Oobleck Anyone?

Tenderheart's oobleck looks like Bartholomew's!

We love Dr. Seuss around here!  Since his birthday is Friday, we are celebrating all of his funtastic stories and reading a children's biography of him this week.  We will end our celebration on Friday with some other homeschool friends and some very Seussical foods!  (Followed immediately after by a celebration for Smiley, since her birthday is Thursday!)  Today, we read the first two chapters of his biography.  It has 10 chapters...perfect for 2 a day for a school week!  We also read two of his books today, If I Ran the Zoo and Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  We, of course, had a discussion about magic words and how they don't really exist, (except "Please", as Little Man was quick to remind me), and how only God can make things fall from the sky.  We then proceeded to go outside and make oobleck.  It is a glorious day here!  Shorts and t-shirts in late February!  The kids have made oobleck before, but they do not remember.  Genius that I am, I thought it would be a good rainy day, cooped up in the house activity a couple of years ago.  WRONG!!!  It created such mess that I have not ventured to make it again since, until now!  It was something I enjoyed immensely as a kid, and so, weather being what it is, we took our oobleck outside.  The Bru Crew is loving it too!  What is oobleck, you ask?  Well, I can't really say what Bartholomew's oobleck was, but ours is a simple mixture of cornstarch, water (that's what's in the orange soda bottle) and food coloring.  Mixed to the right consistency, it will resist pressure and be a solid when a force acts upon it, and turn back into liquid as soon as the force is released.  What is the right consistency?  I don't measure the ingredients, sorry!  I just put some cornstarch in a bowl, add water and stir.  Then we add more water or cornstarch based on how it stirs.  If it's barely a liquid even as we swirl, it needs more water.  If it doesn't clump when we stir, it needs more cornstarch.  You can probably google how to make it, and find someone's site with measurements.  It is quite fun to roll it into a ball, then let the ball sit in your hand and run through your fingers back into the bowl.  The Bru Crew struggled to mix in their food coloring.  How do you stir something that turns solid and breaks into chunks every time you stir it?  Well, they figured out that if you swirl the bowl, there is no force acting upon the oobleck and it remains liquid.  It takes a while to get the colors mixed in that way, but it works.  Ms. Quality Time is most perplexed!  "How does it do that?" she wants to know.  You can tell by her expression in the pictures that she's trying to figure it out.  :)  I spent half-an-hour working with them and it, and then I came in to post and take care of household responsibilities.  They are still at it, and having a blast!

My First Quilt

My first dabble in the world of quilting turned out differently than I expected!  BruCrewDad had strongly encouraged me to quilt, maybe even to sell them.  I struggled at first to figured out why.  I came to realize that my children are abundantly blessed in the clothes dept. and sewing clothes for them when I think we have too many already would be aggravating.  I do, however, find the hum of the sewing machine to be soothing, and the sense of accomplishment when a project is finished is incredible.  SO many of the things I do are LONG term projects (like raising children) or continuous projects (i.e.-dishes and laundry) that it is immensely satisfying to finish a project and for it to be complete and not need redoing!  When I'm stressed, I find concentrating on my seems fills my mind and blocks out all other things.  I will have to guard that this doesn't turn into an obsession.  For my first quilt, I bought precuts from my local shop where I get my sewing machine serviced.  There were tons of 5" squares for $10!!!!  It turns out that the quality of fabrics was not great, and the quilt has been quite frustrating at times.  I was also struggling with who my first quilt recipient should be.  BruCrewDad suggested donating it to our local thrift store.  Since I occasionally visit the local thrift stores looking for fun things to repurpose, I didn't think I could handle that.  What if they want to sell this quilt for $25?  What if it sits there for 3 years and no one wants it?  I began to pray about what to do with this quilt and for whomever would receive it as I pieced the top, and then, as I purchased the batting and the backing and began quilting it.  I feel led to give this quilt to my closest center for abused and battered women.  I figured they could use it, and I wouldn't have to wonder how much value had been placed on it at the local thrift store.  There is also a local crisis center for pregnant women to help them choose life for their unborn babies.  Maybe my next quilt will be a baby one!  My local craft shop has some cute pink and chocolate brown precuts, and I know just the project for them!  These fabrics are all the same quality, as opposed to what I bought before.  Before that though, I have some gifts I have to quilt, and I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my fabrics by mail!  One of the things I'm making is a wedding gift, and I saw that the wedding is only 16 days away, so I hope it comes together quickly!

New Year: New Goals

As each year draws to a close, I take the time to ponder it, reflect upon what went well, and what didn't, what I can change, and what I cannot.  I am starting this new year with some new goals.  I am choosing to focus on what didn't work and what I can change to make it better.  I am starting my days with exercise, and taking the kids to the gym for P.E. first thing on school days.  It is my prayer that school will go better after we burn off some extra energy, and fitness is important.  I feel better when I'm active.  I have been avoiding the gym because there is a guy there who gives me the creeps, but I realized that we are spending way too much money each month on a FAMILY membership for one person in our family to use the facility!  My solution, work out some at home, and then exercise there with the kids.  If they are with me, the creepy guy might say hi, but that's the extent of it.  He's also a dad, so he's careful of what he says in front of the kids.  Included in my fitness goals are to run a total of 500 miles total this year.  BruCrewDad's running friends are aiming for 1000, and BruCrewDad himself is aiming for 1500, but that goal is too lofty for me.  If I run 10 miles a week, I will still have 2 weeks to be on vacation, sick, or have a headache.  (I can't run with a headache.)  Added to my fitness goal are my health goals of limiting my sugar intake and having a more set schedule (go to sleep/wake up at the same time).

I have house goals too.  I am working harder with the kids to put things away instead of "down."  I have been throwing things away.  (Little Man had a full 13 gallon garbage bag taken from his room last night!)

One thing that I can't claim as a goal that I have prayerfully set, and I don't know how long it will continue, but God has removed my desire to "read for fun."  Reading has always been my escape.  House stressing me out?  I find a quiet spot to read.  Kids making me crazy?  Go in the bathroom, lock the door and read.  If my mind was lost in the pages of a story, it didn't matter what else was going on.  God has changed the desire to escape it through books.  Now, when the house is stressing me out, we put on praise music and clean.  When the kids are making me crazy with their bickering, we sit down and the table and do a craft, or go to the gym and blow off some steam by running or throwing tennis balls at the wall as hard as we can.  Only God can do that in me!!!!  (This does not mean that I am not reading anything at all, just not reading much fiction right now.)

Lastly, and most importantly, I have set some goals for my relationship with the Lord.  I read my Bible regularly, but have never read the entire Bible cover to cover.  (To be honest, Leviticus bogs me down!)  I am reading a One Year Bible in the evenings before bed.  My goal this year is to read the whole Bible.  I am also reading a devotion with a verse with my morning OJ, and studying the names and attributes of God with my morning coffee.  I might also read another devotion book that I love the author of with my afternoon coffee.  I want Him to consume me!!!!

Have you reflected on last year?  Have you prayed over this year?  What is God wanting to do in you?  What is God wanting to do through you?  What is God wanting you to change?  Psalm 37:4 says "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." (NIV)  For a long time, I misunderstood that verse.  I thought if I just focused on God, He'd give me whatever I wanted.  God is not a genie in a bottle!  God has taught me that if I delight in Him, His desires will become my desires.  The desires of my heart will be the desires of His heart, and what I ask for, He will delight to give me, because they will reflect His nature, His purposes, and His glory.  That is my biggest goal for this year-to delight myself in Him.  What about you?  Do you delight in Him?

Candy School Day 1

In this time of year, when candy abounds, what could be better than finding a way to incorporate it into your school work?  Today, after we finished some of our "regular" school, I busted out the candy.  We copied a stanza of the poem "If Peas Could Taste Like Candy" by Crystal Bowman for our copywork, and then we did experiments with our candy.  Did you know that the white S on Skittles and the white m on M&M's do not dissolve in hot water?  If they remain together, they float to the top!

Notice the "m" floating at the surface of the water.  There are two of them.

We also separated out the colors from the M&M's and Skittles.   Here are our strips from our Chromatography experiment.  Notice that the purple Skittle on the far right and the brown M&M on the far left show more colors than just one.  We also did some math with candy, like count Reese's PB cups by twos (because there are two in a package) and multiplication because 4 small tootsie rolls equal a big one, so how many is __?  I have more experiments and literature up my sleeves.  We'll see how many days of candy 

 school we end up having!

 

Aspiring Novelist

I haven't figured out how to add Linkies to my blog, so here is my button!  Have you ever dreamed of writing a book, but can't find the time?  NaNoWriMo is the perfect solution....50,000 words in 30 days!   NaNoWriMo starts soon!  Preparations have already begun at our house.  We're getting excited!  The kids are participating too.  Their program is called the Young Writers Program.  The goal is to write a novel in a month.  The kids get to choose the number of their words (well, their teacher does, *cough, cough) and if they accomplish their word goals, they get a copy of their book, all published!  Additional copies can be purchased.  If you are participating in this, let me know.  We'll find each other on the forums to encourage each other!

Borrowed Ideas from the Blogosphere: Part 1

I find that when I wander into the blogosphere, I have to remain very conscious of my time.  It is SO easy to follow one blog to another blog to another blog.  Some days, I follow this strange rabbit trail, and I find all I've really done is waste time, but other times I find a tremendous jewel, and I'm glad I wandered.  It's almost like mining.  ;)

So, here is part 1 of the jewels that I recently discovered and plan to incorporate into my school year this year.  I will do my best to give credit where it is due, which isn't always easy in out in the blogosphere.  If you see that I made a mistake, please comment on this post and I will correct it to the best of my ability.  I do not want to claim credit for other people's idea's nor do I wish to give credit to the wrong blogger.

The first idea is a morning board.  My dear friend had done something similar, on a small scale on her partial wall in her kitchen where she teaches her children.  I too have a partial wall in my kitchen, but it's bigger and my stuff looked so small on it (except the paper Christmas tree, but we won't go there!), I couldn't make it fit what I saw in my head.  Then, I came across this post on a blog.  Her calendar and printables led me to this post.  These things got my gears turning!  This weekend, I made my own morning board. I bought a display board from Hobby Lobby...purple, of course, because that is my favorite color. 

In the upper left is a "Days in School" chart from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations.  The coolest thing about this chart is that it is color coded to match the place values for Math-U-See!  I laminated her chart and added the color coded pockets.  I printed those from Homeschool Share, the small ones on colored paper, available here.  They print 2 to a page, so that was perfect.  One for the words and one for the numbers for each place value.

Under the "Days in School" chart is the "Make the Date" chart from Carisa at 1+1+1=1.  I printed it twice to have the box on colored paper.  This uses coins to make the date.  Today is the 11th, so there is a dime and a penny to make 11.  This is a fun way to teach the kids the values of each coin.  The pocket beside it holds the extra coins.

Under that is the temperature chart from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations.  Again, I printed it twice.  I cut out the white thermometer and glued it to the colored paper so it would show up better.  Beside that is a ring of prayer cards from the International Mission Board.  We use these cards during our morning prayer time.  You can find them here.

Front and Center are the Months of the Year and Days of the Week Charts from Carisa at 1+1+1=1.  Days of the week and months of the year are things that Smiley has not gotten the hang of yet, and Little Man has not yet mastered them.

I found this calendar in the dollar bins at Target.  The month was $1.00 and the dates were $1.00.  They also had the month titles for a dollar and the "Today is..., Yesterday was..., Tomorrow will be..." charts, but I don't really need those and the ones from Carisa at 1+1+1=1.

This weather and season chart is from Carisa at 1+1+1=1.  Again this is something that Little Man and Smiley are mastering...knowing each season and what order they come in.  Next to these are two pockets of the extra dates for the calendar.

This is blank still, but in geography, we will study one country a month.  The top chart will have a small print out of the country we are studying and next to it will go the continent it is on.  I will probably just google the country image, but the continent printable will probably be the continents from Continent Hop available at Spell Outloud.  Under is the poster for our Artist and Composer of the semester.  We have always had great intentions regarding (and spent a decent amount of money purchasing supplies to teach) the fine arts.  If it is on the morning board, there is added accountability.  We will probably study Beethoven and Mary Cassatt this semester.

In the bottom right hand corner is another date chart from Carisa at 1+1+1=1.  I just used the bottom half of that printable since the top was similar to the days in school chart.  Under that is a skip counting flip chart from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations.  I printed these two to a page, laminated, hole punched and put them on a ring.  We will go through one each day.  It goes all the way up to the 12's.  Skip counting helps them memorize multiplication facts.

Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll post another gem I found and have already incorporated from Jolanthe's blog at Homeschool Creations!

Catch Up Day!

I went on vacation last week.  It is rare that the Bru Crew goes on vacation other than to visit family somewhere, and this was no exception.  This vacation was a little bit different though because we went for Vacation Bible School.  I know, I know, the word vacation in there doesn't mean you have to go while you're on vacation, but the church of my youth is so special to me, and in years past (last year being the exception) my own church hasn't done VBS.  This year, with our building destroyed by the tornado, we're still figuring out what we're doing.  So, I went on vacation for Vacation Bible School.  Wait, it get's better...the theme was the beach, and I was at the beach!  How much more literal can you get?  It was a good week of VBS, but my time there was crazy busy, with my afternoons and weekends filled with shopping, swimming, the beach, a trip to Urgent Care for X-rays (Nothing was broken, praise God!), cooking, and lots of eating out.  It was non-stop.  The whole drive home on Monday, I planned this week-what I needed to do when, ha, ha, ha!  The plans of man are not the plans of God.  I was planning another non-stop week with a funeral, swimming lessons (cancelled), school preparation, cleaning, laundry, etc.  Tuesday morning, I was quite sick.  Some of my symptoms started Saturday, but Tuesday, I felt like I'd been run over by a truck and left for dead.  My tonsils hurt, my ear hurt, my head throbbed, I was dizzy, it hurt to breathe, and I couldn't keep food down.  So much for my plans.  I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday sitting around (because it hurt worse to breathe when I lay) watching TV because my head hurt too badly to read.  By Thursday, I decided I needed to go to the doctor.  I was diagnosed with a viral URI and prescribed medication to treat my worse symptoms.  I still spent the day sitting around, but by late afternoon/evening I felt decent enough to unload and reload the dishwasher and cook dinner, even if I didn't feel well enough to eat it.  Sadly, even though I never ran a fever, I was contagious.  One of the kids got all my symptoms plus a fever, another was queasy and it hurt to breathe and ran a fever, a third had painful breathing and that was it, and the fourth threw up and that was it.  Thankfully, Bru Crew Dad didn't catch it since he's leaving the country on a business trip on Sunday.  Also, thankfully, today I feel almost human again.  It doesn't hurt to breathe!  My head hurts, but doesn't throb, and I successfully ate breakfast!  Looks like I'll be doing laundry today, and trying to play some catch up from what I wanted to get done this week.  Definitely not everything, I'll relapse for sure if I try to do a week's worth of work in one day, but at least enough laundry that Bru Crew Dad can pack for his trip.

Except for the funeral which I had to miss, all the work will wait.  I would really have liked to go to this funeral to be there for this sweet family who lost their son tragically, but I was too sick, and it sounds like there was not enough room for those who attended anyway.  Amazingly enough, despite my throbbing head and inability to read and comprehend words on the page the last couple of days, I could still read and comprehend my Bible.  I kept up with my devotions this week, and God gave me complete peace about resting and taking it easy and about my plans being rejected.  The kids were too sick to make much mess either, so we mostly all sat around watching movies or whatever, and the rest didn't matter.  It amazes me how God can make Himself known and glorified even in our illnesses.  What a mighty God we serve!  Now, I'm off to tackle a portion of that mountain of laundry waiting for me!