Things are busy as always. One day just seems to blur into the next, weeks into the next week, and here we are, a new month. Crazy how time just does that, eh? :)

The boys both asked to learn to sew, so one day last week we started a simple little sewing porject for them.








But we didn't get to work on it too much, we still need to take somet ime this week to work on it. Eventually they want to make their own little pokemon plush, but it will take them a little bit before they can do that. But it's a fun little home ec. / art project to pull out every now and again to give them a break from their other work.

Right now they are deep into writing a 5 paragraph informative essay. I had them decide on a pet they would like to have, and write an essay on it, so they had to check out books from the library, and take notes from them, then learn to write na outline, and now they are writing their rough draft. This week we will edit and revise and start the final draft. Next comes a 5 paragraph persuasive essay, where they try to convince us why they need that pet. :)

We are also wrapping up our 50 states unit that we have been doing for several weeks and they learn their way around the U.S map, and learn all the capitals and such. So next week we jump right into colonial times, which I think is going to be alot of fun. My friend Lori is going to jump in and plan and teach some of the lessons in this unit, which will be nice.

Also this month we will study Mexico and their culture, and tie the Dia De Los Muertos celebration into it, and we will compare it to our own Memorial Day and see how they are the same and different. We will make some of the foods, and participate in some of the mexican cultures dealing with that holiday, so I think the boys will really enjoy that. I did that unit in my student teaching with the 4th graders, and it was a big hit.

I gave up creating my own lesson plans and just using Kahn academy for their math, it was much too much work on my end to create it all from scratch, so I went to Mardell and picked up a 5th & 7th grade all inclusive math workbook and they are working out of that with just some other supplemental stuff as well. They can still watch the kahn academy to explain the concepts, but now it's just all laid out for me instead of having to create it for them. I still have some other hands on math lessons and fun math things that we are doing in addition to it.

Also this month will be the first of hopefully many group science projects that I am hosting, and inviting friends to partcipate with us. This one is the Egg Drop. Where the kids create a container only using specific materials, to try to make sure their egg doesn't break when it is dropped from a 8-10ft height. They will be learning about force and motion as well as some basic engineering. We have invited all of our friends to come do it with us on Sat. Oct 22nd, and I think that it will be lots of fun for them.

So things are going smoothly thus far in the homeschooling area. :)






Last week we made 3 more birthday cakes for foster kids and delivered them to DHS. The kids enjoy the process, and the boys seem to really put a lot of thought into the kids they are going to, so it's a nice little project.

































friday we went to the zoo, where they were having a monarch butterfly event, tagging the butterflies that were making their trek across the country. We learned lots of interesting facts about their journey. We also fed the ducks and visited lots of other animals.


















Monday was my grandpa's birthday, he would have been 84. The kids had stayed the weekend with my parents so Alan & I could go out for our anniversary, and I met them at the cemetery to pick them up and visit my grandpa's grave. I love being able to trace a line of creativity in our family. When I watch my grandma create things, I know that this is where my dad gets it, and then I know that this is where I get it. Both of them are so resourceful and creative, and they just like to make things, and I love that I inherited that trait from them. :)

Like this car my grandma found and put at my grandpa's grave last year, she found this coppery metal crank music boc car at a thrift store when we went to our HHH retreat, she painted it, had my dad weld it onto a metal rod, put some flowers in it and put it at my grandpa's grave.

















My dad & grandma had made this plank of wood, which they painted and glued things to for my grandpa. It had deers, and trees and a squirrel, and the best part was a toy truck, with my grandpa and his hunting buddy's picture in it (they had hunted 40 years together, both have passed on now), with my grandpa's initials as the front license plate and a "gone hunting" "bumper sticker" across the back...... how sweet was that?