Peek At Our Week 6!!

So we are on week 6 of our school year moving right along! Some of our highlights this week were science experiments, pottery and a park day with  home school friends!!

Skyler was so happy to see a new art project for this week. Painting on canvas with acrylic paint. I think she was happy because it was painting cats of course!

In her spelling journal she was researching California this week. I try to make them use books for looking up information not just google!!

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!!!!

Skyler and her Kitty Doodle Journal

Skyler had seen The Thinking Tree Kitty Doodle Journal and begged for it so I just had to have it for her. I was thinking a journal she was thinking a complete theme!! She is my daughter after all!!! I was reminded last night how I rock themes and I will say it is completely true. From the time I was young I wanted everything to go together and match up so Skyler gets it honest. This is all about how we used our journal to build Skylers curriculum.

So the race was on to find cats, cats, and more cats for her school!! I started with science and was delighted to find these...

They are cat or cat theme so she was all in. The kitty doodle journal only lasts six weeks or so but between co-op and the days she has big cat day I figure I can stretch it out until nine weeks hopefully. I plan nine weeks at a time. For the two Professor Astro books I will also have science kits that are not cat theme exactly but physics and space.

Now for the math pages of her journal. I mostly found stuff that was pretty below her to start off. I was happy to find these until I got them. They are a bit more mathy than I had thought so we usually do it together. I know right off she was doing binary code and then we did square roots. These are things I am very rusty on but we muddled through!

Regardless they are cat theme and she is having a blast!!

This year she wanted to learn to make games on the computer so we found this book on Amazon and was happy to find there is a free web site as well, so computer class planned! There is a cat on the cover!

For the nature pages and drawing pages she picked this book.

So this is kinda artsy right? My kids love step by step drawing books and do pretty well with them. As for other artsy things I found these..

She also had fun making this at pottery.

Now for fun books, it can't all be learning right??

These were just fun cat theme type books for her.

Now for the copy work type journal pages she picked these books.

These are poems and funny sayings and she loves them. She uses them for copy work in her journal and just likes reading them.

Now on to one of my favorite subjects history!

I kind of had a hard time here there isn't much I could find it felt like. Not that she would enjoy reading anyway. She has liked these books all though Mummy Cat was pretty short she has enjoyed them.

Now for this book,

I also got this kit to go along with it. She can work on these little projects whenever the mood strikes.

Now other than the journal itself, this book is amazing!

It has it all. Cat literature, cat science, cat history, cat geography and so so much more! Not too mention it is just about the coolest book I have ever seen. I love these fold out, piece moving type books and this one is just breathtaking!

Last but not least for just a bit of nature in the house she also has a cat nip plant.

For her film pages she has enjoyed Cats 101 and My Cat From He!!. I don't exactly like the name of the show but it is pretty interesting and she has learned quite a bit. She has learned quite a bit from be truthful and enjoyed them both as well.

She learns quite a bit from her Stella Luna as well.....

Stella Luna is named for the baby bat in the book Stella Luna who lost her mommy. Our Stella came from Big Lots by their entrance. It was a December morning when a van pulled up and a cashier coming on duty watched them kick her out of a van and drive off. The manager had said they were calling animal control. The poor tiny thing was sitting by the door shaking like a leaf when we walked up. She saw Skyler and ran right to her and they have been best friends ever since. 

Peek At Our Week 4

Some of our fun moments from this week...

WARNING!!!!!! My two youngest did a snake dissection this week. The pictures are at the end of this post. If you are squeamish you have been warned!! Just so everyone knows my children did not kill this snake. They found it on the road while riding bikes. My kids don't just kill animals. It is a common site to find snakes ran over in this area we live by an old highway and a lot of wooded areas. If the snakes are in good condition my son enjoys showing off his knowledge of all he has read about over the years by taking them apart especially if it is one he has never gotten to see up close and personal. In this case a rattle snake which no one wants to see up close and personal!!

Damian had fun making mozzarella cheese and eggs benedict this week in science. For the cheese we used this kit and for the eggs we just snagged a recipe off line. 

I truly love when Damian does stuff with the other kids. They are all oil and water so anytime I can see them playing or working together is great!

We have never attempted to make cheese before I am sure it wasn't perfect but we followed all the directions....

Getting all the whey out was hard work. Really time consuming!

Didn't make as much as it said it would. Took a whole gallon of milk for very little outcome but he seemed to enjoy making it. 

He used his cheese the next day on his lunch. It did not shred very well at all so he just cut up slices for it! If we ever do it again I will be buying cheese cloth to make it easier. This kit did not come with it and I feel the whole thing would have been way easier if we had some. 

All of my kids use this ball for something! They are very helpful. I notice they will read and do all kinds of things while moving it. He also made some eggs benedict. I am not an egg eater, I can scramble eggs for the boys that is about it. Damian is enjoying making and trying new things with his science. 

I have never seen pouched eggs so this was a learning experience that is for sure.

It really seemed like a lot of work for some eggs and Canadian bacon but what do I know? He ate the majority of it and Skyler finished off the ham. I doubt we will make it again he said it was all right but he ate it and the other kiddos tried it so I am pretty thrilled!!

Fox has been using the Lego Chain Reactions book as part of his science and for a book that thrilled him when he first spotted it has turned into a big aggravation! Fox has been a Lego fan since he was tiny and I cannot begin to tell you how many Legos he owns. Every year for birthday and Christmas he gets several sets so to say we have a few is an understatement. 

The book supposedly comes with the uncommon pieces and it comes with quite a few but the rest that every Lego collector supposedly owns is not true at all. After a few projects he couldn't go any further. At the end of the book you are suppose to set up all the machines and use them together well there is no way for that to happen either as they use the same pieces in quite a few. 

Needless to say he was disappointed.

Skyler is still moving along with her Multiplication Games by The Thinking Tree. She is doing well. She just seems to forget her facts all the time!

My children do school everywhere!

Alongside her Kitty Doodle journal she planted some catnip! The link for that catnip plant is not the one we have but the same outcome. 

Nature Drawing!!!! She decided to actually go outside today instead of using a drawing book. 

Skyler and Stella Luna doing her current events page.

This is her tattoo she got at anime club. It has something to do with fairy tales is all I understood! At pottery this week she painted her plate and used bubbles to make a pattern. It was pretty cool to see that in action. I can't wait until I see the final product!!

Her stepping stone was also ready to come home! GOOD JOB SKYLER!!!!

Now for the snake!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at the long thing!

IT IS HUGE!!!! I think my dog Zeus felt it was a snack maybe?

I will say I know nothing at all about snakes other than they freak me out. Both my boys would adore a pet snake but I am a firm believer that they should live in nature! They have done several dissections before including a shark but this thing right here stunk something awful! I had a rough time taking the pictures the smell was that bad! 

That was pretty much it for our week! Hope everyone else had a great week too!!!!