My Weekly Notebook: Easter Week

Life last week...

It was a week of some wild weather! We didn't get any snow in our area, but there were reports of snow very close around us in many places one day. In fact, it was our co-op day so we had a late start that day due to some families being in the snowy areas. Then, for the rest of the week, it was hail, rain, wind, sunshine, hail, dark ominous clouds, and sunshine over and over again. And kinda chilly. I was cold all week.

Homeschool last week...

I thought this page that Alex worked on in his Doodle Your Day workbook was kinda fun. It was Scrabble Day on April 13 apparently, so we had to come up with some high-scoring words. This was fun to think about. 

 

 

Mom-school last week...

I worked on my Brain Games book a little this week and drew a bunny on this page. I used a little tutorial to draw the bunny, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I need to do more drawing lessons for sure, but this wasn't bad!

 

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

We finally took a field trip to a chocolate factory to finish off our chocolate unit study. It was pretty awesome. They talked about the whole process from Cacao pod all the way to chocolate. We even got to taste some beans, nibs, 100% cacao with no sugar, and lots of samples of chocolate with sugar. Oh and cacao nib tea too. Some of the things we tasted were just a little too weird for me, but it was fun to see. I highly recommend checking out a chocolate factory near you if you have one. So fun!

Chomp! Chocolate factory in Salem, OR

Things I'm working on... 

I am working on making these signs for decoration. They are Educational Decrees from the 5th Harry Potter book. I am going to laminate them to hang up for our movie night when we finish the 5th book. I think it will add some fun to our movie experience, and I like how they are looking so far.

Random things the kids worked on... 

Alex decided to work on some art for a homeschool art show, and he decided he wanted to do dot art, so he made this cat that turned out pretty cute. We ended up not being able to go to the art show, but I'm super proud that he tried.

 

Something I accomplished...

I made these outdoor prompts from 1000 hours outside challenge. These are just the prompts for the month of April. There are prompts for the whole year, so I will hopefully be changing this jar out each month.

 
 

What we're reading...

We are still mostly listening to Harry Potter Book 5 when we get the chance. It's a long one, and we we're excited to watch the movie. We are also listening to Milton Hershey (the YWAM, Heroes of History version). 

We also read this Physics book from Basher Science for part of Alex's science journal time. This is a fun book to read to learn about physics.

 

I read some of this Gardening book for myself. I am working through the gardening journal and this one came up when I searched for books about gardening. I love the pictures in it! And, the story about gardening from the beginning of time is pretty fascinating.

 

Movies/TV we watched... 

We watched the new Spiderman movie. No Way Home. It was pretty good! Aric had been waiting for a very long time to see it.

I'm cooking/eating... 

We ate a delicious Easter brunch on Sunday morning. It was a lot of already prepared foods, so I didn't have to cook a lot. 

Easter brunch

Other thoughts from last week... 

It was crazy sock week at clogging so I picked up some fun llama socks. Unfortunately I didn't get the best picture, but it's still a picture!

 

I'm grateful for...

Wildcraft game that we played last week! It was our first time playing.

Game time for school!

Some new books and words

 I just love books. Especially new books that are delivered right to my door! These are the ones from my latest "school books" order.

First up is What Are Castles and Knights? by Sarah Fabiny. These what, who, where books are packed full of great information and they aren't dry. I love to use these as a resource for topics that we are learning about and for reading time.

 Next up is a magnetic poetry kit in hopes that I can get my kids to make some poetry for poetry month. And to help them with writing and getting them excited about words. This will be our second kit. I wanted to add to the current one we already have.

It was fun getting all the words laid out on the magnetic board.

 This next one is a History book with 21 Activities, World War 2 for Kids by Richard Panchyk. I am hoping to start collecting this series of books with activities. Another great resource for our school time.

 

 I'm super excited about this next book. It's a Pre-Algebra Doodle Notebook by Math Giraffe. I almost want to do it myself! Aric will work on this one for some of his math time.

Last, but not least, 2 new Brain Games books from The Thinking Tree journals. I got these for both boys to work on while I work on mine. I love the covers and the content!

What fun books have you ordered lately?

My weekly notebook: not so many hours outside

Life last week...

Last week was a good week. I love the idea of 1000 hours outside, but I think I would make myself crazy trying to achieve that goal. But I do want to get my kids outdoors more, so I came up with a modified version for our family of the 1000 hours outside idea. I decided that we would just keep track of our outside time and see where we land. I kept track for most days last week and it was not as much as I hoped. A mere 2 hours and 10 minutes. And that was just mostly Alex and me. I think I'll keep going with tracking our time outside and be more intentional going forward. 

Alex on our walk this week at Graham Oaks Nature Park

Homeschool last week...

Alex and Aric have been hinting at how much they used to love Teaching Textbooks once upon a time, so I started a trial for both of them. We'll do the first 15 lessons and see if they want to go back to that curriculum. Alex started last week and Aric will start this week. We'll see how they like it before we change anything up. I personally like teaching math, so I'm not sure how I feel about Teaching Textbooks, but it would free me up to get other things done while they do math.

Mom-school last week...

A lot of my school this week was wrapped up in planning a lesson/lecture for my class at co-op. I had to do some studying and reading to make sure I know the material. I ended up not doing that lecture because I forgot my laptop, so we decided to delay it until next week. I think I'll have to do some more studying to make sure now that I have a few more days to prepare.

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

If you are finding it hard to get started in the morning find something that everyone will enjoy starting with and begin with that. I have been starting by listening to an audiobook. One that relates to things we are learning about. We are still making our way through the biography of Milton Hershey so we start with a chapter of that each day. It's a good jumping-off point.

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

We went to Defy after an appointment on our Tuesday adventure day. It's a new extreme sports place that's super fun with crazy slides. It was a good workout for him! 

   

My favorite thing last week was...

Going out on a lunch date and shopping before attending a baby shower with a really awesome friend. We shopped for our baby gifts and ate at The Cheesecake Factory. It was a much-needed getaway. Oh and the baby shower was nice. I think the mom to be enjoyed our gifts.

Something I accomplished...

I made this LEGO mosaic while listening to Harry Potter one night. It was more about the process than looking spectacular. It was pretty fun to make, and I tried really hard not to stress about being perfect.

 

Outdoor time...

We enjoyed a lovely day at the coast. It was kinda stormy, but there were moments where it was just nice. We walked along the beach a little and explored the marine science center.

 

I'm cooking/eating...

No picture of this one, but I made an Irish Stew and soda bread one night. It was delicious!

I'm grateful for...

The fun Alex and I are having listening to Harry Potter. I am catching a lot of things I didn't the first time, and it has been such a fun way for us to spend time together. Then getting excited at the store when we find stuff like this dragon statue, a deck of cards, and a glasses case holder for me.

 

That's a wrap!

Wordless Wednesday: Spring Walk

 Graham Oaks Nature Park, Wilsonville, OR