Our Last Day of School before Christmas break

(About the pics, the gingerbread tree was done by Skylar, the men were done by Alexa and the Nativity figures were done by Taylor. The houses were done at the Gingerbread Party).

This last day of school we had a peppermint teatime with a little gingerbread mixed in. We read The Legend of the Candycane and the girls colored candycanes coloring pages and they each narrated the story. Then at teatime we ate peppermint bark and either hot choc. with candy cane as a stirer, milk or peppermint tea. We also had leftover banana bread from the day before. Then we decorated gingerbread sets that the girls got as an early Christmas present from Pappy Jack and Linda. They had a good time!

Then we took Taylor to her last voice lesson. At the end they did a few songs for the parents and sounded really nice. After it was over, we went upstairs in the Center for the Arts to see a model train show. It was really neat! Lots of little miniature things....ice skaters, skiers, the Epcot ball, police cars with sirens, Thomas the Tank Engine, Frosty the Snowman's world. Lots of cool stuff, but I did not have my camera (bummer). I took Evan out of his stroller and carried him around so he could see. He was fascinated.

Also, we have been having some birds at the feeders......and some pushy squirrels, too! It is fun to watch them out the window. Sometimes they climb up the tree that is just a couple of feet from the window. Evan loves to watch them. The girls have been looking in our birds field guide, too and naming them. We'll do this more in depth in January.

This is my last post until January. Merry Christmas to all! Can't wait to see you!

Love to all,

TTFN

~Tina

Christmas for the Birds

We started the morning with the story I mentioned yesterday called, "Night Tree". The girls seemed to enjoy it. We discussed it, then each narrated it. They also each drew a picture of their favorite part of the story.

Later, when Evan was asleep, I got the girls together, and we went out to "decorate" a tree in our backyard with yummy things for the birds and probably squirrels, too. We had so many birds out this back window in the summer and fall, but it's been bugging me lately that there have been none we could see for the last few weeks except up high in the old trees. So we put up a suet feeder, a birdfeeder that was given to us, and a bell of birdseed. Alexa also sprinkled the ground with some dried cranberries. The younger 2 girls wanted to stay out and play for a bit, so I went in and made hot chocolate and banana bread, and started lunch.

Later in the day, we saw the birds starting to come to our feeders. I'm hoping to have alot in the morning, and that they continue all winter. We are studying birds of winter in January and February, so I'd love for the girls to have a good view of some up close.

Tomorrow is our last day of school, if you can call it that. We read "The Legend of the Candycane", have teatime with hot chocolate stirred with peppermint candycanes or peppermint tea, and also have peppermint bark that Taylor, Alexa and I made today (and it was so easy!). There's also leftover banana bread for those who don't care for all of peppermint taste.

December 17th and 18th

Today was the last day (until January) for some of our extra curricular stuff, so the girls were giving gifts and wishing Merry Christmas to Karate, Speech and Ballet Teachers. Before it all began though, we tied up some loose ends with school. Skylar took a math test, Taylor did her narration on a book from last week, and Alexa joined us for science at the table. I read about Pine trees and they colored pictures of a pine tree, a closeup of the pine needles on a branch and a pine cone. They also labeled the different parts of these things. I'll admit I was a little crabby from lack of sleep last night, but it was short-lived and the girls did great. I also read from the Flower Fairies Book of Winter. I read the Pine Tree Fairy and Christmas Tree Fairy. These are fun to listen to and read. I also read a story I got on line that is written as a poem. It was cute. We will put these in their Nature Journals. During Alexa's speech class, I read 1 lesson in the Catechism to the older girls. And during Alexa's dance I read them Francis, Poor Man of Assisi by Tomie dePaola. That book ties into our religion and nature lessons this week.

Tomorrow we will read Night Tree by Eve Bunting. This is a great book about caring for nature at Christmas, as we should all year long especially during winter. The plan is for the girls to narrate it, then draw a picture from the book....maybe their favorite part. Then we will put those in the nature journals, too. And once Evan is napping we will head outside to hang some bird feeders and a suet feeder in the trees behind our schoolroom window so we can watch them eat and maybe see some squirrels, too. Then I want to bring the girls in for hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows. In the book they set a blanket right by the tree, but I think we'll do better inside.

Teacher gifts

You would think with homeschooling, "Why would we need teacher gifts?". But we really do. There's ballet, speech, karate, voice lessons, and then all the co-op teachers. So here's what we've made so far. Tomorrow's the last day of co-op before Christmas, so we had to have these ready. Each teacher will receive either a set of beeswax candles and an ornament made by one of the girls OR some fudge, a teabag and an ornament made by one of the girls. They look cute.

Love to all!

TTFN

~Tina

St. Lucy Teatime

The first pic is our display for teatime today. Taylor set it up for us and she did a great job. The second pic is of my attempt to make St. Lucy sugar cookies using this cookie stamp I bought online. There is nothing wrong with the stamp, I just used a rising dough, which made the image fade as it baked. The last 3 pics are of beeswax candles that the girls made today. They all did a great job! The top is Skylar's, next is Alexa's and last is Taylor's. Each girl made these as gifts for teachers. They enjoyed it too. I made some myself and it's fun and they turn out so nice! Next I'll post how cute the teacher gifts are turning out.

Love to all!
TTFN
~Tina

More pics of schoolwork....

These are from Taylor's nature journal. And the last 2 pics are from my favorite book series. Look how well Taylor copied the Holly fairy! That girl can draw!

~Tina

Some pics of recent schoolwork

The top 2 are Skylar's, the next row has Alexa's then Taylor's. The bottom is a page from our Flower Fairies of the Winter book. I LOVE these books as I've mentioned before.

Love to all,

TTFN

~Tina

December 10 -14

School is starting to slow down. Although in saying that, I mostly mean the "book work". After all, I feel we are schooling by living. Each girls's math is winding down. The lesson they are on now is the last they'll do until January. Sky is done with spelling until January also. Science is continuing with our study of Christmas/winter plants. Next week we'll look at pine trees. Taylor actually said she's enjoyed this month's science. I hope to continue these same practices into the new year but only with different themes. In January I hope to study snowflakes in detail, but also make it fun by "winterizing" our house with paper snowflakes and stained glass snowflakes etc. I also want to look at more flowers and trees of winter. And study birds of winter also, some of which should happen out our "schoolroom" window where there are 2 trees. I bought some birdseed and a suet feeder and suet to get the birds started. We will be reading Night Tree next week and feeding the wild animals in this way ties strongly into the book.

We will also continue with the Liturgical year part of our schooling. After all, how do you take that out? Today we (the older girls and I) read about St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Some of what we read about the Aztecs was, shall we say, "harsh" so it was good we got started while Alexa was still sleeping. Then all the girls colored a coloring sheet of the Blessed Mary's image like it appears on the Tilma of Juan Diego. And they each also composed a prayer to her.

Tomorrow we celebrate the feast of St. Lucy. I made sugar cookies tonight and used a cookie press that I bought online with St. Lucy's image in it. The only problem is that sugar cookies "rise" and so the image is faint. Next year I might try one of the recipes that came with the cookie press. The girls will enjoy them just the same. I made them for teatime. We will also be rolling beeswax candles for the girls to give as gifts to teachers and maybe some neighbors. I figured that ties in with St. Lucy since Lucy means "light".

We will also be baking cupcakes for Sky to take to co-op Friday morning to share for her birthday. And Taylor will be baking Sky's cake for her Birthday sleepover with Kira.

I guess this isn't all school stuff. With us it is hard to separate the 2 sometimes.

Love to all!
TTFN!
~Tina

What This is all About

It's very late and I'm tired, but I was determined to get this up and running. I figure some might get bored with all the details of our school day, so I would put that stuff in a separate blog linked to the first. I hope to post more about this and maybe the first official entry tomorrow.

Love to all!
~Tina

Just Testing This Out

Hmmmm.....