Sunday, December 20, 2015

Homemade Gifts and A Christmas Wake Up Call for Me

Well, I was excited to make Christmas gifts for everyone this year and I almost accomplished that!!!!  

For the 5 little girls in my life I made snuggle mermaid tail blankets

For the women in my family I made pure silk pillowcases accompanied by modestly wrap bracelets I ordered months ago during a good promotion.  I was really excited how these turned out and that I didn't have any problems sewing silk with my $50 brother sewing machine from Walmart.  I did use a fresh ball point needle though!  And I learned how to do a French seam which was exciting!  Then my favorite added touch was the label I created for fun with a list if the benefits of using silk pillowcases on the back including care instructions tied on with a raw strip of silk remnants.  I ordered the real silk from dharmatrading.com

For my dad who has ALS, I made him a double layered fleece poncho blanket so my mom can easily adjust his layers when he is up for the day in his chair. I'm really happy with this because dad was always hard to know what to gift other than an REI gift cards to help add to his collection of mountain climbing and surviving gear and a lot harder now that he has essentially no mobility.


For a fun little Waldorf inspired gift for my little boys, I made a serving wooden minecraft blocks.  I love Grimms colored wooden building toys and my 5 year old lives minecraft (yeah a bit of a contradiction, I'm sure true Waldorf peeps wouldn't even have their kids play a video game...but I have sorta taken all the different educational philosophies that resonate with me and dumped them out of their boxes and onto the floor altogether for a flexible jumbled whatever mix of them all! Rather than climb into any one box lol!)


The square storage box was $3 at Michaels and I ordered the 1.5 inch wooden blocks from craftparts.com.  I dipped them in food coloring mixed with rubbing alcohol like dying Easter eggs.  The black blocks I dipped them in my black Sumi Ink.  For the iconic grass on dirt blocks I dipped each side in brown food coloring leaving one side blank which I then dipped in green.  I think these will be a gift to both my boys even though my 2 year old doesn't play minecraft but for him they are still cool naturally colored wood blocks.  After they were dry, I dipped them in vinegar as I read that could help seal the color.  So now we have a cool Grimm Toys style natural minecraft wooden blocks! 

And in the works is a balance beam for our little gymnastics daughter that we started building last night and will probably finish assembling today and some snuggle shark tail blankets like the mermaid ones for my boys. They are cut and ready to sew! 

Update with balance beam:


I will say, as I posted on Instagram earlier this month we were going to take a break from our regular style learning for the month so we could basically do a unit study on Christmas time focusing on learning through living, creating, crafting, baking, card and story writing, pouring through as many beautiful Christmas and Winter theme books as we could get our hands on and focus totally on the season.  It's been awesome!  My kids have learned so much, improved their art skills and we've been able to incorporate a LOT of math into everything we do!  The more I learn about living math and understand the concepts and goals myself, the more I can incorporate it into everything we do without it ever feeling like smart lesson!  And the kids are totally getting it without and coercion.  I have still pulled out my daughters Brain quest book for some math page practice but it's been very interesting how mathy we can be outside of a text and have it be fun (VERY exciting for a math phobe like me!).  (Oooo...I just came across a term that describes our month very well...project based homeschooling).

I did have one set back.  It was the shark tails.  I was starting to stress about getting them done to mail in time and this past week my 2 year old must be cutting teeth or something...he's been totally irritable and fussy and it was rubbing off on everyone.  On Wednesday I was literally praying "oh Lord this feels too crazy please help us!!!" My daughter kept begging to go to the library, the baby kept getting up from nap and finally I was like "ugh yes fine lets go I have other errands we can run too then"...then as I and the kids stressed out and in a rush ran out to the car, I realized I left the keys in those house and locked ourselves out.  It was crystal clear what was going on...everything had been going so well with my plan to savor the season with the kids and then I still got caught up in being busy and stressed and suddenly realized what a beautiful day it was and we didn't belong anywhere doing anything else other than being outside enjoying it and connecting with each other!!!  It was The Lord putting me in an abrupt but good and needed "time out" and the kids and I played on the trampoline together laughing and being silly for the remainder of the afternoon  and evening until my hubby got home from work to let us in.  The kids had such a great time with me being completely focusee on them...chasing them around the trampoline and making gingerbread cookies out of them...cracking the egg on each knee (remember that game?) mixing it up with lots if tickles, adding LOTS of sugar (smothered in kisses) rolling then out etc....the said "Can we get locked out if the house everyday!!!!??!" 

The next day was an even more beautiful day and while I felt the pull of finishing Christmas cards and getting to the post office...I said ok I learned my lesson yesterday Lord, I'm not going to waste this nearly 70 degree sunny day to Christmas  errands.  So we went to the library (what the kids had been begging to do all week), stopped at ups to mail the cards and then went to the grocery store next door to buy lunch and snacks and we then spent the day at a little sandy beach that's apart if a big lake that is not far from us. It was like pretty much the best day ever. And guess what? By the end if the week I still got done everything I had been so distracted with...and the days I did do it the weather had changed to cold and rainy!  

Christmas is a joyful time of year but if we let all the self imposed to-dos....even though they are really good to-do's, interfere with the real joy of connecting with those we love and cherish most...then it's not really worthy of all the hustle and energy we put into it.  Now, I didn't end up sending all my gifts by the deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery but my extended family and friends know it's coming and that we love them and more importantly...my kids know how important they are to me and how much I love them, and praise God for that when he woke me up by showing me how I was allowing myself to get frazzled by locking myself out!!!  

Seeing these pictures and all our nature finds we brought hone from that day reminds me to thank The Lord for allowing me to be a flexible person and for the ability to be home with the kids so we can even have these spontaneous adventures and be reminded over and over no matter how much we research great Homeschool supplies and resources...that learning is like breathing, it happens all the time! 

Thursday, December 3, 2015

An AWESOME DIY Homemade Christmas

Well, Black Friday has come and gone and now onto the the non-stop deals on whatever crap people are compelled to buy in the hustle to get Christmas shopping done.

I have a different plan.  Nothing speaks to my heart more than a nice homemade gift. I love receiving them and getting them!  While there are lots of great diy gift ideas on Pinterest, I am going to share some of my plans for diy Christmas gifts this year.  Most of our Christmas shopping this year is going to be for supplies to make these.  I even did take advantage of Black Friday shopping by getting a great deal on blizzard fleece on Joann's website so I never even left the house!

These are not just cheesy homemade gifts that you make and then at the last minute feel like you should still buy something anyways to go with it...These are AWESOME stand alone great gifts that can replace whatever else you may have purchased otherwise!

MERMAID AND SHARK TAIL SNUGGLE BLANKETS
For all the girls and boys in my life I am making either fleece mermaid tail blankets or shark eating me blankets.  I got the fleece on Joanns Black Friday cyber deal for $2.50/yard so these are a super fun gift to make and keep your budget down!  

You can get a tutorial here and here


but it looks pretty easy to figure out and just wing both without a pattern.

Howeverfor those who like to SEE examples and various ways to do it, shark blanket tutorials can be found such as this 

Or HERE
mermaid tail, blanket, ariel, mermaid tail blanket

or get a pattern to make both on etsy here 

ANTI-AGING AND HEALTHY HAIR SILK PILLOWCASES
For the women in my family, I will be making up some hair and beauty silk pillowcases.  There is a great tutorial on HowDoesShe that you can follow.  I may do mine a little different and try to embed some lavendar...we shall see.  I ordered the real silk on dharmatrading.com as recommended from the tutorial. I will make a cute litle printout of all the benefits of silk pillowcases to go with.With 1 yard per pillowcase this gift rings in at just under $10 each.



WOODEN MINECRAFT BLOCKS AND PLAY PARTS
For my son who likes Minecraft and loves building with blocks, I ordered a set of 50 1.5 inch unfinished wood blocks from craftparts.com.  He's 5 and I LOVE Grimm style wood toys, but instead of rainbow blocks, I am going  to dip dye the blocks in food coloring in the main minecraft colors and may get a little creative to make a few special blocks.  My son has a good imagination, and dying them with minecraft theme colors, he can enjoy building his own minecraft stuff but his imagination wont be limited to minecraft play.  If you want a more specific minecraft look check out this diy post on wooden Minecraft Blocks.  It's more involved with printing the skins, cuting, modgepodging etc but looks cool.
 diy minecraft block cube gregoryd

My daughter is making other minecraft things to go with the block set as her gift to her brother with perler beads.  She is just making them up based on how she knows minecraft looks but here is some inspiration...Check it out HERE


GYMNASTICS BALANCE BEAM
For any gymnastics loving girls, there a tons of tutorials online for constructing your own balance beam.  I plan on using a fun color combo with fun faux suede and paint on the wood frame.  There are LOTS of different tutorials to make them but it doesn't have to be complicated! Here's a simple tutorial here

For awesome balance beam color combo ideas, check out this pinterest board.


DIY DOLL GYMNASTICS SET
For our little gymnasts and doll loving girl, my husband is going to "help" our son make a gymnastics set for his sister for his Christmas gift to her.  He'll make a set of bars from pvc pipe and using a tutorial like this and we'll make some velcro grips so she can swing around.  

For a mat you could just layer some craft foam or get a small piece of thin foam padding and wrap it in cute duct tape.

Doll Beam (we'll make one that matches her beam)

CANDY POPCORN
For other great people in your life like friends, neighbors, teachers, etc...ne of my favorite things to make is my mom's carmel popcorn recipe and then drizzle melted chocolate over top, package in cellophane bags and pair with a Christmas card.

and for the men....that's where I am still deciding!  Maybe homemade BBQ rub and custom aprons? i don't know but here are some great lists of ideas for the men here and here and here.

Shopping for the perfect gifts can be super stressful and time consuming and making a bunch of gifts can seem completely overwhelming.  But if you can consolidate projects by making all kids the same thin, all women the same thing, all men the same thing and all neighbors etc the same thing...then you just take a couple session focused on that one project.  The key to enjoying the season and meking homemade gifts is to be intentional about how you spend your time.  Less running around and more resting and making.  Less Christmas activities for more relaxed Christmas season savoring at home!  Don't feel like your kids are going to miss out if they don't attend every Christmas party and activity there is to do.  The kids will remember making a homemade gift while smelling cookies in the oven more than they will the blur of events and errands that sometimes englufs the entire season.  Order as much as you can online, even fabric if possible and only do the running around that is absolutely necessary!  That way we can be productive, give great gifts while still feeling the joy of the season and create lasting memories with our children.  

As for us as homeschoolers, I also posted about this on instagram under the picture of my daughter making a minecraft diamond with her perler beads...that since we HAVE the flexibilty, we are going to take the month off of regular school and learn through living and all the productive hands-on Christmas time things we do. It is just too much to maintain a regular homeschool schedule and then pile on top of that all the other things we want to do.  So we are making the season fun and learning through all our fun seasonal activities and gift making!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Art.Beauty.Homemaking.Motherhood.



As a sahm and especially a homeschool mom, I know for me personally, there are times I don't feel beautiful anymore.  I think of women who have to get ready for their professional career and polish up everyday or women my age who are not yet mothers and take great care of themselves with great shoes, clothes, regularly maintained and colored hair and the best makeup and nail polish!  Or especially other mothers who seem to do it ALL while looking fantastic.  Then I look down and there is pretty much ALWAYS something on my shirt, chipped uneven nails, just a little but of nail polish left on my big toes that's been wearing off for over a month, a year of highlights grown out, tired dull skin and eyes, and pretty much just feeling plain jane.  When your day starts with caring for a baby, toddler, sick or scared child who kept you up all night, rather than jump out of bed and get beautified for work and friends, it's a zombie walk to the kitchen for coffee first!  Then more kids appear, need breakfast, help, attention, direction...pets also start meowing or whimpering for a need as well.  Your day gets going and before you know it, it's well into the day, you finally catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror when you managed to get a bathroom break and it can be startling to see the tired, disheveled, unkempt, starting to age, worn out person in the mirror and feel like all traces of whatever former beauty have been lost.

I can also feel this way about creativity and art.  I wanted to be a couple things when I was in my youth...number one...I always wanted to be a mom but other dreams included being a fine artist, spending time in Italy as an apprentice to gain and polish professional skills, compose music for movie soundtracks and maybe a few other grand dreams.  When I glance in the mirror on those days and see an uglier version of myself, I sometimes feel that way about my creative and artistic abilities...lost in the wash...probably gone to the same place of no return that all those socks go to....which is why my kids wear mismatched socks a lot of the time!

BUT...as depressing and pitiful as that all sounds, thankfully those days are a small minority of the time because I am reminded that BEAUTY isn't merely a state of being and neither is art.  Both are an expression.  Both can be expressed and enjoyed in many non-tangible, non-capturable ways, all throughout our day...every day!

Motherhood and homemaking are sources of insurmountable joy and satisfaction yet at the same time very exhaustive, stressful and humbling.  Motherhood BREAKS you.  But, if approached with intention, unselfishness, humbleness, a willingness to learn from our children and pray over everything and seek out the Holy Spirit's inspiration as our main go to parenting resource that we can tap into anytime....from or brokenness, a new beautiful creature arises from within.  TRUE BEAUTY.  Expressed in our love for our children, how we teach them, treat them and give our unconditional enduring love, being teacher and students of our children.  Learning who they are, embracing who they are, cultivating their personality traits to work for their good so they can serve as strengths more than weakness...which is ultimately done through constant prayer and seeking of guidance.  This new beautiful strong creature is shed of some of her former self...and usually a lot for the better...shed of shallowness, selfishness, impatience and pride just to name a few.  

Art and creativity are also expressed in child raising and homemaking on a daily basis.  Living simply, unhurried and connected with our surroundings, creating quality time, being up to enjoy and go with the flow to enjoy the spontaneous and the planned moments together, exploring and discovering the world together, creating things together, creating an environment to cultivate their little hearts, minds and spirits....there is just so much that happens everyday that is an expression of art and creativity.  

My family and home are my canvas and God is the medium-blended into every color, coated on every brush and layered onto every part of the canvas that I work on everyday.  It all goes on smoother, blends better and has a better overall finish when He is a part of it.

Often when thoughts of not fulfilling or cultivating my gifts and passions, I'm reminded that right now, in this season, my family and my home are my canvas and my various paintbrushes are prayer, unscheduled time, nature, living books, beautiful homeschool resources, nature journaling, character development, devotional/hymn/poetry study, teachable moments, the right extra curricular activities for us, a handful of sweet friends, extended family, Holy Spirit inspiration and God is the paint medium, blended into every color, coated on every brush and layered onto every part of the canvas that I am working everyday.  It all goes on smoother, blends better and has a better finish when He is a part of it.  

Aside from drawing in our nature notebooks or doing art with my kids, using my rusty art skills, I am OK...no actually I am MORE than OK to wait until a season when more tangible art projects will be a part if my life...but for now...living art is what it is and finding the beauty and joy in the messy and mundane moments.  (Have you ever walked into an painting studio?  It's messy and simple and bare...but then, in the midst of the unglamorous setting, stands a beautiful work of art in progress with someone spending hours upon hours, diligently working on it....that is just like life!)
Taking in the simple yet complex beauty of the world as we discover it again in new and profound ways alongside our children, our beauty is expressed through our simple joy and contentment, love of nature, love for each other and ultimately love of our creator.  

My personal beauty is not exactly expressed as it was in more youthful years through youthful glowing skin, flat ironed-still naturally blond hair, push up bras and citizen jeans that fit just so...but it IS expressed through creating a peaceful, loving home and a sanctuary for my children and husband to come home to. I cannot do that so well on my own strength alone-but through Adonai-a loving, understanding and creative Father and Savior who knows me and loves me just the way I am.  

This is the season I'm in and it is full of art and beauty and when I look at it this way I am in no hurry for this season to end, sometimes I with it would never have to end. I am content.  

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Muffins

Not too sweet, not too chocolate-y, just the right amount of banana flavor with just a hint of coffee all in a "no one could tell" gluten free dairy free muffin!

Gluten Free
Chocolate Chip Coffee Banana Muffins

1 c shortening or Butter (I use spectrum organic shortening or Earth Balance to make these dairy free)
1 cup sugar (organic cane sugar)
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
1/4 cup brewed coffee
1 TBSP vanilla
2 1/4 cup gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum (King Arthur makes a good one if you don't have your own blend)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda 
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (dairy free)

Preheat oven to 350

Grease muffin tin or use cupcake liners.  I like to grease it because the muffins fall apart more when you peel the liners off and you get a better crust without paper liners.

Blend shortening and sugar.  Then add eggs, bananas, coffee and vanilla and mix on low until smooth and combined.

In seperate bowl combine dry ingredients and then add to the banana mixture, stir til combined.

Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins.  I fill almost to top of muffin cup.

For regular size muffins bake 15-17 minutes or until golden-brown on top.

For mini muffins bake for 12-15 minutes until golden-brown on top.

Remove from oven and let set for a minute or 2 then transfer to wire cooling rack.  


Enjoy!


Sunday, November 15, 2015

Gluten Free Dairy Free Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with "Cream Cheese" Frosting



OK, so after some trial and error, I finally was able to convert my favorite pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting recipe to a point that I'm happy to share it!  I have no idea the source of my original recipe, I got it from a company event with Ehow when I was writing a lot of articles with them back in the day and they brought some of the writers out to California and when we went to San Fransisco we went to a fun cooking place and happened to make these cupcakes as part of the event.  They were so delicious!!! I had a printed out copy on paper but no source on it.  I made them once more When I got home and soon after that we went Gluten Free and Dairy Free.  I had tried making these a couple times since but I didn't know how to replace the cream cheese so that was a bummer and whenever I made them gluten free they turned out very flat dense and overly oily and moist.  I tweaked little things here and there and my family always liked them but they still weren't right....til now!


Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with "Cream Cheese" Frosting
Gluten and Dairy Free!

2 cups sugar
3/4 cup oil *
1 can pumpkin purée (14.5 oz)
6 eggs
2 cups gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum**
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 TBSP baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 pumpkin spice
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350
Prepare 24 regular size or do some regular size and some mini cupcake size.  I often don't have cupcake liners on hand and forget to buy them so I just quickly grease the muffin tins and don't have any problem getting them out.

Mix the sugar, oil, pumpkin purée and eggs and whip it well.  I find my gluten free baked hoods cone out much fluffier if I best the eggs really good.  

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl and then slowly add to the wet ingredients on low speed.  Turn the mixer up a to medium until it is all combined.

Divide into prepared muffin tins.  For regular size cupcakes bake from 15-20 minutes til golden on top and a toothpick cones out ckean.  For the mini cupcakes it is around 12-15 minutes.  

Meanwhile, prepare the dairy free cream cheese frosting 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup earth balance butter alternative or shortening
8 oz of cream cheese alternative such as Tofutti or Go Veggie Cream Cheese Alternative
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
Pinch of sea salt 

Beat the butter alternative and cream cheese alternative until well blended.  Add the vanilla and salt. Add the powdered sugar.  You could pipe it on the cupcakes but I just spread a thin layer on the tops of the cupcakes, they don't need a lot.  I actually cut the recipe in half because we don't need this much and we leave a few without frosting too.


*i use coconut, avocado or peanut oil in baking
**I make a blend of rice flour, tapioca flour and rice starch that has xanthan gum already in the mix.  (Silvania Nardone's blend) but King Arthur is another good gf flour mix.  If you have a mix without the xanthan gum in it just add 2 tsp.


Thursday, November 5, 2015

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 10

I've gotten behind in posting our CC weeks and now I'm playing catch up.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 10 and other highlights

Timeline 
we learned this weeks acts and facts but it's really review as this is our third year learning timeline.  We listen to the music in the car as well.

History & Geography
We came up with some actions and for both as well as had fun studying and exploring the page about Japan in our MAPS book.

We also have these activity pages that associate with Japan from our MAPS activity book 

In those landscape of Tokoyo, they are prompted to draw aliens attacking and risky robots defending the city.



Math 
This week we skip count the squares, my daughter remembers this all from last year but we try and help B (5) get it. He was in foundations last year too but at age four he got done things but or he might recognize parts of things he learned but they are do little at that age and being a class with other four year olds...it wasn't like they were exactly CC Scholars.

Other math fun this week has included more fun with Tangrams, figuring out how to make other geometric shapes with their Tangrams pieces and recording the number of pieces used etc.  We also did some activities that introduced measurement and finding the perimeter.  In their individual math J continues to work on finding missing addends and multiplication.  B practicing basic addition and subtraction, sorting, puzzles etc.

English & Latin
We went through it and memorized it but I didn't do anything fun or special...it's been one if those blah weeks where mommy is doing what she has to do but lacking some energy and excitement (dreary weather, time change, recovering from a cold and PMS will do that to ya).

Science
Kinds of leaf parts... We looked up what they were and the kids participated with me in creating this nature journal page



Fine Arts - Music 
So have supposed to have been doing fun whistle starting in week 7 but I didn't.  
In our CC community the 2 years prior, all moms dreaded tin whistle time it seemed and except for the poor tutor, most moms quickly found an excuse to leave the room during tin whistle time.  I didn't intentionally not to tin whistle, but maybe subconsciously I just didn't go there.  However I do want them getting the music theory and all and then I remberer the Jon Schmidt (aka the guy from the Piano Guys) music program I had.  My dad had gotten it a few years ago (before the Piano Guys YouTube videos but we already listened to his piano arrangements on Pandora) to teach my niece but then they didn't end up doing it so he sent it to me.  I had attempted it but J just wasn't ready for any formal music lessons and I think I wasn't either.  It was just too much to try and sit down at the piano and focus when we were still new to homeschool and everything else already felt so hands on and intensive it was like, trying to add piano to the mix seemed impossible and I didn't want to kill myself over it.  So I pulled out the program and we got started on that this week.  It went so much better with her being 8 and B is 5 but he was doing very well too but I didn't put pressure on him as he was ready to be done and J was excited to keep going.  I'm fine with him going at a different pace.  
It's a totally different method of learning the piano.  Rather than starting with middle C and playing it over and over again for the first lesson, Jon Schmidt introduces them to 2 anchor lines and memorizing where those lines are on the piano, then from there most notes they can find by determining if it's a step or skip up or down from the anchor line note.  Other piano skills and technique are supposed to be easier assimilated more naturally as they quickly get the hang of finding their way around the piano.

By the end of the first lesson my daughter was to try playing the top hand of Lullaby (not worrying about timing or anything like that...but just finding the notes and typing them in on the keyboard).  I made this sheet to cover the song so she would be distracted or visually overwhelmed by all the music at one and had her start with just the first bar, then sliding the black strip out more as she could confidently find those notes.  I told her only the first 3 bars for the first day and to just take it easy do she wouldn't get frustrated... Woah unintentional reverse psychology on that one...she determined to play the whole first line and start on the second.  I told her to just limit to 10-15 minutes and take a break, she pretty much did it all day.  It was funny AND I'm so glad I waited with her, couldn't have had a better start!


We shall see how it goes but this one line she can play is already much more exciting than my first piano lesson, which I still have the book here it is 


She will be learning to play with the left hand simultaneously in week 2 already.  So anyways we started that as well as J continuing to practice ukulele and B sometimes joins in and wants to try playing certain notes or practice a strumming pattern, but I just let him have fun with it at his age, I don't want to force music too soon and then have them hate it.  So I gently encourage them so they can develop an interest and excitement from within so that when they put the effort into playing, it will be more satisfying, enjoyable and motivating.




Sunday, November 1, 2015

CC Week 9 cycle 1

This week we enjoyed week 9 of our CC studies!  And of you haven't seen my other posts, we use CC as a launching pad for other studies as well as incorporating the recommended things to cover for each year from Ambleside Online in our own arts based hands on eclectic style homeschool...so keep that in kind if things seem random or not part of Classical Conversations. I just like to document and share some of the things we do each week.

Geography 

While studying East Asia Geography we opened up to those countries in our MAPS book and took done time to study all the images and facts about each.  When we came across Mongolian Throat singing, we had to YouTube it and found a great little video of a Mongol Man Throat Singing while playing the  Morin Khuur....(here's a small corner of the Mongolia page in the MAPS book).  The video had a beautiful landscape in the background and the sound was strangely enchanting.  The kids loved it.  

Here's the link to the YouTube video, I can't seem to embed videos when blogging from my phone.

We also watched this video we picked up at the library 

Which was great because after reading the book The Warlord's Puzzle this week my kids kept wanting to know what a munk is and it just added a little more info to the peg they set in their little minds about Buddhism from week 7's history sentence.  

Math


We had a lot of fun with this book this week playing with Tangrams and just enjoying the story and the artwork.  I kept finding the kids studying the pages of this book at some point everyday this week.  And they didn't tire of playing with their Tangrams either. The book is good for math, history and geography which is why I saved it for this week as we head across Eastern Asia as it takes place in China, where Tangrams supposedly originated.  


We also continued to have fun with the game Animal Crossing from the book Family Math. 

We also did some worksheets from Math Mammoth on line symmetry and some other geometry activities to go along with our work with Tangrams.  

Other math we did included the big Brain Quest Grade 3 book, math war, math facts app, starfall etc.

SCIENCE
this weeks science was some parts of a plant: root, stem, leaf, which was easy enough to remember we didn't expound in it that much as we have spent plenty of time pulling up weeds and examine them from the roots up.  We could have drawn a diagram in our nature notebooks, we probably still will but we just didn't yet.

LATIN-ENGLISH GRAMMER
We cover this in out memory work but other than being silly with our frog puppet, we just do the memorization and act silly usually and try to make up some actions that help remember the English Granmer words. 

HISTORY
Because Confucius was the topic of week 9s History Sentance and that Toaism emphasizes harmony with nature, we turned to the section on Confusianism in my Art History Text and saw images of beautiful landscapes so we did watercolor paintings of Imaginary   landscapes.

We read a book about Ancient China and learned about archeology and artifacts.  This also led into some science discussion on Ozygen and Carbon Dioxide and plants which tied in nicely to our current study of plants for science.

We watched a narrated version of a The Emperors New Clothes on YouTube.

We also started listening to Story of The World this week.  I ordered the CDs and the kids listen with drawing paper so they can take notes and it draw what they find interesting or important.  We listened to the first couple chapters taking us from the Nomads snd The Fertile Cresent up to Egypt.  It was a good review of things they have already touched on but with the addition of Egypt because CC didn't cover ancient Egypt, it went from the fertile Cresent to Greece and Rome and then onto Asia.  I REALLY wanted to read Tirzah to my daughter after a friend who is doing Heart of Dakota mentioned how much they loved that book several times.  Ambleside Online year 3 says to cover Exodus and we started CC this year with the Ten Commandments so I was so happy how I could tie it all in together and I really enjoyed the details given in Story of The World.  Its so enjoyable to listen to and so easy to just pop in and get cozy and relax together with some notebooking supplies!  My daughter liked hearing the perspective of a Nomad girl and drew a picture depicting part of her story with a couple notes.  I also had my Art History text handy because it is a beautiful resource to have on hand for history!  Just flip open to that time period and it has the best images....no google needed!  My son immediately wanted to draw this gold Pharroah mask as we listened to the part about mummification and Pharoahs while looking at the images in that section of my book. I gave him some tracing paper and let him trace it while listening. I'm just excited about this addition because when I actually looked into SOTW I thought it would complement CC cycle 1 and our other studies reall well and just nicely round things out.  I mean, from a Charlotte Mason perspective I think this is the perfect thing to listen to during afternoon quiet time/tea time once a week or so.  I originally thought we would use it in the car but I'm dependent on the DVD player at this phase with my toddler so I don't go deaf from his screaming!!!


At night I started reading Tirzah with my daughter and we couldn't put it down!  My husband got home from the airport late and we had been snuggled up reading longer than we realized...it was past 11 pm!

Bible-Devotion-Character

We chose our main devotion to be from the Big Book of 5 Minute a Devotions which is animal themed and we learned about sloths and being patient.  Later in the week I had woken up early with a migraine and the baby was up.  After I got him back to sleep I just decided to stay up and try to get rid of the headache before it got to the unbearable point.  Since I was up so early, once my head was feeling better I started reading in proverbs and came across this verse 

Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out. Prov 17:14

I told my kids about it later over breakfast for a devotion, first remembering the Wild Kratts Episode where the dam gets broken and it was so hard to build the dam back up once all that water had gushed out and it took so much work to rebuild it and not have new leaks keep springing, spewing out more water...they are big Wild Kratt fans so they knew this episode well.  Then I told them that proverb I had come across and we talked about it and how when we start a fight, it's like breaking the dam and then instead of water rushing out, yucky feelings and ugliness rushes out and it's hard to fix things once we let all our anger out, and then it just keep getting harder not to have little fights all the time because there are leaks in our "dam" that make us more quick to anger and then we just get stuck in all that continual cycle of patching the dam and springing new leaks.  It was good because the kids are wonderful playmates but it is a needed skill to learn about choosing your battles and they have been bickering more and more over what seems to me like nothing.  (Cabin fever probably with the weather!) They got it quickly and after that, when little petty disputes started to break out I would remind them "is this worth breaking the dam over?" And before I knew it they were talking about it on their own and my 5 year old even later said he was going to say something to his sister but then stopped because it wasn't something to break the dam over.  Thank you Lord for your simple wisdom!!!

We also read The Hundred Dresses this week which was great as we've been talking a lot about kindness in our devotion/character development.  

Charlotte Mason/Unschool

Moving away from the Classical/Charlotte Mason side of things here is the more Charlotte Mason/Unschool parts of our week 

Tinkering
The kids often enjoy working and tinkering on their clubhouse.  It is a framed out bathroom in the unfinishee basement.  They have laid tile they found in the surplus from when the house was built.  We told the previous owner not to worry about cleaning out the basement...made things easier for her and it was like little treasures for us.  This week they started decorating it for the upcoming holidays.  They were bailing the Christmas ornaments to the wood frame using a wooden branch piece I cut when making a set of blocks out if different size tree slices.

They made a coat hook

Anyways it's just a fun space where they spend a lot if time planning, tinkering, rearranging and imagining.
My daughter has an old school desk on the next area over with all kinds if old printed business paperwork and she has a stack and goes through with a pen and calculator acting like a stressed out contractor.  Lol.  

NATURE
The yucky Gray skies and rain parted for a little bit this week allowing us to enjoy NATURE!!!! Ahhh...so good!  

My kids pointed out how fresh the air was in the woods and were reminded of our conversation about Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide, and how trees take in the CO2 and give us back fresh air!!! (aka oxygen).  See you really do learn by living and learning can happen anytime anywhere!  It doesn't stop when you leave the classroom/schoolroom.  It doesn't always have to be done within the pages of a workbook. :)

And we are still getting a few tomatoes but the season is pretty much done the kids check on them for us.

MUSIC
My daughter is taking a ukulele class but my son I'm just going with a gentle approach with him and let him take the lead with how much or how fast he wants to learn.  He was a little intimidated by trying to play at first but now he remembers how to play a c note and is getting more comfortable just experimenting with it.  Here they are learning how to tune their ukuleles with a SNARK.  

And my daughter put on my old prom dress on while she sang along with The Celtic Women....yes mostly inside these week due to weather and having colds!

LIFE SKILLS
They've become a good team at making gluten free muffin mixes, refilling the cat food, making beds, unloading the dishwasher, sweeping up their crumbs, packing their lunch before their enrichment class day, etc.

And other things that kept them busy this week are Lincoln Logs, poetry, making their own story books, writing cards to grandparents, reading Pollyanna together ( my daughter reading it to her brother), helping me sand down a headboard with a power sander, playing checkers together everyday, sidewalk chalk, trampoline, gymnastics, soccer and of course Halloween excitement.