LEGO ABCs: T is for Tensegrity

Welcome to the Letter T of Blogging Through the Alphabet series! I'm very sorry for getting this up so late today. I just wasn't prepared to have it up today. You know how life can get, things always come up! So this week, I will be sharing a fun thing to do with LEGOs called Tensegrity, and my co-host Chareen will be talking about Teaching From Rest by Sarah Mackenzie. And, I hope you enjoy all the other link-ups this week from others for the letter T!

I first heard of making  LEGO tensegrity at Frugal Fun for Boys and girls when she shared some fun to make LEGO Tensegrity Structures on her blog. I thought it looked way fun when I first saw it, and then when it came time to make one for this post I got really intimidated. It seemed complicated, and I wasn't sure I had all the right pieces (one of the reasons this post is late, I was trying to think of something else to do for the letter T). But, when my time was up and I didn't have anything else to do for T, I decided I should just try it. It turned out to be easier than I thought! If you can, look at some of these pictures and YouTube videos in this article: LEGO Tensegrity is taking the AFOL World by Storm! There are some great examples and fun videos to see these in action.

So, using some examples from the above-mentioned sites, I got the pieces out and set out to make a tensegrity structure. I lucked out and found just enough LEGO chains in our collection to make one. I thought we had more chains, but we didn't. I guess I could have figured out how to use string, there are a few that I've seen with string. I asked Aric to make the airplane on top, and he did pretty well with that. It fit perfectly on the top.

The boys thought it was pretty cool when they saw it. It was actually pretty fun and easy to do once I got started. I wish I had more chains so we could do more. It's kinda fun to look at too. It looks like it defies all laws of physics, but it doesn't!

T is for Tiles:

I just got these this week! I am excited to have letters to use on our baseplates for signs or on our creations. I am also pleased to have the storage bag that came with them.

These are going to be fun. I will probably use them mostly for signs/sayings in our LEGO display. 

So many letters to choose from! 

There are even symbols like this heart, and punctuation!

T is for Take apart:

One last thing for the letter T today...taking LEGO sets apart. I actually kinda enjoy doing this. The picture below are all the sets slated to be taken apart. We are out of room on our shelves, so the old ones need to be taken down. I will store them in baggies until someone wants to rebuild them. Both of my boys have a hard time with this, but we do not have infinite space. Unfortunately. So, I put on a show to watch and take them apart one by one.

That's all for our LEGO fun this week! Thank you for reading and joining us!

Now it's your turn to share! Please join co-host Chareen and me as we blog through the alphabet and link-up below:

• Desiree @ Our Homeschool Notebook: All of my current ABC posts

• Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses: Teaching From Rest by Sarah Mackenzie

To see what others shared last week, visit the Letter T blogging through the alphabet post.

**Rules for linking up:

1. Your post must be family-friendly. We have the right to remove any posts that are inappropriate. 
2. When linking up you agree to give us permission to share your post or a photo in any future blog posts and social media shares. 
3. Please link back to the host or co-hosts blog, and use the image if you want. 
4. If you can, check out a few other posts in the link-up and leave some comment love. 
5. Please, make sure your posts relate to the alphabet or blogging through the alphabet in some way. Evergreen content (past posts that relate) is also welcome. 
6. The link-up will be available for one week for each letter. The Linky party is scheduled to go live at 2pm every Wednesday.
7. Last of all, have fun. If you can’t join for one week, don’t stress. Just join next time, and enjoy!

S is for States (board games)

I am posting another ABC post this week to finish up my games blogging through the alphabet list from a few years ago. 

I have 2 games for the letter S: The Scrambled States of America Game, and Sequence States and Capitals. Both involve learning the about the States and Capitals of America. 

The Scrambled States of America Game

The Scrambled States of America is a fun, fast-moving game. Each player has a map for reference and it's used throughout the game.

A reference map for Scrambled States

Each player gets 5 state cards, and those cards have to be matched with a challenge card to win that state. The challenge cards have different things on them like: a state that is 9 letters long. The person has to say the name of the state and slaps that challenge card. It gets pretty intense, and loud. Whoever wins the most state matches wins the game.

Next up we have Sequence States and Capitals. If you've ever played any Sequence game, this one is just like the classic, but with cards that have capitals to match up to the states on the game board. April  (who is now in college) said that this game really helped her get her States and Capitals memorized.

Sequence States and Capitals

This game is basically like a bingo game. You get 5 in a row and you win. If there are only 2 players then you have to get two of the 5 in a row completed.

I love games. I especially love games that we can learn schoolish things from while having fun. These are both highly recommended and still played in our house. 

That's all for the Letter S board game! If you'd like to see the other Games I've shared with my ABC blogging game series, the list is here.

LEGO ABCs: S is for Sea

Welcome! It's time for the letter S in our blogging through the alphabet series. This week we are taking our LEGO adventures to the ocean to see some Sea Creatures. My co-host Chareen will be talking about Science in Your Homeschool.

There are many ideas for making sea creatures with LEGOs. Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls has some great ideas for building a sea turtle, crab, otter, and fish using your own materials, and a simple search on Pinterest brings up some fun ideas and instructions. But, for our build this week we have a set to share called Deep Sea Creatures. It is a 3-in-1 set that features a shark, squid, and an angler fish. 

 

This shark was fun to build, and the details are pretty good! 

 

With the shark instructions there was also instructions for a small crab. He's a fun one.

 

The back is not the same as the front, so here's the back of the crab to see how it's made.

We still have yet to build the squid and the fish. Alex wants to build those next, but he didn't get them done in time for today's post. 

Sealife Aquarium at LEGOLAND!

Did you know that there is an aquarium at LEGOLAND? I realized as I was writing this post that I didn't share the pictures from the Sealife Aquarium portion of our visit.

So, here are some fun pics from that part of LEGOLAND:

The Aquarium was really neat. There were a ton of sea creatures and neat LEGO things to see all throughout.

Alex and Aric in the "shark cage"

Not sure what he was doing. Maybe he was tired? But, there were all kinds of interactive things for the kids to do.

So many colorful fish to see!

We saw some deep sea minifig divers while waiting for the Deep Sea Submarine ride too!

 

That's all for our LEGO fun this week! Thank you for reading and joining us!

Now it's your turn to share! Please join co-host Chareen and me as we blog through the alphabet and link-up below:

• Desiree @ Our Homeschool Notebook: All of my current ABC posts

• Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses: Science in Your Homeschool

Last week's Letter R posts:

• Homeschool Tips--Letter R from Homeschooling Highway
• Discovering the R Rabbits of the World from At Home Pets
• Composer ABCs-- Letter R composers from At Home: Where Life Happens

 

**Rules for linking up:

1. Your post must be family-friendly. We have the right to remove any posts that are inappropriate. 
2. When linking up you agree to give us permission to share your post or a photo in any future blog posts and social media shares. 
3. Please link back to the host or co-hosts blog, and use the image if you want. 
4. If you can, check out a few other posts in the link-up and leave some comment love. 
5. Please, make sure your posts relate to the alphabet or blogging through the alphabet in some way. Evergreen content (past posts that relate) is also welcome. 
6. The link-up will be available for one week for each letter. The Linky party is scheduled to go live at 2pm every Wednesday.
7. Last of all, have fun. If you can’t join for one week, don’t stress. Just join next time, and enjoy!

The Fallacy Detective (A REVIEW)

 Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

I have always tried to make logic and critical thinking an important part of our homeschool day with puzzles, games, workbooks, and activities, so I was excited to receive a copy of The Fallacy Detective for review.  It is another great resource for logical thinking that we can add to our toolbelt! 

The Fallacy Detective

This workbook edition of Fallacy Detective has 38 short and simple lessons that focus on different parts of reasoning and thinking and the scenarios that might play out in those situations. This book is recommended for ages 12 and up. It is also recommended to be read and worked through together with a group of 2 or more, but can also be done independently for an older teen or an adult. It is much more fun with more though!

The table of contents

These are some great discussions to have with teens who are being challenged and bombarded with so much stuff from all areas of life including politics, family issues, school, and pretty much anything else. They need to be able to detect the fallacies and mistakes in everything.

Check out other reviews about this book by clicking on the banner below.

R is for Rummikub (Disney version)

I am trying to finish my abc "games" blog series from a few years ago (2017), so the pictures from this are old, but the games we still love!

This is for the letter R and the game is Rummikub. At the time we had only the Disney Kids' Edition. This game was well-loved.

And it's a great introduction to Rummikub.

This is little Alex (from 2017) playing the game with me.

We have now graduated to the Original Rummikub game. We have yet to play this particular one, so I don't have pictures, but we did play a miniature version back when we were first married. I don't know if we still have that version. I haven't been able to find it, so I ordered a full-sized one to get us playing!

That wraps up the letter R for my games abc.

My Weekly Notebook: 2nd week of August (last week)

Life this week...

The summer is flying by. I knew it would. For some reason I could just feel it speeding by before it even started. I started realizing today that we've not spent much time outside. At least as much as I'd have liked to. It's just been so hot, and the desire to be out in the heat is very low. I'm hoping we can get out a little more these last few weeks of summer. By the same token, I'm excited for back to school! It's just a few weeks away for us. 

Homeschool this week...

Aric reviewed the continents and the oceans and marked them on his map. It's a good thing to review!

 

I thought I'd show our current set up for daily assignments. A box with all of their work for the day. They each have a file folder for "workboxes" and the stuff that doesn't fit in the file is just stacked in with it including their daily list which is in a spiral notebook.

Aric's box

Alex's box

Mom-school this week...

Nothing to show for my learning this week, but I did watch some Heartland! Which is what inspired my desire to complete the Homeschooling with Horses Journal from The Thinking Tree Books.

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

LEGO Dots bracelets for incentives. Each assignment that is completed earns a "dot" on the bracelet. When the bracelet is full there is a special treat or reward. The child can wear the bracelet on their wrist and you can immediately give a lego piece when they've earned one according to the rules you set. It's an immediate visual for the work they've completed. They can even make fun designs!

 

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

We took some neighbor friends bowling with us. Alex had a blast. They also did the climbing wall and laser tag.

 

Things I'm working on...

Cleaning out my sewing table and finishing up some old projects. I am also working on gathering materials for some new projects. I am pretty excited to be able to see the bottom of my sewing table now. I even found my button presser foot (finally) and mended a button that fell of some pants.

Random things the kids worked on...

Alex worked on this wooden dog puzzle and he actually finished it! I say that because he's started a few of these wooden puzzles and they proved to be too difficult for him. 

 

I was happy to see him persevere with this one. Even when it got difficult. There were even some pieces that we're pretty sure weren't made quite right, but he got it together.

These wooden puzzles look cool, but they can be very frustrating.

What we're reading... 

With my horse kick lately, I decided to pull out the Billy and Blaze collection we have and start reading those with Alex. He is almost grown out of these, so I thought we should read them one more time. 

 

Movies/TV we watched... 

• A Bug's Life (movie)
• Heartland (mom, tv show)

Other thoughts from the week...

I am giving this liquid morning multivitamin from Mary Ruth's a try. It is actually not bad tasting! It tasted kinda like a smoothie in a way. I am pretty sure vitamins are keeping me alive/going each day, so I am always on the look out for a good vitamin and this one seems to be doing the job very well. Have you ever taken a liquid vitamin?

 

I'm grateful for...

Art, crafts, handicrafts, etc. The ability to create something beautiful myself.

The HomeScholar (A REVIEW)

 Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

 

Do you have a student entering high school this school year? Or in the near future? Are you worried about how to keep track of their grades, transcripts, and overall records for the 4 years of high school? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might want to check out The HomeScholar LLC's Comprehensive Record Solution! It's a complete training, with tips, transcript creating, and encouragement for the college-bound homeschooler.

The HomeScholar LLC's homepage

For this review, I received online access to the Comprehensive Record Solution portion of The HomeScholar products. There is a sweet homeschool veteran mom that has created these courses to help new to high school homeschool parents get the confidence they need to create complete records with course descriptions that colleges and universities will accept. She evens tells the story about how her boys graduated and were accepted to universities with scholarships with the transcripts and records she created herself. That's great encouragement for such a daunting task!

There are many videos, workbook pages, and examples all throughout the Comprehensive Record Solution. What is a Comprehensive Record? It includes a homeschool transcript, course descriptions, a reading list, awards and activity list, and samples of work. This can seem like a lot to think about keeping track of, but it is broken down and pieced together through this program. It is worth the investment to have the peace of mind and help of someone else! 

I do not currently have a high schooler that I need to make a comprehensive record for yet, but one of my son's is going into 8th grade this year, so we may need it soon. I need to prepare myself and going through the Comprehensive Record Solution makes it feel less overwhelming. It is so helpful and a great resource!

The review crew has been given the opportunity to review different products from The HomeScholar LLC, click on the banner below if you'd like to see what else they offer and to read the other reviews.