Turkey Cookies for Turkey Day!

We've been baking!  The kids' home school group is having a harvest party in honor of Thanksgiving and we were asked to bring the cookies.   We thought about just plain Jane chocolate chip or simple frosted sugar cookies but then I decided to do a little searching for something a bit more "special".   In my hunt I came across these cute little turkey cookies from Pillsbury.   We made two substitutions to the original idea, we used a family sugar cookie recipe instead of slice and bake cookie dough and we used homemade chocolate icing instead of store bought.  Even though our decorating didn't turn out quite as neat and tidy as the original the kids had a blast helping to decorate them and gave rave reviews on the taste from the couple of cookies they sampled.  All in all I'd say it was a success. 

On the learning front we've been studying the Pilgrims and early colonial period of American history.  We've read The Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern.

And we're reading The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty. 

 The kids have been busy coloring turkeys and listing all the things they are thankful for this year.  They've had a lot of fun learning about Thanksgiving this week but I think we are all ready for the holiday break. 

Bouncy Balls

Despite the rough December we've had, life and homeschooling must go on. So, we've been learning the very basics about polymers. We started with a basic definition and have moved on to the best part, the experiments! Our first project: Make our own bouncy balls!

We made our first bouncy balls from a store bought kit.  They've turned out pretty well.  They bounce without falling apart which was something I was a little worried about.  My kids managed to make them without creating a huge mess, another thing I was worried about.  The crystals come in several fun colors and come with resealable plastic baggies plus two different molds so you can make all kinds of different concoctions.  There are supposed to be enough supplies to make 21 different bouncy balls which is enough to make it worth the $10 I spent for the kit IF the supplies stretch that far.  We'll have to wait and see.

Next up on the project list is a more involved bouncy ball project found here.  Then we will make our own slime.  As the household cleaning lady, I'm kind of dreading that experiment.   And then last, but certainly not least, we will try making our own silly putty. Part of the idea here is to help the kids realize just how many different things in their world are polymers and help them identify which things are not polymers like metal or brick.  

We've Been Decorating

Our homeschooling curriculum has been focused around a Christmas theme for the last week or so and as a result the kids have made a lot of Christmas projects and decorations. It's been a fun way to keep them busy while teaching them all about Christmas customs around the world, the history of some of the decorations we use,  as well as the Nativity story and other holiday gems like The Gift of the Magi.

Everything they worked on was created out of simple household items like paper plates, tissue paper, construction paper and direct from the printer coloring pages with the exception of the mug centerpiece which required a mug (obviously), some floral foam (the green foam), some wire, bits of evergreen branches, and miscellaneous Christmas beads.  Throw in some safety scissors and scotch tape and we had inexpensive projects for each day of the week.   The kids had great fun and ended up learning too, you can't beat that.



Hello, Sunshine!

It's been a bit soggy in our neck of the woods.  It's rained almost everyday for the last month or so and our forecast is calling for rain 9 out of the next 10 days.  I'm seriously considering buying a boat. Today was one of the very few days when there was no rain at all.

Thankfully, though, the last couple of days weren't that bad. It sprinkled a couple of times throughout the day and came down really hard once or twice. I say "thankfully" because I was at the Relay for Life event and it would have been truly awful if it had rained the entire time.  It was kind of interesting though, it did sprinkle at the event, but it never downpoured, as I said before it DID downpour a couple of times throughout the day, it's just that it did so in the areas surrounding the fairgrounds where we were but it never rained buckets on the fairgrounds themselves. I don't think the rain would've dampened the spirits of most of the walkers regardless but it was nice that we didn't get soaked out there.   Even better, despite an almost completely gray, cloudy, blah day the sun managed to peak out right at the start of the survivors lap.  It really was inspiring. It lasted the whole lap and part of the next.  Some people may call me silly but I like to think that it was God smiling on them.  All told there were 57 teams, 389 participants and the event raised $44,758.16 for cancer research and support!!!!
You can check out more information about Relay for Life at the American Cancer Society website.

The kids and I took advantage of the little time we could get outside the last couple of days by going to the nature preserve and checking out the waterfall and the pond.  

The pictures aren't the greatest quality, there is a nice smudge in the lower left corner in each and every picture.  The result of Oldest saying "I promise I won't drop your camera" and then promptly dropping my camera, lens first, into the dirt.

On the Homeschooling Front

I think homeschooling is tough in January.    For us, January is kind of a blah month anyways but by this point in our homeschooling year the inspiration well is starting to run a little dry, the kids have cabin fever, and it's difficult to get up the motivation to really hunker down and work as opposed to popping some popcorn, making some cocoa, and watching a good movie.  We're hunkering down and "getting her done" anyways, although we have had a couple of movie days here and there.

Oldest is breezing through her OHVA workbooks and online instruction. She's doing really well in reading, struggling a bit in math (I suppose she gets that from her mother) but she's improving.  Her Bible studies are going well and she's loving the art class we signed her up for at the cultural center in town. She's still doing girl scouts and will be visiting the senior citizens center this weekend which she is excited about doing.

Middle is working on reading through the funnix program and really enjoying it. We downloaded a free copy from their website. Which is awesome because the program is usually $249 and with this promotion you get the entire program, both funnix begging reader program and funnix 2 plus the teachers guide, workbook, and stories, for free. I mean, seriously awesome deal.

Middle is doing really well with the math worksheets that we're giving him and his letter writing is coming along really well. He's looking forward to little league in the spring and karate in a couple of weeks. Both oldest and middle are going to see Seussical at the theater tomorrow so they are extremely excited about that.

So, as you can see, even though it gets a bit boring around January, we still have plenty that we are working on.

As far as my knitting goes I finished the intarsia square, YAY!!! I only had to frog it a total of six times but it came out alright in the end.