Year Three: Week Six: Here We Go!

I recently learned something quite interesting about video games. Many young people have developed incredible hand, eye, and brain coordination in playing these games. The air force believes these kids will be our outstanding pilots should they fly our jets.

~Ronald Reagan

My sidekick loves Mario. As in, Super Mario. You know, Luigi, Bowser, Yoshi, the whole gang. He can do all the voices, we make up Mario Imagination stories, his room is decked out with Mario, half his wardrobe includes these guys. He's a little obsessed. However, he's adorable so it's okay. 
When talking with him about what to do for our weekly theme, I should not have been surprised that he wanted Mario (and all his friends). So, I used all my creative skills and scoured the internet for ideas and here you go. Our Mario week of homeschooling! 

Ok, this isn't Mario themed. But one special thing that him and I get to do is go on "dates". We do coffee dates, donut dates, book dates, park dates, ...the list goes on. It's a time when I remember to stop our busy day and just enjoy his company. We already do so much together but this little bit of time is relaxed and all about him. They are some of my favorite memories. 

The sidekick wanted nothing but Mario things for Christmas. That's what he told Santa and that what he told anyone who asked. So me and all my elves (love my family!) searched 3 states for all the Mario we could find. He got action figures, board games, clothes, stuffed characters, the works! He was so happy! This was a Mario Memory game. He made the voice of the characters as he matched them. It was very amusing!

Again, this isn't Mario BUT it's a great scrabble game! This side has words on the board and the other side is blank for when he's older! So fun!

This is one of his Mario imagination stories. We also tell each other stories such as this after story time, in the car, and even whisper them to each other when we are in not fun places waiting for an appointment of some kind or another. I absolutely love fueling his imagination. 

For this one we did use Rory's Story Cubes. We bought ours at a bookstore but you can also find them on Amazon. They are a great way to make him think a little harder about where the story is going to go as he tries to work in all the cubes. 

Ok, no judging my drawing skills! I can only do so much in a rush! This was all my idea though! No Pinterest for this one. I took some of his favorite characters, attempted to draw them, and had him fill in the blanks as we learned about vowels. He had to sound out each name to figure out which vowel was the correct one. It worked really well for a spur of the moment idea!

So upper east coast got some snow. A lot of snow. More snow than I've ever seen without being on a mountain. 

Another Christmas present! Yahtzee! He doesn't quite get the entire concept of the game but, that didn't stop him from beating me. 

I saw several ideas using pipes. However, none of them seemed to be what we needed. So, I made these. Even and odd numbers 1 to 20. Sidekick did great and still reviews them as we continue on.  

This. This ya'll is big. My sidekick is reading more and more! To entice him to read more we came up with this: For every 10 books he reads we will go get a special treat of his choice. A new book, frozen  yogurt, pancakes, whatever he decides. We are already on our way to 20 at this point but I am so happy with his progress!

You are now caught up! We are taking a couple of weeks off because I have to concentrate on my own schooling for a bit. However, this is not the end! We will back in full force soon!

Year Three: Week Five: Or So They Say

Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the colour in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty, and your animal spirits, and you will pass for a fine man. 

"On The Conduct of Life" (1822) ~ William Hazlitt

Here is a quick recap of our days from around Thanksgiving until Christmastime. If you know me, then you know I could post MANY more pictures but here is enough to get by so I can catch you up on our days in the New Year. Enjoy!

 There is a wonderful place not too far from our home called Maymont. It is 100 acres that was donated to the people of Richmond by a couple, the Dooley's, who lived there until 1925. They have an interesting history and we love to explore the area. If you ever in the area, it is definitely a place to go in RVA. Click the link above to learn more; it is truly fascinating and great place to homeschool! 

Anyway! This is my sidekick, teaching fish about themselves. They also have turtles, otters, and environmental areas to learn about in the Nature Center. 

 Cousins! For Thanksgiving our cousin friends drove halfway across the country to spend time with us! It was wonderful! 

Since we are both homeschooling families, we did manage to wrangle the kids for a couple of lessons. Although, we pretty much just explored and let them play together. :)

These are their Turkey Feather Names! I can't find or remember where this one came from, there are many variations all over Pinterest but as I have none of them saved myself, we will just call this an original creation. 

 This was also a fun one! We worked in two holidays because...why not? The original idea came from HERE but I up'ed the ante a bit and had the kids work out simple math problems instead of just punching numbers. They did great! 

 After family left, it was time to prep for our travel days! We were about to spend a huge amount of time in a car so I wanted to give my sidekick some new things to amuse him. First up, an i-spy bottle! I had him pick out 5 objects, we used our seemingly endless supply of colored rice (made YEARS ago!), and a empty peanut butter container that I just KNEW I would put to use some day. :)

It worked out wonderfully and is still played with around the house. 

 For some reason, I don't have an after picture of this one. And if I were to take the time to take one and get it on here...well, you wouldn't be reading this now. Ha! I drew some mirroring projects (above), empty candy canes, and a blank tree for him to fill in during those slow times during our travels. It wasn't much but, it was enough to pass the time when needed. 

 Christmas at home was a stressful but happy time. Mr. Sidekick received many gifts and had a great time!

 After we got back home, it was back to work! We picked up with our writing and schooling in general to get back in the swing of things. 

 We also made cookies. Sidekick says he wants to be a cooker (i.e. chef) when he's 7 because then he will be able to open lids. Gotta love a child's thinking process!

 We also got some snow, which means we had hot chocolate! Also, we played Go Fish, puzzles, and every game in our closet while we were stuck inside. :)

Okay guys! There's a quick glimpse of the past few months. Blink and it's gone! 

Year Two: Week Twelve: Dino Stomp, Stomp, Stomp!

Dr. Ian Malcolm: Now eventually you might have dinosaurs on your, on your dinosaur tour, right? Hello? yes?

~Jurassic Park

We had another cold and wintry week here! It was Dinosaur week! 

Check out this fun! 

 We busted out the musical instruments and made some {noise}! This is one of his favorite things to do when we are stuck inside.

 Oh yes. We made s'mores! Oh yes. They were delicious!

Toothbrush painting was a fun and different way to start this project...

...Which resulted in DINOSAUR FEET!  

So, of course, we had to add a dinosaur hat and tail!

(Shout out to {Misty Taylor} for that great gift!) 

Then my little dino took me on a musical adventure throughout the house.

Stomp, stomp, stomp!

If I had only known how much from my sidekick would have from this little volcano! 

Click here for Volcano fun!

After we built it and let it dry, Sidekick got to mix colors (another favorite of his) and made our little white mound into Sherbet Mountain.

It was glorious and beautiful!  

He had such fun making bubble eruptions!  

 More snow at our home! We even made a snowman this time!

I surprised my sidekick with some hidden caveman messages/hieroglyphics. 

Can you figure them out? 

My sidekick sure did! He even wrote the answers all himself! I'm such a proud mom! 

We've got more fun on the way! Come back and see us soon!

Year Two: Week Eleven: Stuck on a Feeling!

I love your face. It always brings me peace.

~Moonlight and Valentino

This week we talked about our feelings! My sidekick wears his emotions on his sleeve, he always has. It was a good week to focus on what makes us change our feelings and why we feel the way we do. I am quite lucky because, normally, my little sidekick is quite the happy fellow. 

 Paper plate emotions. Easy after-school activity for us! I wrote the name on each plate and had him draw what each one looked like. Easy peasy. The idea was found here. 

Ice painting! While this doesn't have much of anything to do with emotions, it was FUN!  

Here. For you, if you want to try too!

We had a Valentine Date at his school (a couple weeks ago now). We had tea and he decorated a cookie for us to share. It was a happy day.  

Bubble valentines from my little Valentine. :) We found some dollar bubbles and I used Pinterest to find some cute saying. I had him write one word and sign each card. (Writing the whole thing would have been a bit much for the little guy.) 

Straw Blow Monsters! {Beware of spittle!}

After the paint dried, we drew monster faces and practiced some fine motor movement by making crinkle arms and legs. His monster has 10 eyes! He was quite specific, so I thought I should let you know. :) 

I may have had a little too much fun with this one.... 

 Winter finally arrived! We are actually in the middle of our second snow storm, right now. All my babies love the snow though! 

Enjoy the weather wherever you are! See you soon!

Year Two: Week Five: Weathering The Storms

Grandfather: The truth is that, while we Welsh like to believe that it was the mountains that beat the successive invaders, it was really the weather that comes with mountains. It was the rain that defeated every invader. Yes, simple rain.

~The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

What a perfect week for our weather projects! We actually had real storms! The thunder, the lightning, it was wonderful. The high winds...not so much. No damage here though, thank goodness. My sidekick and I stayed up one night, cuddled in bed, listening to the storms. We talked about what sounds we heard, how it made us feel, and the shadows the lightning made. School can happen anywhere, any time of day, just be with your kid and let it happen. 

Breeze on through what we did this week:

 Found this on kceadventures.com via Pinterest. This was an easy after-dinner project. We didn't get into the density of things but he made some pretty good guesses by holding the foods before putting them in the water.

 Minus having the WORST water balloons ever, this was fun! I wrote out 1-20 in chalk and then we worked on simple addition. I would ask him (example) "1+2" and then we would count it and he would throw the water balloon on the correct answer. Only our water balloons wouldn't pop. Again, worst ever. So, we had a small water balloon fight in the grass (the only place they would pop!) and then I had him jump on the right answers for our game. 

 I like to have him help me as much as possible. How else is he going to learn this stuff? So, here we are cutting meat for our supper. This kind of stuff isn't the most exciting but it's good practice as he grows.

 Back to weather! We made rain! Simple! Water in a glass, shaving cream on top, and food coloring. We used too much shaving cream at first, so it took forever (we both lost interest) while the food coloring made its way through the shaving cream. I swiped some of it off and we tried again. Ta-da! 

 One of my projects for him this week was a Froot Loop lacing project for his fine motor practice. Instead, we made this jewel at his cousin's art birthday party! He was very proud of it and I had the privilege of wearing it for the afternoon. 

Any time you can decorate and eat your own cupcake...do it. Every single time!

More fun coming this way soon! Check back for our next adventure!