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.