Weekly Wrap-up #1 {leaves, stomp rockets, spiders, chemistry}

Today I'm sharing a Weekly Wrap-up.  Mostly it will include homeschool pictures I've taken throughout the week.  Sometimes it might contain affiliate links.

This is my first time linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for the Weekly Wrap-up.

For a peek into more families' homeschool days, visit the link-up.

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Want to be the best mom ever?  Of course you do!  Grab the kids and a couple of rakes and do what comes naturally.....rake a pile of leaves.  You can call it life skills class or physical education class or community service if you really feel the need to define it, but we called it plain old fun.

A child size rake makes it that much more fun.

We pulled off the leaf raking in between walks on the cranberry marsh.

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Another super fun outdoor activity is Stomp Rockets.  My kids are ROUGH with their toys.  This toy has stood up to tons of abuse.  Yes, the fins on the rockets are mostly missing, but that hasn't stopped their fun.  I like that Joseph gets lots of jumping with this toy.  It helps strengthen his leg muscles and loose hips.  They also get tons of exercise running to collect the rockets.  Again, I could categorize this into a school subject, but I don't.  We just have fun first and let the learning come naturally.

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I shared my low tech way of keeping track of preschool activities.  This thumbprint spider project was written on one of the notecards.  It didn't go quite as planned.  The idea was to divide up their paper into 10 sections.  Then make black thumbprints in each section according to the number in that section.

1 = 1 thumbprint

2= 2 thumbprints

etc.

That went pretty well.  Joe loved dipping his thumb in the paint.  Once their prints dried, I wanted them to pen 8 legs on each thumbprint making it a spider.  Peter gave it a try, but it was too much to stay on task for all those spiders.

While waiting for the prints to dry, we spent time with the Animal Encyclopedia (favorite animal book ever - the cover has been torn off more times than I can count) reading about spiders.

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This year Nick and Amber have been working through Focus on High School Chemistry.  

  

It's geared for mixed level highschoolers, which makes it perfect for the homeschool setting.  The chapters are broken into manageable sections making it easy enough to complete a chapter and questions in 1 week.  Then after correcting the review questions the next week, they complete the lab.  The lab manual is laid out well, and they're doing a fine job completing the labs.  Today's lab #3 has been the most fun; they finally felt like they were doing real chemistry - splitting H2O into O2 and H2.

Here's the basic setup for splitting H2O.

Look at those smiles as they write up their results.

More Weekly news:  we finished cranberry harvest, had a harvest pizza party, had the van repaired again, ordered a shelving unit for the little ones' bedroom, and picked up reading lessons again.

It's been a full week, but what week isn't full?  Anything you want to share about your week?  Share in the comments.

Weekly Wrap-up Link-up

Barbie Had a Rough Day

While making BLT's for lunch I was called outside to see the coolest rocket in the tree. The kids were laughing and saying that Mrs. Mandez was having a really rough day. I didn't ask any questions, I was just waiting to see this cool rocket. Turns out it wasn't a rocket at all, but poor Barbie, aka Mrs. Mandez, stuck in a tree. See Mrs. Mandez (Gabrielle's mother - you know THE Gabrielle from High School Musical) was upset that Gabrielle was going to marry Troy and so in a fit of rage she somehow ended up 15 feet up in an oak tree.

One awesome dad with a payloader. One awesome brother not afraid of heights. One happily rescued Barbie.

Today's Toy of Choice

Initially, the mom that doesn't want her stuff broken, almost blurted out, "Put that away, I don't want it broken." But quickly I realized they were actually using it as intended - to weigh items. So I just kicked back and watched them have more fun with it than I ever have. The kids had so much fun weighing their wallets, full of change. They weighed math books and pencils and toy tractors and then started a game of, "Which weighs more?" And to think I almost stifled all that learning.

FYI: The toy scale cannot be found at Toys "R Us.

Toy Review

Lee bought an Air Hog Helicopter Wednesday. It's Friday, the helicopter is a remote control toy and it still works. The best part is that it really is entertaining for the whole family. Lee can make it hover just out of reach of Ray and Ray will jump and laugh, thoroughly entertained, needing nothing from me for the moment. And just when the buzzing noise starts to get on my nerves it needs recharging and I get 20 minutes of relative quiet. School work gets done and then its more buzzing and giggling and jumping and wow!ing from all of us at his skill in maneuvering the aircraft. This toy is a winner and it's so small it's barely noticeable.