fire straw painting craft: Supply each child with a straw and a piece of paper. Have kids create a construction paper house that they can glue onto their paper. Then place a dot of red, yellow, orange paint on the windows of the house. Then, have them use the straw to blow the paint around their picture creating flames.
• Fire Truck Sponge Painting: cut a sponge in the shape of a fire truck and let the kids press it onto fire scenes they create.
• Fire Truck Saran Wrap Painting: Give each child a piece of paper with thick lines of red and yellow paint. cover it with saran wrap and then let each child drag the saran wrap a bit to make flames.
  
• Fire shaving cream play: drop red or yellow food coloring into shaving cream and schmear it round!
  

Songs:

• Firesafety song
• The Fire Song
• Sing the chicago fire song: One dark night while we were all in bed, Old lady Leary left the lantern in the shed, and when the cow kicked it over, she winked her eye and said, its going to be a hot time in the old town tonight! Fire, Fire, Fire!!! (then stop drop and roll)

S'Mores and Brownies

Last year we were a part of American Heritage Girls. We liked it, but it was too much in our schedule. It's one of the things that makes having a husband with a variable schedule difficult, it makes signing up for activities that are a weekly commitment difficult.

This year we decided to go back to Girl Scouts, but to sign up for the juliettes program with our friends the Ischy's. Meeting with just one other family allows us to be flexible. (the juliettes program is a program for independent girls instead of a whole troop).

Our first meeting was awesome, we ate smores, learned our brownie handshakes and promises, and drew pictures of girls enacting the girl scout law. This has been the perfect fit for us and we are having a blast!!!!