My Weekly Notebook: Life is good

Life this week...

Another one bites the dust! The weeks are flying by. March is almost upon us now and before we know it we'll be hitting summer. Yet it still does seem so far away. I sure am ready for warmer/sunnier weather. 

Homeschool this week...

The boys have started a lot of their new Bookshark curriculum. I have to say I am loving it too. The curriculum is so rich in reading and literature. Alex kinda stressed at first about having to read so many books at once. It'll definitely be a challenge for him since he doesn't like reading.

It was also a long week of MAPS testing for our charter school. By Friday Alex was so done that he was trying to rush and the test catches that and makes the student stop for a few minutes. They have to enter a special code to continue. 

What our table looked like most of the week when the boys were testing.

We finally started the boys on their new Math-U-See curriculum that came with our Bookshark package. It looks very intimidating with all the manipulatives, but their first lessons went pretty smoothly.

Alex watching the video for his first Math-U-See lesson

 

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

Let your kiddo type with Grammarly! Alex had a strange request to use Grammarly on his computer one day (he had seen ads for it) so I signed into my Grammarly account for him and he just typed random things in google docs to see what he spelled wrong and how Grammarly would  help him. It's both a grammar lesson and a spelling lesson for the day! I love little accidental lessons like that. I'm sure he'll do it again because he thought it was so cool that Grammarly would catch so many of his mistakes.

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

All we had this week for going places was Parkour and the grocery store. Oh and co-op. Just the usual, but here's a picture of Parkour PE toward the end of class. They were playing a nerf game with the lights out. I guess when they got hit with a dart they had to put a ball in the cup.

My favorite thing this week was...

Eating inside a restaurant for a date lunch. Restaurants are starting to open back up again, and it felt good not to have to have our date food in the car again.

The first time we've been inside Red Robin since the pandemic started

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

Part of one of Alex's lessons this week was to find his very own personal journal. At first he was like meh, whatever, I don't need a journal. But then I started showing him sone of the choices on Amazon, and he started getting excited about it when he saw that he could get ones with a lock or a leather cover with string. In the end he chose the lock one. He was super excited by the time we ordered it, and could hardly wait for it to come. It came a few days later, and he has already written in it a few times and added pictures.

 

Things I'm working on...

• Still working on a LEGO minifig puzzle. Almost done!
• Getting a curriculum post up for each boy
• Eating better and moving each day

Random things the kids worked on...

Alex is reading about bridges right now in his science lessons. We are reading the Diary of an American Boy, and in it Noah and his father are building a new bridge on their homestead. So, Alex was inspired to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks while we read. He's still working on it so no final picture yet.

          

Movies we watched... 

No pictures for this one. We watched Karate Kid (it was my first time even though it was a movie from the '80's). I also watched Cinderella (non-animated) with April, and The Lion King with Alex.

I'm grateful for...

A warm comfortable home.

That wraps up our week!

Wordless Wednesday: LEGO Gearbot

 Alex's first build

My Weekly Notes: A Long Week

 

Life this week...

Ice can be beautiful but very destructive. Last weekend we got to see the destructive side of ice as it covered everything in a thick layer and pulled many trees, power lines, and structures down. It was also beautiful in a way too. It looked like a scene from Frozen. The trees were literally drooping down to the ground (if they didn't break or tip over already), but they were white and shiny. I will probably do a separate post with all my ice pictures, so here's just one for now. The ice was surely not welcome!

Homeschool this week...

Due to the ice storm our power was out for 5 days. It was hard to think about doing much school, but we did get some math done, and we read some. Nothing great and exciting to report on the homeschool front though.

Reviews we are working on... 

We've got a lot of reviews coming up, so it might get a little review heavy here on the blog pretty soon. I'm going to try and counter that with a lot of regular posts too. As for reviews, we have a math review starting up here pretty soon. I've started a fantasy novel that's really thick that I'm hoping to finish by early March. And, we are going to hold some mock trials for homeschool court. I'm excited to share some of these reviews coming up!

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

Need some ideas for Indoor Games? This Homeschool Review Crew blog post has a blog hop of ideas for some indoor games. Having a game day was exactly what we did during our power outage, and sometimes you just need to relax and have fun while being stuck indoors.

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

Alex started back up at Parkour PE this week. Despite the power outages everywhere Tualatin Parkour had power (we didn't on the day we went). So, we went to Parkour and hit up Costco and Target on the way home. That was our only big outing for the week besides trips to the local grocery store for food and supplies.

My favorite thing this week was...

Even though it was hard, I really enjoyed the powerless days with my family. We made some fun memories and we were together.

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

When the power came back on. And also the internet.

Things I'm working on...

I am working on sorting all our LEGO's into colors. It's a slow process, but it's very satisfying to me. I also want to be able to find pieces easier to build with the boys. I'm looking forward to having all of them sorted some day!

Random things the kids worked on... 

April had an art project that involved color gradient and shades so she used a portion of our DVD's to do it. When she put them back up on the shelf they looked so pretty!

 

Something I accomplished...

I finished building a Harry Potter Hogwart's Express train platform set. It took me a while because I had to find a few missing pieces from when Aric built it (this is where the sorted by color pieces really helps). I really enjoyed building this.

 

What we're reading...

We finished reading What Was the Holocaust? by Gail Herman this week. Also, just a fun random thing...April read like 10 of our Who, What, Where books from our What is America? pack

Movies we watched... 

We watched Despicable Me 1 and 2 during our power outage. We had a generator that allowed for these special nights.

 

Games we played...

At Alex's request we got a new game called Bellz! Pretty fun, and fast paced.

 

I'm cooking...

Cooking without power posed some challenges, but we survived okay. This picture was actually from a dinner when the power came back on. But I made Bratwurst and broccoli one night. I chose to eat mine without the bun. We also had a potato, ham, cheese soup one powerless night that was pretty delicious. I cooked that on our big camp stove outside. It was cold during the cooking, and kinda felt like camping for sure. Another powerless night I made chicken on the grill with couscous and corn for sides. Those were probably our yummiest meals. We had to cook most everything because we had no microwave, so we had a lot of either big cooked meals, or just cold sandwiches or cereal or muffins.

 

I'm grateful for...

Spotting the first pink blossoms on a tree this week.

That's a wrap for this week!

Thankful Thursday: After the storm

We had a very unusual ice storm hit our area and were left without power for 5 days. It literally ripped trees apart and down, and toppled power lines all over. I have never seen anything like it. There are still many people without power, and the clean-up will last for months. We learned a lot about being prepared for a disaster, and about how life would look without power for our family. 

Today I'm thankful for:

• Neighbors who all come together and help each other in times of need.
• A dishwasher, a stove, an oven, a washer and dryer, lights, heat, and television.
• Power that comes directly to our home
• No damage to our home or property
• Memories made with the family during a tough time
• Friends who offer up their homes and appliances for others who need to shower, laundry, get warm, etc.

The cleanup crew when the ice finally melted. The kids in the cul-de-sac wanted to do their part and help break down branches. The men out in the street are trimming all the trees in our circle.

We were able to watch a movie one night with our generator. It was a fun movie night. Minions always make us laugh.

Book sharing Monday

 *A fun roundup of the books we've read and activities we did over the last week*

We are finishing up day 3 of our power being out from a huge ice storm, so I thought I'd start the week off by sharing some of the books we have read over the last week. Not necessarily during the power outage though! You'd think we have read a lot over the past 3 days, but there's been too much worry and survival mode going on that we haven't read much. 

Harry Potter LEGO potions class:

Aric "read" this book for Valentine's day. I only included this "book" because it's shaped like a book. There's really no reading, but it's a fun image of a story because it opens up into part of the story from the Harry Potter books.

The inside of the book:

Diary of an Early American Boy:

This book is a new one from our new Bookshark curriculum (which I still have yet to post about, hopefully when the power comes back I can get a picture of it all). I enjoyed starting this with Alex last week with his Level E science lessons. I find it fascinating. I am enjoying it probably more than he is!

This is the questions/activity page to go along with it. He learned about all kinds of different ladders.

That's all we have for this week. I hope to start sharing books we are reading as much as possible. I can't commit to every week, but I will sure try!

Sunday STEM: LEGO's, slime, and air cannon

Some STEM projects that the boys worked on this week:

Alex wanted to make fluffy slime...

We haven't made any projects from this yet, but Alex got this for Valentine's day...

Alex made a toothbrush holder out of LEGO's...

A close-up

Alex played with his air cannon project that he made a while ago. He finally tried out the smoke rings part of the project. He was amazed.

We got this book a few weeks ago, but it's another one that I'm hoping will inspire some fun LEGO building. 

Our power is out right now so we have a lot of time on our hands to do some of these LEGO projects! Hopefully, we'll have some to show for next week!

My Weekly Notes: WW2, LEGOs, and diamond painting

Life this week...

I can't believe we're already a week into February and I've not much to show for it. I didn't get a lot accomplished this week. In fact I had some tummy trouble most of the week. I just felt sick to my stomach. That was my only symptom. But, it had me just sitting and watching movies or lounging for a few evenings. It was odd. I don't know if it was something I ate or what. It seems to be gone now. Sure did mess up my goals for the week though!

Homeschool this week...

We started a study of World War 2 this week with a Homeschool in the Woods time travelers pack. Aric is studying WW2 in his co-op class, and they have to complete a timeline. This prompted me to search for this particular one from HSITW. I decided that since I was purchasing the pack for Aric to do this timeline that we'd just do the whole study at home and include Alex too. 

Alex's WW2 timeline figures. He decided to color his.

Reviews we are working on... 

We started a Family Journal this week with our first meeting deciding what our family mission will be. Lets just say it was a loooong meeting. Hoping we can get better at doing this family meeting stuff through using the journal. Looking forward to sharing the review on it.

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

Got the winter blues? Put up some Christmas lights or something that gives off some light to brighten up your homeschool areas. It's amazing how much it just brightens up our day when I plug these in.

 

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

• We went to the snow last Saturday. You can read about that here. 
• On our way home from co-op we saw this beautiful rainbow:

 

My favorite thing this week was...

Finding this beekeeper minifig. I picked one up at the store hoping it might be this particular one, and it was! To my surprise.

 

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

Alex really enjoyed his first diamond painting art project. He did the whole thing over 2 afternoons! I'm amazed that he finished it so fast. He said it was really satisfying.

Things I'm working on...

I have been collecting these LEGO Brick Headz sets for a few years now. I have filled up my little shelf in the hallway, so I have decided to take them all apart as sets to build again when they fit the decor of whatever season we are in. So, I am slowly taking apart each one, finding the directions, and sticking them all in a baggie. 

Also, I built my most current one for Valentine's Day. It's up on the shelf for Valentine's day and then I will probably take it apart too.

I had never considered sorting the pieces until I saw in the directions at the beginning where the dude building was so confused with a big pile, and then he had sorted piles and had a big smile on his face. It cracked me up, so I tried it. It was so satisfying! Especially since one of my other projects right now is sorting ALL of our LEGO's in the "big bin." 

The finished bear!

 

Random things the kids worked on...

Alex did a Colorku puzzle this week. He's really starting to get the hang of how Sudoku works!

   

Something I accomplished...

I got Valentine's decorations out and up. Some of them. I am still missing a box of decorations somewhere in storage. At least I got some of them. That makes me happy.

What we're reading...

We have a whole new batch of library books that I've picked up this week. We still have to put books on hold to pick them up, so it's a struggle to keep books in stock at home that are fresh and what the kids want. 

Movies we watched... 

I am making my way through the Marvel movies from the beginning, so this week I was on Iron Man 2. I watched it with April and Aric. We watched a lot of other movies this week. It was a very movie heavy week with me not feeling the greatest and the weather just being crummy.

Games we played...

We didn't really play many games this week. We played Qwirkle on Friday night with a friend.

I'm cooking...

This was not a good week for cooking. I did find the best Pico de Gallo salsa around town though. I found a 3 lb bowl of it at a local grocery store called Mega Foods. I love Pico, and was so excited to find such a big container full of fresh stuff.

What's working/not working for us...

Winter is not working for me anymore. I'm ready for warm weather.

Questions/thoughts I have... 

How can I get excited about getting in the kitchen and cooking again? I want to make more homemade, but I'm just feeling so unmotivated to cook lately. I am hoping to get my cooking game going again by making some new treats. Just not sure how yet.

I'm grateful for...

Signs of Spring already. It helps me to keep going to see new signs of life.