Nano Science, Leprechauns, and Wolves, Oh My!

Wow, what a fantastic week!

This week we went out of our normal "comfort zone", and went out on a Monday!  We went to the Wescott Library for a class called "Nano Nano: The Science of Small".  It was pretty good.  Millie liked it a lot, but most of the class was over my head.  Can I admit that?  Yes, my 3rd grader is starting to do things, and becoming interested in things that I can't teach her.  Thank goodness we live in an area rich with outside classes that she can participate in!!

Let's see, what else did we do this week?  Well, besides the normal math, cursive, piano, reading, spelling, etc, Millie also did some creative writing.  Her assignment was to write a lyric poem with a rhyme scheme.  Here's what she came up with:

A little baby bumble bee, 

Is busy drinking a cup of tea.

And along came a bunny,

who said "here, have some honey".

On that note, I will also mention that I've made the executive decision to switch back to Bob Jones for English next year.  I like that it switches between grammar and writing.  I'm afraid we're not doing enough writing, and I'd like to "bump it up" a little for next year.  I think she'll be old enough to handle the rigors of Bob Jones next year, in 4th grade.

We can't forget to talk about what little Elise did this week in preschool!

Our theme for the week was St. Patrick's Day.  We read a few good books, practiced writing the letter Q, practiced drawing animals, and made leprechauns from our Wee Folk Art curriculum!  It was so much fun!  Here are some samples of what we did:

To end the week, we went on a field trip with Millie's National Homeschool Book Awards book club group.  They're currently reading Summer Of The Wolves , and for their field trip, they went up to the Animal Science Center in Forest Lake.  We'd never been there before.  It was sooooo amazing!  Hands down, the best field trip ever.  We got to learn about and see wolves, bobcats, mountain lions, foxes, a lynx, and a screech owl.  It really was fantastic!  Not for the weak stomachs or super sensitives though, as there was a pile of dead deer by the entrance as we approached (road kill that was being fed to the animals).  The wolves were very proudly carrying around deer legs in their mouths ;)  We found it to be very interesting!  Millie now wants to be a wildlife biologist...

Wolf girl checking out the wolves

Screech owl.  The cutest owl EVER!

Explaining how to tell the different breeds of fox apart.  Red fox have white tips on their tails.

Mountain lion. I can't believe we have these in the wild here!

So proud of her deer leg!

Elise just danced...

...and danced.

Aaaaaaand, afterwards we went to McDonalds because the girls were DYING to have a Shamrock Shake. I caved.  Who am I to deny them this once per year indulgence?  The person working was nice enough to split a small into two cups so my girls could share one :)  

Here's What I've Been Up To - A Sneak Peek!

I've been really preoccupied, which is one of the reasons I have had a really hard time finding time to blog about my kids.

Here's a little sneak peek to shed a little light on what I've been doing for the past few months.  Things have become really serious over the past 3 weeks (we are soooo close to being ready to launch!), and have been really time consuming.  It's good to have a light (or...er...a box pile) at the end of the tunnel!

The Warehouse

Expect big news on Monday!!  

So Tired of Blogging!

Well, I see it's been one day shy of one month since my last blog post.  Wow!  I have clearly lost my mojo.

I have a new found admiration for the mommy and homeschool bloggers that never lose their mojo, and continue to find new and interesting topics/projects to blog about!

The past month has been a regular month of schooling, falling behind, catching up, and having lots of fun.  Here are some of the things we've been doing:

• Millie started learning about the Westward Expansion
• We saw (and danced to) a fabulous Zydeco band at the Ordway
• Had a couple book club meetings with the National Homeschool Book Award group
• Went to a fabulous Valentines day party
• Attended Phantastic Physics, a really REALLY great class.
• Went to an animal care class at the Kroening nature center
• Had a fabulous 4-H meeting, where Millie got to hold a bunny. 
• Created a collage at an art class.

I can officially say "I'm back" and ready to blog again!  Perhaps I just needed a break.  Anywhoo, the blog will change a bit now.  I had been doing weekly updates on Elise's preschool classes.  Now, I'm going to include everything from both preschool and 3rd grade.  Millie has been learning about so much fun stuff, I hate to leave that part of it out!  

I'll be back soon!

Two Cowgirls Preschool - Letter R

Elise - A self portrait

This week we studied groundhogs in preschool, to celebrate the upcoming Groundhogs Day!  Here's what we did this week:

Day 1 - We read a book about groundhogs, worked on printing the letter R, and ending the day with a fun science project.  We took a big block of ice (that I formed in a bowl in the freezer the night before).  Elise felt it, and looked at its shape.  Then, she dropped food coloring on it, and then put salt on it.  We set it outside in the freezing weather to see what would happen.  To Elise's surprise, the spots where the salt was, melted through!  Now she understands why the big orange trucks spread salt on the roads when it's snowy outside.

Day 2 - Elise had a lot of fun playing with counting bears.  She sorted them according to color, and counted them as she went.  This wasn't a planned activity, it just sort of happened.  Today we counted, read about the R flower fairy, and then made play dough from scratch.  Fun times!  When it was cooled off, we made little hedgehogs out of play dough, tooth picks, and google eyes.

Outings this week - We went to the Science Museum for Preschool Playdates.  Elise colored a dinosaur coloring sheet, and glued noodle "bones" on.  Then, we went to the astronomy section, where Elise made her own constellation.  Before we left, we went to the Mississippi River room and had story time with a ranger!

On our way home, we stopped by Rice Park to look at the ice sculptures, then to the Wells Fargo Winter Skate to skate for a bit.  The ice was great, and everyone had a great time skating around.

Friday, we went to Comedy Sportz for a comedy show.  Elise seemed pretty bored, but Millie and I had a fabulous time.  It was hilarious!!  I think Millie would like to take improv lessons.  Maybe next year.  Our calendar is FULL for this year :)

Two Cowgirls Preschool - Letter B

Back to the daily grind!  This was our first week back after a two week break, proceeded by a few weeks of Christmasy fun.  It went a lot better than I thought!  I think the kids (and I) thrive on routine.

Here's what we did in preschool this week:

Day 1:

Our theme for the week was "hibernation".  We read a couple great books, did our "letter B" work sheet, and worked in Elise's new Preschool workbook.  I ordered the workbook to see if she could complete the tasks (sometimes I don't think I give her enough credit, and this was my way of finding out).  She loved working on it so much, that she ended up going through page 20 before I cut her off!  One thing she did that was kind of goofy, was on the page where she was given three objects, and was told to circle the two that are the same, she opted to draw on the 3rd "different" one and make it the same as the others.  So, not exactly following the directions (in true Elise fashion), but showing me that she could tell which one was different.  Silly kid.  We ended the day with a fun art project.  She drew a page of a cave where a bear might be hibernating, and we glued a picture of a bear on it.  It's pretty cute, and she had a lot of fun trying to think of different things a person might find in the woods.

Day 2:

We read about the Bugle Flower Fairy, read books, and worked in her workbook some more.  I was originally going to have her work on counting and identifying/writing numbers, but she wanted to work on that workbook so bad, so I let her.





Outings:

On Wednesday, Millie had Norse story hour at Ingebretsons as part of her book club.  While we were there, Elise got to spend some one on one time with Grandma Susie.  She loved it!  The had a tea party, built a castle kit, and made furniture out of Legos (what else?!) to go inside.

Friday Millie had another book club event.  This one was 2 hours long, and Elise had to tag along.  I brought along some fun activities (Legos, a cutting and pasting project, a book, and a doll).  Between those things, a snack, and meeting a new friend, Elise had a great time!

3rd Grade, 2nd Quarter Review

Well, this last quarter wasn't really a quarter, was it?  It went by so fast!  We're half way done with the school year!  It feels like we're just getting started.

Here's what we've been working on:

Language Arts:  We're still working on and loving Queens Language Lessons.  The lessons are gentle, and Millie seems to be absorbing everything.  No tears!

Samantha likes math, too!

Reading:  She reads out loud to Elise every morning still, which is good practice.  She also reads every day while I'm doing preschool with Elise.  I haven't had any control over what she has been reading this quarter.  I'm not sure why, but I didn't have anything planned.  She's been having fun reading lots of American Girl books, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Magic Tree House, and other random book she picks out at the library.

Read Alouds:  This quarter we read Owls in the Family and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Math:  Still plugging away at Saxon 3.  We just started doing square roots.

Science:  We finished up our study of plants, and started up with physics.  I'll be honest, teaching physics a terrible bore for me, and Millie doesn't enjoy it either.  We pretty much gave up on it.  I'm supposed to be teaching it though mid-March, so hopefully I can find it in myself to get back into it.  She's got two outside-of-the-home physics classes scheduled, so if nothing else, she'll get that.



History:  Of course, history has been fabulous!  We are studying the European's arrival to "the new world".  We're using Story of the USA as our spine.  Along with the readings in those books, we read Pedro's Journal, We Asked For Nothing (this was an amazing book.  I highly recommend it.  This book led us to watch several documentaries on Netflix.  It was a great topic that the whole family got into), The Double Life of Pocahontas, Sarah Morton's Day, and Three Young Pilgrims.  We're also reading and doing projects from Easy Make & Learn Projects: Colonial America.

Spelling:  Plugging away with All About Spelling.  This is such a fantastic spelling program!  We're both learning so much!

Phy Ed:  Millie took ice skating lessons, and went swimming a few times.

Art:  She's still taking piano lessons.  It's fun to see her progress!  We did some handy crafts (although not as many as planned!) at home (doll puppets and card making), saw the Nutcracker ballet, and hit up the Children's Museum once per week to make art in the art room.

Outings:  We met up with friends at the Science Museum, Jr. Rangers classes (animal tracks and exploration by the Mississippi River, snow shelter and fire building, and snow shoeing), Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see the Terra Cotta Warriors (once in a lifetime event, here!), space lessons and the opportunity to look through the HUGE telescope at the University of Minnesota, "bring a friend day" at the St. Paul Figure Skating Club, and 4H (she learned how to use a sewing machine!  They made hats to donate to charity).

Christmas:  We spend a lot of time talking about Christmas, and doing service projects, Christmas projects, baking, etc.  It was a wonderful, simple, slow paced Christmas this year.  I loved it!

That about sums it up!  Is there anything I'd change?  Yes!  I need to up the phy ed a bit.  Perhaps we'll get into the outdoor hour again.  Oh, nature study has sort of gone by the wayside.  At least our Jr. Rangers classes are outdoors.  They're so fun!!

What's new for next quarter?  Cursive!!

Christmas 2012: A Very Relaxing Christmas

This was the Christmas I'd been wishing for for years!  In the years past, we have spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day running around from party to party, exhausting the kids, exhausting ourselves, running on a very tight schedule, and breathing a big sigh of relief when it was all over.

This year was a bit different.  Buds side of the family was out of town for Christmas, so we celebrated with them two weeks early.  My sister worked on Christmas weekend, so we celebrated with my family a week early.

All that early celebrating left us with four days of simple family time.  It was relaxing, not stressful, and blissful.  Here's what we did:

Saturday we cleaned the house and relaxed.  I had to go out and brave the crowds at JoAnn fabrics.  The store wasn't too crowded, but traffic getting there was really bad!  That'll teach me to do last minute shopping!  We just hung out at home after that, and had a movie-a-thon in the evening (Muppet Christmas Carol and Elf), and ate pizza in front of the TV.

Sunday we picked up Kinsey and headed over to Great Grandma Lenore's house for dinner and a small Christmas party.  On the way home, we swung through the drive through at Byerlys and picked up the groceries I had ordered ahead of time online.  Talk about avoiding the last minute rush!

Monday, Christmas Eve, we slept in, went ice skating, went out to dinner (I'd never been out to eat on Christmas Eve before!).  On the way out of the restaurant, Elise said "Berry Cwistmas, everybody!"  It was so cute!  She got quite a happy response from the other restaurant goers.  We then came home and baked cookies.  After we ate cookies, read the story of Christmas by candle light, and called the relatives to wish them a Merry Christmas, we let the kids open the gifts under the tree (gifts from us to them, and to each other).  The kids were eager to get to bed at a decent hour, so they'd be asleep when Santa arrived!  I love Christmas Eve after the kids are in bed!  We bring up all the Santa gifts, open up a bottle of wine, put a movie in, and wrap until the wrapping is done.  So much fun!

Christmas day the kids woke up and tore into their stockings while Bud and I slept in.  When we woke up, the girls opened their Santa gifts.  Elise's favorite was a makeup kit (that Santa thought was fake makeup, but wasn't!).  Millie's two favorite gifts were a Lego set and Pocahontas doll. Kinsey came over around 1ish.  I worked in the kitchen, slaving over a yule log.  Seriously.  It took 6 hours to make.  I'm NEVER doing that again ;)  I also made stew.  Mmmm.  We just hung out, chit chatted, and ate.  It was a fantastic day.

The night is still young (sort of)!  Bud and I are going to watch Miracle on 34th Street before calling it a night.

                          Merry Christmas!

                         Check out what other homeschool families were doing this Christmas, here.