Weekly Wrap-Up....1/2/11 through 1/7/11

It's all about the Antarctic and penguins this week.

One project the kids found challenging this week was matching up these snowflakes.

It was pretty tough, but Kim and Luke both managed to complete all their snowflakes.

The snowflakes help decorate our learning wall.

We also have 5 Little Penguins on our board to play with and sing songs with.

The "package" man (UPS) brought us a great box with a Toob of Penguins in it.

Everyday, amazing Antarctic habitats were made for the penguins with the blocks....habitats including bathrooms and knitting rooms for the mother penguins.

We made borax crystal snowflakes.

They turned out lovely.

The complete post can be found here.

Homemade playdough proved to be great for making Antarctica, and providing a place for the penguins to play.
My favorite playdough recipe can be found here.

Love that face.

Another new penguin toy surprise was this Penguin Race It toy.
It's amazing how long the kids could watch these penguins go around and around.

Gracie and her Daddy had fun playing Multiplication War.

We are so proud that Gracie has learned all her multiplication facts and this is the perfect game for review.

For the Feast of the Epiphany, Becky came over and made a gingerbread house.

It was the perfect activity to end the Christmas season.

Gracie and Kimmy admiring Becky's work.

Mark

Kimmy

I finished the three littles slippers. They were so excited to have cozy feet!

Even a few dollies recieved new slippers.

One of the most fun activites was our crayon resist snowflake painting.

Kimmy was amazed at what happened when she started painting and the white crayon snowflakes began to appear.

I use ColorSplash liquid watercolor paint.

It is by far the best watercolor paint I have ever used.

I bought the six pack of colors three years ago, and the colors are so bright, the blue paint about is 1 ml. of blue paint to 5 ml. of water. I do believe this paint will last forever!

After the snowflake painting the kids experimented with their own crayon resist painting.

I can't wait to matte and frame our artwork!

Check out more Weekly Wrap-up posts at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

{this moment}--on the Feast of the Epiphany

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. Photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Wordless Wednesday

Yarn along.....

From Ginny, the founder of "Yarn Along"~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ It's all about slippers this week....slippers for the little feet that run around on our chilly floors during the winter. I have finished Gracie's. Hers are the bright pink variegated yarn ( she also has a pair for her doll) Luke's are camouflage (no doll slippers ;-) Kimmy's are on the needles. I use this easy pattern for kids slippers and the charity slippers I make.School is back in session and I'm reading a lot of "polar region" books. Books about penguins and Antarctica and polar bears and the North Pole.

Shadows of Society Hill is the read aloud I am reading to Mark and Grace for history. It is an American Girl Mystery book. It is set in Post Civil War times and is keeping us all on the edge of our seats.

I decided to take part in the "Take a Chance reading Challenge". Hopefully it will keep me on track to enjoy some "grown-up" books throughout the year.

The first challenge I took was the Random Bestseller pick. Go to Random.org and, using the True Random Number Generator, enter the number 1950 for the min. and 2010 for the max. and then hit generate. Then go to this site and find the year that Random.org generated for you and click on it. Then find the bestseller list for the week that would contain your birthday for that year. Choose one of the bestsellers from the list that comes up, read it and write about it.

I got the year 1994 and number one on the list for the date of my birthday was Pope John Paul II's book Crossing the Threshold of Hope. I was very excited to see this at the top of the list. I plan on using it during my quiet prayer time in the morning for this month

Another book on the list for 1994 was The Lottery Winner by Mary Higgins Clark (my favorite "for fun" author). I read this before, probably in 1994, and am looking forward to starting it...and once I start a Mary Higgins Clark book I usually finish it that same day..(sorry kids and house).

I posted a Yarn Along post last week....you can check it out over here.

Borax snowflake fun

We have done this experiment before so I knew it was just the thing to get the kids thinking after the long Christmas break.

We are also learning about snow and the polar regions of the world, so it was a perfect fit.

All you need is:

a large mouthed jar,

borax,

boiling water,

food coloring (if desired),

pipe cleaners,

string,

popscicle stick.

Bring water to a boil and pour into your jar.....parents should do this step and make sure the kids are safe while stirring in the borax.

Make a super saturated solution of borax in the water.

This was the science portion on this activity.

We learning that a super saturatedsolution is refers to a solution that contains more of the dissolved material than could be dissolved by the water under normal circumstances.

This simply means you can see borax at the bottom of the jar when it has reached the supersaturation point.

After mixing the borax and water we added a little food coloring....this is very cool, since the water is so "thick" with borax.
Make a snowflake out of pipecleaners. I used 6 pieces of pipe cleaner and then twisted them together to form a snowflake. Mark made a little "guy", Gracie made a ribbon shape. Make sure the pipe cleaner can be suspended in the jar without touching the sides of the jar.
Tie one end of a piece of string to the popscicle stick and the other end to the pipe cleaner shape.

Suspend the "snowflake in the jar and wait.

The crystals form within a few hours....perfect for a wintery afternoon.

This is how our jars looked after 3 hours.

Our crystals had grown so large, Kimmy got to remove the only one that could be removed without getting stuck at the top of the jar.

Daddy came to the rescue and managed to get the others out of their jars without going outside to smash the glass.....hooray for Daddy.

Quite stuck!!

They are so cool, and very hard and durable.

We had a few old ones on our Christmas tree we made 3 years ago and they still look just as nice.

This photo doesn't do justice to the sparkle our "snowflakes" give off!!

Vacation is over......

time to do some science!!!

A Simple Woman's Daybook--A New Year Edition

FOR TODAY


Outside my window... overcast and cold. Last week we had a day that the temp reached 50 degrees. It melted the foot of snow we had lef,t so now we see is a brown, cold world---24 degrees and the prediction of lake effect snow. That means we get a dusting of snow or we get a foot of snow, no one is ever really sure.

I am thinking... the upcoming long winter and the schoolwork and fun I hope to accomplish, and enjoy, with the kids.

I am thankful for... a warm house and full cupboards and the husband who works so hard to provide these things for me.

From the learning rooms... It's back to the grindstone....no wait a minute, it is still Christmas until January 6th, so I think we will start slowly. I have a lot of read alouds planned. I think the kids learn more from these books and the discussions we have while reading these books, than hours of "tablework".

From the kitchen... It's clean, so I really don't want to mess it up. Since Pat and I shopped this past weekend we are well stocked up so I have several choices. I think tonight will be pork roast.....which means there will be 12 of us eating, because when the 2 kids from down the road hear the menu, they will show up, right at dinner time...and that is no problem when you are all ready feeding 10.

I am wearing... Uh Oh!!!! Still in my pj's. (another reason to start school slowly)

I am creating...Slippers for all the little feet around here, and some knit Right to Life ribbons for the big kid's school trip to Washington with the National March for Life in a few weeks.

I am going... nowhere I hope. A big boy is home today, so if there are errands to run, I can send him.

I am reading... The Magnificat and Small Steps for Catholic Moms (These are my daily reads) My "for fun" book is Stay a Little Longer, our quiet time audiobook is Redwall and our read aloud we are starting today is Shadows on Society Hill, an American Girl Addy Mystery. This last book is our history book for the week. It takes place after the Civil War--which happens to be where we are in history.

I am hoping... my voice holds out for the above read alouds!

I am hearing... small children running up and down the hall dressed as pirates.

Around the house... Christmas is still everywhere around the house (as it should be), it is just now getting mixed together with schoolbooks.

One of my favorite things... is that my 10 year old son is telling everyone to be quiet so he can read....if you know us, you know that it has taken years to get to this point in Mark's reading. I am soooo proud of him and will try to shush the noise so he can continue, TO READ!!

A few plans for the rest of the week: We still get to celebrate Christmas this week. The Feast of the Epiphany is on Thursday and feast we will.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

I am very grateful that this picture was taken just 24 hours after

this picture was taken. And I am very thankful to be able to say that Kimmy is improving by the minute.

Macro Monday-Snowmen

Christmas artwork is the best!!!
Especially

close-up!!

Check out more Macro Monday posts over at Lisa's Chaos.

What we did on our Christmas vacation