My Homeschool Journal: Thanksgiving Journal

Life this week...

Another busy week getting ready for Thanksgiving and just trying to enjoy time with family which meant getting things done before the long weekend. We had our Thanksgiving dinner at home with just the 6 of us, Mike's brother Marc, and Mike's parents, so it was nice and quiet. Again I forgot to take pictures of anything. Oh well, it all happened so fast. How was your Thanksgiving?

Homeschool this week...

Since it was Thanksgiving we spent a lot of time prepping for that, and just doing cool stuff like playing with this Sphero robot that we checked out from the Library. This thing is pretty cool. There are lots of opportunities to do some coding, playing games, and scaring the cat with this thing. We only have it for a week, so it'll be a sad day when we have to take it back (PS: if you are local to me we didn't get this from our local library. It's from a different library system we are a part of that has a new program called "The Library of Things")

Reviews we are working on...

None! I am no longer doing reviews! The review crew year has ended and I have chosen not to continue. It's bittersweet, but mostly I am just relieved. I am excited to focus on what the kids really need to be working on and not switching things up all the time. I will be happy to remove this writing prompt!

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

Don't forget about learning for yourself! I often forget to keep discovering and learning the things I find interesting, or that might help me as a homeschool teacher. It's important for you to learn and grow as well. 

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

We braved the mall/shopping on Friday after lunch. So crazy, but we really wanted to catch some deals for church shoes and clothes. We went to the LEGO store and dreamed...

We found this very festive display in JCPenney tucked away around the corner from where we were looking at suits. We weren't exactly sure what it was there for, but it was pretty for a photo op...

On Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) we were all feeling pretty restless. We just needed to get out of the house for a bit, and I knew I needed to make a stop at WinCo for some final Thanksgiving dinner food purchases, so we headed up north. At first, I was thinking we'd go for a walk somewhere, but it was mighty cold. So, before we headed out I looked online to see what indoor thing we could possibly do that didn't cost too much. I stumbled across the event for the Pittock Mansion decorated for Christmas, and thought that is perfect! We have wanted to go see the Pittock mansion for a few years now, and it being decorated for Christmas was a bonus. I knew we could get a pass for it at the library, so I quickly reserved that and we headed out. There are so many pictures from this outing that it needs a whole post of its own, but here are a few for now.

Alex walking up to Pittock Mansion

Each room was decorated with a literary theme from a popular children's book...

Pittock Mansion--Christmas in the Woods room

My favorite thing this week was...

Seeing Frozen 2 and eating a Frozen 2 themed birthday cake made by my girl April. It was my birthday last Sunday, and all I really wanted was to see Frozen 2, so we did that on Friday evening before, and then on Sunday, April made me a beautiful Frozen 2 cake.

We will pretend that the number of candles that ended up on the cake is close.

I received this gift from my mother-in-law. Some hand lettering pens. I am so excited to use these.

I also picked up some fuzzy socks from Costco. They look funny, but they are oh so warm!

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

Painting ceramic. This was actually last Friday before we went to see the movie. The boys have been begging to go paint ceramic ever since I went for a Mom's night. I had a coupon so I took them!

Alex chose a snake to paint

Aric chose a cat to paint.

I had a hard time getting Aaron to pick something to paint, so I offered to paint this nativity scene with him. It was a joint effort and would be added to our nativity collection. I really enjoyed this time painting.

Aaron and I painted a nativity together

I let him pick all the colors and how he wanted to do it. I just did what he told me.

Aaron and I worked together on a nativity

It turned out beautiful!

Things I'm working on...

Focusing on the positive. My first thoughts are always negative lately, so I'm trying to change that.

Random things the kids worked on...

Aaron has been working hard to get the 3D printer we got last Christmas up and running. He finally got his first successful print. This movable bug.

Alex wanted to make cookies all by himself one night, so I let him pick a recipe and with my verbal help he made them pretty much on his own. The only physical part I had to do was a little mixing and helping with the rolling part.

They were supposed to look a little less dark. More like these galaxy cookies that are streaked light blues and purples and reds. He may have gotten a little too much food coloring in the icing. They were still pretty delicious though!

Alex decided one morning to link an insane amount of paper clips together to make this long chain. It kept him busy for a while! April used to do this when she was his age too.

I'm grateful for...

Books! And the many books that are available to us from different sources including 2 library systems that we have cards for.

That wraps up our week! Time to get on with my Saturday and prepare for a new one!