Chalk Pastels

TGIF! I love Fridays.  It is a day when we can relax a little from our rigorous studies and add an element of fun to our learning.  This school year has been a tad bit chaotic and it has taken us a few months to settle and find our new normal but I think we've finally found our groove. Friday I try to do something fun in the kitchen, an experiment or some artwork.  Today we worked with chalk pastels and talked about drawing the outline of shapes and blending the colors. The assignment was to find a picture of an animal and sketch it in chalk.  Avery decided to sketch the cover of Where the Red Fern Grows.  We are currently reading this is school.  Taylor picked a picture from a book on giraffes because she is doing an animal report on them.  As I watched them slowly sketch their pictures I was amazed with their abilities.   I am pleased with the effort they gave.  Well done girls.  Keep up the good work!

A Slash of Blue

This week in our First Language Lessons we memorized the poem:

"A Slash of Blue"

by Emily Dickinson.  

To Charter or Homeschool?

When we decided to homeschool my husband and I said that at the end of each school year we would assess where our kids are at academically and if they weren't doing well we would look at other options.  This year I decided to apply for a lottery to a local charter school where some of our friends have sent their kids and have been pleased with the results and to our surprise we got selected.  The only reason why I even remotely considered this charter school is because they suplement their common core math with Saxon math, which is what we use and LOVE. My husband and I weighed the pros and cons of both homeschool and the charter school and when we approached the girls about going back to public school...well let's just say they were not happy.  I asked them to write out a list of reasons why they want to continue to homeschool and their essays are too good not to share.  

Now before I share them let me preface this by saying that I believe homeschool has been the best option for our family but I know that many children do well in the public school system.  I don't believe that our children are smarter or better than other children but they have grown so much and their education at home has mostly been a positive experience. That said, after reading through their list of reasons why we should continue to homeschool, I think they were pretty convincing.  I mean, who wants to be dumb like Alvin and the Chipmunks!😂

-Avery's list of reasons to continue homeschooling- She is funny and a bit dramatic!😂

-Taylor's list of reasons to continue homeschooling- ❤️ She melts my heart.

Alfred Cakes

Every Friday we have fun learning how to bake in the kitchen.  Today we learned how to make Alfred Cakes.  What are Alfred Cakes you ask? Well they remind me of an English scone. 

This week in our Story of the World history lesson we learned about the first kings of England and how the Vikings wanted to take over the people of Wessex.  The people of Wessex tried to pay the Vikings with gold in an effort to appease them but when this no longer worked they appointed Alfred the Great.  These cakes are named after him.  

Spring Break Bread-in-a-Bag

This week is spring break for all of our friends in our local schools.  We took our spring break last month when we went to Las Vegas so we are still doing our regular school lessons, but that doesn't mean we can't have some fun.  Today we learned how to make bread in a ziplock bag.  I have decided that every Tuesday we will be learning to make something tasty in the kitchen. I LOVE baking and cooking in the kitchen and my girls LOVE to help so today it was learn to make your own bread day.

I'll admit that it got a tad bit messy at times and my obsessive compulsive nature was freaking out a bit, however in the end the mess was worth it and easy to clean.

Look at those ladies.  They were so pleased with the end result and they loved learning how to bake in the kitchen together.  Not bad for their first loaf of bread.  Here is the link for the bread in a bag recipe.  It was simple and super fun.