1st Day Back to {home}School, Among Other Things

We did it! We finally got unpacked enough and got our new learning room organized enough to start back to school! Frankly, I was starting to get worried...ha

Today went very well though. So far I am extremely pleased with our new curriculum choices for math and language arts. Now, if I could just actually get some lesson planning done... And get the finishing touches done in the learning room, so I can blog it!

In other news, it has been a bit of a traumatic week...pet-wise.

Last weekend a sweet friend (who had asked my permission beforehand) brought the kiddos their very own little fish tank with two goldfish. Well, on Sunday we noticed that The Princess' fish was pretty lethargic...dead, actually. She was sad, but she handled it fairly well. And we went to the store that evening and let her pick out a new goldfish.

Well, today during our school time~the fish tank is in our learning room~we noticed Mr. B's fish was acting funny.

And then he was dead.

It was a bit of a rough time. My son is a drama king and my daughter is the drama queen...they both melted down. Of course, I felt terrible, but what can you do? We'd already had the talk about how goldfish have short lives. "Just work on your handwriting page, kids. Ignore the fish floating on his side...." Oh my. We had to just stop for a short while, say a prayer, flush the fish and make a promise to go fish shopping right after school before things could go on.

Sandwiched between the fish funerals, the kiddos found a baby blue jay in our backyard. It was a fledgling, fully feathered. I think it may have fallen out of its nest, but there were no protective parents trying to peck our heads, so I'm not sure what happened to it. When my kids went to look at it and talk to it, it started following them around like a little puppy. It was pretty cute and they, of course, were enchanted by it. Gave it a name and everything:) My kids are big animal lovers, if you can't tell.

Well, the next morning they ran out to see if the baby bird was still there (I was a *meanie* and wouldn't let them bring the bird in the night before, of course). And it was dead.

So then there was a bird funeral.

Needless to say, I hope there are no more pet funerals this week. It's been a bit much for the kids, bless their hearts, and a bit much for me, too, because I like to protect them from hurt.

Here's looking forward to a drama-free day tomorrow!

This post is linked to:

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

my blessed life

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