I decided this week that I will be more organized with the workboxes. The days we use them are much better for all. I hate setting them up every night though. It seems the last thing I remember to do and it don't get done. So starting Monday instead of them being emptied they were refilled as they went along. Everytime they handed me something done I gave them the next days stuff to put back in the drawer. That has saved me alot of time in the evening. I also decided no more loose papers. I usually let all their work that goes into binders set in a pile that I put away on the weekend. I hate this too and stuff gets lost so from now on as soon as it is done it goes right where it is suppose to be. I have also been working harder using my Master Planner. I like keeping track of what they do.
I have also decided to read through science and history every weekend to see if there is anything I need that I may not have as well as have all the stuff for the week printed out. When my kiddos are in the groove to do school they don't do too well with having to stop and print stuff. We finally wrapped up the Winterpromise All American Explorers section and will be starting The Colonial Period this next week. The Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers are so neat. A bit much on the printing but still neat!
I have drank the pinterest Kool-aid and now have a pin thing so that has become my newest addiction. I like my boards! Fox started double digit multiplication and he is not liking it so this may be the part he slows down on. He had been behind but then began to pick up speed so hopefully this won't be so bad. Both boys still hate cursive and writing in general so that will never change. Skyler is happily moving along with her cursive letters still calling it pretty letters! I still make that effort to have lunch ready the night before so there is no thinking about whats for lunch or wasted time doing it!
They did a fieldtrip to the library this week. A science fair workshop. I am thinking of having them do a little science fair of their own! I also found another pizza themed lunch food for them! Yes it was from the pinterest of course! We also started using Xtra Math again to help them speed up a bit and for memory.
One of the last few projects was making pieces of eight and doubloons for history. They really enjoyed this. Sadly I was out of gold spray paint and we wound up having to use plain yellow for the gold but we had silver for the pieces of eight. Yes this day was big on talking about Pirates especially Captain Jack Sparrow! They had fun learning about Blackbeard. This has always been a favorite for the boys. 
Here are some of the pieces of eight while they are drying. 
Here is Skyler filling in her map for Connecticut. We just so happened to get our travelers home a week or so ago from Connecticut! 
Fox doing some Xtra math on the computer. Not a bad little program especially since it is free! That makes it all the better!
Here are the new pizza items we added! Crossaints filled with string mozzarella and pepperoni. They dipped them in pizza sauce. We used the garlic butter flavored crossaints and they were major yummy! My kids would eat anything pizza every day if possible.
Skyler learned cursive h and did really well.
They each made a little treasure chest for their coins and it has a value chart inside. These were meant to hold the coins they made but our coins were way too big so we made some paper ones for this project. They just put the bigger ones in the seamans chests they made before.
Both of the boys were thrilled to chop up red cabbage for Skylers science experiments this week. I do not like the smell of boiled cabbage by the way and I am grateful my mom never made me eat this EWWWWWWWWWWW!
We did a taste test of sour and not sour the faces she made were so funny! The suprising thing was she managed to swallow all of them except grapefruit juice!
After the tasting we mixed things with cabbage juice to see the reaction.
She recorded everything in her lab book. She is not liking the questions before the experiment too much. The what do you think is going to happen? She does not wanna do those.
The boys basically did the same thing with the mixing of different things to see the reactions. They didn't taste anything though. Skyler was only too happy to help out of course. She really loves science. I am liking the Real Science 4 Kids program.
All in all it was a very full but good week! They also attended the library workshop on science fair projects which they liked the mentos and soda experiments!
She also enjoyed looking at all the displays that were there for ideas.
Of course we had a full Magic School week too. I also have tons of extra pics as well.
Kids are growing up so much! Sounds like you all are having a fun school year!
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