November 1-2

The day AFTER Halloween is never an easy one… too much sugar, a late night and this time a bit of a cold going around and we have 5 kids on varying levels of miserable. Runny noses are back for some full force and I think we all just wore each other out. Thank goodness we DO homeschool as I had the option of pulling back and letting the kids relax a bit… oh and it was a day that started with “T” so – MINECRAFT! 

Teaching Echo about magnets!

Zander wrote his spelling test for the week… ANOTHER 100%! On a roll this boy is!

Well done Zander!

I really need to put together a crochet completion blog entry… I have finished a bunch and posted… none! So watch for that! I have more and more plans of things to make and do and these fingers are rarely still anymore. So completions are rather consistent!

A quiet place to read?

We made up Halloween mini books with the origami fold. These are all just pictures but it was a fun exercise in taking our time and colouring our very best work. I think Zander plans on sending his up to a friend in Canada next week! You can find them HERE.

Coloured books

I am on the hunt for multiple things to augment our schooling… Brazil for Emanuel’s monthly mailing… Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims for… well you know… and USA in general… gotta get the country down pat before those yearly tests… ugh ugh ugh. So… I AM looking for affordable suggestions! Suggest away world!

Friday morning Ken and the kids finally got the chance to do their Halloween craft. We waited too long to get our traditional foam sets so instead they all made their own spider webs out of special strings. I got to sleep in and they got time with their Dad crafting. I think we all won out on that one!

Crafting with Daddy

Trinity worked at her workbook that Gammie sent us. She somehow ended up on the perfect workpage to send in our next pen pal letters (which we also received this week) to Gammie. 

Trinity and her page

In our letters from Gammie was some money to get a Halloween treat! So when we went out to do all our errands (yarn, looking at what Ken would like to buy with his birthday money…) we stopped off at Dairy Queen for fried cheese curds and Dilly bars! We still have enough left over for a treat later that week at McDonald’s! They have their cones on for 49 cents each!! 

Thank you!

The poem which  you can watch on youTube… or below was found on this page HERE. I had the twins decorate our page as usual to go in our special art and such folder. I think they did a great job as usual! Note again that Emanuel is right there reciting along and this time… a special guest… Miss Echo! 

Decorated page

We still have a ton of candy to eat… and now the mind is turning to Thanksgiving… wish me luck!

One of our Education.com print outs

Education.com is a favourite resource of mine for print outs and crafting activities. Well, recently they came up with something called Wonder Box for the preschool/Kindergarten age. Sadly I was unable to test the product when they were first setting it up as it could not be shipped up to Canada. I figured it would be a wonderful thing to get for Trinity. I was especially lucky and won a box in a draw on The Adventures of Supermom site! So here goes!

Wonder Box

The boxes come with a theme and our theme was Mad Scientist with some crafty bits, magnets AND a baking activity! 

I love the packaging, even cloth bags

We started with what quickly became Trinity AND Echo’s favourite project. The I Spy Bottle. I love the little blurb that came along with it: Shake up some science with this twist on the classic game. Kids make a portable treasure hunt using two liquids  that don’t like to mix. Challenge your child to find a letter or a sound as you show density in action, then shake it up and start again. 

This activity came with a bottle around half full of corn syrup, some colourful letter beads and some sequins. First we went through the letters and spelled out Trinity’s name and then picked a few of her favourite letters to drop in. Then some of the sequins… top it off with water and shake (with the lid on). I am hoping to find some more bottles and make a few more of these as Echo absolutely LOVES it. Though we did find the beads float right up to the top rather quickly. Someone else linked me something called a time out bottle that totally reminded me of this craft. That is my next project… once I get my hands on glitter glue and clear tacky glue! 

Checking out those letters

Dropping them in

Thus entertaining the baby sister very well

Our next activity was Magnet Magic. You have a “magic wand”, some magnetic chips and a couple bingo sheets with a colour dice. First we scouted out all the magnetic things we could find in the kitchen. Echo was right down there for that. 

Magnetic??

And then we played colour bingo using the wand to clean up our sheets after. Trinity was quick to catch on that we needed metal items to have them stick to the wand.

Collecting the chips

Our third activity was a mosaic one. Three cards with different shape outlines in varying colours on the image with a corresponding sticker sheet. Each of the three cards had some neat scientific fact. Trinity was more than willing to allow a very enthusiastic Emanuel to help! 

Mosaic

The final activity in our Wonder Box was a baking one! Bubble Bread!!! Very hands on and lots of fun! I will share the recipe:

What  you need:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• raisins or other mix-ins (optional)
• mixing bowl
• large cup
• mixing spoon
• round greased baking pan

What to do:

1. preheat your oven to 400 degrees
2. mix milk and vinegar in a cup and set aside for about 10 min. The acid in the milk will react with the baking soda. Don’t worry, the bread will still taste delicious!
3. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and raisins (if desired) to the bowl
4. Stir in the milk and vinegar mixture into the dry ingredients and mix them until smooth. As the dough stiffens, little hands may need some help with the kneading
5. scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a floured surface
6. Shape the dough into a disk about 1 inch thick, and place it into the greased pan
7. Bake about 15 min, and keep an eye on the bread as it rises. Science in action!

Since we couldn’t see through the window in the stove well enough to really see the growth we opened the oven door a few times so that the kids could marvel in the rising! And then when we cut it open – BUBBLES in the bread! They were very impressed and it didn’t taste half bad! 

Working with Mommy

Maybe a little more flour on the counter??

Bubbles

We really enjoyed our time with the Wonder Box.  I am hoping I can get one right after Christmas for Trinity again. So if you are looking for a fun activity box for the little ones in your life AND live in the USA… Wonder Box is a TERRIFIC option!! I am so thankful we received this one. 

Three children thoroughly entertained!!!

In honour of it being Valentine’s Day today we decided to deviate even further from our regular activities. With the traditional red, white or pink outfits and Valentine’s day photographs first. We have limited photo friendly areas in our very busy and full house, but we managed. 

My fabulous 5

The twins

My 3 boys

So cute

Just the girls

Miss T

Miss E

Me too!

And then there were the worksheets I found and printed out for the kids. The little ones enjoyed a couple sheets from Education.com. Trinity’s rose tattoo feeling colouring page can be found HERE. There was a math sheet from tlsbooks.com that you can find HERE. I actually have a collection at Education.com that you can access that is full of the Valentine’s day themed sheets we printed for the kids. I plan on reviewing them all tonight. You can find the two math sheets the twins did HERE and HERE. Gavin is slightly more confident so I had him do the one with 3 digits. You can find a variety of seasonal worksheets if you head to this portion of their website HERE.

Hiding behind worksheets

The little ones worked on GeoTraxs of course. Our kitchen is a lovely sunny place in the daytime and deemed a perfect place to build their city. I am amazed at how well the two of them shared, though sadly they both can’t seem to kick this cold! 

GeoTrax

Today’s big crafting project was to make a felt tic-tac-toe board with a Valentine’s theme. You can find the original idea I worked from HERE. Each of the hearts were sewn by the boys (twins) with minimal assistance. We used the felt sheets with adhesive on the back for the board itself and the pink cross hatches. I think they turned out wonderfully. 

Sewing hearts

Completed board

Ken and I had a special Valentine’s Day lunch! He surprised me with Pizza Hut delivery – Calzones and Pepsi. Nothing super fancy but sitting together, watching an episode of my newest anime (Black Butler) and chatting was more than enough for me! The kids were sent to quiet time or naps in their rooms with the doors closed (the twins were more than willing with new toys to take an enjoy and a break from schooling) so it really was JUST US and in the DAYTIME no less! Fancy glasses for the pop (Harp beer ones, Ken’s) and all!

Lunch!

We still have a few more worksheets to accomplish that have a Valentine’s Day theme (and our Valentines to complete for the weekend’s cookie party). I figure we can spend the rest of the week to do those, as well as our Inuit studies. As it is we have a lovely stack of finished bits to go into our lapbook already! What we did do is have a lovely visit with Karyn and her mom who is up for the week. They stopped by with Valentine’s … My Little Pony Valentines! 

Visiting

While they were here Gavin created a castle out of magnets which we OF COURSE had to take a picture of!

Magnetic castle

And now we are enjoying out house guest once again. Sean got bored at home and decided to come back. A broken foot apparently means little or no entertainment when you live on your own. 

So, nothing extravagant for me over Valentine’s Day… but then again why do I need ONE day to express my love for Ken? We had that one day almost 11 years ago when we pledged to love and be faithful to each other for the rest of our lives. Each day from there on is a reflection of that promise and that love. Something I want to be more aware of. No, I don’t need ONE day, I have ALL my days for the rest of my life to remember and recognize and celebrate that decision and pledge. We may not have much but we have each other, the kids, our love and our faith. Well… come to think of it, that is a whole lot! 

One more of Echo cuz I can!