Happy Chinese New Year!

We don't usually celebrate every little "holiday" that is on my calendar...we're just too busy. But this year is different! Brandon's history curriculum this year is Eastern Hemisphere, basically the history and culture. We've never really done a study like this so it has taken a while to get used to and find our groove ;) Since we are finishing Japan this week I suggested we start China next to coincide with their biggest holiday! We've found lots of resources to start our lessons. Monday was the first day of the Chinese New Year. It always starts end of January/beginning of February on the new moon and lasts 15 days til the full moon. On Monday, as I logged on to the internet, I noticed a video about this holiday and the history of it so we started with that. On the Enchanted Learning website I found some activities for all the kids. I printed these off and we started learning about the Chinese New Year! We've learned some geography and a little about the animals over there as well. We also did this nice little craft :)
Fold the paper in half. I drew lines to help the little ones know where to cut.
Starting at the side with the fold cut across, but not all the way.
Unfold, staple or glue short ends together and attach a handle and you have a Chinese lantern!
We strung ours up for some cheery decorations :) I think we should have Chinese food for dinner (don't know if I'll win that one ;))

Unschooling Friday

We had a little school crisis last fall. No one wanted to do their work! At first, I was very annoyed at this and spent each day pushing them through their work. I didn't want to think that all the wonderful books I had carefully chosen for them (and spend plenty of money on) may not be the right ones. So we made each other miserable day after day struggling to get our work done. Finally, I thought is this the way it has to be? NO! So I changed it ;) I kept the parts we liked and let go of some of what we don't. There are some things that I feel you have to learn from textbooks, math for instance. Maybe you don't, but I'm just more comfortable with it that way.

Brandon's work was the one that changed the most. He hated so much of what we were doing and it was breaking my heart to watch this boy who once loved learning, drag himself to the table everyday. One of his most hated was his language arts curriculum. The worst part was the dictation. Honestly, I've never been a fan of dictation, but I've heard such good things about it I thought we'd give it a try. He hated all that writing! I was afraid this meant he'd never like to write anything and he'd be in a world of hurt later on when there's so much writing! But I took it out, and you know what? He's writing a book! His own idea! He calls it The Adventures of the Monkey Brothers. Some time after he started it, we were heading to a field trip and he told me maybe he'd like to be an author someday! I can't tell you how surprised I was! Armed with this new knowledge and seeing how much fun he was having writing his book, I bought him this for Christmas.
*edit* oops forgot the picture!
He is having a ball with it! You get to write and illustrate your own story and then send it off for a hardback copy!

This has made me really think about what/how/when of learning and it has led us to make other changes as well which leds me to....Unschooling Fridays! We don't do book work on Fridays...not testbooks anyway. We read, do projects, science experiments, play learning games, take field trips, those sorts of things. All good learning activities., but also great family-bonding activites. We started this shortly before Christmas and at that time, we read ;) Now that things have settled down some, we're incorporating more things into our Friday. Some things we did last Friday:
Does salt and sand melt ice at the same rate? No! And we learned why!

Here's our new bird feeder we hung Friday. It's been a very fun project!
Brandon's reading Harry Potter. He'll read anywhere...even his sister's pink chair ;)

Since we've been sick, we've continued a little unschooling this week:
Working on Chinese New Year things
Brandon's learning about Japan, so he wrote a Haiku (a form of poetry that originated in Japan):

In the spring, a lake
It's waters calm and still
A beautiful sight.

I think he's excited about fishing this spring!

We haven't really changed much of Kristen's school. She just wants to get done! She takes her ACT (or is it SAT?) next month then we'll get her college application submitted. My baby's going to be a Buckeye! (more on that another time....)

Fun with kidlets

Saturday, Todd and Brandon went to a boyscout outing as a "check it out" kinda thing. Since Kristen was at her dad's, that left me with Nicholas and Megan all to myself! ;) We had been reading about owls last week so I thought I'd expand on that with a home-made bird feeder. We had a great time making these, although they were definitely stickier and messier than I had imagined! I had seen them made before with peanut butter, but since Brandon is allergic, we had never made them. When I happened to run across one that used Crisco instead, I knew what we would be doing on Saturday!



Here's the finished and hung product:




Now, if I'd only hung them close to a branch so the birds would have a place to perch while they peck ;) The birds are actually flying up and pecking at it...who knows if they're actually able to get some of the seeds ;)


After our fun with birds, we made a treat for our family; homemade veggie soup and chocolate chip cookies!



It was a very fun day for everyone. Todd and Brandon had a great time, although they froze! They came home certain that boyscouts is the right fit for Brandon. We are very excited to learn more about this organization and be a part of it.

Play Time

With all the snow and cold weather, we spent a little more time at home this week which means we had plenty of time to play! The boys had some outside fun earlier in the week before the weather got so cold I wouldn't let them go out ;) When they came in, everyone had some hot chocolate.
The next pictures are of Megan and I having a tea party :) She makes the most delicious tea! Nicholas joined in and we made veggie soup in her kitchen :) Oh! Tigress and Lydia joined us also ;)














What fun we had just hanging out together!

T.G.I.F

We've been having "family night" on Fridays since the fall and it has been a wonderful way to end our hectic week and spend some quality time together. We all look forward to this special evening and put a lot of thought and planning in what we'll have for dinner and what we'll do. The kids enjoy make-your-own pizzas :) Sometimes we play games and sometimes we watch a movie. Last night we did both...what a treat! We love Apples to Apples Jr. Nicky and Megan team up with someone for now, but very soon Nicky will be reading fluently enough to be on his own. We also enjoy Uno. Nicky can play this one on his own and he gets so pleased with himself! Here are some pictures of our gaming...















Oh, and the Legos in front of Megan are her "cards" ;)

The movie we watched was Water Horse. If you haven't seen it, it's a very good family movie :)

Home School Days

I love home schooling our kids! I love watching them learn and being a part of that, but also I love watching them be together. Megan wants to do everything the older ones do so she often does school work with Nicholas. And you know what? She's doing really good! She's learning letters and numbers while he works on reading and math and she loves listening to me read our history and science books.
This picture was taken back in the fall...












And here's some from last night...

Brandon likes to do his work anywhere!

This picture cracks me up! It's so "Brandon"!












Here's a picture of all of them this fall at a farm we went to on a field trip:

Guess what the kids are doing? Yes! Playing a rousing game of dart tag! lol Boy do they ever love this game! I guess it's a great way to unwind after school; their teacher is a slave-driver;)

Guess what we had in our yard today! Yep....deer! I love it when they come close.Todd got some good pictures . Three big (one very big) bucks!

This is us trying to get back into our school schedule! Actually, Nicky was sweetly playing with Megan with their Kung-Fu Panda toys as I worked on getting Brandon and Kristen (somewhat...she does take much work) back on the school path ;) Brandon was a trooper!Even though he new there was fun going on in the house, he got his work done, good job, Buddy! Todd bought us a family Disney trip for Christmas (yea!) which is in mid-May and we want to be finished with school before we go, so I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday organizing and planning. We (mostly Kristen ;)) scheduled her ACT yesterday which she'll take in February. She is so excited about finishing up high school and moving on to the next great adventure! I guess that's what you call senior-itis lol.

We're getting a late start today. With Megan having such a bad cold, she's keeping us up a lot at night, so we're moving a bit slow today. I have high hopes for the day though! Hopefully I'll have cute pics to post in a day or two of the boys room-makeover!!

Even though our Lego League meetings ended in November, I wanted to share some of it here. There were 4 meetings total and a showcase sort of thing at the end for the parents to see what they worked on. I was so impressed with what they did! The theme was climate and they had to make air-powered somethings. Brandon's group chose a helicopter and Nicholas' built an elevator. They also built mini projects at some of the meetings. They did cars and each group had a different challenge to work with. Brandon's had to use gears and Nicky's had to use rubber bands. They really had a great time and learned so much! Brandon is old enough to move up to the regular Lego League which works with robotics this summer! Very exciting!

Happy New Year!



I thought I'd share our first New Year's Eve party as my first blog :) We had a nice dinner with paella for the big people and make-your-own pizzas for the smaller people. Then we settled down for some games and snacks! Brandon and Kristen made it til midnight and watched the ball drop with us. Nicky tried but just couldn't make it and Megan...let's just say I had to force her but she finally fell asleep around 11! Here are a few pictures of our very happy new year!

Kristen and Nicky :)
We were able to wake Kristen for the toast but Nick was down for the count.



When I told Brandon we were going to get some sparkling apple juice to toast he said "Why are we toasting apple juice?" He thought I meant we would put it in the toaster hehehe ;)