Peek At Our Week 5 And 6

       When witches go riding and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, tis near Halloween!!!!! Halloween has landed here the past two weeks that is for sure! In between decorating we of course did some school too! We always have fun setting up everything for Halloween. This year Skyler was big into helping. Usually she sits back and watches but she took charge of a few projects this year! First up was the living room. 

       Chucky just insists the new baby be by him all the time! 

       sadly we had to put the new member of the family in a cage, she just hasn't grasped that we don't eat the family pets yet!

       Rhyli just adores Little Chucky! 

Summer Week 5

       Skyler is having fun finally getting to read her Herb Fairy books! It is nice having her home all day and not at camp. 

A Peek At Our Week! Week 5 2016 2017

Some fun-schooling moments this week!! Skyler as usual is still going through her cats. We found this little box and knew that it was a perfect little hideaway for Stella Luna. I am guessing she agrees!

This is one of the cat theme art projects I snagged for her. It is called foil art. She had tons of fun with it and I think it came out great.

Skyler has 3 cats but Stella is the youngest and by far the most playful. She is using the toy to try and get the cat to follow her. Stella was having none of that.

She adores drawing time. This day she chose to draw a cover to one of the books she is enjoying.

Fox didn't have any projects this week. We had to order the lego pieces to complete the projects in his book so we are just waiting on those at this point. All though next week we move into electricity. FUN FUN!!

I keep saying one day he will keep a shirt on but I have no idea when that one day will be.

In Damians science this week he made a sour dough starter and some apple chips! The starter smells bad, very bad but apparently this is normal.

We wrapped up our week with a co-op day! They learned all about Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone. They enjoyed beef jerky and shooting BB guns at targets!

Hope everyone else had a great week!!!!

MAM Monday Week 5 Semester Two

     Today we had our MAM Monday! Math, art and music fun!!! We played our math game as usual then added another called Speed. Speed is a pretty cool math game for multiplication. I think the best thing about it is that it is a quick game. I have found my kids do not like sitting for hours on end. For a review of Speed please go to Cathy Duffy Reviews and there is also a neat little video on You Tube!
It wasn't a bad math morning so WIN WIN!!!


So here we are playing the money cards. I am realizing this week it is time to get some new cards made up these have been through a few times now!

Doesn't everyone have a math cat helper???

And the winner this week is............

Here are Damian and Skyler playing Speed. Once they got the hang of it things were pretty well. Hopefully this will aid in the multiplication area!

We continued on with our Homeschool in the Woods Composers study as well. This week our activity was to pick a few composers, listen to their pieces and make notebooking pages. The notebooking pages included a spot to draw what the piece makes you think of so of course Skyler was all on that!!!

Fox is doing his listening part

Damian is doing his looking up composer part

And Skyler is doing her what I think of with this piece part. It was Mozart, Go figure!!!

For art this week I changed things up a bit. I used the Teach Yourself to Draw art, science and creative writing workbooks. These books are by the same amazing woman who designs our Thinking Tree Journals. I picked the sea creatures book and the kids got busy. I let them pick whatever animal in the book they chose, I didn't tell them they had to do it in order or anything.

Fox chose the tiger shark, both Skyler and Damian chose the dolphin.

There are two books for each topic. The drawing book then the research handbook. The children just did the research handbook today!

Now as I am participating in the Homeschooling 6 Blog Challenge of Teach By Example I also did the research handbook of Sea creatures. I chose the turtle, I mean anyone who knows me knows I will always choose a turtle!

Again I ask, doesn't everyone have a school cat???? As you can tell an artist I am not!!! It is not about product it is about process! I am linking up with Homeschooling 6 for her Teach By Example Blog Hop!!!


Happy Monday Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

Weeks 4 and 5

Week 4 and 5 report so just a bit behind! We also took a week break as well. For week 4 the biggest thing we did was to study the brain for science. Instead of using a lot of different stuff I used the Amanda Bennet Download and Go unit for the week. It was also National Waffle Week that week so we started the week off with waffles of course!

 We did a few experiments on the brain. One about brain safety.

The egg that was not protected broke of course.

The egg that was wrapped up didn't break all the way it only cracked a bit. As Fox put it a crack in your head was better than your brains spilled all across the road!

They also did a memory exercise. I put a few things on a plate they looked for one minute then I took it away and had to see how many they could remember. Fox did pretty well with it only forgetting two. It was cool to hear them talk out loud about the plate such and such was next to this and that it's like they were making a picture in their head!

They also made plaster of paris brains to paint each day they learned a new area of the brain, We made these using The Horrible Science Blood Bones and Body Bits.

At the end of the week they had a cute little souvenir!

I think the highlight for Fox was dissecting the brain though. All week long I would ask him questions about what part of the brain does this or that and all I got was I don't remember. Well as soon as he started cutting into it he could tell me all kinds of things. He really is a hands on kid which is so different than me and Skyler, we can read and tell you all about stuff not Fox though he has to see it, touch it, and everything else! I will say right off Skyler had no part in the dissections. I don't force my children to do any of these types of activities. I refused in high school to cut up a frog so I respect their wishes. She did label a diagram of the brain and had to tell me verbally what each area did. She did it all with no issue. Fox has no problems doing these things and obviously learns very well from it.

We also had microscope slides to look at as well.

As he cut off the brain stem he reminded me if it was ever damaged in our bodies we would have no balance!

Onto week 5.

This week was all about the eyes and ears. We also made a squirrel lapbook in honor of the little houseguest that left us. I will make a separate post on that later. Our squirrel Brownie was found in a parking lot a few weeks back and brought to me by another homeschool mom. We all took turns caring for our little friend and then I realized he was just getting too big for any of the cages yet not quite ready to go out on his own. We hooked up with some rehabbers in the area and delivered Brownie to them. Squirrels are not pets but it sure was fun to actually touch, hold and even feed one for a while. It was a bittersweet day for us all. Even Fox cried when we said goodbye. That boy steals my heart he loves all the creatures, even spiders.

So onto our week at school. Skyler is now learning how to read a clock with hands. This is a skill I totally slipped with the boys and then wound up doing it again on Skyler. Thank you for math u see!!

We did some experiments with the eyes and ears this week of course.

By filling up a bottle with water and glitter we learned how your ear keeps you balanced. This idea came for The Magic School Bus Human Body kit.

They spun in circles till they got dizzy!!

We used a tuning fork to hear sound vibrations through our teeth. This came from Blood and Guts book.

We also built a stereoscope from the Blood Bones and Body kit by Horrible Science.

They covered up one eye and tried to play catch! This is also from the Blood and Guts book.

We also dissected an eye which again Fox could tell me all about and Skyler had nothing to do with!

This is the part which I cannot remember its name is only on animals not us. It is the part of the eye that makes it shine  when it is in the dark I guess. I read about it briefly when Fox pulled it out and said, this don't go here! Next week it is all about blood and Fall! I love Fall. It isn't too hot or too cold yet and everything just smells crisp and yummy. So those were our weeks 4 and 5. I have tons more pictures if you would like to see.