All of this is awesome, fabulous, totally exciting- but it makes scheduling it all in kind of a nightmare. Asa and I have come up with a great schedule for home school, where we keep a theme week once a month and we add in Lessons by Dad- which will basically be our world history timeline. For two days a month he's taking over and we're going to do some all-day, all encompassing (think dressing up, hands on activities, and themed meals) lessons. For that week we're doing a 'checklist' week for the boys, where they can work on what they need to with minimal help. We'll alternate in BLT weeks (instead of Peanutbutter and Jelly weeks) where they'll each have a couple 'new concept' days.
We've also decided to run our weeks Wednesday thru Thursday, to help make Wednesday and Thursday feel more like the weekend, since those are Asa's day off (throw in a Sunday where they'll have a totally free day with no work at all) and we've got ourselves a working schedule for the fall. Whether you're following all that is pretty irrelevant- basically just know scheduling has been difficult.
I did get our board done though, I'm still working on what new concepts will be taught what day, but I'm compiling lists, so I'm making progress. The big thing was when I was going to fit in our 'theme week' this month. I've been pushing off USA week, and my OCD self had a hard time because I couldn't get six days in a row where we would be home- so, theme week isn't actually a week AND it got spread out over nearly two weeks. But, what can you do? (Try and not be OCD- that's what!)
That brings me to today- and today (while it is Tuesday) we started USA week. For this week, I let all the boys pick a couple of states they were interested in. I put together some boxes complete with everything we'd need for each day. (Kind of like the ice cream buckets from the Olympics, but not nearly as awesome).
Up today: New York! So, we celebrated all things New York. Now, I'm just doing these quick days-- I actually have a friend who has been taking all 52 weeks this year and dedicating each week to a new state (talk about a super mom!) She sent me lots of her stuff to help out, so this week was minimal planning. Thanks for the help, Kristi!
Our first activity of the day was mapping out a road trip. I ordered (free!) maps from AAA for each state the boys had decided on. Along with the map they have a 'We're going on a roadtrip' page in which it gives them clues to three cities in the state. First they must identify the cities.
Then they figure out the most efficient way to visit those cities, and highlight how to get there. (Peyton said: who needs maps when you have GPS! But, I told them it might come in handy some day.)
Our meals are also themed towards our state of the day. Kristi (that super mom I just told you about) makes these big elaborate meals and bakes and everything (I'm totally jealous of her cooking and organizing skills!), but she did pass on some recipes and ideas for me. I took them as inspiration and tried to find some super easy recipes. For lunch today we had coney island hot dogs. Asa was in the office, so I saved him some so he can par-take in a late night snack.
I did want to stress that New York isn't ALL NYC though, so we talked about dairy farming in New York. Apparently, it's kind of a big thing. So, I decided we were going to attempt to make cheese.
I've seen it on Pinterest, so I thought I'd take a shot at it. We cooked the milk, put in some lemon juice and it curdled. Then we put it through some cheesecloth. (We were left with curds and whey!)
It's currently sitting in the fridge, chilling in the plastic wrap. We'll see who actually tries it though.
We also, of course, talked about a lot of New York City places. A quick lesson on the statue of liberty (you know, gift from France and all that jazz), and we were ready for an experiment to demonstrate why it turned that blue-green color.
We're going to watch it over the next couple days (but even at the four hour mark we were starting to see green!)
We talked about the subway system, and then they made a spin off some 'subway art' by collecting words from the New York magazine the New York tourism office so kindly sent me.
Then I pulled out a 3-D puzzle of the Empire State Building. We talked about New York's nickname being the 'Empire State' (possibly coming from Geroge Washington himself!), and about the building. We also talked about the Twin Towers, as the Empire State Building was the tallest, until that was completed. The puzzle said it was ages 3 and up, but that sucker was super hard to put together.
Calib ended up doing most of it himself. Peyton and Hayden mostly poked out the holes and the pieces. Despite the wobbley-ness of the thing, it actually looks pretty cool put together.
For our last activity of the day, the boys each colored their own New York, and applied some of the things they had learned about the state.
Peyton did colors, but he told me what each one of them represented (the kid HATES drawing), so I was pleased.
And, just like decades week our New York Day is up.
This picture would be a little cooler if our Disney week Tangled Laterns weren't still up and you could see the board, but I can't bring myself to take them down, I love them!
For dinner we had Buffalo wings (they originated in Buffalo, New York) I made the sauce myself!
I used the three pot slow cooker and did various sauces (in case the boys weren't a huge fan of the traditional sauce), and then I finished them off in the oven.
I even served them in my cute little Target dollar spot baskets with a mix of onion rings and waffle fries, and carrots and celery. It was a big hit!
In case you've been wondering what else we've been up to this week, I've mostly forgotten except what I have pictures of (that's why I *try* to remember to take my camera everywhere, it helps jog my memory)
We celebrated everyone being back in school by hitting the pool mid-day with nobody else in sight.
We had some afternoon storms, which scared poor Porkchop half to death.
We took full advantage of Sonic's 50 cent corn dog day!
I got my tickets for Saturdays game! Not only do I get to go to my first game in the swamp, but they're playing my alma mater! (I'll be rooting for the Gators in case you were wondering).
As I said before, I got my September board mostly done, October is started on the back too. Sidenote: I don't know what projects teachers have assigned, but it surely includes white poster board- because I couldn't find any, anywhere! I had to settle for yellow.
Oh, and we went to the USF home opener at Raymond James which was so much fun (thanks to one of Asa's co-workers we were able to go on the cheap!)
Unfortunately, there was over an hour rain delay. Such is life here in Florida.
But they did eventually kick off! They ended up winning too (31-36), which is great- hopefully it sets a trend for my teams this week. The Gators actually didn't get to play their game due to lightning (that better not happen this week!)
When USF wins there's a few perks around town (I really wanted to get the 31 cent Taco Bus tacos), so we ended up getting pizza the next night for half off our entire order. I'll take it!
Oh, and Dipper is still funny (check out how he was sitting on the half wall the other day)
That's it from here. I'll likely be blogging more than once a week with our theme days and other things going on, so stay tuned.
Next Up: A Disney Day!! The crowd calendar is at a 3, ya'll!
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