Nighty night

While the boys in Sophie's commonwealth class were busy building this monstrous structure

Sophie and I were playing "Good night" with a few of the blocks we managed to sneak away. 

Making beds

Putting the "people" to sleep. Wake up. Bedtime. Good Night. Wake up. Bedtime. Good Night. Wake up.  

You get the idea.

Field Tripping: IKEA

What?! IKEA counts- we practiced standing in line for 45 minutes. Life skills. Kids eat free on Tuesdays :)

And we picked up a new tabletop.

Early Mornings

Snuggling with Dade

Making pancakes

Seflie

Another morning visitor - I know how Dade feels!

BFFs

Homeschool Plans

Remember how I posted this a couple weeks ago?

Winter 2014 Homeschool Plans & Schedule

Well, scratch that. 

I'm thinking/planning/maybe going to radically switch everything up in the next week or two. 

I'm kind of excited and kind of nervous. 

I'll have to make it work with MyTechHigh, so we'll see.... we'll see....

Life on the Edge

I didn't realize I didn't take any pictures of Nyah until I sat down to blog. But since we had to drag her kicking and screaming, and then I barely saw her while we were there, this isn't really surprising :)

Nyah, reading over my shoulder, says I need to put a frowny face 

:(

Random things in random places

What will we find when the snow melts? Well, this was on the deck:

Visitors! Visitors! Visitors!

My cousin, Kristen, and her family stayed with us a couple days.

Shakespeare Family Night

Dinner & presentations by Austin's Shakespeare class.

Austin did his presentation on the Four Humours again

Reciting the soliloquy with his class

Demonstrating an improv game- Car Ride

Austin's class is going to be performing Comedy of Errors at the end of this semester. They recently had tryouts and Austin got the part he wanted - Dromio of Syracuse. 

Last week's Insight Academy

Jolie & Olivia with their Liberty Girls group doing get-to-know-you questions.

Sophie's Nursery/Core group playing

Austin in art class

Nyah is the photographer this semester for her Young Stateswoman group, but thankfully one of her leaders had her get in one picture!

Eyebrows

As I was watching Sophie draw on a white board this week, I noticed she added a little something extra to each smiley face she drew: Eyebrows. 

Art & Science

More hands-on projects for school:

Hermit Crab pastel project

Top- Kelsey & Olivia; Middle- Nyah & Jolie; Bottom- Sophie

 'Soft as a Cloud' playdough

Field Tripping: Gale Center

One of my goals for our homeschool in the new yearis to do more interactive, hands-on experiences. One way we're going to do this is through Field Tripping. Our field trips are going to be around our history and science topics. This past week we went to the Gale Center and had a blast.

 

Night Hike

Nyah (and her stuffed skunk)

Fishy Transformation in Progress

Saturday

The girls went with me to pick up bountiful baskets, and then had to sword fight with the broccoli when we were home. 

Stopped at the library and there was a wild animal show going on. These kind of things actually make me realize how many of this kind of opportunities I used to search out for Austin & Nyah when they were young, but I don't for Olivia, Jolie, & Sophie.

As a result, Sophie was one of those kids who wouldn't pet any of the animals (lizards, snake, skunk, ferret, hedgehog), except for the pig when it trotted by- who can resist a piggy? Time to get that kid an animal education. 

Interesting Thinks

Roscommon Acres: Frozen Gifts

CBSNews: Kids Being Bored Prepares Them for Adulthood, Says U.K. Education Expert

Life Learning Magazine Blog: Unschooling Lets Kids Control Their Own Minds and Activities

Huffington Post: Have American Parents Got it All Backwards?

HodgePodge: Imperfect Homeschool: Drama and Trauma

The Independent: Brain function 'boosted for days after reading a novel'

YouTube: Common Miracles: The New American Revolution in Learning

informED: The Perils of Standardized Testing: 6 Ways it Harms Learning

In thinking about our next homeschool year, I've been trying to decide if we are going to continue with My Tech High- while the $ is nice, it's not necessary and there are some annoying things we have to deal with (weekly reporting, standardized testing, being limited to the course outlines). So, I've started gathering free resources for tech classes and other learning experiences that we may utilize if we pull out of My Tech High. 

edX
Open Culture
MIT Open Courseware for Students
Coursera
The Getty Trust
Khan Academy

Hanging out

Sitting under me while I was working on the computer. Silly kids.