I totally missed posting last month. We had a busy month, full of fun activities.

We ended March with a field trip to our local Petco store. My kids had done this before, but wanted to go along again. It wasn't as good this time. I think the store manager had a bit of an attitude due to the size of our group. But she told the mom that set it up, it would be fine.. but that same morning try to reschedule half of the group. But the HS mom said no way, you said it was ok.. I can't tell these moms to not come now on the day of! But all in all, it was still fun seeing the animals.

April Started with another field trip to a local grocery store for a "healthy eating habits" tour. We had 2 groups, broken up by age. So the older kids had about 6 in that group. We visited the oral care section, organic foods, fruits & veggies (with some yummy fruit cup samples), then off to the bakery (with more yummy samples of multi grain bread), then to the dairy aisle, the seafood counter (the kids go to pet a lobster and some of them wanted to try and set them all free hehe), and last stop was the deli section (with samples of turkey). The kids each got a goodie bag with banana slices, cereal, and water. Plus stickers, pencils, a hat & certificate.

On the 8th we had our first Earth Scouts meeting. That went great and I think all the kids are going to learn, see and do a lot in our group. Everyone seemed to have a great time. We make felt people to place on our banner when we arrive at each meeting. This is how we'll "Announce our arrival" each time. Then we also worked on making our banner, it is a huge Earth made from felt. The kids did a great job with it.

On the 16th, we had a trip to Philly for the day. We went to the Franklin Institute and finished up seeing the exhibits we didn't get to last year. And then toured the traveling exhibits, one was Identity and then of course the Star Wars exhibit. It was great seeing the models and such used in the movies. The kids really enjoyed this.

April 22nd was Earth day. This would have been our 2nd meeting of Earth Scouts, but instead we had a fabulous Earth Day party planned by one of our HSing friends. Everyone brought a whole foods dish to share. So we had lots of yummy foods. We also had our local recycling project manager come and give a talk. Everyone, kids & adults, learned some interesting facts about recycling and landfill wastes, etc.

We also had our last 2 co-op days for the summer. We'll resume in the fall, but hope to have some park days and field trips over the summer.

The month ended with an organizational meeting for the one local group we're part of. Several moms got together to plan dates for upcoming activities, and talk about ideas for more fun things to do throughout the rest of the year.

I've been terrible about keeping the blog updated lately. :( It just seems I have spurts where I post often, then other times when I post once a month. I'll try to do better though. ;)

Last week (17th thru 21st) we got a fair amount of work finished. The kids are almost finished with their Word Roots (we are actually WAY ahead in tehse books as they are doing many extra pages each day) & Health books. We still have some math to catch up on though. And our reading hasn't been happening lately.

So here is our plans for the week coming:

Mon Mar 24: 2 lessons math; 6 pgs Word Roots; 2 lessons health; reading

Tues Mar 25: 1 lesson math; last few pages in the health & Word Roots books (about 3 pgs each); Field Trip to a local pet store

Wed Mar 26: 1 lesson math; Geo Lunch day at fellow HSers home - country is Sweden, so we'll have many Swedish dishes to try.

Thurs Mar 27: 1 lesson math & unit test; reading

Fri I have an Usborne party right after lunch, so no school work today.

Well, I've let a few days go back without checking in. Oops!! We've been keeping up with our Word Roots and Health work.. but sadly not much else. :(

So here is what is planned for the rest of the week:

Today: 4 pages Word Roots; 2 lessons health; 1 lesson math.

Wed Mar 12: 4 pages word Roots; Lessons health. Then we have a Homeschoolers Game Day planned at our local gaming store at 1pm. So we'll be there until about 3-4pm.

Thurs Mar 13:  4 pages Word Roots; 2 lessons health; 1 lesson math.

Fri Mar 14:  4 pages Word Roots; 2 lessons health; 1 lesson math.

And we have some more reading to finish up yet. Plus Jake and I want to finish listening to HP & the Goblet of Fire.

Hope everyone's week has been going well so far! :)

I forgot to post this earlier.. :)

Gooey Goo

Solution A - 1 cup water, 1 cup white glue, 2 Tbs. liquid tempera paint or 7-10 drops food coloring

Solution B - 1 1/3 cup warm water 4 tsp. borax laundry booster

HOW TO CONCOCT IT: Mix ingredients in solution A together in a medium bowl. In a second medium bowl, mix the ingredients in solution B together until the borax is completely dissolved.

Slowly pour solution A into solution B (Do not mix!)

Roll solution a around in solution B 4-5 times. Lift solution A out of solution B and knead for 2-3 minutes.

Store Gunk in an airtight container or plastic zip bag.

CONCOCTION TIPS & IDEAS: Use red liquid tempera paint/food coloring to create Lava Gunk, green to create Slimy Gunk, or black to create Tar Gunk.

It's been a few since I've posted, so I wanted to jot down an update.

This is what we've gotten finished this week: The last 3 lessons in Daily Grams (we did half the book this year, and saving the rest for next year); 12 pages in Word Roots (We have the first 2 books from Critical Thinking Co, and we're aiming to have these both completed by the 3rd week in March); 8 lessons in Health (aiming to have Health completed by the end of March); finished the last of our Ancient's maps and Ancient Greece unit study. And we've been listening to Harry Potter again, finally.

We still haven't gotten caught up with math and I did tell the kids we'll be working into June (possibly later) with math this year. But we'll get it done. :) And we have to finish reading out Greek Myths.

Next week we are starting our Medieval times study. I have the Beautiful Feet set, so we'll see how that goes. I am hoping we don't have to edit a ton of religious-y things out of. If there is too much, I think I'll sell that and find something else.

At our last co-op meeting, in Science we made Gooey Goo. Well I forgot to add water to the glue mixture and let's just say I left with an even worse headache than usual! LOL It was quite messy. (I'll post the directions in a bit. It is fun to do when you follow the directions correctly. ;) )Our next meeting isn't until March 7th. So I need to get our rocks and other things gathered up so we can finish out rock study.

We finally had our Parent's Meeting for Earth Scouts. So now we are in planning mode and getting ready for our first meeting in April. I think everyone is pretty excited about getting this started. We'll meet twice a month at our local library. We have about 25 kids (14 families) so I think our group is a nice size. I won't be taking in any new members unless it is someone we all know. Certainly I won't be posting to look for new members.

We have several field trips coming up next month. And I think I want to visit the local Discovery Museum sometime. We get in free since we have a membership to Franklin Institute through the reciprocity plan (I think that is what it is called). And since that is in Philly and listed as our "home museum" the one in our town is more than 90 miles from there. I would like to get to the Science Museum n Baltimore also. But we'll have to see. We get into the museum for free, but whenever we are in Baltimore we HAVE to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. And that's a tad pricey! lol

We also have a Geo-lunch coming up in March. We did miss the last one (just this week actually) which had a Russian them. So for March we are doing Sweden. And in April I think it is Greece. Basically everyone brings a dish based on what the theme is. The kids can tell a little about the dish/country if they wish. Everyone hangs out, tries the dishes.

So that is about it. Nothing terribly exciting has been going on. :D I am just ready for Spring though so we can do more outside. It's been so yucky here, cold, icy...