Only at our house...

Tonight the kids lined up on the couch for family movie night with their new popcorn buckets that they got from Santa. 

The movie we picked was A&E's "The Crossing."  It's a film about George Washington and the battle of Trenton.  It was totally over their heads and we got started late, so they all fell asleep before it was over.  Hubby kept stopping the film to explain some things and hopefully they will appreciate it more when they get older :)

Christmas Food Crafts

(These are kind of late for any readers to duplicate them this year.  Sorry!)

Christmas Tree: 

Slather a sugar cone with green frosting and then decorate with candy.  To make frosting the cone easier, stick your hand inside the cone and use the other hand the do the frosting.  Some candy that we used: gumdrops, M&M's, coconut (snow), gummy worms (string of lights), sprinkles, and gummy rings.

Snowman:
Use a bit of frosting to glue a Rolo onto a mini powdered sugar donut for the snowman's hat.  The "coal" eyes and mouth are sunburst candies that are simply pressed into the donut.  (Sunbursts are chocolate and candy coated sunflower seeds.  They are pointed at one end, which made it easier to stick them in.)  To make the carrot nose, cut a piece of a gummy orange slice and stick it in the middle of the donut.

Guest Speaker: Pirate Captain

Today we had our much anticipated guest speaker, Mean Dean the Barbarian (also known as Grandpa.)

It was great!  Grandpa taught them how to do a sheet bend knot (to tie the sail to a rope) and how to do a double half hitch knot (to tie the rope to the ship.)  I'll have to quiz them later to see if they remember how to do the knots on their own.  Probably not, but it will be interesting to watch them try.

He also went over compasses, bearings, and using a compass and map together.  He even had them make a compass using a needle, magnet, and bowl of water.  It was awesome!

Schooling During the Christmas Season

One week left until Christmas!

Today we took it easy, as far as academics goes. 

Making ornaments, filling bags of Snowman Poop and Reindeer Poop, and learning how to wrap presents counts as school work, right?

Legos and Math

This morning started with Primus requesting to do a couple math pages after breakfast.  What kind of weird kid does that?  lol

After that, she spent a good chunk of the day building a Lego pirate ship with Daddy.  While they were building it, he taught her all about the anatomy of the ship and some of the history of the Golden Age of Pirates.  They both really enjoyed the lesson. 

It seems like we've been using Legos a lot lately in our schoolwork.  They are a great teaching tool!  Hubby has been teased for being a grown man that plays with Legos.  But it is times like this that make me glad he has them!

How do you know Shirley?

Tonight my friend threw me a very low-key "diaper sprinkle" (baby shower.)  At the beginning she had everyone go around the room and state their name and how they know me. 

Since it was so relaxed and at my home, my kids were there also.  So my friend included my kids in the introductions.  Secundus of course said she knows me because "she's my mommy."  When we asked her where she met me, we were trying to get her to say, "the hospital."  But she just didn't get it. 

The best was when it came around to my oldest's turn.  She said, "My name is [Primus] and Shirley's my first grade teacher." 

I was so proud!

Educational Songs

We were able to check out Schoolhouse Rock a while ago from the library and it was awesome!  The disc contained all of the old songs from the 70's.  I would love to own it. 

 

I was going to find some of my favorites on youtube and link here.  But it appears that some versions have been blocked due to copyright issues.  I was able to find other (low quality) versions on youtube, posted by other users, but I didn't feel comfortable posting the links here. 

 

So instead, enjoy this hilarious semi-"educational" song by Veggie Tales.  So, it's mostly ridiculous.  But I have seriously used this song to help my kids remember that chimpanzees and gorillas aren't monkeys.

 

 

Here's another fun one that I find myself quoting often- School House Polka:

 

History Crafts- Middle Kingdom of Egypt

I love learning history with my kids!  Like I've said before, I never thought I liked history.  But it all depends on how you learn it! 

I love learning it with Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World."  It moves pretty fast and doesn't get terribly in depth (though it does include a resource list so you can learn more on your own.)  So it is perfect for my girls (and me) to learn a good overview of ancient cultures and establish a good base for future studies.  I am impressed everyday with how much Primus is able to remember from our readings.  It makes her father proud to know that she seems to have a brain for this kind of thing.

Here are the crafts we did to supplement our readings of the Middle and New Kingdoms of Egypt.  I love the ideas that are included in the Story of the World.  I usually end up tweaking them a little to work for us, though.

We made gold arm bands like the Egyptian upper class might have worn, using gold from Nubia.  Such an easy, quick, cute craft!  Just a strip of toilet paper tube, cut open so it will fit around your arm.  Then we glued on gold glitter.

Next, we made chariots for our My Little Ponies like the Hyksos. The girls played with these all afternoon. Of course their little Polly Pockets and princess dolls rode in the chariots!  We used part of a Stove Top stuffing box, cardboard wheals, and popsicle sticks.

Finally, we made fake beards so we could pretend to be Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh.  It's half a paper towel tube with tissue paper glued on for decoration.  Then attach to your head with elastic.