Today.. THE MOON!

The Moon. It's magnificent, it's magical, it's the source of many a poem, but the lad says "There's no bunnies or cats there!" (ergo in boy language...why bother learning about it).

We skimmed and picked our way through the last four days of Magnificent Moon. Day one is HERE. Since doing this study was NOT a hit with the lad (for the fore-amentioned reason) I thought picking and choosing what we did would be more beneficial to him learning something. This is something that I LOVE about Amanda Bennett's studies. They are SO easy to pick and choose from. Seriously... if I don't want to study tides.. I don't have to and it doesn't affect the integrity of the rest of the units. If I want to amaze my lad by showing him that the moon is sometimes orange/red or sometimes blue and sometimes it's hiding...I can do that! It's all good.



So today we looked at moon colours, we followed moon trees around the USA, we located the different moon landings and had a ton of fun zooming in and out on google maps with those landing sites. We found the "bunny in the moon", and found out that the moon gets colder than colder and hotter than hot. We had a hoot building our two stage rocket and even more fun learning about eggs and gravity. We watched interesting videos, went to a whack of different websites, and thought hmm... that looks like an interesting experiment... Which I would list here...but my computer is being stupid and I'm borrowing hubby's so that will have to wait.

our two stage rocket. Take two balloons, one paper cup with no bottom, and voila...a two stage rocket.
Learning about gravity

should mention that I made a point of boiling the eggs first
I have a five year old.
Eggs, water, gravity = mess
therefore boiled them. still had a mess, but not a goopy one! :)

Oh... and while the boy was playing trains (which is what he really wanted to do instead of take part in homeschool) I read every single one of the moon books we got out of the library to him. He would stop once in a while and ask questions. We found some of the old stories from different countries funny about how they thought the moon came to be. We know the truth... GOD made the moon and the sun. They mark the seasons, and light the day and night. But "the stories are funny mommy" or "That's wrong mommy". I know buddy, but sometimes people don't want to believe that God can do it all, so they make up stories to explain things in ways that makes sense to them. AND sometimes they don't know the truth and they have to learn it.

We haven't finished our painting of the moon craters yet. Need to find the paint first! (what can I say, renovating issues)!

This overall is what we studied.
Day 1: What Exactly Is a Moon?
Day 2: Getting to Know the Moon
Day 3: The Story of the Moon
Day 4: Science Secrets of the Moon
Day 5: Cool Things About the Moon

These unit studies come ready to use. Copy and paste into your word processing program OR just print as is. It's all good. Colouring, drawing, writing, thinking, laughing, it's all part of this study. Enjoy it! For despite the lack of bunnies or cats...we had some good learning going on today. :)

Here's the link to the post on the books we used for this study.

And to think... you can do this too. Just go here and get it! :)


First of all, the Cabin Fever Fun Pack, which includes Magnificent Moon, Winter Wonders, Expedition Canada, and Popcorn is currently on sale, and will be through 1/31/11 for $20 (regularly $28). The link for this product is: http://unitstudy.com/Cabin_Fever_Fun_Pack.html

Guess what... we are going a giveaway! The contest will run from 1/24-28/11, with the drawing at 9pm on 1/28. We will be giving away 2 standard Moon Maps from National Geographic, valued at $16.99 each. The link to the maps is: http://www.natgeomaps.com/moon.
Here's the link to the giveaway.

Just so you know, I got a free copy of this study so that I could give you my honest opinion of it. :)

Links

Human Body - lots of links on this page.

Valentines Day

Last Night's Experiment - Capillary Action

Last night we added food colouring in 8 different bottles: yellow, blue, green, red, orange, purple, light green, and blue green.

We added celery to each bottle.

We let them sit overnight.

This morning we took a good look at each of them.

This is our results in Justin's words.
blue-green - the leaves have colours in them mommy!
yellow - oh...it did nothing
orange - this one has nothing either mommy.
blue - it has blue dots on the top!
green -oh rabbit nuggets...this one has nothing mommy!
red - this one has dots mommy! See them!?!?!
purple - has dots on it mommy, but they are differenter then the water!
light green - nothing mommy

I hope you can see how the blue worked really one on this one.

I would like to try this experiment again using white carnations, see if that makes any difference in what happens.

Who Am I?

Today the lad and I worked on finishing a model train house. He had to listen, follow instructions, and then set things up. He needed to practice some good hand eye coordination and he had to help his mommy figure out how some things got put together. It was a good brain exercise for him. Afterwards we had fun playing with our HO model train.

In the afternoon we focused on a lesson plan on Who Am I? I made out this copy work sheet Who Made You?
We also took weights and measurements and did some drawing. I used lesson one of this kindergarten curriculum book.

Snow Cats!

So we managed to get some homeschool done using a book that I have upstairs. We did another 5-6 pages, and I learned something. The lad has a problem with figuring end sounds. He's getting better, fairly good actually at knowing beginning sounds, and we have fun doing rhymes, but ending sounds, he just needs a fair bit of help yet.

The one thing I don't like about this book is that it uses a lot of pictures, and things, as we all know...can have a multitude of words given to them that are descriptive, but if you don't have the right one...the exercise is meaningless. But other than that, it's a pretty good book. Makes the lad think and doesn't have endless exercises in a row of all the same type of thing to do.

I've added a physical exercise component to our days. Every day we are going to get some type of exercise. We planned to go for a walk today, but when we got outside we noticed the snow...and it's texture and said hey... Let's build a snow cat!

there are two cats here even though they are hard to see
a boy lion and a girl lion who was going to have babies

"The boy lion is protecting the girl lion from the wolves that
are hurting her because they don't want the baby lions to
hurt their baby wolfs"

It turned into quite the adventure. Some foxes ended up joining in with the wolves and they all gathered under Bunny town's lions gate to talk about it all. And we had to go back there to help them learn to be friendly with the lions because the lion babies wouldn't hurt the wolfs babies because they wanted the antelopes! :) Our planned half hour walk ended up being a fun hour outside on a nice day playing with the lad. :)

Later on he watched some TV while I made supper. He helped count out how many Tortellini's he was willing to try and helped get out the parmesan cheese.

After supper we worked on building the model building for our railroad. We hardly got anything done on it, but the glue has to set and dry and the pieces aren't numbered like they are supposed to be so we have to do picture matching to make it work.

From TOS, these links

Check out teachercafe.com's large list of teaching and reading resources.

Starfall.com is full of printables and online games with bright colors and great graphics.

Need help teaching your child to read? Smarttutor.com has great research-based ideas.

Find lots of reading activities at readquarium.com.

Amphi.com is full of resources perfect for families learning together.

Find online games, printables, and other educational resources at adrianbruce.com.

Toonuniversity.com has a large variety of online games for many subjects ranging through all grades.

Online games, printables, and activity ideas are available at primarygames.com.

More online games are available through onlinemathlearning.com with their free trial.

Check out smartygames.com for puzzles, connect the dots, mazes, and more.

Find resources at rif.org for ideas on how to teach children to read.

Look for theme-centered literacy games at apples4theteacher.com.

Find reading center games at Scottsboro.org.

Make reading fun with activities from education.com.

Find free downloadables, online games, and teaching ideas at readingsparkers.com.

Print out literacy games and play them online at funfonix.com.

Need help and encouragement about reading? Get it at readingrockets.org.

Request kits for hosting a Family Reading Night at ptotoday.com.

Get tons of information and printables at teach-nology.com.

Find great ideas for reading activities for all age ranges at justreadfamilies.org.

Learn more about reading theme ideas and activities at teachersandfamilies.com.

Read about how to teach literacy at reading-better-now.com.

Find online printables and ideas at abcteach.com.

Kitchener's Children Museum

Kitchener's Children Museum organized by H.O.P.E. (my homeschool group)

We had fun today.

The lad had a hoot. We went because of the Titanic display. The lad loved the iceberg! Did you know that salt water icebergs are colder than freshwater ones? Me neither.. it was just one of the interesting facts given to us at this display.

We toured the rest of the museum, even laying of bed of nails. The water table was a place of fun and observations. But the heat sensor was the highlight. It was a machine of some sort that showed the temperature of your body. It was interesting to see.

Oklahoma homeschool

Oklahoma homeschool

Magnificant Moon - Day One

Today I worked on Magnificant Moon with the lad. Some of what we learned was kinda interesting, some of it well...wasn't, at least to a boy child age 5.

One of the questions asked as "would you like to go to the moon?" and his very prompt response was "NO!"
"how come" I asked.
"Cause I"m interested in cats and bunnies, not the moon!".

We learned about Neil Armstrong and his interest in planes when he was a lad. We learned that the moon is dust and rocks (Boring said a boy child). And considering what his interests are...do you blame him? :)

He found the rocket video interesting, so I pursued that a bit. interesting to see how a two stage rocket works. I found this as well as this (a PDF) which outlined a study one could do using a film. It was useful as a question generator.

We did find this experiment on making a two stage rocket using balloons that the lad wants to try. You need a long balloon, a paper cup and a round balloon. We're going to add a long piece of heavy string and a straw, because we want to direct it's flight up the stairs. :) You cut the bottom out of the paper cup, put it around the long balloon small end toward balloon tip and blow it up. DO NOT TIE OFF. Hold the balloon end against the cup so the air can't escape, then put the round balloon between the balloon and the cup and blow it up. Once it is sufficient size to hold the first balloon tight release that end, then blow up a bit more. Should show the effects of a two stage rocket. We need to find the long balloon yet...but otherwise we're set to do it. Hopefully will get pics to share.

Oh... I used this copywork sheet generator to make some copy work for the lad. I made it a bit too long for a five year old, but otherwise I was pleased with my efforts. You need to print from the site, the work does not copy over well...even as a save image file.

He had fun discovering and then singing "J is for Justin and for Jupiter" over and over again when learning that Jupiter has 63 moons. That was one thing that simply astounded him... 63 moons!!!! It's good to see a lad being amazed at something that God himself created. :)

Library Day

Today we had plans to get lots done, but everyone got up late today so that didn't quite work out.

So we managed to get some homeschool done using a book that I have upstairs. The lad learned about reading book titles, how to take care of them, and did some letter recognition work. He did some good thinking today, and some, at times, easy work. "I know how to do this mommy, I'm good at circling". He also is starting to see that some words not only sound the same, but they are spelled the same as well. :)

We went out for lunch to subway as I needed to go there anyways to pick up my pay stubs and what not. Had a bit of a visit with the girls. :)

Then off to independent to pick up a couple of items and then over to the library where we picked out moon books, some reading books, and played with the train table.

Over to Dollerama to get some experiment supplies and got sidetracked by a couple other things. :)

Did laundry throughout the day. Talked with the boy a fair bit and played some.

At home we had a "grub it meal"...as in we found food, we ate it. Nothing fancy by any means.

Tomorrow is another day indeed. :)

Winter Wonders

We started working on the Winter Wonders unit study/lap book from DownLoad N Go.

We actually completed all of this unit study and I was certain that I had posted on what we had done for days 3-5 but alas, I cannot locate it, or maybe the computer glitched or something. Anyways, day one and two are here. :) Day 3-5 are in hinterland.. but they inspired us to do make this bird feeder which is here. :) Day 3-5 consisted of lots of drawing, nature walks, examining snow and what not.

Now what can I tell you about downloadngo unit study/lap books? They are super easy to do. They come loaded with links, videos (embedded youtube for safety), suggested reading, lap book activities and materials and much more. They are NOT highly indepth, they are overviews of studies. Going in depth of course, is not an issue since lots of reading materials are suggested.


This particular unit had tons of drawing which an art minded lad thoroughly enjoyed AND.... it had BUNNIES!!!!!!!!!!! We studied the snowshoe hare. We did it more in-depth than the unit called for but my boy and bunnies...what can say.. he LIKES THEM. :) He found it fascinating watching the videos of them... and there lies my one complaint about this study. Putting a video of an artic hare in with the study on snowshoe hares is just a trifle confusing...similar colour and adaptive abilities but DIFFERENT animal. One is bigger than the other, and they have somewhat different behaviours and locales. An update: my comment re the artic hare was noted by one of the powers that be and they acted on it immediately. No more artic hare video in the study on the snowshoe hare. How's that for proactive service? I thought it was very cool. :)


Each day we study something different.

Day 1: What Is Winter?
Day 2: Science Secrets of Winter
Day 3: People and Places of Winter
Day 4: Time for Tips and Treasures of Winter
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Winter

I find it funny that he often talks about the bird thieves .. the sparrows and blue jays of the world. And how the squirrels can be bad squirrels stealing the birds food.
j -"Do you think mommy that they are playing tricks on the birds"?
m -"Yes, buddy, I'm sure that's what they are doing. Silly squirrels, silly birds... why can't they just share"?
j -"They should all be friends mommy, and not steal from each other."One of the things that I liked in this study was taking nature walks. We went to a local park and on a 30 minute walk found turkey footprints, rabbit footprints, and deer footprints as well as lots of people footprints. We watched birds at a bird feeder...one very pretty grey and red one was there. Don't know what kind it was, and lots of sparrows and chickadees. We spent time outside tobaggoning and examining snow. We even froze some to see if it would change in the freezer - it didn't expect when we took some out and it melted a little bit, but it still tasted like snow.

To find this unit go to Download N Go where you will find it here, listed for $7.95. :)

You can read more reviews here. And if you want to read more about Amanda Bennet the creator, you can go here. :)

I received this study in return for my fair and honest review. This so far has been our most enjoyed study from DownLoad N Go. It was just FUN. :)
.

Bird Feeders

as part of the winter wonders unit study we made a bird feeder,
My lad being the boy that he is, decided that making a simply bird feeder was NOT what he wanted to do. He wanted to make a bunny hotel.

so we put three pop bottles side by side and attached them together using a long branch. and then tied it all together using an old shoelace.

We put individual sticks and bird feed holes in each one as well.

We got ideas from these sites: How Stuff Works. Ehow. Helium. Home For Wild Birds.

The young one is curious about how long it will take before the squirrels become thieves and chortles with anticipation. I'm merely curious about how long it will take the local blue jays, sparrows and chickadees to arrive. Time will tell.

Father and son left afterwards to go tobaggoning at the local hill. Hoping they have fun while I enjoy a quiet house for at least an hour. :)

London's Art Museum

Did you know that London has an art museum? Parking is $2/hour. Admission is by donation.

It is housed in what looks to me like an old horse barn, but that's neither here nor there. We headed there as a family today since I decided that since my lad likes art (always has pen/paper at hand) that exposing him to different types of art would not be a bad thing. I hope to go every other month, just for an hour or so to let him see new ways of doing art, and to try to show him different ways of doing art as well.

He found it interesting. I pointed out the difference between water colours and oil.

He's not a stand and stare at things kind of lad, but if you ask him what he thinks, or what he thinks the painting/object is trying to say he'll give it this look and try to come up with something.

We each found something that we liked, and it was all different.

Jim found a painting that looked like trees/tree stumps all jumbled that he liked.

I saw a painting with oxen pulling a hay wagon that I thought was good, and a more abstract one that to me looked like lines dancing on water. The lad thought the same picture was worms in water so we had a different interpretation. Which is part of what art is right?

The lad liked the colours in a group of painting on a wall, but he didn't like what was painted on them. :)

They had this children's art area, the lad chose to make feathers for the cats. It was a collaborative effort since he had trouble tying the string. So he held, mommy tied. The cats enjoyed their feathers when we got home. :)

Look at these sites a bit more

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Level2.php

http://www.currclick.com/cclick_wintersale.php?page=8

http://www.classicalcurriculum.com/ModelCurriculum.htm

Bunny Colouring Book

Save our bunnies

at the bottom of the page is a link to a bunny colouring book. has some good pictures in it.

What we Learned today - January 5, 2011

We used this book today in our homeschooling. We'd done part of it before so today we finished it off. It was a good book to do, some easy parts, some not so easy parts. Some I made more challenging by changing it up a bit. It was particularly enjoyable to write a rebus story together, using the stickers they provided and a child's imagination. It covered phonics, reading, and math.

A real sense of accomplishment when he was done working through it. The toughest part for him was figuring out the ending sound of words so we worked on that for a bit. He learned to laugh at himself when he made a silly mistake.

We also worked on the directionals of horizontal, vertical and diagonal. We used popsicle sticks to make designs using these directions. I figured it was good for him to start figuring some of this out.

Snow Alphabet

Out shoveling snow this morning. The lad I thought was off playing in the backyard.

Out he comes with his wagon and shovel.
"I"m helping too mommy"!
"great" I said as I continued to shovel snow.
"NO!!! don't take that snow mommy! I'm making letters"!
He made a B, J, H, O, A. He was quite pleased with himself. I"m pleased as well. Nice to see a boy writing his letters and then singing the alphabet song, mostly correctly. :)

It was a good time outside in the snow. Not too cold, pleasant conversation, and a job well done. :)

What we Learned today - January 4, 2011

Today we worked through a book on sorting, seasons, bigger than, less than, the same, and rhyming. The lad had fun "x-ing" out any pigs he came across. "why don't you like pigs J? "they are too noisy mommy".

It was an easy book, but at times the lad had to think. It's good to see that he knows some of this stuff, and good to see him think.

We also did our "forms of beauty" lesson from a kindergarten curriculum that I have. This consisted of taking four pieces of coloured paper and arranging them in a balanced pattern. He also experimented with taking two pieces of paper and making them balance out. he thought a pause sign was a very nice form of beauty, as was a plus and an "x". :) I made a somewhat bigger one myself simply because it's fun to do.

Afterwards the lad made solar panels from our paper cutouts to make solar panels on Rabbit and Tagu's house (a large cardboard box). Yellow and black construction paper made the best looking solar panels.

Later on it was time for some boat play. We used that time to just have fun and to make some observations about our boats. The boats we were using were styrofoam meat trays, individual salad bowls from McD's, and pudding cups. After doing some experiments we learned that stryrofoam meat trays make the best boats, but the Salad bowls seal nicely so when the bunnies from Mars get their machine working and they lift the boats up, when it starts to rain, the boats that are sealed fall nicely into the water without spilling out all the bunny town rabbits out.

boats in the water

the bunnies from MARS have come

Did you know boats WON"T float if a bad egg sticks a needle in them?

the judge of the boats

We did some experiments with the pudding cups as well, using water and friction and the breathe power of a five year old.

I found this experiment interesting, and unexpected. I did not expect the two cups to hold the water in. I was sure it would leak out. BUT it did not. It only leaked out if the lad blew hard right at where the two cups joined up. The power of what... friction?? He played around with this for quite a while. And then he of course made a "bunnytown game" where he had to pour water from one cup into the other while not spilling any of it. He won apparently, while I somehow managed to lose.

Shapes

Today I had a boy NOT wanting to homeschool at all.

So we did fun homeschooling today. :)

We used plasticine and we used it to make some different shape.

BUT I CAN"T was the frequent response.
So I would show him, and explain that plasticine is nice, if you make a mistake, you can just squish and try again (he's a perfectionist type). We had fun learning that boxes are squares all connected together. That balls are spheres which are circles all rounded out. That rectangles are like squares that have been pushed out longer and sometimes flatter. That ovals are circles that have been flattened a bit. and so on and so forth.

and then we put them together in different robot shapes.

AND after that we walked around the living room looking for the different shapes throughout the living room and kitchen. Shapes are EVERYWHERE. :) Sometimes they are hidden and sometimes two shapes are in the same place.

Stars: in the tree, at the door, in "bunny town"

These two cylinders are dancing together.
We found cylinders in candles, for light posts, as markers, and more.

We also played a game for a construction equipment study that we have. We used construction pieces that the lad built out of lego as our game pieces. :) He won both matches, much to my chagrin.

Christmas Break Books

A houseful of Christmas



I have to admit, when I first read this book, didn't think much of it. But the boy child seemed to like it so we read it again. It grew on me. Caused the lad to ask questions which I always appreciate.

Mog and the granny.



We got this book out because it's about a cat! It's actually a fun read about a cat and how she likes things to stay the same.

happy Christmas Ginger.



A simple book about a cat experiencing Christmas. One part made the lad laugh and say "why mommy, Why would the cat like cookies???"

If you were born a kitten



this book surprised me. and the lad would sit and listen as opposed to play and listen. he's often stick the thumb in his mouth too. Found that an interesting response. Talks about different ways that animals are when they are born.

Farm-Fresh Cats


I really just need to write a lapbook on this book. It's just a very fun read for a child to have. :)

So Many Ways to Defend Themselves

A non-fiction book about how animals defend themselves. Some things we knew, others were a complete surprise. Interesting read.

Camouflage by Kennon O'mara

We got this book out to go with the camouflage unit study that we continue to work though. Good book. Caused questions to be asked. had some good pictures in it as as well. Really showed the lad how white the artic hare and the artic fox where.

The Holly Hill Christmas Treasury

A good collection of stories, poems and more all about bunnies celebrating Christmas. The lad enjoyed it immensely.

The Golden Christmas Treasury

Can't say I liked this one as much. Neither did the lad. It had a couple of good stories in it, and poems that were fun, but that's about it.

The Christmas Cat

The lad liked this book and for the most part so did I. Decent read.

The Innkeeper's Daughter


I have to admit, I'm fussy with books that are Bible based... or at least bible story based. I didn't mind this book but found it a bit far-fetched and therefore couldn't really get into reading it beyond the once. Did lead to a good discussion with the lad about whether or not it was possible to have that kind of healing happen.

A visit from St. Nicholas and Santa Mouse too!


the mouse saved this story for the lad. :) Santa's not real mommy he said with a frown. Who's that mouse mommy? And so we read it. Not a bad book at all.

Bunny Christmas

An okay read, didn't read it beyond one or two times. he had a fondness for a couple other books more.

Waiting for Christmas Stories

Read it twice. Stories seemed not real to the lad, so he didn't much listen to them.

Snow Dog's Journey

The lad liked this book. Surprised me a bit that he did. he's not real big into dogs at this point, but this book he had a fondness for. Read it quite a few times. Always with different questions too.

The little reindeer


sometimes flights of fancy are just fun to read. And this one fit well with the season of sometimes pretend.

MEOW

LOVES this book. Makes him laugh.

Daniel's Gift


Another sorta bible based story. Made the boy listen and think, so I liked that. He knew it wasn't a true story though. :)

London's Children's Museum

Today we went to the London's Children's Museum. We stopped at McD's for a late lunch afterwards, and the lad played on the play centre afterwards.

The lad played and Played with a boy called Kyan. Kyan is four and they just had a blast together. They met at the dinasaur pit and just clicked.

So he learned cooperative play! He expressed his creativity. We played rough and tumble dinasaur's and then he had fun burying them in sand. This turned into wash and then dry them at Kyan's request. I made a rubbing of a dinosaur skin while they played. Then off the two boys went while grampa, Jim and I tagged along. Tried on Firemen suits. Then off to play in the space center, the kitchen, and doctor's office and in the treehouse. Just action and moving and chatter. They had an excellent time.
Justin and Kyan had to teach Tom (the bad cat from our night time stories) to NOT eat rabbits. So they rushed around finding all kinds of good foods for Tom to eat so that he would learn to be nice. They succeeded! :)

They were both goobs. They would run and then just fall for no apparent reason. Parents with girl children would stop and gasp. Those of us with boys just smiled and shook our heads. :) It was actually kinda funny having that 'kinship' in parenting that way. :)

Both boys were sad when they ran out of energy. We chose to leave and go for a late lunch, Kyan stayed behind to snack with grandpa.

Just a nice day out for all concerned.

Special Days -January

I find these lists just interesting, they always make me want to do something on those funky days. :)

These are for January.

Winter Wonders and Lego

Today we learned about deciduous trees and Evergreen trees. Snow and ice and Lego and patience. :)

We started working on the Winter Wonders unit study/lap book from DownLoadNGo. You can also get it from The Old Schoolhouse store, where you will find it here for $7.95. We did day one and day two. Not all of it, but most of it. It was actually fun. I made Justin write out the words that he could. He's very good at copying letters just as I write them... So I'm TRYING to be neater in my writing! Sometimes I think that's a lost cause though.

Day one consisted of learning about Seasons.
Day two consisted of learning about Snowflakes. :)

and yes, it was a bit more involved than that, but basically that's what we focused on. :) AND since it is winter here, we went tobogganing on the SNOW! :) We had a WHOLE lot of fun tobogganing, other children were out in the hill too which of course made it all the better. I've decided I need to lose some weight so I fit into my splash pants again. :)

We are hoping tomorrow to go visit the London's Children's museum in the late morning, early afternoon, but in the morning I want to see about getting the lad to paint with ice cubes. See if it's possible to do that as an experiment. Should be interesting. It was suggested as a fun activity through the DNG study. Found it here.


OH! How did the lego fit into all of this? the Lad got lego for Christmas. I wanted something bigger to keep it in so I bought some bins on Monday and today we sorted them out and played and talked. it was a good time to go over again what we learned during the study. We had some fun figuring out what evergreens are called. I said.. Are they called everblacks? NO!!!! was the laughter back to me.. they are evergreens mommy! they are green not black! :) It was a good moment. We sorted and talked and played, and then went outside and played some more. We also had some of Dad's fresh made bread...YUMMY!

Things Justin wants to do....

Stained Glass Jesus Craft. I found this site through Totally Tots.
Justin in establishing the parameters for this craft. Mommy, does it have to have words on it? can I put bunnies on it? what about a hare? Can I do something different?
Me --- You can do whatever you want buddy, as long as we can make it, and make it fit on the paper.
J --- oh, yes, I want to make it!

Nativity Pop Up Cards
Once again, he needed to establish the parameters around this. Could he make it different? Did it have to be a people picture or could he make it with bunnies, or cats, or robots ..... I figure it's a craft, and yes I want to encourage biblical knowledge, but it's a craft. :)

Preschool Christmas crafts.
he was intrigued by these as well.

This one I'm to print off tonight and get ready for him so he can help gramma with it tomorrow.

He wants to do this one as well. :)

I haven't had a chance to go through all the links on this page yet, but I"m sure some of them will intrigue the lad.

The Compound words one intrigues me, but it isn't something that he is ready for at this point.

Learning this week

1. the fine art of measuring and shaking to make gifts in a jar. We did this one:

M & M's Cookie Mix in a Jar

About This Recipe

"I vary the color of the M&M's to the different holiday currently approaching when I give these as gifts..another favorite of the grandchildren"

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 cups M&M's plain chocolate candy
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Mix baking soda and baking powder with flour.so you can add flour mixture into one layer.
2. Layer ingredients in order given into a wide-mouth. Press each layer firmly so it will all fit in the jar.
3. Attach these instructions to your gift.
4. INSTRUCTIONS.
5. Empty jar of cookie mix into large mixing bowl.Use your hands to thoroughly blend mix.
6. Add 1 stick butter or margarine, very soft. (please do not use diet).
7. 1 large egg, slightly beaten, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
8. Mix until completely blended. you will need to finish mixing with your hands as this is stiff.
9. Shape into balls the size of walnuts.
10. Place 2" apart on sprayed cookie sheet.
11. Bake in preheated 375° for 12-14 minutes until edges are lightly browned.
12. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet.
13. Remove cookies to racks to finish cooling.

2. Computer game: 1st grade, reader rabbit.
Learning how to add numbers, learning first and last parts of words and such like. Did he learn much? not sure, but he had fun and had to figure things out as he went along.

3. Trusting God to get us home safely.
had some scary moments travelling around in a winter storm.

4. Gymnastics
Listening and following instruction is always a good thing to do. He had, as usual, a really good time.

Hands of A Child Contest

Hands of a Child is eagerly anticipating the release of their 400th Project Pack, and when they do, they will be celebrating with a HUGE 400th Project Pack Celebration!

How can one of my blog readers win a free Project Pack Bundle from In the Hands of a Child?

I am telling you readers to keep an eye on their website (and be sure to sign up for their newsletter) for more information about their HUGE 400th Project Pack Celebration.

Go over there, create a wishlist of your top 5 titles from In the Hands of a Child Project Packs and post your list back here. Then I get to choose one response at random, and that reader will receive a free bundle pack** from In the Hands of a Child! Isn't that cool or what!

In the Hands of a Child offers a no-strings attached free unit study every six months. Anyone can get it. You just go here, click on the link and voila. One new study for your perusal and use.

Hands of a Child sent me this

Are you new to In the Hands of a Child and want to see what all the fuss is about? We can help! YOU can have a free Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child. We would like to offer you a Christmas Around the World Ebook Project Pack to review.

Just so you know

**Free bundle packs include a printed Project Pack, Kit Pack, and Answer Key
(when available) which will be mailed to your winner when the drawing is
completed. This is a $40 value with EVERYTHING covered by us, including
shipping!

Creation Camouflage - DNG Review and Contest

Ah...animal lovers...here we come. DownLoadNGo has a unit study/lap book on Critters and how they hide. :) Creation Camouflage available now. :) Creation Camouflage was the review of the week for DownLoadNGo. Given that it is the Christmas Season, we had five days of an incredible amount of snow falling with needing the help clear it, we only brouched two days of this study. Day one and day four. All told we got about four feet of snow, which compacted down to 2-3 feet. It was heavy sloughing for a while. Download N Go studies are 5 day - complete unit studies. All you have to do is "download n Go". There is no prep work needed!! They have lap book elements so it's easy to turn your work into a lap book. Lots of graphics, lots of links, lots of information, and a really good book list which you can use or not.

Each day has a particular focus.

Day 1: Hiding in Plain Sight
Day 2: Getting to Know the Rain Forest
Day 3: What Is in the Desert?
Day 4: Hiding in the Ocean
Day 5: Cool Things About the Tundra


My lad was absolutely fascinated to learn that hunters and the hunted can use the same way to hide! Tigers can use stripes so what they are looking forward can't see them, and at the same time what they are looking using stripes so they can't be seen! Absolutely amazing for him to learn this. Having a bunny with a white coat on white snow was a good way for the bunny to hide...but I can still see him mommy. Showing him a brown bunny on snow made it really clear to him which one was easier to see. For a boy who likes bunnies and cats VERY much this section really worked for him.
:) I was able to remind the lad how we found the Cicada shell on the bike in the backyard and on the tree bark and which ones were easier to see, and how we found one still alive that had just crawled out and how it was able to cling to the bark and when we were farther away from it how hard it was to see it.

And how can one hide in the ocean? "It's just water mommy." He learned that in the ocean there is much more than water. There are plants and rocks and coral.... and all the fish can use those things to hide in. Learning about how a squid hides was hard for him to really get a grasp on until we played a computer game called Animal Genius from Scholastic. On that is a game where the octopus has to hide from a fish by using his ink! That was FUNNY and it worked "HE GOT AWAY MOMMY!". was hollered with great excitement!
What my lad likes about these studies is he has lots of opportunities to draw things. He doesn't always like what he's asked to draw, but often he can encouraged to do so, or we find a new way to do things (aka can you trace over top of this drawing?). I love the fact that there are so many links included that finding different ways of doing an exercise isn't very difficult at all.

Creation Camouflage will be on sale from Dec 13-18 for $5.95 at DownLoadNGo.
You can read other reviews here. And did you know that DownLoadNGo has a blog? Yep, you can find it right here. :) Catch all the latest news.

Oh and Guess What? I've been allowed to offer up ONE copy of this study for you! Isn't that cool? Leave me a comment by December 23rd with your favourite camouflaging animal. Tell me what makes the animal interesting. :)

There's a contest up at DownLoadNGo...but I think it may be over by the time I get this posted. :( Sorry about that.

As part of the DownLoadNGo Review Team I received a copy of for my free and honest review. I liked it and hope to finish it in the new year with my eager animal lover son.