First bit of November

For math on the day after Halloween, we ditched the books and instead sorted our candy into groups, tallied them up, compared and contrasted, counted by 5's, etc. Math is way more fun with Halloween candy!



Miles's first Pinewood Derby! I have zero experience in this arena, so I was depending on Richie to take the lead on this one. However, he had little time to devote to car making that week, so our efforts were bare-bones. Miles did a lot of it himself and he was very proud of his design. However, I quickly learned upon attending the derby that most boys seemed to have more help from their parents than Miles did. Plus, I didn't know about any of the cool tricks like graphite on the wheels etc. Miles lost every single race he was in. Not just by a little either. I was worried that he would be crushed because he had been so excited about this event. Imagine my pride as a mother that he was happy the whole time, cheered on his friends, was thrilled with his "roadmaster" certificate, and told me on the way home that "It's ok I lost. I still had lots of fun!" Winning!!



Making Zen gardens at homeschool group


Studying chemical reactions with baking soda and vinegar. We blew up balloons, filled up test tubes, and gave them droppers of colored vinegar to drop on mounds of baking soda-which made mini volcanoes. :) We learned that milk does not produce CO2 when mixed with baking soda, but lemon juice does! Science is fun.


Another joy school day here for Lindy's group. Learning about letter I and Thanksgiving. I obviously had to feed them ice cream for snack time, right? I also meticulously planned about 10 other fun themed activities, which none of them were really interested in.


Here's what 80% of homeschool is these days. I remember when Lindy got to this destructive phase and how hard it made school. This time it's a little easier, because when I'm working with one of the older kids, usually the other one is keeping an eye on Benson for me. However, by the end of school time, the house is a complete disaster.I swear he's like a Hydra. If I clean up one mess, he makes 2 others in it's place.


Was working in the kitchen one afternoon, and peeked my head in the living room to find this: Miles reading, Gwen practicing piano, Lindy coloring, and Benson happily cruising along the furniture. I wanted to freeze time, it was so perfect!


Making penny loaves like they did in London, for homeschool group day


Had a chance to make it down to the dinosaur museum with friends last Friday for our field trip. I usually try to leave Fridays open for appointments, errands, field trips etc. It was a fun morning with the Andersons! Benson's favorite part was watching this weasel tail thing in the gift shop. :)


My nephew Tucker and his wife Belen are awesome and put on a breakfast down in Orem last Saturday to raise money for 4 refugee families they know. I was able to collect a whole bunch of stuff from generous families in my neighborhood, so on Saturday we loaded up the van and headed down. We ate a yummy breakfast and the kids played in great piles of leaves. Wonderful morning.


Later that day I went out to paint some windows! Tis the season! I don't usually document that stuff on this blog. But it should be known that this has been a part of our lives for the last 6 or so years. So, there's that!


Gwen and her good friend Aimsley taking selfies! Ha! I let Gwen borrow my phone to take a picture, and then she ran off with it. Come to find out, she started videoing things following behind Aimsley. Aimsley walked into her mom's room, right after she had gotten out of the shower! Mandy (Her mom) came over a few minutes later, told me the story and asked that I would just delete it asap. hahaha!! I was happy to oblige.


Gwen and Lindy have a hard time getting along sometimes. I was so sick of it this last Sunday. So after I had exhausted all my usual options, I tried something I'd seen online somewhere. It's called the "get-along" shirt. Haha! They have to wear the same shirt until they can get along. Turns out, they were laughing so hard, they didn't have to wear it for very long.