Wordless Wednesday: 10 years-old

 Happy Birthday today Alex!

Peppermint candy cane fun

 Every year I have tons of candy canes leftover.

Here is the almost full box this year. So, that means I need to figure out what to do with them. I don't care to eat them. I can handle maybe one and that's it! Peppermint is too strong for me. Not to mention the great amount of sugar involved.

I was thinking about how to use these up and decided to go through the past years Christmas pictures to see what we have done in the past. I also did a pinterest search to see what other ideas I could find.

First I will share what I've done this year and in years past. 

This year I discovered a game to play with a deck of playing cards and candy canes called The Candy Cane Game. We played it, but only 2 of us wanted to play that night. It was okay, but got very tedious and boring with only 2 of us. It's definitely a group game. I think it would be awesome with all of us so we'll probably try it again this year with the whole family before the season's over.

A few years ago we tried a game called candy cane snag. A twist on the game of tag. This was a fun outside game. Another group game for sure! I think my favorite part was walking around with candy canes taped on my shirt. 

A few years ago I made a "candy cane forest" for the kids to find one day. I used fake candy canes, but I could see this being a fun project or creation for decorations or just for fun.

That's it! I don't really have a lot we've actually done. At least for how far I went back in pictures and my memory. Soooo...

Pinterest candy cane activities I'd like to try:

• Candy Cane Bridges
• Candy Cane Hot Cocoa Pops
• Candy Cane Meringue Cookies
• Candy Cane Scavenger Hunt
• Candy Cane ornament minute-to-win-it game
• Melted Candy Cane Christmas Ornaments

There are endless candy cane ideas out there, but my focus on these activities is to use up those extra candy canes! And, in ways that doesn't involve eating them (mostly). Do you like peppermint candy canes? What do you do with them?

I am participating in the Homeschool Review Crew's December challenge, Peppermint week.

Wordless Wednesday: LEGO snowball fight

 Alex and I had a snowball fight yesterday.

Alex's snow fort:

Mom's snow fort:

Weekly Notebook: Christmas fun, Minecraft learning, bathroom building

 

Life this week...

Christmas is almost here so this past week was spent a little prepping/shopping for that, and a little working on the bathroom remodel amongst all the other things in life (school, work, eating, and sleeping). We (the kids and I) made it to the mall twice this week (first time since the pandemic started) to get birthday pictures and to shop. The bathroom is almost ready for the bathtub to be installed. A lot of plumbing and floor work had to be done first. It'll be exciting to see a bathtub finally go in.

Homeschool this week...

We worked on Christmas spelling words throughout the week from Superteacherworksheets.com. One of the activities for using/practicing the spelling words was typing them on the computer and making complete sentences using each word.

School has been a struggle lately ("not fun") so finding assignments that the boys like is a rarity, but Alex really enjoyed this one. Surprisingly. He even wanted me to print up his sentences when he was done. He also thought he was funny. See the first sentence in the picture below :)

 

Reviews we are working on... 

We just started the 2021 Review crew year, so we currently have SchoolhouseTeachers.com as our one and only review. It has been over a year since I've had a subscription, so I'm glad to have that resource again. So many great curriculum choices in there.

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

Use Minecraft for educational learning! We discovered recently that there is an education mode. Alex had a good time learning all about the elements in both his Workbook and on Minecraft. 

 

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

I already mentioned that we went shopping. Not much else! 

My favorite thing this week was...

Receiving a special gift from a friend. She brought us a dozen cookies from the new Crumbl Cookies store in Wilsonville. We were able to have a cookie bar and watch a Christmas movie 2 nights this week. I cut each cookie up in 6 pieces so everyone could try the different flavors. It was amazing. And sweet in more than one way.

 

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

I don't know. I didn't ask anyone what their favorite thing of the week was this week. I need to start asking them this more often.

Things I'm working on...

Learning how to use my new Cricut machine. I cut out vinyl for the first time. I made these elves with each kids' names on them. I want to make a game or a tradition to go with them. Trying to figure that one out still.

Random things the kids worked on... 

April and I worked on this puzzle together. It was kind of a joint effort, but she completed it!

 

Something I accomplished...

Not much!

What we're reading...

All kinds of Christmas books. We also have a lot of regular books we are reading for school/learning. This one was a reading choice for Alex's animal journal. He wants to learn more about turtles/tortoises and I found this fun picture book for him to read. It was about a turtle who lives in a garden and the things that happen there as he outlives his first "human pet." What did Alex learn? He was reminded that turtles live a long time!

Movies we watched... 

We watched Santa Clause 1 & 2, and Elf. 

Games we played...

I found these Elf cards last year on clearance after Christmas. I was so excited to find them in the Christmas boxes this year as I had forgotten that I picked them up. After we watched Elf we played The Candy Cane Game that I found in a Pinterest search for Christmas games. It's like spoons but with Candy Canes. At least that's what the original post says. I've never played spoons, but I've heard of it. Unfortunately, only 2 of us wanted to play the game, so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. I think we'll definitely play it again when everyone wants to play.

 

I'm grateful for...

Such an awesome collection of LEGO's that I can build these challenges almost exactly matching the directions. I only have to make minor adjustments and I don't have to switch out too many pieces.

Wordless Wednesday: Snoopy and Woodstock

We have been counting down the days to Christmas with a fun LEGO building challenge from Frugal Fun 4 Boys and Girls each day (or as many as we can get to).

Christmas Ornaments 2020

 

I'm a little late for this Christmas ornament challenge because we just got our tree up a few days ago. I'm thankful to finally have it up and as I say every year, it finally feels like Christmas at our house! Here are a few of our newest ornament additions from the past few years. We get the kids each a new ornament for the year that reflects something they like at the time or enjoyed from the past year. I usually let them pick, but it depends on the year. Sometimes I surprise them! They all have a pretty good collection of ornaments that they be able to take with them when they have grown and leave the nest. 

Mickey and Minnie Mouse 2019 (Alex): Alex picked this ornament out last year from the Disney store. It's big and fragile, but he loves it.

Patriotic Snoopy 2020 (Mom, me): This is my ornament choice for this year. (Mom and Dad get new ornaments each year too!). 

Ramen bowl 2018 (Aaron): This one is Aaron's (who's now 14) because he loves to make and eat ramen. I can't remember if he picked this one out or if I did. Either way this is totally him (still).

Forky (from Toy Story 4) 2019 (Mom, me): Everyone in my family knows how much I like the character Forky. This is what I picked for 2019.

Harry Potter 2017 (Aric): Our 2nd resident Harry Potter fan is Aric. He was reading the books over and over again at the time he received this ornament. It's one he chooses to put on the tree every year. Each kid has so many ornaments that they can't put them all up so I tell them to pick a few of their favorites.

Dr. Who Police Box 2017 (Aaron): When Aaron received this ornament he was watching through the Dr. Who episodes with his Dad. 

Best Big Sister 2008 (April): This was given to April when Aaron was about 2. She was still pretty new at the big sister thing at that time!

White Lace Heart (unknown year received) Mom: I received this heart ornament from the ladies organization at church called Relief Society. I didn't write the year on it, so I can't remember when, but I have had it for many years. Maybe a decade?

Green dinosaur 2020 (Alex): This is the ornament Alex picked out for this year. He found it at Al's Garden Center where they always have a beautiful holiday/Christmas display every year. He loves dinosaurs, still.

There are so many more ornaments that I love, but we'll stop here. Outside. We have some new decor outside including some giant ornaments. Baby Yoda is new too! I love Christmas decorations! 

I am joining The Homeschool Review Crew for the December social media challenge. 

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas coloring

Nature walk and study: December world 2020

The Outdoor Hour Challenge this month from the Handbook of Nature Study Blog is observing our backyard during the month of December. The means taking a walk somewhere around your neighborhood or close by and just observing the changes and things around your area. We chose to walk around a local nature area in the middle of a big city. This particular nature area is about half an hour from our house.

We saw many stumps and logs covered with moss, mushrooms, and ferns. The Sunshine was just beautiful and coming through the trees to cast a glow on everything that was amazing. Usually our December weather is pretty rainy and overcast, so this is a little treat for our December world.

Some of the old growth tree stumps are huge. Big enough for a 9 year-old boy to fit inside!

Some boys enjoyed the walk, and some didn't. How do you get your teens to enjoy outdoor time?

Moss, leaves, mushrooms, and ferns. That's a lot of what we saw!

 

Oh and a few pine cones as well. These two were enjoying some sun up in the tree still.

The fern on this log reminded me of hair. I thought it was cool how it was growing out of this log like that.

These weathered roots are amazing. I over heard a lady talking about how she thought it'd be cool to decorate it with Christmas lights. 

As part of the December World 2020 challenge, her reading suggestions for the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock were for moms to read the introductory pages to refresh their memories of some of the key principles of teaching children nature study. It was eye-opening for me! I had never actually read the beginning part. I've only read parts of this book and all those parts were about certain subjects we were studying for nature study. I found some great advice and knowledge in this reading and plan to read it all over the month of December.

So many great nuggets of wisdom are found in this section and this book! I found several quotes that I liked in my reading so far. But, I really loved this part about Nature-Study as a help to health. There are so many health benefits to being out in nature, but I had never looked at it this way. Our kids really should understand nature to literally survive. So, when I push nature studies off I need to remember this, how important it could be to their survival.

These are my completed notebook pages. I like to do them right along with the kids. I haven't had the boys complete theirs yet either, so I figured I'd just share mine. My drawing skills are still lacking, but I gave it a good try!

 

This December Words exercise was so good. I struggled with the poetry part and just ended up doing an acronym poem. I learned that I definitely need to work on poetry!

 

What have you been doing in your nature studies?