My Weekly Notebook: Baseball, frubber, and the pool

Life this week...

We had some beautiful weather this week. It was even warm enough to open all the windows and get the fans going for a few days! Then the week ended with rain and a little bit chilly. The rain is so nice after some warmish days. The spring weather in Oregon is never dull.

Homeschool this week...

Aric is learning about robotics in his Bookshark science program, and this week his lessons called for him to do this lab of making "robot skin" also known as flubber. This was a really fun lab for him because he is my slime-loving kid, and this stuff uses basically the same ingredients with changes in amounts to get a different consistency. He did 2 little batches.

 

The first batch he forgot to put any food coloring in so it was this clear, see-through kind of flubber. It stretched a little and was kinda fun to play with. 

He decided to make some with some color. He used one too many drops and ended up with a really dark green that also turned his fingers green. Still fun to play with.

Reviews we are working on...

We are still working on our Meriwether Lewis biography. We are enjoying all kinds of activities that go along with it including making a keelboat this week. We also made some cake pops this week to go with a story from another review book we are reading. Posts on both of those to come soon!

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

Alex is playing baseball now, so we're at the park 2 days a week for practice. He's learning all the different positions. This week he discovered he liked being catcher and he is pretty sure he doesn't want to try pitching. Hoping he gives it a shot.

 

He is working on his swing!

What we're reading...

We've been enjoying these "You Wouldn't Want to..." books. This week we read You Wouldn't Want to Live Without Books! by Alex Woolf. It was interesting to see how books have changed over time.

 

Movies we watched...

We watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I just realized that I snapped this picture at probably one of the worst moments in the movie.

   

Games we played...

We pulled Creationary out. We haven't played this in years. Probably because it was really hard when the kids were younger. Now that they are older and can make things with LEGO's a bit easier it's easier for them. We were laughing pretty hard by the end of the game. It was a blast. Just for reference, none of our creations looked as good as the ones on the cover.

 

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

Our pool is still standing after the long winter, and it still holds water and functions well. We are just trying to get it cleaned out and ready for when it warms up. This is what it looked like when I took the cover off. Yuck! I almost can't stand to look at this picture. 

 

After about a week of cleaning, vacuuming, filtering it out, and lots of chemicals (including many bottles of bleach/chlorine) it's looking much better. There is still a bit of a fog so it's not quite ready yet. This is what it looks like now. I have to scoop out the blossom petals daily that come over the top of our house until the blossoms are all gone. Hopefully, it will be swimmable soon. Although, it's still not even warm enough to swim yet. We are hoping to get the heater hooked up this year.

I'm grateful for...

A table full of lessons and books.

This picture was taken at the end of a full school day. these are the "done" piles for me to look through and grade.