Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where We Unschooled

(Schoolhouse Rock Live!)

Well, technically we took the week "off" because of our move, but I like to think we got in some schooling on the sly.

Our move began on Monday, but it has continued all week (we have yet to spend a night in our {new} house) because the owners still have a bit of repairs and painting to do. We've been working all week getting things done, but some things just need to wait until the painting is over and since we could still sleep at my parents' house it just seemed like the best thing to do.

School this week has consisted of:

Catching tadpoles in our backyard pond. I even bought an early reader on the life cycle of frogs last week knowing that we would have the perfect opportunity to learn about them and today I actually unpacked the box that had a book I bought a while back: Pets In a Jar.
Exploring in our new backyard in general. There's a treehouse and their very own *jungle gym/swingset*, new wildflowers to pick...you get the picture.
Attending a {free!} performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live! at a local high school. It was a great show and the kiddos LOVED it! We are big Schoolhouse Rock fans~we have all of the songs on dvd. Hey, they're a great homeschool resource:)
Attending our co-op classes with our homeschool group.
Finally breaking out the microscope set we got them {for Christmas!}. They are loving looking at all of the slides that came with it, plus using the outdoor exploring *tools* that came along, too. That is going to be great fun!

And there you have it...our version of unschooling for the week.

Next week I plan to get back into our groove...little by little. I'm still getting our schooling area arranged. We don't have an extra room for a school room in this house, but the kitchen/family area is really big and I think I'm actually going to like having them school there while I can also work in the kitchen, etc., if I need to while I still teach them.

And that's a wrap for us this week:)

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 ...

Fun With 4th of July Crafts: Part 3

I love my new patriotic front door wreath!! I had fun putting this together, although I must admit this is more of an adult craft than one for kiddos. I was inspired by this article in Family Fun magazine. I didn't have quite everything I needed for this one, but all I had to purchase was a few sheets of scrapbook paper and some double-sided tape. Then all I had to gather up were some scissors, regular Scotch tape, a ruler and some cardboard. First I cut four (5"x 6") pieces of each paper. Then by placing a piece of double-sided tape on one of the short ends of the papers, I rolled them into cones, pressing the seams together well. Then I cut a 10" circle out of cardboard and began to stick the cones on it. I used another piece of double-sided tape to stick the cones on, arranging them in a circular pattern. Next I used regular Scotch tape to attach them on the back to the back of the cardboard. After getting all the cones on, I was ready for my centerpiece. He...

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