Field Trip To The Court House!!

      We had such a fun day at the court house! They learned so much about the inside of the building and the way things happen as well as what people do what jobs! 

     They loved seeing an actual courtroom and sitting in the jury box!

Field Trip To Starry Night!

       Every year the Gainesville History Museum puts on an astronomy night called Starry Night. Skyler looks forward to it every year and it never disappoints. They get these cool little stamp sheets and they go around doing all the activities to get a stamp, when it is full they get a cool prize!

      The crawl through is her favorite! She does it first every single year and hates that she can't take hours in that tunnel!

Literature/Author Basket

     I started an author basket last year and since then it has turned into the literature/author basket! We added The Literature and Poetry book by The Thinking tree. Skyler said it was no longer just an author basket at that point! Right now it is full of Shakespeare things. She is still reading through some of his plays and she loves the extras in there too!

     She is also enjoying her journal. When she finishes this one I will buy the next level!

Cooking Basket

      The idea for this basket came from The Yum-Schooling Cook-Book by The Thinking Tree. Every kid should know how to cook and what better to learn! I bought them quite a few cooking things that are just theirs. I discovered years ago when kids learn to cook they may destroy stuff so I wanted it to be things that didn't belong to me! Quite a bit of my kitchen things have been passed down from my grandmothers or my mother so I tend to be cautious! So this is their basket!

     I tried to find books that were more than just cooking as well! 

Our Review Of The Ultra Safe Scissors And Three Step Pencil Grips And A Giveaway

     After getting a chance to review for The Pencil Grip, Inc. a while back I was thrilled to use their products again! This time around we got to try The Ultra Safe Safety Scissors and The 3 Step Pencil Grip Training Kit. I truly enjoy this companies products. They are great quality and can come in quite handy at times. I have an artsy kid who enjoys using everything she can get her hands on so just about anything is right up her alley!      



     The first thing she wanted to use was the scissors. She is a bit older than the targeted age but she she enjoys uses different things to see if she can make them work in different ways! 

Wordless Wednesday

Our Review Of CTC Math

Thanks to the Review Crew we were given the amazing opportunity to try an online math curriculum that I had never heard of before, CTCMath and you can even try it out for free!  I will say the idea of Skyler doing an online program was very tempting after Fox has been doing so well with his. We were given the one year family membership to try out so both girls would be able to participate in using it. The program is for children in grades K through 12, which means all the way through calculus. Finding something that is good for a variety of ages or grades is a bonus especially for math. 



     The program was invented originally as an online tutoring program by a father of ten! I couldn't imagine making something like this when I was busy parenting ten kids but Mr. Pat Murray sure did a great job! I believe that since he knows the financial issues so many homeschoolers face he has made this program so affordable. You can get 60% off as well as a 6 month bonus!  Each lesson has a short video to watch, questions to answer and depending on the grade you may have a worksheet to complete.
       I will say it took me a bit to navigate the parent portal so make sure to set aside time for that before diving in with your kiddo. Once the girls accounts were set up it was a matter of finding where each kiddo belonged and let them have at it! CTCMath is not common core and your child won't be boxed in to a certain grade level either. Some kids (like Skyler) are all over the map with math skills so it is great when one can work on certain topics they struggle with! 

Animal Basket

      Skyler is all about animals and it is a tad bit of a shocker it took me this long to make her an animal basket! Let's just say she is now thrilled!! Of course her cat is thrilled as well since she now has another place to sleep. The majority of the books in this basket are all by The Thinking Tree. The idea of theme baskets comes from the author of these books Sarah Janisse Brown. She is also the awesome lady who started the whole Fun-Schooling idea. 

       My kids love her books and we will continue to use them until they don't. They enjoy the variety, the art work and the endless ideas they inspire. So on to the basket and how Skyler uses it. 

      We can all see how Stella uses it!

Peek At Our Week 4!

     Unfortunately, the pics from this week were mistakenly deleted on my cell but I managed to save these! Skyler had Zoology this week at the zoo and I am so glad she is enjoying herself! She even made a friend. Skyler has always been the little shadow for myself or the other children so it is awesome to see her doing something on her own and having a blast!

Milestones In Science Basket

     I scored this amazing science kit and decided to just make a basket out of it for Fox and his science. All the kids can use it of course but I knew my builder boy would just adore it! It has great reviews unfortunately it is out of print now. I had a heck of a time searching down a brand new one for him. It is honestly the coolest kit I have ever seen. Beyond science it also includes history so win win when you can combine them! The idea for learning baskets comes from sarah janisse Brown The Thinking Tree author. It is part of the FUN-SCHOOL plan! You basically make baskets of different themes or things your child is interested in or even of their regular subjects for school. The ideas are truly endless. 
     

     I really love this kit!                          

Almost every science course reviews the work of famous scientists and the groundbreaking discoveries that they made. Reading about their work is good, but actually performing the same experiments that these scientists did would be so much more meaningful. With this Thames & Kosmos kit, you can do just that, without the hassle of assembling all the materials yourself. Build a telescope like Johannes Kepler, a spectroscope like Joseph von Fraunhofer, a phonograph like Thomas Edison, a steam engine like James Watt in all, 100 experiments and discoveries covering the work of 140 scientists and inventors. Chapters are included on: Light, Colors, and Sound; Heat, Steam, and Engines; Magnetism and Electricity; Communication and Microelectronics; Forces; Life; Atoms and Molecules; Stars and Planets; and the Periodic Table. In addition to the models mentioned above, students will also make or study a battery, telegraph, radio, airplane, star map, and many others. All components needed for all the experiments are included in the kit, except a 9-volt battery to power some of the experiments. The 94-page Experiment Manual is an excellent teaching tool in itself; in addition to giving verbal and visual instructions for all experiments, lots of historical information and "Did you know " tidbits are included. The manual is full-color and contemporary, but includes period photographs and drawings that resemble a lab journal from the past.

Wordless Wednesday