Making Math Fun: Skittles

Come see how much fun we had using Skittles for math!!

Come see what we've been up to!



I've been having loads of fun over at Quirky Momma writing about some of the fun things we are up to!!

Moving On...

I've changed formats & started a new blog for homeschool. Come visit me there!

Eating Our Elephant...

Shutterfly Christms Cards: Easy, Unique, & My Favorite!

For the past 10 years, we have had a variety of Christmas card ideas...some years we wrote a Christmas letter, once we made a DVD with pictures & music for everyone, but lately I've found my favorite idea: sending out Christmas photo cards. I've tried a few companies and so far, Shutterfly has been my favorite.

I do most of my Christmas shopping online, so why shouldn't my Christmas cards be any different? I like being able to shop in my pjs, and I love being able to try various pictures to see which combination works best in our cards.

Most of my Mommy friends will agree...it's is so hard to get a group shot of all the kids together where everyone is facing forward and smiling...all at the same time! Now that Austen is in college, we only see him a few times a year so my group shot photo opportunities are few & far between. With Shutterfly cards, I can choose styles with multiple pictures so I can get good ones of each kiddo and not put all my eggs in one basket for a good group shot.

This year, I'm loving the brown cards:

In the above photo, they used the 1 Photo style, but you can choose to arrange the design any way you want & include more photos, different wording...totally customize it to your likes!

In addition to Christmas photo cards, Shutterfly has been my go-to source for our annual Christmas calendar. One year, when Reese was a baby, I found photo calendars online & made one for each of the Grandparents, Uncle Jeff, & all the Great-Grandparents. Little did I know I was starting a tradition! This is one of the favorite gifts every year...and my Mom never fails to drop the hint that "I hope one of these is my calendar!" when she comes to visit each Christmas.

I have searched the internet high & low, thinking I might find something "better", but every year I come back to Shutterfly...there simply is no better calendar creating tool! First, I love their background options. I customize the backgrounds for each person, knowing that Great-Grandma hangs her calendar in the kitchen and a bright pink background for February won't coordinate with her decorations....so I choose something pretty & subtle to match her kitchen. For our house, I pick wild backgrounds because I like seeing vibrant colors! For Grandpa, I know a beautiful, simple calendar is more his style.

You know another feature I LOVE? You can print, right on the calendar, every family member's BIRTHDAY (or any other event you want)! No more excuses for forgotten anniversaries, birthdays, etc. It's on the calendar!

Some months, I want to put lots of pictures. Other months, I want one, large perfect shot of something. Shutterfly has numerous templates for organizing the photos on each month's page so you can pick & choose how you want your final product to look. This year, I actually tried to design a calendar on another site, but I was limited to a max of 3 pictures per page, and only 3 layouts. BORING! Shutterfly gives me so many options...I've been spoiled. I didn't order calendars from the other company...I'm coming back to Shutterfly (again!).

The prices are very, very competitive and the quality of the finished product has always been top-notch. Head over to Shutterfly & see what you can find!

**Shutterfly has given me 50 photo cards as compensation for writing this review. However, we HAVE used Shutterfly for many years, and I would happily write a glowing review even if I wasn't compensated!!**

Rock Me Gently...Or Not

Homeschool Means...

Homeschool means spending a day telling stories to a baby camel as it rests in your lap...

and sharing a special bond with one of God's wobbly-legged wonders .

Pictures

What to do when your boy wants to wear a tuxedo to dinner but spending the money on a full-out tux doesn't make much sense?

Go with the Tuexedo T-Shirt!

Thanks, Hubby, for the great idea!!

Happy Boy

The Mama and The Daddy....

Practicing the art of relaxation...

Hanging out together on a windy, drizzly night in the middle of the ocean...

being awfully silly together!

Another one bites the dust...

And another tooth has fallen out of my baby's head.

Both front teeth are missing and I can't tell you how much I LOVE the way he talks right now.

I swear I am living with Cindy Brady :)

The Tooth Fairy made a double-visit this time.

Apparently, somebody scared her when she was taking the tooth away the first time & slid the envelope under Mommy's pillow.

Then Mommy forgot about that until Reese found it 2 nights later and woke me up in the middle of the night to show me.

Imagine his surprise when I told him of a tale I have heard, but never seen.

When someone scares the Tooth Fairy and she has to leave quickly,

sometimes she leaves the tooth behind!

So he put the envelope under his pillow for the 2nd time,

and she came AGAIN to get the tooth,

and this time left a quarter (she usually leaves a crisp $1 bill).

So...he got a Double Dip this time...

The Tooth Fairy needs to remember to take the tooth next time!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Reese, 7 months

TWELVE inches baby!

Yesterday, February 11th 2010, the DFW area had an all-time record setting amount of snowfall for a 24-hour period.

Twelve inches

That is amazing!

How about the random picture from a trip to Fossil Rim? I didn't have any other new snow pictures so I liked this guy :)

Poser

I ask for a smile, but this day, he was all about the

pose!

"Here Mom. Take my picture like this!"

:)

Snow Day Again...Dang Global Warming...

We've had a BIG snow day today! After school & lunch with our CoOp buddies, Reese and I came home to play in the snow. There was tons of it all around this time!

Throwing a snowball at Mommy's head...

A Texas child's snow gear:

Mom's purple ski gloves

Pants that aren't waterproof (layered with fleece pants underneath)

Wellies on the feet that are waterproof but not snow-proof (by the end of our playing his socks were soaked!)

We rolled a giant snowball!

Too many wrinkles, but oh well...

Happy to be playing in the snow with my boy!

Shaking the tree to make the snow fall on Mommy...

Love....

Just look at all that deep snow!

According to the news station here, we've had 9.5" since December 1st...and 6 inches of that was just today! LOVE IT!

Blood

We made BLOOD! OK, not really blood...but we used some stuff from the kitchen to represent the different components of our blood.

*Yellow liquid=plasma

*Cheerios & red food color drops=red blood cells

*White marshmallows=white blood cells

*Purple pompom balls=platelets

*Salt=salt and other minerals in blood

We talked about the job of each part of our blood & the Reese helped me put each item in our jar. It ended up looking pretty gross at the end :) but he had a great time putting it together!

Artwork

Reese & I went to the Dallas Art Museum last Tuesday for their First Tuesday Free day. I really don't like driving to Dallas because there is always traffic, but a free day at the museum makes it worth it!

There is a whole room dedicated to children & allowing them to explore art, and there's even a great Craft Bar where you can choose from any number of supplies to make your own creation.

Reese used three cardboard shapes & I helped him tape them together so they stood in a house-shape. He took shells to put inside the house & a pile of pipe cleaners for the top of the house.

I was scratching my head trying to figure out how exactly we were going to get this masterpiece home, until he said "Now please take a picture of it so we can remember it forever."

He didn't want to take home a sculpture. His artwork piece was meant to be photographed :)

Let Your Voice Be Heard!!

If you're here at this site, you're most likely a Mama, or a homeschool person, or a combination of the two! The third option might be that you're a freaky stalker, in which case this post won't interest you...move along now....

But...every single Mama I know has lots of opinions about everything...we share favorite Dollar Aisle finds from Target, where to find the best cardboard Great Wall of China to color (no joke...had that conversation today with my buddy Deb!), what laundry detergents work the best, what vitamins kids like, what 60-second-dry nail polish really works, etc.

Well, now there is a place to let your voice be heard on a grand scale...and get paid to do it & receive free product to test out! I know that I read some of the big, important Mommy-bloggers in the world, and they are always offering free things to their readers and writing up reviews for products companies have sent them to try.

You can get into the act now too by joining Business2Blogger! Just click on the chalk board to learn all about how you as a Blogger can connect with businesses who want to hear your voice...


Also...if you are a business and would like to get your product or service in the hands of real, live people and receive immediate feedback & publicity on their blogs, you can click that nifty chalkboard above as well & find out all about it!

I joined Business2Blogger today...come check it out and see if it's something you might like too!

Color Me Mine

CoOp met last Thursday at Color Me Mine for a morning of painting fun! When I told Reese where we were going for CoOp, he instantly knew what he was going to make...a coffee mug for Daddy :)

He chose the colors & the mug and got right to work...

That tongue...comes out when the brain works hard!

"Mommy, don't show Daddy what I'm making until we pick it up when it's finished!"

The Color Me Mine lady was very nice.

She took the kids to the back room to see the kiln and told them about how they fire the pieces, and that it cooks them at 1,800 degrees! Wowza!!

We learned that if the pieces are fired and are touching at all, they will be permanently stuck together. And it takes about a full day to fire the pieces.

Who knew?

Pizza Fractions

I found this Pizza Fractions game at the educational supply store last week & couldn't help myself. Love the pictures, and I especially love that it has six different spinners for the different games so that you can play it for the most basic level (identifying smaller fractions...perfect for Reese at this level) all the way up to making equivalent fractions for higher grades.

Of course, Reese was ready to dig right in when I brought it home & he loved the realistic look of the pizza photographs!

Science: Mixture vs. Solution

In Science we have been working with water & reading about all the things it can do. Today, we read about solutions & mixtures and set out to make our own!

We gathered our materials. Reese chose what we would mix into the water...

oil, flour, sugar, blue food coloring drops, sand, & red powdered paint.

We made our predictions on which would become a solution & which would remain a mixture...
Reese was in charge of the mixing & observing...

And tasting...

he wanted to see what the blue food colored water tasted like...

gross....

and I had to stop him after a few sips because I just couldn't stomach feeding my child a cup full of food coloring!

We used a filter to see if we could separate the particles...

Reese watched to see if our predictions were correct...
Mixing our red powdered paint...

Mixing oil & water...

Once we were finished, we recorded our observations...

I'm still not sure about the flour though. When we stirred it, it looked like it had completely dissolved and was gone. But after it sat and I was cleaning up our things, I noticed a big lump of flour at the bottom of the glass, so I guess it remained a mixture?

Ancient Greece

In History we have been learning all about Ancient Greek culture so this week we had a Greek Food Festival! Reese was beyond excited to wear a toga (thank you Hubby for knowing how to put a toga on Reese....Mommy failed miserably at that task and had Reese in tears!)

I made the laurel leaf headband from cardboard, tin foil, & a paper-sack headband...

My laurel leaf headband was construction paper leaves & a paper sack headband,

and my outfit was a sheet with a hole cut in the middle and a rope around my waist.

I read multiple accounts that women did not wear togas unless they were prostitutes (!!)

so this is NOT a toga! It is a traditional drapey-fabric thing women wore.

Our togas/drapey-fabric things lasted all of about 15 minutes and we decided they were uncomfortable for cooking & eating & playing...but they made for a fun picture!

Our Greek feast included roasted chicken (food of the peasants & land owners...for city folk, meat was too expensive with the exception of pork), cheese (goat cheese was what they ate, we ate colby jack because Mommy forgot to buy the Feta), grapes (grapes & raisins were popular fruit choices), and Goldfish (fish was a staple of their diet but Reese said a big "no!" to fish, so Goldfish were our substitute)!

During meals, they used bread to wipe their fingers instead of napkins, so we used tortillas as our napkins. The Greeks would then throw those pieces to the dogs after they wiped their fingers, but Reese liked bread too much and ate them! And no forks, so we dug in with our fingers.

The Greeks drank wine (although they watered it down because to drink it straight up would be barbaric!) so I bought some sparkling red grape juice for our feast. Reese also thought it was cool that he didn't get to drink milk with dinner because the Greeks thought drinking milk was also barbaric, as they saved the milk to make cheese & a thick yogurt-type drink.

While we ate dinner, we watched a Wishbone episode called Homer Sweet Homer, & it told just a bit about the Odyssey (although we had read much more about Odysseus already).

For dessert we made Loukoumades, which are a sort of Greek donut (although I don't think these were an ancient Greek treat...but whatever!). We made the dough (flour, yeast, salt) and let it rise. Then we took balls off the dough & fried them. After cooling a bit, we poured a syrup over them made from honey, sugar, & water (cooked down into a syrup) and sprinkled with cinnamon. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I would like them because I don't like honey, but Reese pegged the flavor just right when he said they tasted just like a cinnamon roll! The texture was more like a little dinner roll but the taste was really, really good.

Flip!

Pancake-Flipper Extraordinaire...

and Daddy's helper :)