Valentine's Day 2012-Party!

Just because we don't go to traditional school does NOT mean that we can't have a party with our friends!!  We, Posey's, are all about throwing a good party!  So for Valentine's Day we invited some friends to come and share in the fun!

Paigey helped with decorations~her assignment was to count 100 conversations hearts into the vase.  (Once she reached 100, I let her pour in the rest of the bag!)

Paigey also finished up a Post Office Unit this week. She learned all about the mail system-
how it got started, how to write and address a letter, where the mail goes, why we need stamps, how the post office works, etc.  Part of her project was to make her own mail box! (PINK, of course!)

 Our party included decorating Valentine heart cookies~ made by my dear friend Lori, who has moved here from Texas!  The kids and I are going to take cooking lessons from her VERY soon and in the mean time, we just thoroughly enjoy all the yummy treats she spoils us with!!

 We played a game of "picking up Conversation Hearts with Chopsticks" 

  

We decorated our Valentine mailboxes

Paigey and Lainey trying out the chopsticks

Played Valentine BINGO

Chef Connor in action...

Paigey checking out all her cards and treasures...

Sir Holden and Connor resting after a full day...

 Paigey received her very own special Valentine from Daddy...

a sweet card and a beautiful pot of flowers!

(Oh, my word, when she discovered they were her VERY own she was beside herself, giddy with excitement.  Daddy's just have a way, don't they!?)

Teeth and a Trip to the Dentist

Over the last two weeks we have been studying "Teeth" in school. We learned all about how they work, what the different parts are and how to take good care of them.  For Connor a great way to learn is to turn it into a cooking project so we decided to make some teeth!

Here is the end result:  Tooth/Molar Cupcakes

We ended the unit with a trip to the Dentist and took him one of our cupcakes.  And the funny thing was...it just happened to be his  birthday!

Review Game

Last week we had a particularly hard week of schooling. So in order to lighten things up and have a little fun, I decided to make Friday a fun review day and created this game.  

 Each colored piece of foam had a 3x5 card on it that had a topic or question on it.  The kids would roll the die and move forward to the number of spaces indicated and then read the card. 

 If the card said, "Math ?" I would ask them a question that pertained to the Math lessons that they covered in their work over the last week. If they got the answer correct, then could roll again.

We covered all our subjects...some questions were on Money, some from the books they read, some covered Time, some from our Bible lessons, others require them to Spell or write a word in cursive on a dry erase tablet.  I sat comfy on the couch with all these manipulatives and just called out questions, while they did all the hard work to answer them. 

 It was a great way for me to see what they were retaining and what we might need to spend some extra time on in the days ahead. 

It was still school work, but over all I think it was a welcome change and a hit with the kids.

Jake's First Grand Prix

Jake recently participated in the Awana Grand Prix.  This was his first time entering and it was a great opportunity for some Daddy and Jake time.   They spend many hours planning, dreaming, scheming and designing the car.  There were sketches and drawings and all sorts of runs to the store.

And yes! this is the cutting of the car right smack dab in the middle of our family room!!!

Part two of the process got moved into the garage, but don't blame me...

Next step...paint...

The finished project!  A great car and a great Daddy/Son Team!!

Here is one of our family's favorites that were entered by one of the Awana parents...

Jake in lane 4 ready to race...

His car placed 4th, 1st, 3rd and 3rd!

Not bad for a first timer! 

MLK Day

We had a lot of fun on MLK Day!

Most kids got this day off school...but not us...we learned all about Martian Luther King, Jr., about his dream and even did a little dreaming of our own!!

Below is one of the projects we did of comparison. This was a fun activity I found on Pinterest where you take a brown egg and a white egg and write down the similarities and differences of their outside. (color was the only difference!) Then you crack it open and see that the insides are exactly the same!!

It was so fun to see the light bulb go on in Jake's head when I said that is exactly the difference between someone who has brown skin and someone who has white. I love when messages get driven home in a way that they'll never forget!!

Another blessing about schooling at home is comfy reading spots...

Fun experiments...

And for the advanced a little extra time for one's nose in a book...