No.40: Our Farmhouse Schoolhouse in Photos (Week 08)

Holy cow, this week flew!  Mark was away on business, my mom slept over to celebrate my birthday, I was able to get in my last couple runs before the race on Sunday and we had a great week of school too, of course.  Our life seems full and exciting and exhausting all at once, but I really wouldn’t trade it.  If only the (teething! again!!) baby would let me sleep, hah.

Notes and highlights:

+ Despite the weather being so warm and muggy, I pulled out and read some of our favorite fall books:
– The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
– Those Darn Squirrels!
– How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World (we even made the apple pie from the recipe in the back!)

+ We started a little apple unit with A Year of Playing Skillfully and the biggest hit of the week was making homemade play dough for the first time.  Sophia and TJ played with it for days!  Recording the recipe here, so I don’t forget:
Whisk 1 cup flour, 1 cup water, 1/3 cup salt, 1 T. oil, 3 T cream of tartar and a few drops of food coloring in a medium saucepan until smooth.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly.  When it comes together in a lump, remove from the pan and let it cool.

+ Sassafras Science took us to the Amazon rainforest, where we learned about sloths and toucans.  We fell down a little Youtube rabbit hole, listening to toucan sounds!  The kids also drew both the sloth and the toucan from Art for Kids tutorials – we’d be so lost without those tutorials.

+ M began a Medieval Science section in his History of Science course.  The first scientist was Johann Gutenberg and his printing press.  We watched a really interesting documentary called The Machine that Made Us and it inspired him to try to make his own “type” from oven-bake clay.  I love when that happens without any prompting.

+ I started a little reading challenge to help J (1st grade) with his fluency.  He’s at that hard stage where he can read, but it’s still a lot of work.  Lots of sounding out and the going is slooooow.  We have these little books and he reads one book every day: once to me and once to any family member he chooses.  Once completed, he can color in the number on his challenge sheet.  And when he’s gone through all 27 books, he can pick out a candy of his choice.  (And he doesn’t even have to share with his siblings, which is huge.)

MISCELLANEOUS

+ D has been reading through the Series of Unfortunate Events books – we started reading them together this summer and I just couldn’t keep up!  He finished the last book on Monday and I was able to watch him as he read the very last page.  I will never forget the look on his face…it was almost like saying goodbye to good friends.  Next up on his reading list: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.

Current 1000 Books Project Total: 48/1000
Poetry Teatime Treat: Apple Pie