School Week Highlights: Week 12

We finished our first term! Not that it makes much of a difference, but it's nice to be a third of the way through. If I were a better homeschooling mom, my eighth grader would have done exams this week, but I told myself it was alright to wait until high school to introduce exam week.

I took no pictures this week. At least I've taken some this month, unlike February.

We went to adoration.

We celebrated my father-in-law's birthday with a mid-week dinner in town. First Daughter and Second Daughter both made soap carvings for him.

Kansas Dad taught the older kids in our monthly coop this week: a lesson on the Bible. It went very well.

We had a half day on Friday so we could do our Saturday cleaning on Friday. A lovely new family in our homeschool group came for dinner. It was the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. First Daughter made a Hungarian coffee cake which Second Daughter decorated like a crown. She also made this cinnamon bread shaped like a rose that turned out beautifully. They were both delicious! But I didn't take any pictures.

Next week is Thanksgiving, which means it's a perfect time to take a little break. We'll do some school here and there but not too much.

For the Child Who Loves Scissors: Cut-Crease-Create

Second Daughter loves to cut...anything and everything. The worst time of this phase constituted weeks of finding cut items all over the house nearly every day: curtains, sheets, clothes, carpets. You can imagine my frustration. Finally, I indulged her desire to wield those scissors by giving her the grocery advertisement every week. Our living room was full of tiny cans of soup, boxes of macaroni and cheese, and cuts of meat, but almost everything else in the house was safe from her wandering scissors.

While at a conference earlier this year, I discovered Melissa and Doug's Cut-Crease-Create booklets. Here was an opportunity for Second Daughter to combine her love of cutting paper with some folding (perhaps leading to origami for handicrafts) and practice envisioning and executing three-dimensional work (perhaps supporting her math skills).

I'm just making excuses. I knew she would love them and I wanted to buy them for her. So I did and assigned one page each week for school. She's been completing two or three. I allowed the extra pages, as long as she understood there were three books for the year and when they were gone, they were gone. Even at a few a week, the books should last her most of the school year.

There are three different books available and I bought a copy of each one: Cut-Crease-Create - Snowflakes, Cut-Crease-Create - Pink, Cut-Crease-Create - Blue. Each book has twenty "sculptures," all in vibrant colors. Second Daughter is seven and has been able to make nearly all of the creations without any help.

She chose the Blue book first. I didn't save all of her work, especially the ones that were more three-dimensional like the finger puppets, but in addition to the dinosaur and octopus on the cover, there were a volcano, a bat, a snake, and strings of things like palm trees, robots, cars, and buildings. There was even an upright and a little football you could make.

She just recently started the Pink book. The projects include butterflies, birds, hearts, a circle of ballerinas, flowers, a rainbow, a castle, a fan, and a crown.

The Snowflake book contains 20 snowflakes, most made with other shapes (frogs, butterflies, hearts, flowers, fish, crabs, leaves, penguins, mushrooms, stars, and others). Just from looking at the projects (there are sheets on the backs of the books showing all of them if you find the books in-person), I think the snowflake one is the most intricate and probably the most difficult overall.

The Amazon links above are affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you click the link, add something (anything) to your cart, and make a purchase in whatever time frame Amazon currently assigns. I appreciate every little bit. Personally, I bought these from Rainbow Resource Center and the current price there is cheaper than at Amazon. It looks like Melissa and Doug is selling them even more cheaply. I don't receive anything if you purchase these or anything else at Rainbow Resource Center or Melissa and Doug.

People Get Ready: St. Nicholas Is Coming!

I'm updating this post to add a link to Like Mother Like Daughter where there's a link up for living Advent. Click over there to see how Advent can be wonderful and simple.

Our reading bench has been transformed into our Advent bench. I suppose it would be better if the drawers and wrapped books were in pink and purple instead of red and black, but we go with what we have.

We hung our stockings on the first day of Advent because St. Nicholas is coming on the eve of his feast day, December 6th. On Sunday morning, we'll wake up and find our stockings full of little goodies. It took a while, but in the past few years I have finally gathered enough stocking holders I really like for all six of us. I'm also still incredibly happy every time I see the stocking I made for First Son. (Apparently, I need to post some close-up pictures of it finished in a stocking shape.) First Daughter's is well under-way. She has high hopes it'll be ready by next year but I doubt that unless I pick up the pace.

The other stockings are all just mixed and matched. We have enough of the glittery green and red ones for everyone, but I let them choose. Second Son insisted on the doggie stocking which is supposed to be for our dog.

 

For some reason, Second Daughter decided she wanted to make her own stocking. She cut some fabric the girls had in their stash and stitched it together in a semi-stocking shape. It's hard to tell in the picture, but she then stitched on a block she cut from a sunflower fabric. It is simultaneously awful and wonderful. Let's hope it holds up to her gifts from St. Nicholas.

Last year, St. Nicholas brought "Christmas coupons" for all the children. Good until his feast day this year, they were gleefully received and redeemed. Here are a few of the favorites from last year and some new coupons we expect St. Nicholas to bring this year. I'm pretty sure he just created them in Word, printed them on his home printer, and cut them apart.

• Choose the movie and snacks for a family movie night (rentals accepted) - This was one of my favorites!
• A grocery list addition (with a maximum value)
• A batch of homemade cookies of your choice
• Choose the first game on a family game night
• No meal chores today
• One chocolate milk
• Go out to dinner with Mom or Dad
• Stay up 30 minutes past bedtime (specified nights only)
• Eat dessert when it's not a dessert night
• Choose a book or app (cost limit) for the Kindle or iPad
• Bonus 30 minutes of screen time
• Be First Day (when the coupon holder will be able to choose first for where to sit, which cup to use, and whenever else there are choices during the day)
• Choose a book from any source (used or new, with a maximum value)
• Enjoy a post-bedtime movie with Mom and Dad
• Choose what's for dinner
• Choose what's for dessert
• One cup of frozen yogurt at our favorite outing spot

First Son appreciated that there were twelve - one for each year. Because I'm that kind of person, I wrote on the back of each coupon when it was redeemed and for what, if it was a movie or grocery item.

We also made St. Nicholas cookies. I always make this recipe and nothing says Advent has begun to me as much as kneading this sweet spicy dough on the counter until it's smooth. (I use lard instead of shortening so it's soy-free and this year I omitted the cloves for a friend who is on the Feingold plan.) I made two batches - the first with my almost-three-year-old goddaughter while all the other kids played outside (joy!). The second batch I split four ways and let my kids have free rein with cookie cutters on the kitchen table.

First Daughter made a good mix of different shapes. Second Daughter made a whole tray of gingerbread man cookies. (I like to make whole trays of the same cookie, too.) First Son made only a handful of really thick cookies. Second Son made fewer cookies than the others because he ended up with a handful of dough too covered in flour to be molded into a shape, but he had fun. The girls "branded" their cookies with initials so they would be able to tell which they had made even after they were baked.

The kitchen and two of the four children were a complete mess, but we now have lots of St. Nicholas cookies to share. They are especially delicious for grown-ups when dipped in tea. Children generally prefer to cover them with icing and sprinkles.

We'll decorate a few on the eve of the feast (Saturday night) so they look more like St. Nicholas. Here's First Daughter with the one she made last year.