We had the pleasure of going to our local art museum today and taking a homeschool art class. I have been meaning to try this class with my littles all school year and finally made it. There were 12 kids in our age group and the docent was excellent. She took us around the art museum to look at a large variety of paintings with the theme of lines. It was interesting to see all the diffent ways lines are used in art.
After about 40 minutes of touring the museum we moved into the art studio. The kids were given aprons and told that they were going to make prints with the theme of lines! What fun.
First they made lined patterns on their printing foam. The teacher told us that one could use the foam from an egg carton and get the same affect.
Next, they painted the print with printing paint.
Then, they used a roller to press down the template onto the paper.
How cool is that! They were able to go back over and over again with different colors and make really creative prints.
The kid's finished products! I am so pleased with this program. They were able to use high quality art supplies and the teacher was really nice. On the registration form it had asked how to best teach each child. I had written about the kids special needs and what would make it easier for them (example~extra paper towels for sensory boy and repeated directions for FASD girl). The teacher had obviously read the registration sheet and followed through with helping my kiddos. Very impressive! I can't wait for next months program!
Blessings,
Dawn
This housekeeping guide is available spiral bound or as a digital download. Usually I'm a "hard copy" gal when it comes to books. My adage is typically, "A book in the hand is worth two on the hard drive." In this case, however, you might want to consider the digital version for ease of printing out worksheets. Either works well. The spiral-bound nature ensures pages lie flat (as a homeschool mom of 5, Heidi knows all about the challenges of making copies from bound books). Still, there's something marvelously handy about just pressing the "print" key.
Bootcamp for Lousy Housekeepers is available for purchase here through lulu.com, and you can get to know the author (and glean additional housekeeping motivation) through her blog.
Domestic Chaos Tamer and Homeschool Mom of Five, Dell writes about home, heart and hearth.
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Our llamas are growing up. Slowly. They are still pretty small (just over 4 feet tall) and so curious. It's hard to take a good photo of them when you are in the field with them. Here's a good example:
Sweet things they are. Everyone should have sweet, exotic pets like these critters.
Fun stuff.
It's starting to snow again.
This time we're ready for it though. We've got our sleds and our winter gloves and are ready for a good time.
We got about 5 - 7 inches, which is A LOT of snow for us. (I can just imagine my friends in other areas of the country laughing now.) And it stayed really cold so the snow actually stuck around for a few days.
But we don't take snow for granted and Jon had to get right out in it to make a snow angel as soon as it covered the ground.
Billy and Baab just watch and shake their heads sometimes. Here they were peeking out around the side of the barn to see what all of the sledding was about.
National Science and Engineering Week (12-21 March) is almost here, bringing you ten days of inspiring activities, debates and discoveries, so the blurb says.
This year the theme is ‘Earth’, to complement the International Year of Biodiversity, and includes everything from the Earth's amazing wildlife and people to its place in the Universe and how it works.
You can get ready for their "What on Earth" project and find out what events are happening near you at www.nsew.org.uk
-
Sarah
Maybe I'll be able to keep at least one entry short? I REALLY don't have time to be at the computer right now, but if I wait until we're home, I know I'll never go back and write this, and as I said a few days ago, at this point, this is more for myself than anyone else. Nobody else HAS to read this. :-)
Saturday morning (February 6th) two (of the three) elders and the pastor of our church came for a couple of hours, just to make sure we're all on the same page. It was very reassuring to know that the eldership is behind us, and that they will continue to represent us that way to the church.
Once they had left, we headed for Krefeld to have lunch with the H family. Again, too brief, but nice. Although their youngest son is 15, and the other two that were home are 17 and 18, they all spent good time with our children. At 3:00 I left, as we were expecting guests at 4:00 and I had to get gas first, as well, but Jörn didn't want to interrupt the good conversation at that point so I encouraged him to stay for a little while longer. Helen and I got back to Hamminkeln only a few minutes before Roddy and Erika and their son Alexander arrived. They moved to Switzerland about a year and a half ago, and then to Belgium just a few weeks ago, so came over this weekend just to see us. :-) It was great being able to chat with them with only Alexander (two years old) and Helen running around, before the rest of the loudness arrived with Jörn. They stayed for dinner and until Roddy was falling asleep and we wanted our children to be doing the same, and then we all went to bed early. We haven't been able to get rid of the colds we've had ever since we arrived (Jörn, Katie, Helen, and I), and none of us were feeling great.
Sunday, February 7th, Helen and I went in the C family's car and Jörn and the rest left a bit later in the B family's car to get to church for the end of the first service, to be able to say hi and bye to people. Very much enjoyed and appreciated William's sermon in the second service (he's so REAL--he doesn't sound like he's "preaching" at all, and his Irish accent doesn't hurt the delivery any, either--I certainly understand it better than some U.S. accents, to be honest!), they called us up and prayed for us to send us back to Cyprus, and then it was lots and lots of goodbyes and hugs and then a few more. I didn't cry too much...
After church we went out to a favorite Chinese restaurant that we used to go to with Jörn's father, and our friends from Belgium (well, now living there...she's from the U.S., he's from Scotland) joined us. More goodbyes, then both cars to Angermund, where we returned the C family's car to them and I put Helen in the sling and joined the rest of the family in the B family's car, which has 6 seats. And then we drove to Mülheim to have coffee and cake in our very own flat, as guests of our renter. It was admittedly bit of a strange feeling, and she is VERY different than we are, so that we hardly recognized it with all the fancy lighting and other elegance. However, she is very nice and obviously taking care of the place better than we did, so there's no cause for concern, rather, for reassurance. She intends to stay there at the very least until her daughter graduates from high school, which isn't for more than three more years, which was also reassuring, as we do NOT want to be trying to find renters from Cyprus.
After Lukas and Jacob had finished their cake, we all had a tour of the house to see the changes, and then the boys walked down the street to Peggy's house, and a little while later, Marie joined them. Without Marie to chase Helen around, it was a little less relaxing for us, but we stayed until nearly 6:00, and then went to Peggy's ourselves, where we stayed until a little past 8:00. It was great having one more evening with Peggy and Florian, only planned the day before, so reminding ourselves of the fact that that had been an unexpected treat was helpful in staying more-or-less cheerful as we said goodbye. This time, we put Helen in Katie's carseat and Katie and Lukas shared a seatbelt, and we were glad it was only a 35-minute drive, because Lukas, Katie, and Jacob squabbled the entire drive back. (We'd left Helen's carseat with the C family when we returned the car, as although it's our own carseat, we have more-or-less permanently loaned it to Margaret and Phil for their grandchildren, and had only "borrowed" it ourselves while we were here, so the Cs will return it to Margaret and Phil.)
And now it's Monday and I can't get away with any more time at the computer. We have a visitor at the moment (G from my August posts, for those interested) who will be here for lunch, then we're heading (via three trains and a bus) to spend the evening with the R family in Ratingen. That's our very last appointment while up in this part of Germany, as at 11:45 tomorrow we'll be getting on the train and heading for Frankfurt. On Thursday evening we fly back HOME, to Cyprus. :-)
For nearly 2 years now I have been making out a weekly dinner menu every weekend for the next week. This is SO helpful to me! Honestly I don't mind cooking, but I don't like deciding what's for dinner. So having "What's for dinner?" planned out in advance (And posted on the fridge.) is a huge help to me! But after 2 years of doing this I started getting tired of trying to think up what we should eat for the week. So the family is now planning out the menu! What we do now is each week, each member of the family gets to chose one dinner meal. This gives us Mon - Friday scheduled out. (On the weekends we eat leftovers, eat out and/or my husband cooks.)
The family has been doing the menu now for a couple of months. One thing I noticed was that the kids kept picking the same meals over and over. So I sat down and made a list of all the things I could think of that I cook. I printed the list out and put it in a clear page protector on the side of the fridge. Now we can all review the list before we make our choice for the week.
Here is our list:
Dinner Ideas
Spaghetti
Porcupine Meatballs
Ravioli
Deli Style Sandwiches
Baked potatoes with broccoli and Cheese
Turkey Chili
Vegetarian Chili
Potato Soup
Kraft Mac Casserole with ham, peas and sour cream mushroom sauce
Chicken and Rice One Dish Bake (Campbell’s)
Asian Stir Fry
Fried Rice with Chicken and Peas
Tacos
Taco Salad
Black Beans and Rice
Grilled Chicken Shish-K-bobs
BLT’s
Waffles
Pancakes and Bacon
Breakfast Burritos
Bean Burritos
Chicken Enchiladas
Pizza
Chicken Fajitas
Bacon wrapped chicken with Alfredo sauce
Fettuccini Alfredo
Fettuccini Alfredo with ham and peas
Turkey Burgers
This has been a great help because we are not eating the same handful of things over and over. Like last night my youngest son picked Turkey Asian Lettuce Wraps and we hadn't had them in over 2 years!
Organizing is a constant companion to homeschooling. The better the house runs the more time we have to have fun with our homeschooling!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Our church is quite large and has many small group ministies. David received the wonderful opportunity to sing and play guitar for one of the groups. I was able to sneak in and get a few shots and a little video! (Sorry, they are bad. I was trying not to be obvious and stayed toward the back...)
Our homeschool group recently held a fun Valentine's party at church. There were about 60 kids, all ready for games and treats!
The party began with an entertaining and educational drama...
the kids..
Who says you need a classroom for a cheesy class photo?
QT boys...
This was a game where the kids raced to see how many candies they can pick up with chopsticks and place in their cups in one minute...
Custom bookmarks...
Making Valentines for residents at a local Alzheimer's home...
Waiting in line for the valentine exchange...
The Valentine bags waiting to be filled...
It was our BHN leader, Lori's (R), birthday. Pres (L) organized a binder full of birthday greetings!
