The Weekly Wrap-up: Indoor Picnics, Brownies and Field Day

And it's Friday again. Where do these weeks go?!

I don't know about your homeschool, but it's getting harder to stay focused around here--what with the weather being so gorgeous and all! It's a good thing that we're tapering off here towards the end of our school year. Yes, I do plan to do some school through the summer even though it will not be our regular schedule. Just enough to avoid summer brain drain :) But we are wrapping things up and our schedule is not even full now.

(indoor picnic)

Mr. B has completed his math and grammar for the year already. I am keeping him on his toes with another math workbook a couple of days a week and also some math websites on the other days. We are also continuing his grammar lessons on an every-other-day basis.

The Princess has really finished her math for the year as well. However, since we started using Singapore this year and they recommend starting one grade level down if you haven't used it before, I am actually having her do one extra book this year and next year, then she'll be exactly where she needs to be by then end of next year. So even though she's completed the necessary 2 workbooks already, she is doing a 3rd workbook, as well as working on some math websites, too. Math is one of her tougher subjects and she needs to stay in practice. She is also finishing her last language arts study with Total Language Plus.

Of course, we are still doing history and science together as a family. We'll definitely continue those through the summer.

The Princess had her very last Girl Scout meeting as a Brownie this week. It's been a fun two years, but I think we are going to try something besides Girl Scouts this fall--perhaps 4H. I would like to find something that both kiddos can enjoy and participate in.

Today we enjoyed our homeschool group's annual Field Day. The kids had fun playing some classic relay games and laughing at us parents when we also played one. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for a day outside--it was beautiful! And the company was great! We have really been blessed with a great homeschool group here.

And now I am ready to enjoy the rest of my weekend. I have a new book to read, some family fun planned for tomorrow, and beautiful weather to enjoy. I hope you have a great weekend, too!

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

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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