The Great Chore Treaty

This week the kids and I are learning about King Henry V, the battle of Agincourt, and the Treaty of Troyes. For a project we decided to write our own simple treaty over something that at times causes headaches in our house- chores.

This treaty was between all four kids and myself. The agreement was that we would all do our chores quickly and with a good attitude.

The kids agreed that they would no longer whine, fight, or run away and hide during chore time. That they would ask what they needed to do next as they completed tasks and do tasks quickly. If they did not do this they agreed they would have to copy verses for displays of bad attitude, have an extra chore for running away, and after three infractions would have to make their own dinner.

I agreed that I would make sure to have the chore list out and ready for the day, would play good music during chore time with holiday themes as much as possible, would help them with chores, and have a good attitude myself. If I was unprepared or unwilling to help the kids would not have to do chores and if I had a bad attitude they would get to put their input into what we had for dinner that night.


They all signed the treaty and had a fun time coming up with terms and consequences we all could live with. I think it gave a good example of how these things worked on a smaller scale and helped them understand. I do plan on holding them to it. Usually they do chores well, but we are not perfect and there are always those days which seem to happen more often when the days are shorter for some reason :)

Santa's Workshop

For Christmas this year we decided to help the children make things for each other instead of just buying things that they help pick out of for the others. We were hoping that it would make it more meaningful for them. We also decided to set the example and make them some gifts as well.

This has transformed our house into Santa's workshop with projects everywhere. Most of them are simple things so we can get them done and go on with our Christmas without too much fuss since I don't have tons of time. Here is a list of our projects, and hopefully I can post some pictures of them as they finish:

Bracelets
Hair clips
fleece blankets (no sewing required!!!)
pillow cases
aprons
wands (using wood skewers, wooden beads, and string)
samurai masks
Pajama pants (I make these for the kids anyway and can roll them out in no time at this point)
board games
book marks

It seems like ideas are endless and many of them are useful as well as creative. I even saw tutorials for homemade soap, candles, and recycled crayons made into fun shapes that didn't make the list this year. However, we didn't want to have a Christmas that was all homemade because of time and there are just things that aren't practical to make at home (like shoes and legos).

I hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well too :)

Halloween Costumes

Before Thanksgiving got here I wanted to post a picture of the children in their halloween costumes. I had no idea what they would pick from the costume trunk until the day of (usually it changes a lot). Jon, Sam, and Katie went as colonials Jacob as a Jedi and Lilly as a very charming good witch. Our new neighborhood is a lot more active than our last one on Halloween night so the kids got to see a "real" halloween like I remember growing up. I wasn't sure what to except and ran out of candy before we ran out of trick or treaters- next year I'll have to go to costco for the candy. It was a lot of fun and the kids thought it was great. 

The results are in

While the country either celebrates (or not) the re election of President Obama in our house we are celebrating the election of our dinner which should be held in the next couple of weeks.

Main dish: Stromboli

Bread: Pizza Bianca

Side: Cantaloupe

Drink: Italian Sodas

Dessert: Lava cake

It was really fun and interesting to watch the kids vote. It really did help them get into the elections more. They wanted to know who we were voting for and why and watched with interest the election coverage last night. The first question out of their mouths this morning was "who won?"

Election

As things heat up for the national elections we decided we wanted to have some of our own fun at home. To help the kids understand the election process we decided to have an election dinner. We had the children nominate different parts of a meal. We made campaign posters to advertise our favorites and talked about which foods we wanted the most. Next time we might have "parties" for different types of food (Italian, All American, Mexican, etc). This time we are keeping it simple.  Tonight we are casting our ballets to see which foods will win. Here are some of the foods on the ballet:

Main dish:
Make your own pizza night
Green enchiladas
Orange chicken
Stromboli

Bread:
Pizza bianca
cheddar garlic biscuits
rolls

Side:
corn
peas
green beans
cantaloupe

Drink:
Italian sodas
rootbeer floats
crystal light

Dessert:
cheesecake
lava cake
chocolate carmel cake
ice cream

Which foods will win? We all have our favorites that we are crossing our fingers for. To be posted...

School Pictures

Here is my little class of 2012-2013. Enjoy!

Ancient Word Problems

For one of our projects this week we created and solved word problems based on what we were studying for the week- Christ calming the storm and in the synagogue at Nazareth.

Katie's problem:

There was 11 clouds over the Sea of Galilee. Two more clouds came to make a storm. Draw a picture and write a number sentence to solve.

Samuel's problem:

There was 10 ships on the Sea of Galilee with one person on each ship. How many people are sailing on the Sea of Galilee?

Jacob's problem:

There was 15 people sailing on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Four of them drowned in the storm. How many are left?


They drew pictures, wrote the number sentence, and solved each problem. I loved the pictures as much as the problems.

Jacob's 9th Birthday

My little guy turned 9 last month and I finally finished the edits on his photos. Jacob is trying hard to be more and more responsible. He loves playing wii (especially donkey kong) and loves to read the Harry Potter books. He loves cub scouts and is active in his troop. I've noticed him taking more and more things on around the house and at school. It's exciting to watch him slowly transition to the next stage of child development where they reason more and want to "play" at being an adult more. I love this kid!

Crayon Candles

We had fun making crayon candles out of broken crayons melted down and mixed with some white wax. The kids loved picking their colors. We ended up burning them on the back porch one night to set the scene for one our adventure key points.

Spring Dance Pictures

I finally got around to organizing the photos on my computer and getting them through the editing process for several months back, backed up, and put into jpegs. These are ones that I made into scrapbook layouts using Studio J from Close to My Heart. Enjoy!

School Hike

For our adventure field trip last week we went on a hike in the mountains. We were trying to experience nature- it's sights, sounds, smells, and feel. We were also testing to see if it was a good place to just think. We brought along our notebooks and had fun exploring and learning together.

First two sentences

Lilly has been exploding in speech lately. In the last couple of weeks she's finally spoken her first sentences.

The first- "help me"- because of some pants that were falling off and she didn't like that.

The second- "me cookie"- because of some chocolate chip cookies that she would run around the house asking for.

I love to finally hear her voice. I think part of the reason she is getting her words is because she dislikes being forced to sign them. Talking is more important any way so I'm not complaining.

First Field Trip: Brigham City Temple Open House

For our first field trip of the year we went to the Brigham City Temple open house. My sisters were in town so we all headed up there together bright and early.

We couldn't take pictures in the temple, but we had fun taking pictures when we got out. Unlike last time when the boys favorite room was the elevator, this year I got a more thoughtful response. The boys liked the baptismal font and Katie liked the Celestial Room or the room with the big sparkly lamp as she called it.

 Afterwards we stopped at temple square on the way home and explored the church history museum. Currently they have a special exhibit on the Book of Mormon and Latin American countries. We all got to put on some Latin American skirts and follow the dancer on a tv screen to learn a couple of dances. It was very fun, even Lilly got into it.

 On the way back to the parking garage from temple square we went through the new gateway mall and played in the fountains. Katie declared herself the water queen and was doing dances in the water that were so cute and fun. She told me later that she was imagining herself dancing surrounded by glitter.

My little sis and nephew :)

What a fun day for everyone!

School opening day- Children of a king adventure

After spending the week doing all the last minute shopping, putting binders together, writing, cooking, and printing we finally made it to our first day of school!

This year we are doing an EPIC adventure that I wrote over the summer using the writing course they have on their website. I'm really excited about it, and that has been getting my children excited as they've seen the preparations being made for the year. The first secret revealed was that we were not going to have school in the school room until Monday (they were very disappointed about that since they haven't seen the school room yet). Instead, our adventure started with a door.

 The children woke up to this door and had to be patient and wait until after breakfast to find out what was on the other side of it.

 When it was time to start school, they ran outside to "Narnia" and saw two tents set up. We started school in the first tent where we gave them the key information for our first topic and revealed to them that they were prince and princesses on a journey this year to become kings and queens.

 The reason Katie is not smiling is not because she is upset, but rather she fell on her bike the night before and hurt her cheek really bad (it was a long night in the ER to get steri strips and leave). Smiling would make it bleed again so she was being careful.

 The children then made treasure boxes to collect "treasure" from their teaching this year. They made crowns where they can collect "character" jewels for each topic we learn about. They could color pictures and make a clay door or star to remember today for their journals.

 We finished the day with "Horse" races. Even Lilly participated. It was silly and fun.

Now the adventure is set up for the year and today we are going to delve into our projects and subjects and other fun. The kids are psyched!

Sewing Day

I like to sew in batches. I get a big amount of projects together and take a day and sew like crazy to get them all done. If a project takes longer then a day then it needs to be really important to get done and take no more then a week or I'll lose interest. Yesterday was sewing day so I think I'll be good for the next 4 months. I sewed a costume for each member of the family- 2 biblical style dresses and 3 biblical style coats for the boys and jammie pants for each boy. That's a total of 7 projects. Phew...

Back to School- homeschool style

Back to school shopping is pretty typical for a homeschooler along with a few fun twists. For example, this year the following typical supplies appeared on our list:

binders
crayons
colored pencils
pencils
glue
paper
notebooks
rulers, etc

but we also had:

balloons
jewels
treasure boxes
crowns
plastic circles
star cutouts
candles
footstep cutouts, etc

We are going to have so much fun learning this year! I also promise that all of these things are for worthy academic causes believe it or not.

Busy...

It's been a while since I've last posted. Mainly because I've been BUSY!!! Some of the highlights:

We bought and moved into a house at last. We love it and can't imagine going back to renting anytime soon.

We've had some fun summer activities with family. Fireworks, BBQ, and swimming at the lake among other things.

Mainly the reason I've been kept busy is getting ready for the next school year. I decided, after much thought, to write my curriculum this year. For anyone who may think that is overwhelming I should add that I had help. I invested in a curriculum writing program first that broke everything down into baby steps. I have to say that I am psyched for this school year! I know what we are doing, the writing is done, and the final detail steps are coming together so we should be ready to start next Saturday. That's right, Saturday- but it will be fun. More to come...

Exploding Penny Experiment

This week we learned how to think like a scientist. Katie took the lesson to heart more then her brothers and today decided to create an experiment and see how it would work out.

Aim: To try and make a penny explode (you'll see why I let her try as you read on)

Method: To mix a variety of items found around the kitchen with her penny and see if it will do the trick.

Materials: 1/4 c water, pinch of salt, tablespoon of flour, tablespoon of all purpose flour, tablespoon of salt, and a 1 teaspoon of wheat flour and 1 penny (because that's all she could find at the moment).

Results: Very watery and dirty flour that she says is turning cool colors because of her brilliant ingredients and mom says because the penny is dirty so don't eat.

I suppose she could bake it and put a new spin on the term "penny loaf". It decidedly did not explode (good news for mom, bad news for Katie). She says its because she used the wrong ingredients and thinks that using bread flour over all purpose next time might yield better results.  Never fear little girl, you now know one way a penny will not explode and have a set of endless possibilities before you :)

Happy Valentine's Day

The children made these valentine's day cards to give to their family and friends this year. They picked out the picture and what to have it say, the color and font.
Happy Valentine's Day!!!

New Favorite Picture

Last weekend I went and took some fun photos of this sweet family that lives across the street from me. I think this is my new favorite photo.