Week In Review Feb 7-11

I often find myself stretching outside of my comfort zone with Homeschooling.
This week however I was totally "in the zone"
We started our Native American block this week.
Yes I attempted Native Americans last Semester, but I think there were too many subjects involved with too many distractions and a Momma's unforgiving desire to make "perfect lessons" really got in the way.
Things are better this go round. With a base from our Curriculum (love love love!!), and a few fun books from the Library we are all enjoying this block.
Because we have lived in three very different areas since joining Mike on his Coastie Career, I thought it would be nice to look at the Native Cultures from those areas.
First up: The Cherokee Nation
Our book this week was "If You Lived With The Cherokee" and it was a nice tie-in with all the stories we have gone through.
The week was spent listening and reading and illustrating various legends facts about the Cherokee and locating them on a map.
We learned about discipline, work, houses, food, and ceremonial dances.
To better illustrate the meaning of the dances I pulled up some videos on Youtube and we watched them. We also "acted" out our own little hunting dance to get a better "feel" for it.
Cornbread muffins were the kids baking activity, and Jakob and I made God's Eyes as well.

In preparation for Valentines day the kids painted and made their cards for friends and family. We made coffee filter hearts and also took toilet paper tubes and pinched them into hearts and did a little stamping for decoration. I was inspired by Filth Wizardy on that one long ago but can't find the actual post now.

This was the first year I have encouraged Jakob to totally make his cards own his own and he became quite frustrated when he couldn't decide what to write.
When I suggested a poem he almost burst into tears at the thought of coming up with one on his own.
We had been reading a little Valentine's Day Poem book and I told him to write some of those down or use them for inspiration. Well let me tell you he has been a poem writing fool since!! He really likes the ones that start "Roses are Red Violets are blue..." but has branched out a bit. Its wonderful to see his imagination and creativity take hold and not get the better of him!
We also talked about acrostic poems this week and he made one for the word Valentine.

Thursday was our Library Day and Jakob needs one more history requirement filled before he receives his Bear Badge. I am planning on taking him to a museum, but his Den Leader suggested we visit the archives as well just in case we cant make it.
So we went to the "grown up" side of the Library and he asked to see old Newspapers and historical documents from our area. The Librarian was great and grabbed a few microfiche for him to look through. I thought he was spacing out while she was explaining what they were and how to use the machine, but the moment she left he looked up at me and said, "This is the coolest thing EVER!!" He spent over an hour looking at newspapers and was intrigued mainly by the weather of the day... and the comics. We were sent home with a few good books on Pawtucket and should definitely be able to finish up the requirement this week.

Hazel had her own fun this week. While waiting for Jakob to finish his written work we usually read and then do an activity. I wanted to make some bread for the soup we were having that evening but she wasn't interested. I asked her if she wanted to wipe down the sliding glass door where we had decorated with Crayola Window Markers and it had been smeared from the days activities.
No Mama, I need to wash the floors.
Huh?
I need a bucket of soapy water and a wash rag please. I need to wash the floors.
Really? OK.

So Momma got her the necessities and she washed the floors. The whole time I was torn between two thoughts..
Ohh how sweet she's just like Cinderella
and
Weirdo.

She did a great job though!
Next week, on to the Iroquois Nation!

This moment..... Hazel's Hat

Not so Fat Tuesday

No I didn't forget last week. I had nothing to say, and as my last week off the scales I had nothing to report either. Emotionally I have been up and down about this on again and off again weight and just felt as though if I opened my mouth absolutely nothing positive would come out so I just let the post pass me by. It's still in my box venting away and I re-read it this morning and just shook my head at my own emotional silliness.

Fingers crossed I am to receive definite info into all these hormonal issues I have been having on Thursday. That is if 3 technicians who drew 6 VIALS of blood from me last week remembered to label everything correctly and sent it off in time. They weren't having a great day so I'm not so sure that its gonna happen this week. But if it does then I should have more answers as to the what to do and what not to do's instead of bumping my head on every wall and then stepping on the scale and seeing not a whole lot of difference. I have been pouring over cookbooks like crazy learning meals from diabetic cookbooks, diabetic vegetarian cookbooks, gluten free vegetarian cookbooks, good carbs versus bad carbs, oh my head is spinning! The only thing I know for certain is how my body reacts to food. I have started paying attention. And basically if its processed at all or pre-made from the store my belly says NO WAY now you will suffer. And that's all I really know. Oh that and the fact that Stuffed Mushrooms are SUPER yummy! lol

That being said I have taken the three recipes that seem to fit guidelines that I can figure out from the 12 cookbooks I got from the Library and added them to my recipe rotation. And my body seems to be ok with that for now. I stepped back on the scales this morning and was down 8 lbs! Progress-wise its actually 3lbs because if you remember I gained 5 right before I vowed not to hop on the scales again for a couple of weeks. I am stoked about the loss and yet am very leery of excessive celebration. I feel like I have been fighting these 10lbs for ever now. I have taken the turtle mentality walking everyday for 2+ miles while I catch up on my Bible in 90 Days challenge. I was getting frustrated with my running and knew I couldn't just stop totally so the compromise is walking right now. I just know quitting is not an option, so I will do this until I can get some better answers. But YAY for 3lbs!!!

Weekly wrapup- Jan 31-Feb 4

This week our math block ended with a focus on liquid measurements. I remember this being such a tough subject for me to master, and honestly I still didn't really *know* the info by heart, but Jakob and I worked together and figured it out and taught each other our tricks on how to remember the various amounts of gallon, pints, quarts, and cups.

Working with conversions between the measurements showed us that we really needed to work on 2 digit multiplication. We have mastered things like 22x4 but when we were met with problems such as 16x90 it clearly was time. Jakob took the info really well and has been a multiplying champ ever since. We ended the week with some basic division skills but I hesitated on showing him the number sentence for fear we were covering too many different thing in one week. He's got it though he just doesn't know it yet ;-) I'm loving this is just happening on its own!!

To go along with our measurement work this week we measured and made butter. Only took three different methods but we got it made! I tried to make it a family event and make shake butter and speed it up with a marble.
The marble cracked the jar.
Then I put it in the mixer for about 5 minutes... just got whipped cream.
Finally we put it in batches in my mini chopper and VOILA! Butter! We used coffee filters to strain out the buttermilk to be used later that week in pancakes (YUMMY!). This was because I don't own a cheesecloth. And can never remember to get one until I need to strain something.... right then. It was messy but we made do.

Another day we made cheese. CHEESE! Is that not the coolest thing ever? And I didn't have to order any fancy mix to make it. Mainly cook whole milk then curdle it with vinegar and add herbs.

Ours needed a little salt in my opinion, but it served well for our snack of cheese and crackers. Jakob was in charge of the whole production even down to choosing the herbs and spices to go in the cheese. He seemed a bit lost when he looked at my spice cubby, so I introduced him to my fail-proof scientific method of cooking....Sniff it!!

That's right we sniffed and smelled all different spices and he came up with a few that he thought smelled the best together. And the moral of the lesson is when they smell good together they generally taste good together! And that ladies and gentlemen is the extent of my knowledge about spices. (you may applaud now)

After the coffee filter butter experiment I knew I needed a much bigger and less messy way of draining the cheese. No I didn't go out and get a cheesecloth. I cut up a clean flat sheet and clothes pinned it to the bowl. Hey it worked!! AND it was free! Yippee!

Hazel had her own fun this week with painting up some toilet paper tubes and turning them into candles with a little help from Momma. Once dried we spent much of the afternoon jumping over them reciting Jack Be Nimble... It was our way to celebrate Candlemas for the whole week.

After our walk one day we tried our hand at creating salt icicles on paper. This was a cute little craft inspired by this blog I read often. There is something so mesmerizing about watching glue drip down the paper....

Music this week was fun and Jakob is still progressing well. Now that we know a few notes we are working on recognizing them in sheet music and understanding what different notes counts look like when written. Loads of fun and probably the only thing I actually remember from taking piano so many moons ago.

Reading wise Jakob has finished the Captain Underpants series and has moved on to BOTH the Magic Tree House Series and The Magic School Bus Chapter Books. So far both series are relatively short in length for him so he is knocking out about a book a day. A BOOK A DAY!!! His confidence in his reading is growing more and more and he offers to read out loud almost everything.

I started something new this week towards the end where I have the kids come to the table first thing in the morning to draw with our block crayons. There has been this frustrating gap in the mornings between when they get dressed and ready and when I get breakfast on the table. This usually ends with me pulling them away from some toy or playtime they have involved themselves in and either breakfast going uneaten or now we can't concentrate on the rest of the morning routine because all thoughts are now tuned into what we were doing before. Having them come to the table and just color and explore with the crayons seems to be a nice quick activity to keep them occupied until breakfast is served.

And that's the week in a nutshell!

I almost did it......

I almost complained about the weather this week. As in throw a huge hissy fit because Mother Nature was not cooperating with me.
I know, how dare she right?
Hehe
This is huge for me because I made it a personal goal not to whine about the snow our first year in New England.
Especially since we were the annoying ones asking where all the snow was right before Christmas.
So far the snow has not *totally* messed up any plans we had....
Until Thursday.
I had things to do. Places to go. Libraries to visit. And Dr.s to go and see.
But I also had 6 inches of ice at the end of my driveway and my road was white and super slippery.
Did I mention its our first winter in New England?
Yeah... I don't drive on ice.
I especially don't back up on ice since I'm one of those people who backing comes very unnatural to. (I admit it, when we go in reverse, everyone around is praying .... for themselves!!)
ANYWAYS!
Thursday found me not going anywhere because I was certain that the roads were nasty everywhere and I would end up all over the road if I attempted it.
I was frustrated. This was not part of the plan. And worst of all the kids were not taking the news well.
I put my massive amounts of blogstalking and book ideas to good use and we made planters out of milk cartons, toilet paper tubes turned into candles that we jumped over, and our new yoga tape from the library was received very enthusiastically.



After much debate I called the Health Clinic to see what the roads were like an hour south of us and was told to come down then because there was another ice storm coming the next day which would make it nigh impossible to go anywhere.
So I loaded the kids up and set my teeth against making it out of the ice and snow.
And I'm glad I did, 3 streets over and beyond everything was completely clear!
On my drive I was able to witness all the beauty of this winter land. And the houses, (oh these houses!) that are such a lovely sight in the summer time are so quiet and picturesque with their smoke rising from the chimney and puffy snow on every roof like a blanket, and icicles hanging and glinting in the sun reminded me that there is still beauty to behold in this quiet cold time.
I realized I had not been out to see it in a while.
So the next day and the days after we have made it a point to take a walk outside to look for icicles, and snow sculptures, and in general enjoy the beauty in our neighborhood during this season.

Its hard to appreciate what the Earth is doing for us unless we go out and experience it. Even if, and perhaps especially if that means experiencing it when the "schedule" says otherwise.
I'm so glad we are here to enjoy these seasons and to be able to gratefully accept them as they change and give us their goodness.

This moment- At least the bear gets a "hair-do"

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. Inspired by Soule Mama

Candlemas

"If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will take another flight
If Candlemas Day be cloud and rain
Winter is gone and will not come again"

Today we celebrated Candlemas for the first time. As this is a new celebration to us I wanted to keep it simple. No need in trying to cram all the ideas out there in one day right?
From my meager research I found that Candlemas is a traditional Christian/European Holiday very much like America's Groundhog Day.
The idea is basically to give you hope that Winter is almost over, Spring is on her way and new life is waiting with baited breath to show.
Jakob and I spent a little time today talking about newness and what we expect Spring to bring. We also took this time to discuss the new experiences that we would like to bring into our life in the for of goals, learning topics, and new skills.
As always this was a wonderful time to spend a bit of time with my little man outside of lessons and just chat. The things that interest him are always varied just like his Mom and its so important to take this time to get back in touch with him.
He wrote his thoughts in his main lesson book and I wrote mine in my journal. This way we can look back and keep track with our goals and our journey to newness into the "new" season.

For fun we made beeswax candles. We used a couple of methods such as dipping and mold and pour. It was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed the candlelight dinner as we talked and dreamed of what will be in our garden this year to feed our bellies. (this is a major goal for all of us and I have not been successful in my previous growing attempts so please, any prayers and green thumb vibes and advice are most welcome)








There was something so warming and invigorating about these little flames. With the rain and wind and general grayness lurking outside, today's activities truly gave hope to the survival of our first New England winter and anticipation of its lovely Spring.
I love Seasons.