One of my favorite parts of homeschool is the flexibility! We worked super hard to get ahead in math so that we could focus on important family traditions during Christmastime. I am so grateful we did! It has been so nice to get to get to do school with a Christmas flavor!
Our social studies one week was about this event, and Christmas at war times in General.
And of course we had to make parachutes and drop candy bombs!
We did a unit on Leonardo DaVinci. It was awesome! We went to an exhibit about his inventions at the library in Provo. It was funny because when I called to figure out the details it turned out that a friend of mine from college who I TA-ed with works there at the library! She is perfect for the job!
It was informative and interactive!
These two ladies were the only other people we saw while we were there!
Then at the end they had this space decked out to create your own inventions. The kids all had a blast!
In fact they were taking so long that I went back to get a closer look at some of the contraptions. Another one of my favorite things about homeschooling is how much I get to learn as their teacher!!
We talked about how inventions solve problems, and make life easier. Each of them chose a path and went for it! Natalie made a magic weather machine that could create whatever weather we wanted (to ensure that we would have a white Christmas). Caleb made a pollution capturing machine. We had seen a lot of pollution on the way down and it really bothers him.
Seth mostly just ran around and played with the beads.
Jenna made something interesting to look at. And smeared glue stick all over the window.
By the end they were all just playing with beads. But I organized all the supplies at the tables while they were playing, so it was all good. =o]
Then we went over to BYU to do a little Christmas shopping and to see the sights. It was so fun! I love being on campus with the kids because it makes so many people smile! I remember being in college and getting to see kids every once and a while and thinking they were so cute and funny. Good times!
Unfortunately right when we were leaving it was lunch time and in between classes so there were 50 thousand people around and it was super stressful, as you can tell from this picture. Ha ha!
One week we studied about traditions around the world and then we got to fulfill a life long dream of mine and went to Christmas Around the World at BYU!
It was AWESOME!!! I haven't been to anything like that in such a long time! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. And the kids loved it too!
On the way home the kids got their BookIt pizzas again, but I didn't get a picture.
That is the same week that we studied about the historical figure of St. Nicholas. It is an interesting story for sure!
We studied Tomie de Paola this month. He has published 100's of books! We loved his work! And he has SO MANY Christmas stories so that was fun too! Every time we went to the library for 3 weeks we maxed out my card and Natalie's too because there were just too many good ones to choose from, on top of the other Christmas books and just normal ones the kids wanted to get. I can't wait until Caleb officially learns to read so he can get his own card (that is one of the rewards in our family for becoming a reader- a library card of your very own!)
One day during art Caleb made this. Instead of asking "what is that?" I learned from my mom to say "tell me about your picture". Caleb explained that it was a map of the playground we had gone to that day. Good times with the oil pastels.
We had a Friday Friends Book Club Christmas Party. It was super fun! This is the only picture I got though. Some of the kids watched part of The Polar Express at the end. We did crafts and a book exchange and read The Polar Express out loud taking turns. We had lots of yummy treats and got to talk and play. I love our little group!
Natalie is loving her Geometry unit!
Here is Caleb using Cheerios instead of counting blocks. He is loving addition!
He also LOVES his lego robotics class! I mean, who wouldn't? But he really is getting better and better at making robots and even designing his own!
One week for science we studied reindeer. Do you know what the difference between a reindeer and a caribou is? Neither did I. They are the same species, but a reindeer has been domesticated. Pretty cool, right? Then we got to go and see some reindeer! The possibility was cooler than the reality. LOL!
At least when we came back they were actually standing up. =o]
It was so funny because during our Christmas break the kids kept asking me what were going to do that day for school. We are such a scheduled family! But I had tons of projects I was trying to get done while I wasn't having to teach school to get ready for next semester and even from preparations for the summer semester so I couldn't just entertain them! They got along pretty well most of the time but when they didn't I would bust out an activity to occupy them for a little while.
Natalie wanted me to take a picture of her learning how to use this hat loom she got for Christmas. She said "You know, I think I inherited some of Grandmom's creativity!" =o]
We went on a field trip with some friends to the museum of curiosity but it was SO PACKED that we are definitely never going when school is out again!
The kids tried to do all the normal things they enjoy but it just wasn't the same with literally 1,000 kids there.
Eventually they got pretty overwhelmed and just wanted to leave ha ha!
Once we moved on to some other rooms though it got better and I actually got to chat with my friend instead of us fearing for the well-being of our littles the entire time.
I love catching up with old friends! Especially ones that are progressing spiritually and actively striving to improve themselves and their marriage and family life. Here are two of her adorable kids. This friend of mine Jen is so intelligent and peaceful and just enjoyable to be around. Despite the chaos of kids it was an uplifting time!
My kids have all loved these two puzzles! It is adorable to watch Seth carefully placing each piece and saying it's color (sometimes he still mixes them up, but he is getting better) or counting along with Caleb as he puts the number giraffe together.
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