The Weekly Wrap-Up: Nature, Speeches & a Homecoming

We are so enjoying the beautiful fall color here in Kentucky this year! This past week I just had to get out and take the kiddos to the Land Between the Lakes and capture some of the beauty with my camera.

(with Aunt Kari at the Nature Station)

We made our first visit to the Nature Station there and had SO MUCH FUN taking a tour to meet all of their "residents". They house several different species for various reasons (injuries, breeding programs to ward off extinction, etc.). Here are a couple of the birds that we met:

(the barn owl)

(the barred owl~our favorite!)

There were also fallow deer, turkeys, a hawk, a great horned owl, coyotes, a bobcat, a bald eagle, and red wolves.

It was the perfect cool fall day for crunching around in the leaves and taking the tour. We also enjoyed some time inside the Nature Station checking out all of their fun displays. They also had some reptiles inside and even some baby flying squirrels.

After that we walked around Hematite Lake for just a bit, loving more of the beautiful fall color.

The rest of our week was really very productive school-wise. We stayed on our lesson plans very well and got a lot accomplished. We did take Thursday off because we had to leave early that morning to go pick up Vince from the Nashville airport (he had been flying all night from Alaska to get back home), then we got stuck in terrible traffic on the way back home and we ended up just stopping for a good lunch before coming back home and taking naps~we were all so tired! It was a nice day off.

However, that evening the kiddos wrapped up their "homework" assignments from last week's co-op classes and finished up their "campaign speeches" for Election class. It was fun listening to them practice their speeches.

And they were SO HAPPY to have their daddy back home again~they missed him a lot (and so did I)!

Yesterday marked the 2nd week of our 2nd quarter co-op and it went very well. I stayed busy not only helping in the art class, but also helping take student pictures for our group's yearbook (Vince is heading that up this year).

Now I'm ready to enjoy the rest of the weekend with my family~we're having our annual "Pumpkin Day" today so there will be much carving, roasting, eating, and fun happening! I hope you have a wonderful weekend as well!

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...

my blessed life

Search This Blog