Bendy Straws and Fuzzy Sticks

Looking for a way to pass two hours with your kids free from whining, fighting, crying and complaining? Buy a bag of bendy straws (at Wal-Mart, these are in the juice aisle) and a bag of fuzzy sticks and let them go nuts. We were supposed to be making native Brazilian flutes, but those were boring, and Simon discovered that you can make a bendy straw look like a person by attaching fuzzy stick arms. We had little stick-on rhinestones too, which make great eyes. I'm sure this taught them something (fine motor skills?), and they loved it. And, unlike many art projects, it didn't turn into a mom-will-you-make-this-for-me whine fest. Although I do make a pretty cool bendy straw bug.

Something cute and something ugly

This hideous thing is some kind of frog that lives underwater. I picked it out for our aquarium because it's ugly and scary and thinking about touching it gives me the shivers. I named it Yanomamo, after a tribe of people in Brazil that we just learned about in school. Esme thought we should name it "Mom."

This is Gracie's Christmas present (one of several, I'm sure, but this is the coolest, specialest one). It didn't take very long, and I like that the arms move.

My cute kids

I'm going to admit something very shallow and vain this morning. One of the things I worry about with homeschooling is that my kids are going to look...homeschooled. You know what I mean. Bad hair, clothes that don't match or fit, goofy, slightly vacant smiles - basic disregard for personal appearance and hygiene. I don't know why I associate these things with homeschooling, because I've been to lots of homeschooling things and this definitely isn't the norm, but I think it's the picture society has painted of our kids - backwoodsy hicks that are totally clueless about how to fit in with the rest of the world. I'm not so sure that's all bad, but it's not all true either. So for one thing, I need to focus on more important stuff and stop being so concerned with appearances (hygiene, yes; appearance, no), and for another, I need to be proud of my kids for who they are. And they ARE cute, darn it. Here's a picture from Grandpa Jim's funeral day, on which the boys got to wear "suits" and sunglasses and look grown up. Jim would have gotten a kick out of them strutting up to the church with their hands in their pockets and their glasses on.

Allison's Favorite Show

We got rid of cable, then we got rid of Netflix, but I just can't survive without some kind of TV. I'd like to think that I'm intellectual enough to live on books and conversation alone, and maybe the occasional documentary from the library, but I'm not. Sometimes, my brain just needs to stew in its own juices for 23 minutes or so while I lounge and stare. My new favorite show is Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home on Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/watch/233291/julia-and-jacques-cooking-at-home-roast-chicken). Hulu is free - although I think there are additional shows available if you pay - and the picture quality (on my laptop) is just as good as Netflix. I think if you buy an internet-ready TV you can watch Hulu on that too.
We watched The Miracle Maker, a claymation film about the life of Jesus, at KIDS church last night on Hulu too...because I didn't have time (okay, I didn't make time) to prepare a whole lesson. We did play a game that the kids liked - I put each word of their memory verse (Matthew 6:21) on a balloon, and they took turns finding the next word and popping that balloon. Simon was the best popper.
I did a search for "Christian" to find other suitable movies for church night, and I couldn't figure out why it pulled up a bunch of episodes of Project Runway (which I love but is definitely not church night material). Turns out there's a guy named Christian in one of the seasons of the show. Aha.

Matthew 6:21 - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Geocaching

Have you ever heard of this? I hadn't either, but it's like a secret society. A secret nerdy society, maybe, but, since I like nerdy things, the kids and I had a blast. You take a GPS device (any that will let you enter manual coordinates) and search for these "geocaches" that other people have hidden - all over the world (there's even one on the international space station, I've been told). Inside the geocache, which can be any kind or size of storage container, are little treasures that you can take and exchange for whatever you've brought with you. Except food, which animals will try to get to and in the process, mangle the geocache.

Go to the geocaching site: http://www.geocaching.com/ to find hidden geocaches in your area and get the coordinates. Enter the coordinates into your GPS, and start looking! Usually, they are hidden in trees or other natural areas, but some are in metro areas too. Once you find the geocache, you can go online and post comments & tips. If you have a smart phone, you can use it to do all of this stuff too (as long as you have the app, which I think was $10 or something like that). You can hide your own geocaches too, but you have to make sure to get permission from the property owners first.

Our curriculum has weekly "nature walks" built in - I'm thinking you could incorporate a nature study into your geocaching and make it even more fun. We haven't been doing the nature walks, and we don't have a GPS, but I'm definitely considering giving this a try. I heard you can snag a cheap GPS device on ebay...

We miss you, Jimbo!

Handwriting Practice

Esme goes through worksheets faster than I can churn them out, even with the help of the internet, preschool curriculum, and several preschool workbooks. This is a great site that lets you customize your own handwriting worksheets - printing and cursive, letters and numbers: http://www.handwritingforkids.com/.