Thursday, December 30, 2010

winter craft party {friends}

before we left on vacation the girls had a winter craft party with some homeschooling buddies.
[promised not to post pix of guests faces...had to leave some really fun pix out]
we mixed up huge batches of salt dough
then went to work
i even made somethings for some certain little sweethearts. the rainstorm ruined some of our other crafting plans so...
we improvised.
dance party, hula hooping, twister, hide & seek...tons of fun...
& lots of silly girlness...
the girlies mixed up a snack mix. i made pumpkin bread & spiced apple juice...
mexican hot chocolate w/ mallows & candy canes for stirring.

*even as homeschoolers we hardly ever seem to have time for playdates. so this little get together was such a fun way for all of us to wrap up the learning period & finally kick off winter break!
*i hit send on this post as we were walking out the door for vacation & LOST IT!
but since winter break is not over...i still wish everyone a fantastic one!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

random + fun

random + fun
i made this guy. i love this guy.
20 mins of mama making din =
20 mins of girlies making these instead of watching TV
mama's extra special kids-do-not-touch Anthro Koi plate set. by luck they look good together! 
[hey i know my kids & they have EVERYTHING else in the house! ]
 my fantastically fantastic neighbor made these fantastically fantastical dark chocolate amaretto soaked cakes. not usually an amaretto girl...but
besides being super pretty they were delish with parmesan eggs & fresh tomatoes for breakfast & 2 pm coffee.

*we are finally enjoying winter break*
hope everyone else is enjoying too!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

a few things a girl may need when exploring backyard mushrooms

sometimes a girl just dont need no stinkin' text book!  TO THE BACKYARD! 
sometimes a smarty big sister IS needed though
& your very own very scientifical ladybug magnifiying glass...
& a pair of well loved very scientifical cowboy boots that used to belong to said older sister
  & your own very scientifical investigating stick for prodding stuff you're not sure you are supposed too...or even WANT to touch with your hands...like the "skills"you didnt know mushroom caps had underneath...
{when 3 was telling Dad about her investigation she said her "mushroom had skills!" HILARIOUS!}
  & especially when you find that the center of said mushroom is infested with a nest of tiny wiggly white wormy larvae...that totally gross your mama out...
& you too! 
 so you decide that sometime nature is just  beautifully disgusting...
& that was enough of that!

*parent teacher conferences tomorrow morning at 8 am & then we are ON VACATION!!! so excited b/c us girlies have a lot of making to do.

2's The Cay Island Party

The day before winter break 2's workshop class had a tropical island themed party to celebrate their completion of the book The Cay.

they had tropical snacks & made crafts.
the students were asked to bring something found on a tropical island.
instead of ...lets say a pineapple or mango...my girl wanted to bring an animal.
 we have many choices.
she really wanted to bring Zoingo her grumpy beardie,
but we decided on the treefrogs. Oliver (the frog...not to be confused with Oliver our dog) was showing his bright blue color & amused the kiddies. Sisco was in complete contrast showing stark white & hiding under the moss. 
[not sure who snapped this shot with my digi]
2 & her workshop teacher...LOVE this woman!!!
me & my girl. 
by this time i had driven to the campus 4 times & all the way back home 3 times with one more trip to go. look at my face...cant you tell?
the things us mamas do for love :)

Friday, December 10, 2010

being bored kid no.3

*being bored kid no.3*
*when you are kid no.3*
 [you're not used to being the only one]
*or the not the center of attention*
 [even if no.1 & no.2 are only gone a few hours]
*you get extremely bored*
[& mama is standing right in front of you being busy]
 *ignoring you in your mind*
[you try hard to get her attention]
 *though she keeps trying to focus on her work*
[you have an idea]
 *a brilliantly clever idea*
[your idea works & you win]
*it's hard to resist this girl*

Thursday, December 9, 2010

mixing it up with grammar fun

look! i'm not talking about science for a change!
(conference week is coming up & i have to gather all our samples. so glad the charter teacher is letting us use blog post for samples. hope to mix it up though.)

* first i was soooo excited to find this post @ active-alert...not ADHD kids. explains soooo much @ my girl & i now can further my research.

i was looking for fun ways to enrich grammar. something to help the definitions (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc...) sink in & stick for Miss 2 (3rd). wanted a break from our regular cirriculum & texts. 
(for writing among other things we use writing strands)

*luckily i found this Having Fun with Grammar post & we did indeed have fun with Grammar!

* 3 (kinder) played grammar games with beginning & ending sounds; rhyming & ordering & following directions at PBS kids Between The Lions.

* this post was fun for 2's age Teaching Grammar with Mad Libs. LOVE Mad Libs. we also enjoyed watching the School House Rock vids on parts of speech (look for them). my all time childhood fave is the Conjunction video!

* this was one of 2's mad lib results. the colored words are the words she used for the parts of speech they asked her to plug in.

Read your tale.

 Kids in Space
(by 2)

What if you lived on the International Space Station? Imagine your normal day as it is now, but in space!

In the morning, you get up at 230 and get dressed in your space skinny jeans and space tshirt. There is no gravity in space, so you float into the kitchen to eat your breakfast of dried hotdogs, hamburgar in a tube, and smashed up chili in a plastic space container. Then, instead of taking the bus to school, you hop into a motorcycle and orbit Earth 543 times.

In the motorcycle,you do little science experiments such as determining how good a(n) horse is at climbing in space. When the experiments are done, you go outside the motorcycle for some exercise in space. You ran outside the motorcycle for an hour or more. When you are done exercising, you go back to the International Space Station for other activities such as hiking, biking, and runing.

You end the day by sending a(n) girl to your parents via the space computer, and they tell you goodnight from Earth, down below.


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

kitchen science{it's like butta baby}

science
{it's like butta baby}

yesterday for science we discussed & experimented with changes of states of matter (liquid to solid) by making butter.
sometimes these changes in state take a lot of forcing despite the simple ingredients!
all four of us took several turns shaking (agitating) the jar about a million times.
 a million more to go...
 VIOLA (finally!)
(after draining all the buttermilk i put the butter back in the jar & shook it around to smooth the shape)
our creamy & fresh homemade butter was delish for din in corn, on breakfast bagels, sourdough toast & eggs, tomato, cheese & turkey bacon scramble.
we all had fun (hee hee).
it was 3's first time making butter so it was funny to see how amazed she was to see the liquid cream turn into a solid ball magically right before her eyes (like...what just happened ?!?). 

*so excited to find out that our charter school will let me print out my blog posts as work samples. YAAAY!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

math at miss 2's boutique & sweet shack

 yesterday Miss 2 set up shops to practice adding three 2-digit numbers together. welcome to Miss 2's boutique & Miss 2's Sweets Shack.

{Miss 2's Boutique}

she REALLY loves this job! (so stinkin' cute this girl!)
pricing
inventory
merchandising
 a cute little customer
 after a full morning of boutique shopping we enjoyed pecan pie & ice cream at

{Miss 2's Sweet Shack}
 (wish i had a good pic of the cute shop & menu sign)
taking orders
(following pix taken by 1)
our orders

Miss 2 is the cutest little hard worker. we were very happy customers!