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Our family went out to view the Christmas lights aroundtown last night. The winning families spent days settingup their display. The family pictured below spent 12 fulldays and 15 half-days putting up their display. Anotherfamily started putting up lights in September. In the second photo below you’ll see Santa on his sleigh with“Six White Boomers” (or kangaroos). This is in reference to asong by Rolf Harris. Since Santa’s reindeer can’t...
I made a batch of Christmas candy that was a big hit withthe kids. I used the candy corn recipe, and added greenand red food coloring. It took long enough that I had toplace the candy mixture in the microwave for 10 secondsseveral times, but I thought it turned out well. What doyou think? I also made a small batch of fudge today from the BetterHomes and Gardens Cookbook: *Cook...
Here in Australia, most kids will be starting a new schoolyear at the beginning of February. We follow the Americanschool year, so LD will still be in first grade and DD is stillin preschool. Since we take days off as we need to, I generally continueat half speed after the holidays (getting together for play datesor going to the pool at the drop of a hat). Still, I’ve beenspending time...
Because of our road trip and swim lessons, we haven’t been doingmuch in the way of academic school work lately, but I thoughtI’d share a math-game I put together this weekend. This is a place value game I made using two sets of dominoes pictures fromhttp://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas_dominoes.pdf Both LD (6) and DD (age 4) enjoyed playing the game, thoughI only had LD tell me the number value of the dice(ie. saying...
Each player gets one figure (Santa, Rudolphor the snowman in each of the four colors) On the player’s turn he/she rolls all four dice and placesthe proper color on the dice board. (See 2nd picture) The player moves each of his/her Rudolphs (orSantas or Snowmen) the number of spaces indicatedby that color dice. I have my older child say one thousand, two thousand, etc.or ten, twenty, thirty, etc. as he...
I love this recipe and it’s really easy to make, especiallyif you need something quick and easy for holidaycelebrations. They are VERY rich. MELT:1 cup semi-sweet choc. chips2 oz (2 squares) unsweetened choc, chopped2 Tbsp. butter ADD and MIX:2/3 cup sugar2 eggs1/4 cup all-purpose flour1 tsp. vanilla1/4 tsp. b. powder1 cup chopped pecans or other nut BAKE:8-10 minsat 170/350 in the oven By the way, you can store this dough...
Just to let you know we posted more of our SouthAustralia trip pictures, but you’ll have to scroll downbelow the Coober Pedy pictures.
Here’s a little activity I put together for theseason. I got some cheap little ornamentsto hang on this little Christmas tree. I madethe tree out of pipe cleaners and placed someself-hardening clay in a little plastic cup sothe tree would stand up. I wound up needinga bit more support for the tree, so used thebottom of a paper cup to make it a little morestable.
The girls have been enjoying these Christmas lacingcards from http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas_lacing_cards.htm. I used some yarn with a short pipe-cleaner twistedtogether at the end instead of a needle.
LD has always loved jets (his grandpa was a propulsionengineer and worked on the development of the JointStrike Fighter). He and I worked on this paper plane,a model of the Nighthawk.
The older kids are always given a small pitcher to pourtheir milk into their cereal. ED now has a very smallpitcher of milk to pour into her bowl. (She’s been doing thisfor a couple of months now, probably starting around 20months old, I think.) If she dribbles any milk she knowswhere the washclothes are and will go grab one out of thedrawer to wipe the table.
One question that I’ve been asked pretty regularly is “how do you homeschool with kids of such different ages?” My first response lately has often been, just imagine taking your three favorite students out of a class of 25. They have different needs and abilities, but so do the kids in a traditional classroom setting. I get to work every day with the kids that I most enjoy being with...
