Thursday....

Breaking up the day with a little game of ABC Bingo. The kids love it!

Another chapter from the story of the U.S.A book 1 Where did England start her own American colonies?
Which colony was "lost"?
Which colony was kept alive by John Smith?
This chapter was the story of Queen Elizabeth 1, pirates, the large fleet Armata, Jamestown and John Smith.

CASTLE DAYS!

Castle Days is a Middle School event where the kids are asked to create a castle using only junk! These kids are so creative! We had so much fun seeing all of the creations, getting our faces painted, wearing paper crowns the kids made, getting pictures and my little sis talked me into doing the "Boot Scootin' Boogie" line dance with a group of girls. What a fun time!

This one in the middle won first place.

This one is my personal favorite, created by my sister! She did every bit of it herself!

This one won second place.

UTAH SHAKE OUT!!!

Yesterday at 10:15 a.m. was the great Utah Shake Out. So like thousands of other Utahans, we practiced earthquake preparedness. We happened to go through the preparedness last week as well so the kids got a double whammy. It is so important in my opinion to get past the point of being scared that this and many other things can happen and be pro-active in getting prepared.
We went through the drill on all three levels of the home so that the kids could think through how they would get out in that scenario. Of course if they were unable to get up the stairs, crouching beside the arm of the couch or under the extremely heavy teacher desk closest to the cement wall would be the better option. We have a meeting place out side that is clear of trees, power poles etc. and very accessible no matter what door they went out. Do you have a plan for your family in the event of an earthquake?

Keep going, keep going, keep going......

Yesterday, a Monday of course, was one of those days when I looked around my house and have to talk myself into sitting down with each of my children for a lesson. I gave them some hands-on projects to do so that I could at least put the school room back together (husband did a lot of wonderful projects for me) but the kids were extra needy. By the end of the day, the house was even messier and the kids and I didn't get near the amount of work accomplished that we set out to do. I have to tell myself to just keep trucking along..... To all of you "homeschoolers"...just keep going, there will be better days too!!!

Birthday ideas

http://www.tipjunkie.com/birthdays-girl-party/

SPRING!!

Spring is such a beautiful time of year. Also a very busy time of year! Our growing season is quite short so I start my seeds indoors. This is my second year starting from seed. This is a great learning experience and hands-on activity for the kids! We talked about photosynthesis and how to keep our plants healthy.

Knife safety and whittling

Yesterday we had scouts and learned to use knives safely. I thought this activity could be used for homeschooling as well, with the appropriate ages. Our scout group are eight and nine year old boys.
1. Talk about knife safety: how to use a knife, sharpen and clean a knife.
2. Each child gets a bar of soap. Show the children how to hold the soap and what direction they will move their knifes to whittle (Away from the body that is!).
3. Whittle away! My boy carved his soap to look like a boat.
4. Help and show the boys how to wipe off and close their knives.
5. They get to use their own carved soap for a fun camp out!
With the scout group, I talked to the parents and made them aware their boy had a pocket knife.

This was such a fun activity for boys and they get to earn a whittling award at pack meeting! :)