Sunday, June 24, 2012

I survived...

...but I'm surprised that everyone else did too. ;) I'm talking about the Cub Scout day camp that I help run each year. It was this past week. It went well, but it was hard this year. Much harder than in years past and I don't know that I could pinpoint exactly why. I'm glad I was a part of camp, but I was veeeeery glad when it was over. I think by the time we got home Friday evening, all I could do was grunt and point, lol.

We spent three nights at Tracy's to save gas, and that was fun as always. I got to watch a couple of good movies that I hadn't yet seen, and we watched the season (series?) finale of The Killing together. GREAT show. There are two seasons, and I would highly recommend catching them if you ever get the chance.

A friend came down and spent the weekend with us, which was nice. When he left this morning, we headed to do our weekly shopping. Sadly, it didn't hold it's normal appeal. We were all too tired I guess, lol. I'm sure this week we will spend a lot of time pretending to be sloths. :D

As far as school goes, I don't know what we have planned. I need to get Bailey started on the online algebra lessons that T4L offers (they combine pre-algebra and algebra...and it's interactive just like the other math lessons he's been doing), but I don't know if we will get around to that this week or not. May just be another unschooling week. While we were out today, we did get the boys a pirate ship in a bottle thingy that they have to assemble and get in the bottle. I'm sure that would cover a few subjects. Right? ;)

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and you all have a wonderful upcoming week!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Sleepover fun...

...and some learnin' too! :)

This week went by in a crazy blur. Wrapped up most of the plans for day camp, which starts on Monday, and for that I am mucho thankful.

Bailey enjoyed his time over at The "B" house! He ended up staying three nights, instead of just two. Tracy put him to work, lol. He did some yard work and helped with the renovation project; even got to help work at the sawmill which he was very excited about.

Other than the physical work, Bailey and Z stayed busy planning and working on their new project. They have decided they wanted to work on starting a blog and posting podcasts. About gaming. Shocker. ;) They really put a lot of effort into setting up their blog/site and recording the podcasts, then uploading them. I was surprised that they wanted to do this, but I was so proud of both of them for doing it themselves, rather than just asking someone else to set it up for them! They did a great job on the first two that I've heard...it's really funny to hear them get distracted because they are playing a game while they are talking about playing a game, lol.

Tracy picked up fireworks for the boys and Scott picked up dry ice, so they had fun with those things. Fireworks are exciting, no matter how big or small and no matter how old you are. The dry ice was fun, but also lent itself to some homeschool science! :D

Here are a few photos - (These aren't actually from the sleepover, even though Tracy did send me some; these are from Wednesday when I picked Bailey up and brought Braeden with me. Bailey and Z decided they were going to save some of the dry ice so Braeden could have a little fun with it too!)

The dry ice by itself is super fun...

But take a soapy rag and drag it across the top of the bucket to make a big bubble...

And it becomes super fun!

Getting bigger and bigger...

POP!

What happens when you add some dish soap to it? Starts out small...

And becomes...to quote my 7yo...quite EPIC! :)
When he got home, Bailey spent a good while researching dry ice...what it actually is (solid form of carbon dioxide), the different things it can be used for, and why it burns your hand when you touch it (it's not actually "burning" but it's like frost bite!).

Supabig thanks to Tracy and Scott for entertaining them and providing neat learning experiences!

Hope all the Dads out there have a wonderful Father's Day tomorrow!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Mondays...

It's funny. Even though I don't necessarily have a "normal" week, Mondays are still sucky for me. Guess it's my psyche. Huh.

We are still enjoying our quietish summer so far. Nothing major happened; nothing major on our plates. Last week went well...the boys started a beta test for an iApp for VocabularySpellingCity, which is awesome!!! Even though iGadgets don't play well with flash, we have browsers that we've downloaded (like Puffin and Skyfire) that do work with flash, so they have been able to work on VSC, and even T4L, from their iPads. But apps are always so much more fun! We've never really done any beta testing, so it's neat to see these glitches...then see them get fixed, lol!

Over the weekend we took the boys to see some movies. Tracy and I took Braeden to see Madagascar 3, while Walter and Scott took the older boys to see Prometheus. We usually all see the same movie, but given some of the material that I was afraid would be in Prometheus, we opted to treat Braeden like he's 7 for a change, lol. Honestly, it really worked out well and both movies got thumbs up from everyone. :)

This week I am in planning-like-crazy-cause-I-procrastinated mode. The Cub Scout day camp that I run starts next Monday and needless to say...I ain't ready. :/ It helps that the theme of this year's camp is Pirates and that's easy, and fun, to plan for. Luckily, I work with a great bunch of people and everything always falls into place when I need it too.

Bailey is spending a couple of days at Tracy's this week. They are renovating their dining room and I'm hoping that she'll put him to work! Other than that, he will continue with the beta test for VSC and he will try and nail down which of the homeschool writing courses he's going to take next. I really want him to get started on that after we get finished with camp. He wants to take the next course in the mechanics area. I think that would be good, but there are also some essay writing courses that I'm thinking might be good.

I've said repeatedly how much I hate standardized tests, but with him approaching high school, I'm letting all the "what if's" get in my brain and freak me out. I don't know yet if he's going to go to college. He doesn't know that yet either, lol. We are advocates of continuing education, but that doesn't mean we think college is the only option for our kids. Bailey's been wanting to become a chef since he was like 5. A trade school would probably benefit him more than a college, you know? Anyway...if he decides he wants to go college, then I guess I need to prepare him more for those entrance exams. One way to do that is to have him take standardized tests a little more frequently than the every three years required by the state. Gak. T4W offers some essay writing courses that would help him with essay writing for standardized tests and those might be some I want him to complete before he takes his next tri-annual test. Although, if he doesn't take one of them this summer, he can always take it at some point throughout the school year...

Braeden will also continue to work on the best test VSC app. Other than that, he will work on handwriting and reading. He is moving right along through his Magic Tree House books and is so proud of himself! It's fantastic to see. If I have time, I am going to check out this classroom adventures program I found on the MTH site. Apparently there are lesson plans and such that correspond with the books. I think he would really enjoy that! If I can't do that for him this week, there's always after camp.

Ok. Off to plan some pirate activities. Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Arrrrr! ;)


Sunday, June 3, 2012

Vacation Pictures...

Well a teeny hand full of them anyway. I just opened the folder to try and sort through them and there are 1,817 items in the folder labeled "Florida 2012." To say that my brain shut down when I saw that, is an understatement, lol.

Here are a few to start with. I'll have to do this in steps... :/

The hubs loves playing with our waterproof camera...he had a lot of shots of the waves, but I thought this was one was really good.

The six guys, all enjoying the waves...

She loves playing in the sand! :)

Love it!

Diving for torpedoes, lol...

One of the few shots of my boys together!

Our kayaking/ganoeing (nope, I didn't misspell that - that's what we were told they were) adventure...

Dueling water cameras. ;)

One of my most favorite shots from the WHOLE vacation! Taken on the last beach day while we were all still together. 

They enjoyed having a kayak to themselves...

Jen and K. :)

This shot is so funny. I don't know if you can see the rope...Jen is tugging the ganoe with Q, Braeden and myself, lol!
Well. Enjoy those few. Hopefully by next week's post, I will have been able to sort through a few more!

This past week went well. Except for the laundry. Gah. ;)

The upcoming week should be nice. A few things to work on in the house. I'm hoping to go through all of our closets and shrink them down a little...put away some winter clothes and "goodwill" the stuff that they have outgrown.

The boys probably won't have a full schedule. I will have them do some spelling printables (because that kills the spelling and the handwriting birds with one stone) and Braeden will switch from holiday/literature lists back to his sight word list. He's making so much progress, but he needs to put some more focus on those words that he can't really sound out. He's still plugging his way through the Magic Tree House books, and is still enjoying those. Bailey got a great list of books he wants to add to his "to-read" list from his cousin when he saw her last weekend. She is almost four years older than Bailey, but their interests are SO similar and they always have a great time when they get together. I love that!

Ok, so, I'm done for now. We got our grocery shopping and running around done yesterday, so we actually have a family day at home. I'm going to get off here and plop down in my trusty recliner for a movie marathon. Wonder what the boys are going to choose....

Have a great week, errbody!