Chug, Chug, Chugging along!

Greetings!  I can hardly believe it's Thursday already!!  We have a full day planned as we work toward wrapping up our week long exploration of all things that shine!  My day started out very shiny!  A walk with my littlest at sunrise.  Just beautiful.

K is my early riser and always has been.  After she was ready for the day she did some solo art time using the skills that we worked on last night to create this beautiful picture (digital image by Mo Manning) for her brother.  Soooo sweet!

Once everyone was up, washed, dressed, and beds were made we did our morning yoga!

cobra

three-legged dog

partner yoga - lizard on a rock

art journaling time!

hers

his (an image by the amazing Mo Manning - colored by Ty)

Our journaling prompt today was "everyone deserves a chance to sparkle".  I let them interpret it however they wanted but gently reminded them about the song we worked on in Music yesterday "This Land is Your Land" and about what it means to give everyone a fair chance.

pizelle cookie with strawberry preserves, sliced strawberry and crumbled chocolate graham crackers

pizelle cookies with strawberry preserves and black berries

Next was what I call "snack and chat" time!  Healthy, yummy snacks and a few minutes to take a break and just hang out.  I love that T finds hearts EVERYWHERE - even in his crumpled up paper towel.

Next was spelling!  Tomorrow is Friday which means SPELLING QUIZ day!  YAY!!  We've been practicing our words every day and today we read through them together, wrote them out 3 times, discussed the definitions and made sentences with them.  They are ready!!

Next was handwriting and then we started working on letter writing today.  We discussed the differences between formal and informal letters.  I went through the proper technique and layout for an informal letter in depth and the children wrote one letter to each set of grandparents in anticipation for the upcoming "Grandparents Day" which is on Sunday.  (we don't really celebrate "Grandparents Day" but it was a good motivating excuse to start the kids writing letters)  Believe it or not I forgot to take pictures but that's ok, that way if Grandparents are reading this they will be surprised at the content!  The kids then wrote out the envelopes - also a new skill they are learning, and then...the fun part!  They decorated the letters!!

I love the focus!!  They put their stamps on and were so excited they RAN out to the mailbox to put their letters in!  They still find a thrill in flipping the flag on the mailbox up!

After this the baby woke and we headed out for a couple of very quick errands and then some trampoline time at a friends house!

They are always so helpful.  It makes outings infinitely less daunting with 3 in tow!  I have to say that it still feels very strange to be out and about with the kids during a "school day".  It's only day 5 and I've received many comments and questions like "when does school start for you?" or "oh no school today?" or "is everyone sick today?".  My answer is very standard with a big smile on my face "Nope! We're a homeschooling family".  I'm met with a variety of the following:  "WOWWWWWW...Good for you!  I could never do that!"  or "What a big undertaking!" or "Oh....." (that one makes me giggle...the one where they just don't know WHAT to say).  Regardless, it's ALWAYS interesting!! 

They had the best time jumping!!  We came home, had snack and cooled down.  Then we got back to school as the baby went down for his afternoon nap.  This afternoon we had math, DEAR time, technology (today it was in the form of keyboarding), Spanish and science.  

She has had some experience with keyboarding but very little.  This game allows you to customize the speed, difficulty and where on the keyboard you want to work.  For our purposes we started with the "home" row.  asdfghjkl; - that's it.  The point of the game is to pop the balloons as they come up with the letters on them by hitting the corresponding key to the letter displayed on the balloon.  K was frustrated immediately asking "how is this going to help me learn to type?"  I asked her to keep at it for 10 minutes.  By the end of 10 minutes she was FLYING through the home row.  (insert thumbs up here)

T has never done keyboarding.  He was hesitant at first - he's more nervous than his sister but I, too, gave him the 10 minute timeframe and he was doing really well by the end!  

We thoroughly went through the Spanish alphabet and while it's very foreign to them (pun intended) they had fun practicing rolling their "rs" over and over.  I then gave them a simple code puzzle to do to start familiarizing them with the letters.  

Last up was science!  Today we made homemade glitter!  It's so easy!  All you need is salt and food coloring.  1/4 cup salt to 1/2 teaspoon of food coloring.  Mix together, bake at 350 for 10 minutes and voila!  (be mindful of the glitter while in the oven.  At about 8.5 minutes our smoke detectors started ringing because the salt was smoking)  The food coloring dries and the glitter is good to go!  I've stored mine in zip top baggies. We then started to read The History of Salt and discussed the chemical composition of salt (Na Cl) and why sodium and chlorine by themselves are violent and toxic chemicals but when mixed together they balance each other out making them completely harmless.  The kids thought this was very cool.

Then it was time for goofing off! 

cucumber mustachio!

T thought his cookie looked just like the "man in the moon"  - sigh...he's so sweet

Tonight is T's night for "parent special" night.  He asked for me to sit with him (like I did with K last night) and help him practice his shading techniques when he colors.  He chose a coloring page which I printed out onto heavy cardstock and we used my Prismacolor pencils, blending solution and paper stumps.  

He totally rocked it out!  It was great to be able to spend simple one on one time with him.  K and Daddy went out for an evening ride in the LC.  Thumbs up all around!  Tomorrow is "Not Back to School Picture Day!"  Can't wait!