First week

The rest of the week was fun for all of us. We are trying to get figured out what works and what doesn't. I am trying not to test out every homeschooling schedule known to man and stick with just one thing. I joke quite often that I am just like a fish and can be so easily distracted by anything. And with homeschooling my kids its the same thing. There are such wonderful subjects and activities out there its hard to choose and stay on track. But we will try. This week this is what we chose to do:

A little Penny polishing... this was suppose to be just for Hazel but Jakob thought it was cool and joined in for a few cents.

I taped pennies in Hazel's journal and she used her crayons to rub out the shape. Apparently Circles were going to be our shape for the week. She loved it and helped me tape the pennies, a double treat.

She wanted me to take a picture of her writing like her brother... H is still her letter of choice

We started our ministudy on Egypt and the Pyramids. After reading a couple of books from the Library I printed off some lapbooking stuff from Homeschoolshare and we talked about how the Egyptians believed in many Gods and magic and how the Nile flowed North instead of South. Jakob thought that was very cool which lead to some discussions on gravity and how the world spins etc.

The winner of the day was this:

Its a stamping book with hieroglyphics. Both kids loved making secret messages and then have me try to decode them. This was Jakob's

It says, "Love the Lord in your hart". Yes hart not heart. *grin* Took me about 15 minutes to decode because the glyphs not only mean letters but sounds. Super fun.

For science we mummified a hot dog. The kids had a blast and we hammed it up as this was in the afternoon and we were all kinda sleepy.


Spreading the "mummy dust"



Measuring the before length
Recording info
The Mummy
The VERY dramatic closing of the tomb ceremony....

And some spells and stories to help the mummy on his journey to the underworld
We also went to the Boston Museum of Science this week for their free Friday. Since we were taking some friends along and we hadn't cleaned the car out since (shamefully) the move, we worked on that and Jakob decided the car needed a good wash down. Hey, its handwork right? ;-)


Unfortunately I don't have any really good pictures of us at the Museum. It was packed and I was trying to focus on the kids. But they had a ball. This week I am going to try and focus on staying home a bit since our week was cut short with swim lessons, and our trip to Boston. I hope to move into more of a rhythm soon.

First Day of School!!

Today we started "school". And because the first day of school requires a special breakfast, I made crepes. They were surprisingly simple, but I had never made them before so this made them super special. And the fact that the recipe came out of Jakob's Ratatouille cookbook made him grin from ear to ear.

I should mention that I am notorious for only reading the ingredients to a recipe and not paying attention to the directions, so yeah I was totally caught off guard when I came to the part that said, "Put mixture in refrigerator for 30 minutes to over night." Opps!
Thankfully this wasn't one of those days where my daughter was HUUUNNNNGARY (Yes just like that) so we were able to go ahead and do our Bible lesson on Creation before breakfast. I had gone through this lesson before with Jakob a long time ago, but since we haven't really found a church here I figured starting at the basics for Hazel wasn't gona kill us.
We played with goop and sang our songs and talked about how God made everything. Sorry no pictures. I was eyeing my camera the whole time but it was out of reach and I really needed to stay in the moment.

Next we did Yoga. I found a little 10 minute video on fitnesstv.com and the kids and I really enjoyed the little workout. I have read in various places how yoga and certain inversions increase bloodflow to the brain and help jumpstart the thinking process. Plus who can resist seeing cute little downward dogs all over your livingroom?

Alright we did basic lessons. We are "following" Pathways Learning Curriculum which I really like because A. it's FREE and B. I can customize the program to Jakob's level(s) which vary greatly from subject to subject.
I had PLANNED to get all our lessons in before lunch but apparently not. I'm not sure if Jakob was too distracted or if Thesaurus work was really that difficult but he took his time.
Since Lunch was quickly approaching I wanted to get in a fun activity so he didn't totally hate me his first day back to homeschool.
So we fingerknitted a necklace. You can youtube fingerknitting and finger crocheting and get the general idea but it was something completely different than what he was use to and although it was tough for him, he totally fell in love with his work and wants to make more. (Success!)

He did a really good job and stuck with it much longer than I expected.

Afterwards we lunched, rested and worked with $$. A skill that I fear will be a longtime subject for us. He did well and we played a long time with making amounts and change but it was a slow go. Of course practice makes perfect so I believe I will go and download some of Homeschool Creations calendar time printables that include making the date out of money. That was Jakob.

Hazel did well. I have taken the, "I'm gona try and keep you entertained." Approach for now and will implement actual curriculum later. To be honest I'm still trying to find all of my stuff from the move and now that its cooled a bit I can get back up in the attic. *shutter*
So Inspired by a few places and mostly from what worked last year at Preschool Co-op, I made her some activities.

Bottle cap matching (she matches the letters of the word/name) Right now we are doing family members. This was by far her favorite.

Here's my artsy shot of our bottle caps and salsa jar :-)


Pattern matching. The pieces to match are in the tub to the right.
"Jewel" counting. She did this last year and loved it but was very uninterested today. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. *fingers crossed*
This was a mutual Favorite. Her Journal.

I got this idea from Preschool-daze and plan to have her a little activity in it each day. Today she colored the circles red. Tomorrow I think we will do coin rubbings. I'm totally winging it with her since my main focus is Jakob right now and she's... she's 3
I like the idea of keeping it all in a notebook so I can see her process. Plus it gives her a space to go to when she wants to feel included in the lessons. Although I will have activities for her to do, she will be totally free to mark it up with her inspiration. A little Montessori meets Waldorf.

So there. Our first day. Now I have spent way too much time on here and my children have fully met their max on being friendly to one another time. I will don my referee hat and see you next time!!