Olympics, Italian Pasta, and Flamenco Dancers

I'm finally starting to feel a little better. I still have this killer cough. Man. HATE sick.

We learned about Russia. Instead of doing some cutesy craft, we just watched the olympics. They are in Russia after all.

We also studied Italy. Did you know they have a witch that brings presents at Christmas? Now you do. We finally got out our pasta making machine. Pasta is not as easy as you might think. I just couldn't get it dry enough. In the last couple of tries I figured out that if I cover it in flour right before I put it in the cutting roller, it cuts nicer. Too bad I didn't figure that out in the beginning.

We studied Spain as well. We made Flamenco Dancers. Idea from here. A little FYI- painting around a toddler is TORTURE to everyone involved.

And since that concludes the last of western Europe (I know Russia's not in the west, but I wanted to do it before the olympics were over.) We recorded our Europe song and will now be learning our E. Europe/Middle East song.

Sadly we did not have science because of sicky sickness. UGH

And of course, we have been getting ready for this play. I have started going full blast on the costumes. Here's Peter Pan and all the pirates:

And it was the family day fair at the Carriage House Museum

Sick. Ugh.

When Mommy's sick ain't nobody happy.

It's times like these (well it's almost always) that I'm glad that my husband works at home. I have been dead to the world this week. I have really needed him.

Very little reading, writing, and arithmetic has been done. But some DID get done.

The boys aren't sick and went to co-op and play practice. My science was cancelled and robotics was cancelled as well because my friend is sick too.

Geography? well, we DID do Switzerland. I couldn't find stuff for making bells, and I don't have the energy for a craft, so they just ate Kinder Eggs.

These are STRICTLY illegal in the States. I just find that silly.

We were supposed to do Italy this week and make homemade pasta. My appetite has gone with my energy. Make food from scratch? Ugg. no thank you. maybe next week.



One REALLY frustrating thing about my being sick, is not being able to fulfill obligations. I'm in charge of the costumes for the play, which is only a few weeks away! AHHH I really need to get on the ball with this!!! I've been calling all the moms, but there's so much more I need and want to do. Blah blah blah. Hate sick.

Times Tables Party!!! More Rocks, Germany, Austria, and a Cruise

Maxwell had his birthday. But more importantly to the Homeschool World, he passed off all his times tables. The reward that I had promised for this was to go to the water slides (the only ones in like a 3 hour radius.) This was perfect timing (haha--timing--nevermind.) and the waterslides doubled as a birthday party.

I have to admit that I'm rather proud of the way Maxwell passed off his 12s. He was able to pass the 12s off easily when they were in order, but when they were out of order, it was a bit harder. He got how you times with the 2 and then with the 1, but it was hard for him, not as fast and automatic as timetables are supposed to be.

So, I took the TimesTales  strategies, and I made KILLER stories that made it super duper easy for Maxwell to memorize his 12s.  Behold:

Oh yah, I'm THAT kind of homeschool mom. Woot woot!


Enough of tooting my own horn; on to science. We learned more about rocks. We learned about igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. We also learned about crystals and fossil fuels (this might seem like a lot, but whatever. I didn't have a ton of experiments, okay?)

When learning about crystals, we had our own homemade geodes with copper sulfate and eggshells.

For geography, we learned about germany. We made German stars. Well, Maxwell and I made German stars. That was CRAZY hard. Not something for your first origami try.

We also did scherenschnitte. Pretty much fancy snowflakes. A little too hard for my whole crew again.

We also learned about Austria. We watched Sound of Music as our activity. Yep. Easy peasy.

And for my records, I have totally loved the Disney Small World Library. I want this series! So perfect for little schoolers to learn about different countries.

But all of this was just one week. What happened to last week you ask? CRUISE!

Yep. Dustin and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary by taking a cruise.

However, I really don't think I'll ever take a cruise again. Seasick. Blah.

Now I'm over seasickness, but I have a nasty cold. Not sure how much we are doing next week.