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 Two: Week Fourteen: I Love You S'more

Nobody had ever said that to Bertie before. How about some chocolate? It was not a complex, phrase, but its power, its sheer, overwhelming sense of gift and possibility filled Bertie with awe. Well might more of us say these words to others, and more frequently – how healing would that prove to be. “Look, we’ve had our differences, but how about some chocolate?” Or: “I’m so sorry, how about some chocolate?” Or simply: “Great to see you! How about some chocolate?”

~The Importance of Being Seven (2012)

We went CAMPING! Daddy had to work overnight and Sidekick always misses him so I wanted to come up with something super fun for us to do. I also just wanted to stay home. Ha! So, we went camping.. in the living room. But it was so fun! 

Check it out!

 Sidekick and I made these before school. We cut a banana in half, stuck a chopstick in one end, covered them in yogurt and sprinkles and set them in the freezer. They were so good!

We headed to the library after school and scouted some camping books to read that night. While he was at school, I packed his favorite backpack full of camping goodies. 

{Flashlight, binoculars, map, camera, snacks (nuts and 2 lollipops), shadow puppets, books}

 I even made shadow puppets!

 And a campfire!

 Then it was time to make the tent! Since this was an inside adventure, I took his reading tent and draped a sheet over it. It's quite colorful otherwise and it didn't go with our camping theme at all!

He was {obviously} excited to come over and see it all set up!

Sidekick got to make dinner! It was totally camping friendly. Biscuit Pizzas! We flattened some biscuits, a little bit of oil and some garlic salt sprinkles, then covered them in pizza sauce and cheese. Yum!

No camp-out is complete without s'mores! 

We even "roasted" our mallows!

Then we made messy s'mores and giggled into the night!

 Once our bellies were full, we watched a movie.

Binoculars were put to use, of course.

One more surprise before bed.

Shadow puppets! 

We laughed and made up stories and the little shadow boy fell off the moon... a lot. :)

Then it was time to cuddle in the tent, read our stories, and fall asleep. 

I had planned a nature walk and collage making project but the rain washed that plan away. I think we had a pretty good time! It helped us both miss Daddy a little less for the night although, it would have been much more fun to have him with us! 

See you soon!

Year Two: Week Thirteen: Argh! We's Be Getting Back To School, Matey!

Okay, Minion! You were right! I was…less right!

~Megamind

Well, well, well. It has been a little over a month...again. So sorry guys! I started my Masters, Sidekick's daddy started college as well, so between all that plus our normal craziness, homeschooling got left behind. This post has been ready and waiting for over two weeks! It's taken me this long to just sit at the computer (not doing my own schoolwork) and get it ready for you. 

Take a look:

Set this out for the sidekick. He was quite curious as to what we were making. 

 We practiced his cutting skills. He's getting pretty good!

We made a BOAT! The glue wouldn't hold as planned so, tape was the stand-in. Not as pretty but it worked! 

{I later found it in the toilet because "Someone" was to anxious to wait for bath time}

 Baking soda and water mixture frozen "treasure chests". I couldn't find many things to fit into the little amount of room that the trays has available, so I just made do with some sticking out. Sidekick didn't mind. 

{{Find the idea for this project HERE!}}

 We exploded our treasure chests with vinegar, practiced color mixing and found all the treasures!

 What an adventure!

 I glued some "doubloons" to a piece of paper and hid them under a page in his journal. We had Euro, English coins, even some from Jamaica! 

{{Better representation HERE }}

Then Sidekick (tried) to color over all of them but he was not so amused with this project so he found them and I colored. No big deal, we worked together!  

When in doubt of what to do with your kid, make some cookie dough and let them have some fun! He played with these while I prepped dinner and then was more than happy to sample them for dessert! 

Remember: These ideas and many more can be found on my Pinterest page. I have scoured the internet for more than enough hours collecting pins and ideas for our homeschooling and other random ideas.

Another post is coming right up! Make sure to check it out! See you soon!

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!