The Weekly Wrap-Up: Crickets, a Caterpillar and Co-op

Here we are wrapping up another full week! It's been a very productive one, too. We have been working on several projects around our house. Vince has been working on a deck expansion all summer and has finally finished it (I'll be blogging that soon!). He's also had a major landscaping project in our backyard and that is just about to shape up. We also tackled the garage this week. I haven't been able to park in there for about 6 or more months now, but things are looking better. The garage still has a long way to go though. That will be yet another upcoming blog. I love to blog about completed projects!

Inside the house I tackled some way-overdue filing (about 8 months overdue!) and made good headway with that. (I really hate paperwork and filing!). There was also some organizing and cleaning that happened--that's always good, right?

I even started on my lesson plans (finally!).

In the meantime, Mr. B captured a couple of crickets and created a little habitat for them in the house for a day or so.

Vince found a ginormous caterpillar on the disc golf course and brought it home to the kids. They immediately created yet another insect habitat for it (you wouldn't believe how much a caterpillar can poop!).

We released all of the bugs back into nature this morning--after a scare that they had died overnight. I was happy to release live bugs rather than have a bug funeral.

Speaking of funerals though, we did have one for "dead" words in our Creative Writing class at co-op. My friend Alicia teaches it and she has some great ideas! We took words such as "happy", "fun", "like", and "love" and found replacement words for them that were much more descriptive--then we "buried" the "dead" words (in boxes of sand). The kids loved it! And it led into a exhilarating writing exercise (how do you like that word for descriptive language? :)

The kids had a wonderful time showing their "grief" over the "dead" words;)

In other co-op news, there was much exercising in Muscle & Fitness, lessons on the Parable of the Sower in the Bible class, and continued learning about the Constitution and making their lapbooks in the US Constitution class.

After that we headed to the park with our lunches for some playtime with the rest of the group. Now I'm ready for a nap! Not gonna happen though ...it's time to get ready for an awesome weekend with my family!

I hope you have a great weekend, too! Enjoy it and make the most of it!

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 ...

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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