Skip to main content

The Weekly Wrap-up: 1st Week Back

Well, here I am, getting back into the swing of posting a weekly wrap-up! Yea! We started back to school this week and it was good to have some routine again.

I had such grand intentions of doing at least a little school (science and history) through the summer, but then our move to Kentucky began to develop...and *summer school* didn't happen. Maybe next year...

I say that to say this though, we are now finishing up the science and history that wasn't finished last year. And I'm okay with that. I probably wouldn't have been a couple of years ago, but I've learned to be flexible. Besides, these are family subjects for us and it's really quite easy to pick right back up. Then we'll move seamlessly into the next books from these.


I just had to share this fun project we did with our history (Story of the World I) activity book though: we made our own stickers!

We are studying about the Greeks, so I photocopied the page of Greek images from our book and then the kiddos colored them.

Next we made a solution using unflavored gelatin (2 envelopes), water (1 cup) and peppermint extract (1/2 tsp). It was really quite simple: just heat the gelatin and water over medium heat until gelatin has dissolved.

Then add the peppermint extract and let the mixture cool. Luckily I already had all of the ingredients and didn't have to make any special purchases for this (always a factor in choosing my activities!).

After the mixture had cooled to the consistency of glue (kind of thick, but still runny) we brushed it onto the back of the pictures they had colored and let them dry.


After they had dried it was time to cut them out, lick them and stick them on something!

I was curious if they would really stick and if the mixture would taste good or bad. The kids said it tasted like *nothing* really and it actually did stick. Now, not like real stickers from the store, but it did stick. All in all, a fun little project! We love the SOTW activity books!

The rest of our week went really well. You can read more about the curriculum we're using here. We are just getting started with the new choices, but I am very pleased with them so far~and the kiddos are, too!

Today was our first group meeting with our new homeschool group in our new town. We were all excited (and maybe a bit nervous). We all had a great time! I was thrilled to meet some wonderful moms who I can tell are kindred spirits and the kiddos really enjoyed hanging out with some new friends. It's such a wonderful feeling to know that we've found a good group here. We had such a wonderful one back in Arkansas and I was a bit worried. Of course, the groups are very different in style, but the kindred spirits are the same and that's the important thing.

Afterwards we decided it was too nice of weather to not go to the park. We hadn't even visited any of the parks here yet, so it was high time. We found a nice shady one and had a relaxing time. Well, I had a relaxing time. Vince had to play *dragon chasing the princess while the prince tries to save her*. Yes, that's a favorite playground game of my children:)

And then we finished up with some ice cream~what beats that?! I am loving having a Dairy Queen around!

And that's a wrap for our first week of the 2011-2012 school year!


Comments

Kathy said…
sounds like a good week! We are loving Total Language Plus so far! How about you?
Mary said…
Looks like a great first week. I love the stickers!
Kathy~
Yes! We are loving it, too! I am very pleased with the choice. We're on Charlotte's Web right now, which one are y'all doing?
Kari said…
Maybe more peppermint extract next time? =) Sounds like a good week!
We love having a homeschool group to do field trips with, and the moms have a monthly support group with encouraging speakers, etc. Does so much good for a homeschooling mom's sanity! :)
familymgrkendra said…
I love the "make your own sticker" idea!! I have all those ingredients, so I totally see us doing that this week! Thanks for sharing!

Have a great school year!
Anonymous said…
Looks like a great week! We just wrapped up our 3rd week. I am really praying for a homeschool group to connect with. We live in a rural area so it's hard. Hope your transition continues to go well. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
--Gayla
Ellen said…
Lora, how wonderful it is to be back into our school-year lessons and activities, much as I adored summer! I'm happy to be reading Wrap-Ups again. Glad you are settled in your new home and environs!
In Everything said…
Sounds great:) Glad you are adjusting and found a homeschooling group.... we are in the process of finding a house/land to move to.... and then it will be our turn to adjust :/
Phyllis said…
Looks like a great first week. We have made homemade stickers before, but I never thought of doing it as a school project. A support group is very important.

Popular posts from this blog

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 clip on the right direction.   The left

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