Homegrown Adventures: October 2012

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You can always count on playdough if you're looking for a fun, cheap, and easy way for kids to have some creative time. After our most recent experience, I've discovered my kids are finally old enough keep everything on the table. I have many, many memories of playdough ending up in socks, smashed into the floor, beaten into the table, and tossed across the room :). Ahh, good times with toddlers.

PUMPKIN PIE PLAYDOUGH

4 cups of water

5 1/2 cups of flour

8 teaspoons cream of tartar (Don't have cream of tartar? Substitute with white vinegar...just use 3x the amount...thanks Natural Parenting Tips! )

3/4 cups of oil

4-5 ounces of canned pumpkin pie spice

2 cups of salt (I ran out after 1 1/2 cups, and the playdough still turned out fine...can you tell I was not 100% prepared to have a homemade playdough night? ;)

orange food coloring

Mix ingredients together in a pan over medium heat until you have a dough consistency. It will be gooey and runny until it becomes dough. My arm began to feel like it was going to fall off while I was mixing, so once it became dough, I let it cool and mushed it with my hands to get out the leftover flour globs. You, however, are probably much better in the kitchen than I am and won't have this issue!
Play, play, play!

Our pumpkin family

Sarah made a mask.


Pumpkin Man: Laser eyes, and razor sharp claws...Watch out Frosty!

This recipe made enough to fill up a gallon sized ziplock bag. Moms, join in the fun! Playdough is entertaining for all ages!

Enjoy!

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Family Update

The stomach flu invaded our home for a few weeks…that’s right…weeks. Each time someone would get sick, I’d go into a cleaning frenzy to stop the germs from attacking, only to have someone else come down with the bug days later. Somehow we are still on schedule with school, but 4 field trips, 3 weeks of AWANA, and co-op days had to be cancelled. Let me tell you, doing apple themed activities and then having to cancel the big finale apple orchard trip was a huge disappointment for the girls. Once everyone showed signs of good health, I called around to reschedule, but u-pick apples and tours just so happened to be finished the day I called! Bummer!! We went to to the park, and played with the caterpillars in our yard instead.

For the time being, we aren’t going to attend our co-op regularly until CJ recovers from his back surgery, which is scheduled to happen at the beginning of November. He is currently extremely miserable and in terrible pain, so keep him in your prayers.

In other health related news, Samuel was diagnosed with a blood disorder last month. At a routine well-check with our new pediatrician, Dr. S, I brought up the horrible nosebleeds he has on a fairly regular basis. I had mentioned this several times to our former pediatrician, and he was never concerned. However, Dr. S thought that he should see a hematologist. After two appointments, blood work, and months of waiting, we finally got a diagnosis. His condition is not life threatening, but he was pretty bummed when he found out he won’t be allowed to play soccer or football. I am relieved that this is a treatable, minor disorder.

Now onto happy news…

Samuel is doing excellent at the private school he is attending this year. He is maintaining all A’s, making new friends, and enjoys his teacher and classmates. There are pros and cons to having him in that setting, but my anxiety has pretty much subsided. It helps that I’m involved in the school’s parent group and volunteer on Friday afternoons. Samuel still joins our monthly evening homeschool group activities. And no, we haven’t ruled out homeschooling him in the future.

Sarah and Madelyn finished up soccer. Madelyn was the kid doing ballet twirls, somersaults, and singing while she was supposed to be playing the game. Sarah was eager to participate and learn. They both were fun to watch… for different reasons. They‘ve decided to join an American Heritage Girls troop (Samuel will be doing Cub Scouts at the same time). Somehow, maybe due to the name, they are under the impression that this is some sort of American Girl club, so AHG is now the coolest thing ever. I’ve tried to explain that the two aren’t related, but I’m pretty sure they are tuning me out. Either way, they are having fun, making new friends, and learning.

School Update Weeks 5-8, Apple Themed Activities Part 1

During weeks 5-8, we covered a lot of material. We’ve now studied the Vikings, Early Missionaries, Medieval Times, the Incas, and ancient China. I wanted to go more in depth with the Incas than what Sonlight includes, but the girls were eager to move on to China. Maybe I’ll find a way to sneak in more Inca time down the road! I've been using the camera less and less, not because I don't want to capture these wonderful moments, but because when we're in "school mode," pausing to go into "mom-photographer mode" feels like a distraction. The camera usually only comes out one or two days a week. The downside is, I can't look back through photos to remember details of certain moments...which makes trying to write about 4 weeks of school difficult...even with lesson plans in front of me :).


Sarah loves Draw Write Now...mostly the drawing, of course!


matching ending sounds

As I mentioned in our family update above, we did some fun math and literacy apple themed activities. There were so many activities to do in the pack I purchased that I'm saving some for when we read about Johnny Appleseed later.