The Black Eye Blues

The littles and I stopped into a new craft store in Williston. It's so new, in fact, they hadn't even had their grand opening yet. Well, Mal has suddenly started spinning. all. the. time. He can't stop. If he is standing, he is spinning in circles.

We had just bought our two new Thomas books and I was unloading Xav from the cart, when I hear a crash behind me. My spinner has fallen and smashed his face just below his eye on a bag rack at the register. Sigh... He didn't take it well at all.

That night.
Day 2Day 4
Day 5

Expedition Ireland Week in Review

“Ocean before,
the summer sky above
Who could portray
the mountains’ purple smiles—
And all the opal hues
of earth and heaven,
Foam fringing forests,
heather-tufted isles.”
From Songs of Killarney,
by Alfred Perceval Graves, 1914

Expedition Ireland's five daily objectives were:
Day 1: Where on Earth is Ireland?
Day 2: The Places of Ireland
Day 3: A Bit of History
Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Ireland
Day 5: Fun and Games in Ireland


We learned about a different, interesting geographic location in Ireland each day, like the Giant's Causeway. We also studied animals from Ireland. I thought the Galway sheep were neat. We just loved the look of them. We learned some Irish words, as well. As I write this, I can also tell you it is currently much warmer in Dublin, Ireland than it is in Vermont! Mid-forties sound glorious right now, even if it is raining. We watched videos of Celtic Dancers and learned about St. Patrick. Maybe we even supplemented this week's DNG with a Veggie Tale version of the story of St. Patrick. :)

As usual, we really enjoyed this Download N Go. The expeditions are always a treat. Well planned and thorough, I highly recommend Download N Go.


Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

See what other families have to say about Download N Go's Expedition Ireland on the blog hop.








***I was provided a copy of Expedition Ireland to use with my family in exchange for my honest review.***

Through tomorrow, Monday the 21st, four unit studies will be priced at just $5 each. Choose from the Gardens and Flight four week studies (normally $10.95) or DNG's Expedition China and Goofy Geckos (normally $7.95). $5 days.

Amaryllis

Thanks World Traveler Christine. It's beautiful. The first two stems are now dead and another three are growing in. :)

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these yummy cookies tonight. You can find the recipe at Picky Palate.


Just wrap two scoops of her chocolate chip cookies around an oreo. The first pan full was kind of funky and ended up looking like hats with brims and some oreo cookie showed through.


The second pan, I made sure to mush them a bit more compact rather than just seal the edges. They looked much better.


This is a comparison of a regular cookie, using Pampered Chef's medium scoop. It took two scoops to make these cookies.

Warm oreos are yummy.


My ever-so-serious chocolate-faced assistant. He got to lick the brownie bowl. We ended up not using brownies today.


Man, I love that kooky little cookie monster. :)

An Accidental Experiment

See that blue string? Mal pulled it out of the waist of his pants (sigh) and when he shook it off his hand, the heater came on and it floated slowly toward the ceiling. The boys and I spent a good ten minutes floating it up, jumping about, trying to catch it and starting it all over again. It was all very exciting... to the littles.

More Snow

Anyone sick of it yet?

Off the back roof.


See that little piece of wood on the lower left of this picture? That's the deck floor. About three feet above the ground. Gosh I love winter.At least it's toasty inside.

An Alphabet Game

I made this letter game for the boys. My plan was a board of some kind where they could put the uppercase letters in alphabetical order and then place the lowercase letters on top. After our Lego advent was done, I decided to keep the plastic tray with 24 sections in it for sorting games. It works great for this alphabet game, we just leave Y and Z on the table.


I made the scallop circles with SU!'s scallop circle punch and then used a smaller circle punch for the lowercase letters. I used some stickers, which were just plain awful. It came out fine though, after the hassle and the littles like the game.

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When Winter Works Against You

The back deck is about 3 feet off the ground. We've got a bit of snow in the yard, as you can see. The snow hasn't come off the roof out there yet.

After shoveling the entire driveway,



this was Micah's reward.



The snow slid off the roof just minutes after the van was moved down the driveway and about 15 minutes after the boys came in for lunch.

How to Save Money on Children's Shoes

Let them wear *one* shoe at a time!

Working on Motor Skills

Xav wanted fries the other day for lunch. He didn't want to eat them with his fingers. Or a fork, for that matter. He decided on "pinchy things". So he ate them with my tongs.

Homeschool Blessings

We have been so blessed by friends who have gifted our family with unique homeschooling "supplies". I thought I'd share a couple of our recent favorites here.

World Traveler Christine left us with some money from several other countries when she visited last November.

Nicaraguan Cordobas

Euros

Kenyan Shillings

Ugandan Shillings


Honduran Lempiras (The 20 had these nifty holes in them. That face is on the other bill.)


Our friend Mrs. Witt gave us the neatest math manipulatives ever created. If I remember correctly, her mother made them.

They came in this big dino covered box. Twenty individual boxes full of fun homemade goodies for creative math play.


Trees (I think I got these trees with numbers on them somewhere else, but they work so nicely with the buckets of apples, I've added them to this kit.) :)


Spaghetti and Meatballs

Nests
and Airports
Thanks girls!