Adventures in U.S. History Week 26

I started the week by sorting a whole bunch of library books I got for the next couple weeks. I love our library! And so far this year I've only had to pay less than 50 cents in library fines. Considering I consistently have over 50 books checked out at a time…that's pretty good! It helps that I can manage our books, due dates, holds, and renewals online!!

We learned about the Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, and the Gold Rush this week. Many people in our area made a lot of money outfitting wagon trains headed west. William M. Paxton, who recorded the history of this area 150 years ago, said that of the many people who left our county with gold fever, most were never heard from again. Very few returned, most died, a small handful made it rich and stayed out West. He lamented the loss of so many of the county's fine people.

We have two student desks, a child-sized table, and a spacious kitchen table…yet Miss M consistently chooses to do her school work in the middle of the hallway or on the kitchen floor! Go figure. At least she's comfortable!

Learning multiplication on the kitchen floor.

She's working away at learning the 2 and 3 times tables. I plan to supplement her Singapore Math with Math Mammoth's Multiplication 1 book. It seems to do a more thorough job of introducing the idea of multiplication and the various angles to approach it from. Plus, you can never have too much practice with something as basic as the multiplication tables! It's a product I received for review, so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks!

We've been learning all about Tchaikovsky this year. We'll go see the Nutcracker in December, but for now Miss M dressed up in her ballet clothes and watched a DVD called Prima Princessa Presents Sleeping Beauty that we got at the library. It held her attention a lot longer than I thought it would! We also borrowed the Royal Ballet version without commentary from spunky Prima Princessa.

Miss M finished Level E in Spelling Power this week! Since Level E is approximately a 6th grade level, I won't be having her do any more spelling this year. It's getting to the point where some of the spelling words should really be vocabulary words. We'll pick up again with Level F when we start 3rd grade in January or February.

In science we've been investigating solids, liquids, and gases. We did some fun experiments with fizz…making raisins dance…and a fizz-on-your-tongue powder that reminded me of a cross between Pixy Stix and Pop Rocks!

We finished off the week with a little nature exploration in our backyard. It was nearly 100 degrees all week, so we didn't go on a long walk. But we did enjoy the sunflowers blooming in the corner of the backyard!

We're still enjoying our studies even though I've started to keep a mental count of our weeks left. I'm excited to finish and excited to start our next year a few months after that! Oh, and I'm excited that the "bers" are starting soon…happy September…happy fall!

Our adventures from previous weeks:

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6,

Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12

Week 14, Week 15, Week 16, Week 17, Week 18, Week 19,

Week 20, Week 21, Week 22, Week 23, Week 24, Week 25

Fall SWAP progress

I finally have some progress to report on my Ottobre SWAP. There are actually six garments finished, but I only have pictures of four of them so far. You can see that the brown Maya blouse is lacking buttons. I didn't have anything suitable in my stash, so I'll "have" to go find some at JoAnn's. I'm thinking something to match the medium pink in the trim, but we'll see. I almost never buy buttons...I usually always make do with what I have on hand. The cream Maya blouse is made of a vintage pillowcase I picked up at Goodwill a while back ($0.50). It carries that oh-so-fresh smell that I love on my pillows and is super soft. I have a bit left that I'm going to hoard until just the right project comes up. I'm delighted with how dressy the little skirt came out! It's made of chocolate brown stretch velvet. Miss M thought it was great fun to pet it like a kitten. Modeled by the lovely Miss M...and just before naptime (what was I thi...

Cocoa Krispie Sod House: a model you can eat

Ahh! I just realized I haven't blogged our Adventures in U.S. History since Week 26!! What happened?! We've just been plugging away contentedly at our work and are nearing the end of our school year. So, while I go get myself sorted and whip up the rest of our weekly reviews for you, I thought you might like to see our latest project. A Cocoa Krispie Sod House Ingredients: 6 tablespoons butter 6 cups miniature marshmallows 9 cups cocoa krispies 3/4 cup fancy shredded coconut ("fancy" looks more like grass, but any shredded coconut will work) green food coloring extra butter or cooking spray Also needed: large sauce pan (or large microwave safe bowl) wooden spoon jelly roll pan or cookie sheet waxed paper small glass bowl fork knife clean scrap of cardboard popsicle sticks kitchen shears Directions: Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Don't let the butter brown! When melted, add in the marshmallows and s...

12-gore denim skirt

The other evening I drafted a pattern for a 12-gore skirt following the instructions found here . The next day I cut gores from worn out pairs of jeans! Now I have a gorgeous denim gored skirt. I used 1 1/2-inch wide elastic in the waist and designed it to sit on my hips rather than my true waist. I’m so short waisted that if I wore bottoms at my actual waist…well, it wouldn’t be pretty! I plan to reuse some of the original belt loops so I can wear a belt with it…let’s just say that a toddler and an elastic-waist skirt are a recipe for disaster! You can see a few places where I removed pockets before cutting my gores – adds character, don’t you think? And a skirt without a pocket is simply ill-conceived, so I reused a pocket from one of Hubby’s pairs of jeans. Now I can carry my cell phone when I run errands!

CHRISTEPHI

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