My Weekly Notebook: Fun outings, cookies, and a Hershey Kisses spelling game

Life this week...

It was a busy 3-day weekend so I'm just now getting to writing about the past week. I know it's Monday, but all of my "this week's" will be about the past week. Not the current week. I always hope to write my weekly wrap-up before the weekend hits, but that's just hard to do some weeks. So, here's our last week's adventures!

Homeschool this week...

We discovered Minecraft Education Edition. It's pretty cool. There are so many great lessons all ready set up on there. Alex completed a few of the math lessons. One was finding the degree of angles. This was a fun way to do angles! I sat with him and helped him with the first few. After that he was able to do them all on his own.

He used a Math Time Page from his Minecraft Thinking Tree Curriculum Journal to write down the angles and measure them. 

 

I'm excited to see what other fun lessons we can find on Minecraft Education Edition.

Mom-school this week...

I am learning about the powers of Congress in preparation for my co-op class. I am also going through and reading the Constitution and trying to understand it. That is something that I will also have to work on with the students in my co-op class, so I need to be studying it too. 

For fun Mom-school this week I am making some of these yarn pom-pom balls for our library's community project. The library is asking anyone who wants to make these to decorate the library for spring break. I've almost got enough to take in. They didn't come out as puffy as I would have liked, but they were fun to make!

 

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

I thought I'd share this video about Thinking Tree Funschooling books. We really enjoy using these Journals for our school. And, since I featured one of the pages in this post, I thought I'd share how they work.

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

• We went to the snow on Saturday with the youth from church.
• We went to a new (to us) indoor park in Salem called Adventure Park. 
• We visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
• We went to Co-op.
• Alex went to Parkour PE.
• I also took Alex to Get Air on Tuesday morning. A trip I had promised him a while back.

Pictures from our outings this week:

Get Air

He wanted to try out a board this time.







The boards are not as easy as they look to jump with!

Adventure Park:

Huge indoor play structure! Can you see Alex at the top? It's just his head.

We played a game of Mini golf.

My ball was as yellow as the mini-golf house!

They had quite a few holes of mini-golf! It wrapped around the playground. They had a lot of fun stuff packed into this place!

We also played ski-ball and corn-hole (not pictured).

My favorite thing this week was...

Receiving a special gift from my clogging teacher, a little pot to grow some sunflowers, and a special card. It's the little things. Good news! My seeds are already growing!

 

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

All the fun adventures we had this week. We had more than the usual number of fun outings in one week. It was like non-stop going and fun. Not as much planned for this week though.

Random things the kids worked on...

Alex is thinking about selling cookies to earn some money for a LEGO set, so he worked on perfecting his cooking-making skills. He makes these Peanut butter cookies really well.

 

What we're reading...

The Minpins by Roald Dahl was a fun picture book that took us a few days to read. 

 

Something that worked out great or didn't work out for us this week...

This spelling/matching game with Hershey's Kisses worked really well this week. Alex was super excited to play it, and he enjoyed matching the words with their definitions. I also feel like our Chocolate Unit Study is going really well. It's a good break from the regular school work for us right now, and we're learning a lot about how chocolate is made, rainforests, chocolatiers, and more!

 

Other thoughts from the week...

Hope your Valentine's day was lovely! 

 

I'm grateful for...

Businesses that invite the public in for educational fun and tours to share all their secrets and knowledge about whatever it is that they make or do. Like the cheese factory today. It's always fun to see how the cheese-making process goes.

Wordless Wednesday: Turing Tumble (STEM)

 

My Weekly Notebook: cookies, spaghetti, and chocolate

 

Life this week...

It was a good week full of accomplishments and fun things like bike rides and watching Boba Fett with friends. I am slowly starting to get back into taking pictures. I used to be so good at taking pictures of everything, but I have noticed recently over the past couple of years I have slowly been dwindling down in the picture-taking category. I just forget to grab pictures of things anymore, so I made an effort to get more pictures of things this week. I'm excited that I did better, but realized I forgot to take pictures of a few things that I really wanted pictures of. 

Homeschool this week...

We started a chocolate unit study from Unitstudy.com called Chocolate Challenge. It's a 5-day download-and-go unit study where we work through each day learning about how chocolate is made, famous Chocolatiers (like Milton Hershey), and where cacao grows. It includes some fun ideas for activities and books to read throughout the study. We took a few days, but we finally finished day 1 on Friday! This is an area where I didn't get any pictures. Hopefully, we'll get some chocolatey pictures next week! 

Mom-school this week...

I am helping to teach an American History class at our co-op this semester so most of my mom school right now is reading about the founding of our country. This week I have to teach a lecture about the legislative process, and I will be leading a book discussion about this book called "Fifty-Five Fathers, The Story of the Constitutional Convention" in a few weeks so I'm reading it as quickly as I can. I'm 2 chapters into the book and it's actually quite interesting. I am not a history buff, so this is something that I have to really study and re-learn.

 

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

• Fort Yamhill State Heritage Area
• Parkour--Alex started Parkour PE again
• I went to my dance. I started a new class. Again. I enjoyed it!
• We had friends over for dinner and a movie on Friday night. I didn't get any pictures and I'm so bummed. We had pulled pork sandwiches and chocolate fondue for dessert. It was a fun night. Oh, the movie was the final episode of Boba Fett.
• We went to the park with the local homeschool group to play. So many good friends there!
• We also went to Co-op

My favorite thing this week was...

Having an evening at home just me and Hubby. All the boys were at church youth activities, so it was just us. I made cookies, read a book, and felt old because that seems like what old people do. The cookies were delicious though!

 

Things I'm working on...

I am working on this cross stitch of the four seasons. It'll probably take me the rest of my life, but I finished a little this week. Currently, I'm working on those pink leaves (the spring part of the tree). If I'm lucky, it'll just take me 4 seasons to work on!

 

Something I accomplished...

I spent Saturday morning outside cleaning up my pots and patio in the front. It all looks so much better and the pots are ready for new flowers!

 

I also discovered a pot of bulbs that I didn't realize had come up. I took it out from behind and under some dead plants so it could get some more sun and water. I'm happy to see these coming back up. I had meant to plant them in the ground last fall, but forgot about them.

What we're reading...

I have a picture book and a "mom" book to share this week. 

First, We read The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horten Poet by Don Tate. This was on a recommended list and we both really enjoyed it.

 

Second, Pocketful of Pinecones. I pulled this out to loan to a friend and saw that my bookmark was still in there. I thought I had read it all! Turns out I didn't finish it, I had a few pages left. So, I finished it and now I can loan it to my friend. I also found this dried/flattened flower inside one of the pages. I don't remember putting there, but it was a fun find and very appropriate for this title!

Movies/TV we watched... 

We watched Boba Fett as I mentioned earlier. We also started the movie Labyrinth (1986). We still have yet to finish it, but it is a fun movie. I don't remember ever watching it, but I do seem to remember bits and pieces.

Outdoor time...

We rode bikes to a local pond. Just Alex and I.

I'm cooking/eating...

I made homemade spaghetti sauce for the first time in many years, and it was delicious. I really want to get back to making homemade as much as possible. This was a good step for me. Reminded me how good homemade can be.

 

Just for fun this week...

A LEGO creation I made for an Instagram challenge (a #valentinehabitat). This is a couple who is spending their Valentine's day outdoors because that is something they like to do. Even with matching shirts.

 

I'm grateful for...

I'm grateful that I could smell this scentsy bar melt in my house this week. It smelled wonderful!

That wraps up our week! Now off to a new one.

Fort Yamhill State Heritage Area

We decided to take a nice little Sunday drive today. It was nice and sunny and with rain in the forecast it was a much needed outing. We talked about several places we could go to just take a walk, but decided on this Oregon State Park called Fort Yamhill State Heritage Area. It wasn't too far, and we'd never been there, both things we wanted to stick to for this outing. Not only was this a nice Sunday walk and drive, it was also a history lesson! Some Oregon history!

The Blockhouse

 

Fort Yamhill was built in 1856 and was in use for about 10 years. I won't get too much into the history, but there were soldiers stationed there for a time to help ease tensions between Native Americans who were living on the reservation and white settlers. If you'd like to read more about it you can visit the Oregon State Park page all about Fort Yamhill (just click on the link). 

Our first stop was a park in Dayton where The Blockhouse (pictured above) is located. This Blockhouse was originally at Fort Yamhill, but they had moved it when the fort shut down and they sold all the buildings in 1866 and it eventually ended up here at this park. It was used as a jail and storage for some artillery, I think.

The inside of the bottom of the Blockhouse

We parked across the street in front of some other lovely buildings. See that open door? Yep, that's our van with the older 2 boys inside who didn't want to get out. Guess seeing a blockhouse was not too appealing to the teens.

 

I was reading the signs on the blockhouse to Alex. We were trying to figure out if this was the original house or a model of the original. It's the original!

 

After we were done looking at The Blockhouse we headed over to the Fort Yamhill State Park. As you can see in the picture below, it was super busy! Okay, maybe not. We pretty much had the whole park to ourselves. Everyone must have been home watching the super football game. Not out doing cool history walks like our family.

 

The walk itself was a fairly easy and short walk. The path was gravel to start and went in a loop. It was beautiful and quiet.

 

As we walked around the loop/trail we saw a lot of signs that said kitchen, mess hall, bake house, etc., but there was nothing there, they were just signifying where those things might have been when the fort was in full working order. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the pamphlets that had all the information for each sign. We could have read about each and every thing. It would have taken us way longer! And, it would have been a bit more interesting than just seeing a sign. I'm guessing the kids weren't too sad about that one though.

 

There were a few signs that had more information. This one about the Blockhouse was there, but remember where The Blockhouse is? Not there, it's at the other park. But, this was where it would have been at the fort.

 

See there's one of those pictures! (Picture above) Right in front of that tree is a sign that says "Company Quarters." Obviously they didn't sleep in the tree. There must have been a building or structure of some sort there once upon a time.

 

 This is another one of those signs, but this one does have an actual "sentry box" it looks like.

 

Then we hit the part of the trail that didn't really have anything. It just took us back to the van/parking lot. It was very pretty in the trees.

 

 That wraps up our Sunday drive and history lesson. Now it's time for a weekly wrap-up!

Wordless Wednesday: Nature

 A bike ride to Hermanson Pond

My Weekly Notebook....Is back! I am back!

So, here I am again! Yes, I am back on this blog because I just really need this space to share some homeschool things, but I won't be writing reviews anymore, probably. Sorry for the back and forth! You know how life gets sometimes? Right? 

Life this week...

It was a cold week where I just wanted to be somewhere warm to get away from the cold. It has just felt extra cold to me so far this winter. Thankfully we ended the week with some sunshine on Saturday and Sunday, and it was above 50! My body does much better at temps above 50, even if it's just slightly.

Homeschool this week...

Aric (8th grade) sometimes colors during our history lessons if we have a lot of reading. During one of our lessons this week he colored this Abraham Lincoln picture. I couldn't believe how realistic it looked! He has been figuring out his new set of markers and it looks like he has it down!

  

Mom-school this week...

I didn't get much done for my own learning this week. I did attend my clogging classes and that is definitely a part of my mom-school!

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

None this week. I thought of something really good earlier this weekend, but now I can't remember what it was!

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

We went roller skating on Saturday. April was home from college for the weekend and we were trying to figure out something fun to do. Alex had the idea to go roller skating, and we decided that would be a fun memory to relive. We used to go to the homeschool roller skate session a lot many years ago. It was always a lot of fun. I'm so glad we went on Saturday. It was packed, but oh so fun. Unfortunately, Alex didn't have fun. I am not sure why. Probably a combination of the crowded rink combined with the fact that I wouldn't rent rollerblades. Guess I'll have to let him try rollerblades sometime. No pictures of this outing, which I'm very bummed about. We couldn't really carry our phones around because we were too worried about falling on them. Gladly neither April nor I fell!

My favorite thing this week was...

Seeing April. I love having her so close that she can just come home on a weekend or during a break. She's a lot of fun to hang out with, and even though they won't admit it, her brothers like it when she comes home too.

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

I am pretty sure Alex will be the only one with a favorite this week. He loved playing glow in the dark capture the flag at his Deacons/youth activity. It was at one of the boys' houses, so they had fun playing in the dark in their yard. He also bought some Cadbury eggs to share with all the boys in his class. He was so excited to give them that special treat.

Things I'm working on...

Nothing right now. I really need to pick a project to work on again this week. I will update on this next week!

Random things the kids worked on...

I don't think the kids really worked on anything this week either. Guess we should fix that this week also!

Something I accomplished...

My LEGO passion is still going strong, and I'm still building as much as I can get my hands on. This week I finished this Harry Potter set, 4 Privet Drive. I really like this one. Especially the car that can pull the barred window off. That's a fun detail.

 

What we're reading...

We are currently listening to Harry Potter Book 4. Probably about halfway through it. When we're finished we'll have a movie party. We also started a Milton Hershey biography this week to go with our Chocolate Unit study that we are currently doing.

Movies/TV we watched... 

We watched Jumanji 2: The Next Level with April on Saturday night. We've now completed the whole Jumanji series. We also watched a lot of winter Olympics! Current favorites are luge and curling. Makes me want to get outside and do something active!

Outdoor time...

Oh, haha, funny that I just said I want to get outside and do something active because I don't think we did anything outdoors this week. Hoping for some nicer weather so we can soon. Maybe we'll get a nature walk in next week.

Games we played...

We played a few games this weekend. While April was home we decided Wingspan was a must. That game gets better the more we play it. So many great birds too. We also played the Harry Potter Lego game. That's a fun one.

I'm cooking/eating...

I was really happy with how colorful our dinner was one night this week. It really looked almost like a rainbow to me. It was delicious too. This is just my made-up sheet pan dinner that includes bell peppers, onions, sausage, and sometimes broccoli. One of my favorites!

 

Something that worked out great or didn't work out for us this week...

It was a pretty quiet week, so I can't really think of anything. I'm sure we had something in both areas, but nothing significant is coming to mind.

Other thoughts from the week...

Sometimes things aren't clear until you take a step back. I took a step back/away and now I feel like things are much clearer! Especially in our homeschool world.

I'm grateful for...

My heart is so full and thankful for so many things tonight. Our day at church on Sunday was just blessed, so I'm very thankful for that. I am so thankful for the sunshine we had today. It was just glorious. I am thankful for journals and blogs that act as journals.

Thanks for reading with me!