One week to go!

Is it just me or did November completely speed by? ;) So, what are your Thanksgiving plans? I'm feeling rather like a grown up here...hosting my first "real" Thanksgiving, where I'll actually cook a turkey for the first time. (Gasp! I know, I know. I've managed to get others to do it thus far, lol.)

I'm looking forward to it...got new plates, have been collecting serving pieces and have plans for a fun centerpiece and placecards. List-maker that I am, I made out my little menu and planned out what needs to be made when...because being in the kitchen doesn't come naturally to me and I need all the help I can get, lol. (I don't mind, either, telling you that I spent a lot of time perusing The Pioneer Woman's Thanksgiving recipes...yum! We'll see if I'm able to come close.)

Since I don't have my centerpiece and such actually made yet (that's what the weekend's for, right?) to share with you, I thought I'd share a few fun ideas instead...

My table will have been inspired by Pottery Barn's Mayflower centerpiece. Here's someone who shows her own take on this, along with a picture of the PB Mayflower I mentioned. I'm planning to use felt and canvas...will show you when I get it made. :)

Here's a layout and little story about a coloring "contest" my family had a few years ago. And. Here's a coloring sheet if you want to try it yourself. (I drew this one...the old link at that other post isn't working.) Here are more coloring pages I found.

And, here is an awesome resource for all kinds of craft ideas to do with the kiddos on turkey day. In particular, I'll be using this one: pilgrim ships from coffee sleeves. (I may end up making these in advance, though.) Or, of course, you could just set them up in front of the video games and call it good. ;) 

So. Happy "One Week Until Thanksgiving Day" to you!

Gift ideas: Kids.

Don't hate me. I'm nearly done with our Christmas shopping. The few things left are things that I know but just have to do, if that makes any sense. I'm feeling pretty darn happy. I generally do shop all year round and start early and all that. Regardless, I'm usually still running around in early December trying to figure out the last few things and get them shipped in time so that I can wrap them and such and ship them further. ;) Last year was the first year in recent memory that I actually got most gifts to people by Christmas (by a day, lol). 

So. Since I'm happy. And since I know I appreciate reading them on other people's blogs, I thought I'd do some quick lists of fun gift ideas between now and Christmas. Today's theme is kids...

Zebra Mix. I gave some of these out last year...and kept a few for ourselves. ;) Sure. You could just go buy box mixes and wrap them up, but these are way cooler and more fun (and EASY...can't discount that!). Each kit comes with very kid-friendly instructions, with the idea being that kids can do this (mostly) by themselves. Cool. (They taste great, too!) For what it's worth, I find that food gifts are awesome...truly appreciated and they don't take up precious space in the playroom. ;)

Finger Lights. I got some of these for the boys' stockings this year. (Don't tell!) If your kids (or the kids you're buying gifts for) are anything like mine, flashlight type things are strangely adored. I have no idea why, but imagine that these will be a huge hit. And, if not, hey, they were cheap. ;) (Note, I found that these came in a couple different varieties...some had white LEDs in all the colors and these had actual colored bulbs....some had velcro straps and these had elastic bands. No idea which is better but thought I'd point it out.)

Sumoku or Bananagrams. This one depends on whether the kid in question likes games. If so, my boys recommend these as fun little games that travel easily...great for playing while watching a sibling's karate class or soccer practice. ;) As a bonus, they're awesomely educational in that tricky sort of way that good games are. Sometimes we play these as intended and sometimes we make up our own rules like just scrambling up the letters and trying to figure out what the original word was. 

Speed Stacks. I won't blame you if you scoff at this one. I did. ;) But. My boys truly love these. They can spend hours in the basement with their sets just racing each other and trying to master new tricks. This link is to the basic set, but there are plenty of other items in the shop...poke around. While you're at it, watch a video or two on the site and be amazed. It's great for hand-eye coordination, is a fabulous alternative to outdoor play for those chilly days, and doesn't take up much space at all.

Squidgies. These are basically cooler frisbees. They're soft, so they don't smack your hand (or head) when you're attempting to catch them (this is a huge selling point for me!). My boys love 'em.

Okay, those are just a few off the top of my head. Stay tuned for more gift ideas in the days to come...

Note. I am not affiliated in any way with any of these companies. Just trying to share some gift ideas. ;) Also, though I've included links for online shopping, I encourage you to buy locally if you can. It's good to support your community. ;) (I happen to know that you can find the games and speed stacks at Learning Express here in Fort Collins and have seen the squidgies at times at It's Your Move in the mall or at Jax.)

Marvel Moon.

Yes. I know I've not been posting much lately. Just nothing much to report. :) We've been happily homeschooling, enjoying the switch from unseasonably warm fall to the beginnings of winter (yard is covered in snow at the moment, though nothing substantial), and preparing for Thanksgiving (more on that, possibly, later). 

Along the way, though, we also encountered a fabulous program. Our local library (which rocks!) was testing out a program for NASA and decided to use us homeschoolers as their guinea pigs. We were thrilled to be test subjects. ;) The program was three afternoons (2 hours/day) of activities and instruction about the moon. It really was awesome! Sure, there were some dry moments and some times where the librarians just didn't get that threatening that something is going to be on "the test" just doesn't really mean a whole lot to 20+ homeschoolers. But, overall, the activities were great. And. Even better, they're available online! This is the program (list of activities) that all three of my boys did last week (they recommended the class for 8-13 year olds but let Micah stay, and he held his own just fine). I noticed that the site also has activities about Jupiter and Mars and comets and all kinds of cool stuff. Woohoo!

Misc Homeschool Tips

Had a few things on my mind that have come up in conversations lately. Just little tips that help with homeschooling...figured I'd share. ;)

Mark your place. More than a year ago, I read this blog post that truly impacted the way we homeschool around here. Such a simple idea, and yet it made a big impact. Yup, just use colored tabs in workbooks and such...green is the page to start on...red is the page to stop on. Brilliantly simple.

Using this, I'm able to set out the boys' work for the week. At the start of each week, I put the green tab where they should start and the red tab where I want them to be at the end of the week. I use the blue tab to mark how far I recommend they get on that particular day (and, thus, move the blue tabs daily). Using this system is a way for me to empower the boys to decide for themselves how much work they want/need to accomplish each day...a means of beginning the teaching of time management. (I hope, btw, to do away with the blue tabs before too long.)

(Incidentally, I use these tabs for the morning schoolwork we do...the subjects where each boy is in his own different book. This system means that they can just get started on their own in the mornings, without having to wait for me to tell them what's on their list. Things that we do altogether don't get this treatment.)

Use RISK. I don't know about you, but I've never been a big fan of the game RISK. Games like that and Monopoly just aren't my favorites. They take stinkin' forever to finish. ;) My boys, on the other hand, seem to like these games best sometimes. Fortunately, they're able to play altogether now so that I don't have to. ;) 

Anyhow, I did recently find an excellent use for the game RISK. I thought it was rather genius, myself. ;) We were studying about "three pointless wars" (aka King William's War (War of the Grand Alliance), Queen Anne's War (War of Spanish Succession), and King George's War (War of Jenkins' Ear/War of Austrian Succession)). The boys were having a hard time grasping which countries were fighting where. This was when I had an "aha!" moment and dragged out the RISK board. I set up some representative little armies all over that board and used it to act out those various wars. The little army pieces and the world map are perfect for teaching stuff like this. Totally going to be using it more for history! (And, not to worry, the boys don't play our "normal" version anyhow...they tend to play the Transformers RISK game that their uncle bought them instead, lol.) 

Magnify. Though I'm usually more of a "big picture" sort of person, myself, sometimes it's excellent to get down to the details and really look at things. Enter Private Eye. I've had this in my hands since summer but finally broke it out yesterday. The idea is to use a jeweler's loupe to observe things up close and then draw analogies between what you see and other things you know. It ties in nicely to language arts as well, as you can talk about what an analogy is and use the observations to write poems and the like. 

For our first time out, I tied it in to our art for the day and set each boy up with a clipboard. The paper they were to fill out had three spots. They were to find something, draw what they saw through their loupe, and then answer the question below it. (I had three different questions...what does it look like? what does it remind you of?...list 7 adjectives that describe what you see...and, why do you think it's like that?) Easy peasy. ;) Being as it was unseasonably warm still and a gorgeous day, we decided to take our observations to the neighborhood park and set out on our walk...

Of course, it took Noah only moments to switch from observing to trying to burn through things. ;) He is a boy, after all. At that point, I had to stop and have a little lesson with all three about the proper way to use a loupe to burn leaves (no, not holding it over your leg, please!). Noah gave his brothers a lesson on focal points and proceeded to burn an "N" into his leaf. That's what big brothers are for, right? 

And then we walked home. ;) 

So. Do you have any homeschooling tips? Things that go beyond normal subject matter and such? I'd love to hear them!

Double digits.

Heavy sigh. My baby...my firstborn...turned TEN today. TEN. How the heck did that happen? It seems like just yesterday he was a whopping 9 lb 4 oz newborn whose head was so big they couldn't find a hat big enough at the hospital. ;)

Because he's so old...old enough that we didn't have a digital camera back when he was born, lol...here's the oldest picture I could find of him that was already scanned on my computer. It was taken in June 2002. He was about 19 months old and was living in bliss, not realizing that in a month he'd have a baby brother and his world would turn upside down, lol. 

And, today, here's what he looks like:

Still handsome as ever and much better experienced with putting up with my photo shoots. ;) 

Over the years, we've learned aplenty alongside each other. He's been, in many ways, my easiest child (fortunate, then, that he was the first, LOL). He's loved ice, car keys, meat, trains, rockets, soccer, legos, science, money and Star Wars...to name a few obsessions. He's disliked sand, getting dirty, having strangers talk to him and heights. He values comfort and details and is my most serious son. And, he's really growing into his role as big brother and eldest son. Man, I can't wait to see what the next ten years bring!

Happy birthday, my Noah!