Schoolhouse Review Crew: Clued In Kids

What parent would turn down the chance to keep a whole group of kids happily and easily engaged and occupied for a half hour? You know you wouldn't - and neither did I! I was glad to have the chance to review Clued in Kids for the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

I was given two hunts to try out - Playdate Treasure Hunt Pad was the first one we did. To be honest, life has been pretty hectic here lately so I held it for a while and didn't do anything with it because I didn't feel like I would have time to set it up and give it a fair shake. How wrong I was!!

A Christmas School Story - by Chef

I was cleaning off my dresser this morning, and am not sure how this gem stayed folded there for so long. But I enjoyed it so am sharing with you (along with some other summer-homeschool moments!)

50-day lego challenge: day3 - World Wonders, and Day 4 - Houses

Day 3: World wonders!

11 year old Chef's pyramid ruins.

Bruiser's Apollo 13 - complete with launch tower.

We're doing a bit of catch up, because the blog idea occurred to us after we were several days in already! 

So here is Day 4: Houses

The  inside,a desk,writing tools and paper. 

This is over a pond.

Bruiser's House:

The whole complex - garage to the right, other
luxuries to the left

Outside view of the fireplace and chimney

Garage

5 yo Buttercup got in on the fun and made a house with three horses!

Side view of Buttercup's farm - including three horses -
two are seen at the back left with gray tops and a red piece at the rear leg
and the third one has a bright green tail

50-Day Lego Challenge, Day 2 - Space Structures

Day two:Space stations.

11 year old Chef's Apollo 5. A small lego ship "toughed"up for a trip to the sun!

The whole ship…Ironically solar powered.

50-Day Lego Challenge, Day 1: Castles

Chef and Bruiser have undertaken their own 50-day Lego challenge. So each day for 50 days they'll be creating, photographing and posting their structure of the day. If you have children who want to join in, give a holler and we'll post their pictures too! Make sure to come back and see what's next!

Day 1. Castles, Two boys 50 days over 1,000 legos.

What better way to start than castles?

11 year old Chef's dessert temple.

This is the whole thing. It has a jail, throne room, flag tower,
and more.

Schoolhouse Review Crew: A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks

I was given the chance to review the Lapbooks available at A Journey Through Learning  to review recently. Maestro and Chef did a lapbook with me about two years ago that we really enjoyed, so I was happy to see such a great opportunity open up for me to look at!

I had access to four of the books that Journey Through Learning offers:

• Letters, Number and Shapes (good for ages 3 - 5)
• The Earth (for grades 1 - 4)
• Knights and Castles (grades 2 - 7)
• Astronomy and Space (grades 2 - 7)

Maestro helped Buttercup work on Letters, Numbers and Shapes while Chef and Bruiser worked on Knights and Castles. I stayed on hand to provide direction, but for the most part, with the older kids involved, the need for me to be there was pretty minimal.

Comparing Two Winters

Within reason, we are snow lovers in our family. I am not as fond of playing in the snow, but love to work in it and to watch everyone else enjoy the brisk weather. Jeff is my compliment - he likes to play in it, and working in the snow is ... eh... "okay." Last fall, we moved 4.5 hours' drive south of Baltimore to the far eastern reaches of Virginia, and what a difference it makes in the winter weather! From that, we're doing a bit of a winter weather study lately (and praying for more snow!)

Shoveling 28-inches of snow out so the car could be used.

About every 4 or 5 years we got close to 3 feet of snow to play - and work - in. Outside of piled up on the side of the road going up the Washington (state) mountains, I have never seen that much snow in one place, at one time, in  my lifetime! That is all to say that it was truly impressive being in that amount of snow and a lot of fun. 

sliding down the snow "mountain" made by the parents

Aaaaannnnddd then we moved slightly south to the east Virginan coastline. Right on the water, just about. I thought - foolishly perhaps - that we would maybe get more snow here. In hindsight that is silly since we're further south. After listening to our northern friends go on about the snow they were getting (whether in positive or negative vein didn't matter much), we finally got our little bit of snow on the ground. That allowed us to make our first (only?) little Virginia snowman (who is holding hands with the even smaller snowchild.)

No snow to shovel, barely enough to play in
but we had fun anyway!

 So which are you? Are you a snow-lover, or a snow-hater? What is your favorite part of winter?

Home Made Doughnuts - Yum!

Recently, Smeagol and Maestro decided to earn some extra money by selling home made muffins and doughnuts. The math and methods for selling are in this post. I posted about it on Facebook and have had a request or two for the recipe. Here is the recipe - remember that you can use the food processor to make them quickly and easily for a good Saturday-morning treat!

First Flight - Video Review

My mom works in a small shop in Tacoma, Wa, called Chirp & Co. When we visited at Thanksgiving, the boys did all kinds of cool home school stuff. They made their own walking sticks, helped with stocking and customers, painted their own birdhouses, etc. There were actually several more workshops upcoming that we would have loved to attend, but alas, the vacation ended and we were pulled back to "real" life back in Maryland.

BUT one of the last things Mom gave me to pack and take home was a lovely little video sold in her shop called First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird's Story by Noriko and Don Carroll. We didn't get around to watching it until just this past Tuesday. What was just a 45-minute video for me, turned into an impromptu science and art lesson that lasted several days! First, here is a brief synopsis from the back of the video box: