Books and Movies from November

Several of the books that I read in November were read as "homeschool prep" so that I could discuss the book with either Amber or Mason. Mason finally talked me into letting him read a "Goosebumps" book for school so I read the book as well. While it definitely was not a "classic in the making," the book was fast-paced and suspenseful. I now have a better appreciation of why my son enjoys the Goosebumps series so much.

Books from November

• Penelope and Prince Charming by Jennifer Ashley ****
• The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner ***
• Deep Trouble (Goosebumps series) by R. L. Stine ***
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner ****
• Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning ****
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens *****

I really watched a LOT of movies in November. I even went to the MOVIE THEATER two times! My daughter and I had several double-feature nights over the Thanksgiving holiday while I worked on laundry and mindless school-prep activities like cutting out lapbook components. I saw some movies that I really liked and some that were disappointing. I also revisited some old favorites which is always a treat.

Movies from November

• G. I. Joe **
• Hoodwinked ***
• Twilight ***
• Lady in the Water ***
• New Moon ****
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen **
• A Christmas Carol ****
• My Life in Ruins ****
• 27 Dresses ***
• Forrest Gump *****
• Angels and Demons ***
• The Taking of Pelham 123 **
• Up *****

Bulk Cooking Day

I recently had a bulk cooking day and I just loved the benefits of my time in the kitchen. I would love to plan a bulk cooking day at least every other week but I rarely have time for an extended period of time in the kitchen. The benefits are so wonderful, though!

First, I boiled 14 eggs in the adorable, perfect little egg cooker my husband purchased for me a few Christmases ago. All of my children love hard cooked eggs and they are a perfect snack for after swim team practice.
Next I seasoned and cooked three pounds of ground beef for taco bar. Yummy! I divided the beef into four separate containers for four taco bar meals.Then I made two quiches. I used some leftover steamed broccoli and cauliflower and ham in them. We ate one right away and I froze the other one.

I also made a double batch of Homestyle Chicken and Noodles in the crockpot. We finished all of that over a few days. This meal is great heated up.
Lastly, I made a double batch of muffins and a loaf of banana bread. I have to admit, they were both from mixes...but still.

I plan to spend another chunk of time in the kitchen and get some more meals made for hectic days ahead. With Christmas around the corner and swim meets almost every week-end, the days ahead will be more busy than ever!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! As I think about giving thanks, I know that the blessings that have been given me are extraordinary. I am most thankful for my wonderful husband and three incredible children. I am truly a blessed woman!

We will be enjoying a quiet day at home with a wonderful meal. My husband has to work until the afternoon so we plan on having dinner around 3 PM. We will be enjoying at the dinner table:

• Turkey
• Stuffing made by my mother-in-law
• Cheesy Potatoes
• Green Beans
• Baked Corn Casserole
• Corn Muffins
• Southern Living's Pumpkin Crisp.

In the evening, my mother-in-law and her friend will be coming over for Mexican Train. Hopefully, the lights will make it on the Christmas tree as well. . .but I don't know if that will happen or not on Thanksgiving. The holiday season has truly begun and I can't wait to see our fully decorated tree again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Nature Study

In October, we completed a pumpkin nature study. The children really wanted to carve pumpkins so I thought it would be a good opportunity to tie-in nature study with a fun family activity. Each of the children had their own pumpkin with which to work. We worked on our pumpkins for most of a lovely fall afternoon.


Before cutting open the pumpkins, I read a tiny section out of the Handbook of Nature Study to the children about pumpkins. They we spent a bit of time looking at the outside of the pumpkins and talking about them. We "clunked" them with our fingers and talked about the sound that it made. We noticed the lines going up the sides of the pumpkins. We identified which side of each pumpkin was on the ground as it grew and talked about how we knew. We looked at the bottom of the pumpkins and noticed the mark in the middle and we looked at the stems. We talked about how pumpkins grow and what they look like when it is time to harvest them.

Since Kevin was home from work in the afternoon, he was enlisted to help us with our activity! He cut the tops of all the pumpkins with a big knife.Getting all of the stringy goo and seeds out of the pumpkins was quite the task. While Amber and Mason did a great job - the inside of the pumpkin was just too gross for little Duncan so I scraped out his pumpkin.Before we started removing all of the insides, we talked about why the pumpkins are filled with stringy goo. We talked about how the pumpkin is mostly hollow inside and we noticed that the inside of the pumpkin has different sections. We took time to smell the inside of the pumpkin and talked about the smell.
We sorted out all of the seeds and roasted them. Everybody tried the roasted pumpkin seeds except Duncan.
The rest of the time was spent carving the pumpkins as the children wished. I purchased three pumpkin carving kits at Super Wal-Mart for 1.00 each and they were a good purchase. The little jagged carving tools allowed even my youngest to carve his pumpkin with success. The kit also included a flat scraper which was quite useful for removing the insides of the pumpkins.

Smiling kids and smiling pumpkins on a perfect fall day...what a wonderful season!

Mason's Birthday Celebration

For Mason's 11th birthday, our family went to Dave & Buster's. We had never been there before but our nieces and nephews told Mason that it was like a fabulous Chuck E. Cheese for older kids. Then...Mason heard about the GIANT crane game at Dave & Buster's and he was completely sold! We don't have a Dave & Buster's close to us so we drove about 50 minutes to get there. I was truly surprised by the size of the place - it was HUGE!

Mason and Duncan posed in front of "The Big One" for me. It was definitely the biggest crane game they had ever seen! Even though they tried really hard, they didn't walk away with any prizes from "The Big One."
Amber is not nearly as much of a video game enthusiast as her brothers but she did enjoy playing a Jurassic Park game where you had to shoot at dinosaurs. I enjoyed that game too because you were able to sit in a little car for the entire playing experience!

The Jumpin' Jackpot game was really hard. The boys didn't do very well with that game.

The boys loved Deal or No Deal! They played that game as much as they could while they were at Dave & Buster's.Amber found a familiar game - Mario Kart Racing - and played that for a while.
The boys ended up with lots and lots of tickets!Dave & Buster's had a little store where the kids could redeem their tickets. Mason picked out a big stuffed animal.

We also celebrated Mason' birthday with a small family birthday party. We made Mason laugh when he was supposed to be blowing out his candles. He had a Simpsons Dairy Queen birthday cake this year per his request.

Whenever Mason opens presents, Duncan is right by his side. Amazingly, Mason doesn't mind at all and they usually share their toys.

After the eating, cake, and present opening were all done, our sweet and lovely cousin Cassie treated Amber to a beautiful, curly hair-do and she also did her nails. Amber's hair and nails looked wonderful!

Week in Review - Eight Appointments, No Caffeine and Deep Gum Dental Cleaning

This week has been in one word, humbling. We have had no less than 5 (3 of which were mine) afternoon doctor/dentist (and 3 haircut) appointments this week. I also needed to make a huge trip to Super Wal-Mart and run a swimsuit related errand with my daughter. Handling so many afternoon appointments, errands, evening swim team, and school has been humbling in and of itself.

Oh, and I also had half of a deep gum cleaning at the dentist this week. I have one word of advice, FLOSS! I get to go back for the second half of my deep gum cleaning in a few weeks. Really, just floss. And, did I mention that I have had to give up caffeine due to some irregularities in my heart beat that are likely caffeine-related? Really, I've had better weeks.

We did manage to have a fairly productive week amidst the chaos of appointments, though I have no fun, hands-on projects to discuss this week besides art class. Our art lesson was really hard today, and even quite frustrating for my youngest child. So, art wasn't even that fun this week!

While the children completed their independent work each day, we were not able to do our work together every single day this week so we didn't make a lot of progress forward on our human body unit. We did finish up discussing the 5 senses, and we finished our read-aloud about Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson (excellent and enjoyed by all). We watched only one video this week, Reading Rainbow Opt which I would recommend. The video focused on many different kinds of optical illusions, which are always fascinating.

My youngest read five books this week independently about the senses, all of which were well-done and quite informational.

• Hearing by Rebecca Olien
• Smelling by Rebecca Olien
• Tasting by Rebecca Olien
• Cuts and Scrapes by Sharon Gordon
• Helen Keller, Courage in the Dark by Johanna Hurwitz

My oldest read Understanding Your Senses which is excellent. My 5th grade son continued reading in You're Tall in the Morning But Shorter at Night and he also read Helen Keller, Courage in the Dark.

One of the big accomplishments this week for my boys was that both of them passed their typing test and are now each the RULER OF TYPER ISLAND. They both have been working through Typing Instructor for Kids 4 since the beginning of our school year back in August. They had worked through all of the typing lessons and were practicing for 15 minutes per day. Each of them had taken the final test several times, but their word-per-minute rate was not fast enough to move on. Well, this week they both passed their typing tests! Now that they are both rulers of Typer Island, they have many more typing games from which to choose to practice their typing skills. They were both SO excited to become rulers of Typer Island!

Duncan (3rd) finished his Growing With Grammar 2 course this week. Next week, he will start a short grammar study from Fortunately For You Books - Grammar By THIS Book focusing on The First Thanksgiving Day. After that, I'm not sure what direction I'll be taking with Duncan's grammar study for the rest of the year. The Growing With Grammar 3 book is much more work than Growing With Grammar 2 and I'm not sure if he is ready for that yet at the age of 8.

As a family project, we put together a shoebox for a 10-14 year old girl for Operation Christmas Child. My daughter was very excited about the project and she wrapped the shoebox (quite a difficult task) and told me what items she would like to put in the shoebox. We included primarily practical items (soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, socks), school supplies (pencils, crayons, notebooks, sharpener), and some fun items (hair accessories, small stuffed animal, lollipops). We'll be dropping the box off at church when we go on Saturday night. Putting together the shoebox is the first of several projects I hope to do this Christmas season to help us reach out to the world around us and share the joy of the season.

Lastly, our art class was the most difficult one we have completed so far. The focus was on contour drawings of people. My husband, each of the kids, and I posed for the children so each of the kids had four people in their drawing. All of them were challenged by this project, particularly my youngest son.

Overall, I thought they did a good job. Drawing people is hard! At the end, they had to decide who was in the foreground and who was in the background. They also had to choose one person to detail fully with color. Amber (7th) chose me!Mason (5th) chose me to detail as well.

Duncan (3rd) was really struggling by the last model so his sister looks a bit like an octopus. We all tried to be very encouraging and to remember that the focus should be on the PROCESS not the product. So, he chose to detail his octo-sister and made a joke out of it. Next week will be a short week for us - we are taking Wednesday through Friday off for Thanksgiving. I, for one, am really looking forward to the break. If you want to see what other homeschoolers were doing this week, check out the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Week in Review - Drug Awareness, Sight

Overall, this week was quite productive, even though we had three afternoon doctor's/dentist's appointments this week. I truly dislike having afternoon appointments that interrupt our school day but they simply cannot be avoided sometimes. I always try to schedule appointments as late in the day as possible, but not so late that the appointment will conflict with the swim team practice schedule. Next week has several afternoon appointments as well so I will have to try extra hard not to feel stressed and snarky!

We finished our Drug Awareness focus and learned about stimulants, depressants, and addiction. Overall, learning about addiction was quite sad. I definitely think my children have a better understanding of the dangers of smoking, drug, and alcohol abuse now. One picture from the free curriculum that we used from NIDA will stick with me for a long time. The picture contrasted a brain scan of a normal person's brain with a brain scan of a 20 year heroin user. The link will take you to all of the color pictures for Module 6 - the one that particularly disturbed me is the last picture in the linked document.

After finishing up with Drug Awareness, we spent the rest of the week studying our eyes and perception. To go along with this theme, I have been reading Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson to the children for a read-aloud all week. While many read-alouds have flopped here, the Helen Keller story has held all three of my children's vivid interest. I can barely read the book without choking up. Helen Keller's life is so inspiring - what an amazing person. My daughter even commented that she had absolutely nothing to complain about with the read-aloud - high praise indeed!

We watched a bit of a hodge-podge of human body related videos this week as I needed to return them to the library. All were enjoyed and were found to be educational - Bill Nye is a big favorite with my children! I almost always learn some new tidbit from the videos as well.

• Bill Nye the Science Guy - Eyeball
• Bill Nye the Science Guy - Smell
• Bill Nye the Science Guy - Digestion
• Bill Nye the Science Guy - Forensics

My youngest has been enjoying the human body related age appropriate books that he has been reading each week throughout our unit. This week, he found the following titles in his workboxes:

• Seeing by Rebecca Olien
• Take Care of Your Eyes by Don L. Curry
• A Good Night's Sleep by Sharon Gordon

All of the children are moving along well in their independent work. Amber (7th) finished the first unit in Rosetta Stone Spanish this week (me too!) While we both have learned a lot, we need to spend more time working with the audio companion outside of the computer lessons.

Duncan (3rd) is almost completely finished with the grammar program he started last year, Growing With Grammar 2. Right now, I'm not quite sure if I will start him directly into Growing With Grammar 3 or wait until next year. I have decided to hold off on the decision for a while as I have found a lovely way for him to practice grammar skills that is Thanksgiving themed from Fortunately For You Books.

Mason (5th) finished his assigned reading, "Gregor the Overlander," and convinced me to let him read a Goosebumps title for school next. Since I don't have definite unit-themed book choices for each of them right now, I am somewhat flexible. I found a free book unit for "Goosebumps Deep Trouble" so he is currently thrilled to be reading a Goosebumps book for school. He regularly reads Goosebumps titles on his own so reading one for school is a treat for him.

Lastly, our weekly art lesson was a highlight of our week. This week, the focus was on media exploration and the children completed Rainy Day pictures. As usual, their art projects turned out great!

First, they painted their entire watercolor paper with water so that it was quite wet. Then, they added splotches of rainy day colors - primarily blues and black. They used a variety of techniques to spread the paint over their papers for a fabulous result.

While waiting for their paintings to dry, they drew and cut out shapes from black construction paper to make a rainy day picture. They spent a lot longer designing and cutting out their shapes than I thought they would but the pictures were still not quite dry when they were done. Mason ran upstairs for me and got my hairdryer and we quickly finished drying the paintings with the hairdryer.

Amber's (7th) painting most closely resembles the model given to the children by the teacher in the Atelier art video. I adore her little people with umbrellas and her excellent use of perspective to make some people look close and some people look far away. I also enjoyed that she used some shades of pink in her painting.

Mason's (5th) shapes were far more surreal in nature. I'm not sure I would want to be on the street during his rainy day! As usual, his creativity and artistic nature shines through.Duncan (3rd) completed his painting with his usual joyful exuberance. His painting has quite a story behind it filled with trees that are blowing away in the storm and lost frogs. Another week down - the days are going by so quickly this year! If you would like to see what other homeschoolers did this week, check out the Week in Review at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Comforting Lunches from a Vending Machine?

Is a comforting lunch this? Or this?

The other day my husband told me a very interesting tidbit of information. He said that a work colleague told him that his son's high school had replaced the cafeteria workers with vending machines. The thought struck me as quite odd and I pondered the scenario for several days. Then, when we were having a really yummy lunch at home, I thought about it again. I decided to do an internet search to learn more and found the article, "Machines give kids lessons in food, finance."

While many benefits are touted in the article of replacing school cafeteria workers with vending machines and perhaps there are many benefits, the whole idea is just quite strange to me. Imagining my children walking up to a vending machine and ordering their lunch seems so...completely not comforting.

Lunch is, and should be, a break in the school or work day. Lunch is a time to slow down, eat a nourishing meal, and spend time with people that one enjoys...or spend a bit of time alone to recharge one's batteries. A lunch spit out of a vending machine just doesn't compare to a lunch prepared by loving hands.

While we certainly have our share of rushed, less than stellar lunches here at home (frozen pizza and ramen noodles spring to mind), we often have a lovely, home-cooked meal. These meals are a chance for us to refresh,recharge, and renew ourselves before starting on the schoolwork of the afternoon and the evening activities that are to come.

Even though I still sometimes wish for a kitchen support staff, I count the ability for us to eat a nourishing, comforting lunch prepared by my hands as just one more of the benefits of homeschooling.

Yummy, nourishing lunches prepared by loving hands during the school day...it's a comforting thing.