Saturday, December 25, 2004
A New Loft Bed for and by Kate
Kate and her Dad testing out Kate's new loft bed. Kate conceived and roughed out the design for this bed, while her dad refined it and built it for her. They painted the pieces together (Kate picked out the color), and completed the construction on Christmas Eve.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:36 AM 
Friday, December 24, 2004
Delivering Gifts
Kate, Josh, and Zachary setting off to deliver the completed cookies-in-a-jar gifts to our neighbors. Kate had helped with the finishing touches of fabric and labelling.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:27 AM
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Stirring Ingredients
Zachary stirring the flour, salt, and baking soda mixture. Kate and Josh had measured out the ingredients and Zachary stirred. Mom packed the flour mixture into the jars.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:25 AM
Making Cookies-in-a-Jar Gifts
Kate and Josh measuring chocolate chips into jars for our Cookies-in-a-Jar christmas gifts. Last year we found this was a fun way to make gifts for friends and family. This year we did six jars at a time of a Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:21 AM
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Joshua loves to take pictures. Now that we have a nicer digital camera, he's thrilled with the instant results. Here's a picture of Zachary that he captured today.
# posted by Shannon @ 11:04 PM
Kate focused on sewing a dress for Share Bear. The fabric was donated to her by Ms. Rachel. Kate immediately decided to make a dress out of it.
# posted by Shannon @ 11:00 PM
The Angel dolls Kate and Josh made today with Ms. Rachel. Kate's doll is on the left; Josh's doll is on the right.
Each time they meet with Ms. Rachel they've worked on a project from Feltcraft - Making Dolls, Gifts, and Toys by Petra Berger. We adapted the directions to use gold chenille pipe cleaners and glitter glue instead of the little tiny beads the directions suggested. These dolls turned out really easy once we had all the materials.
The hair on the dolls is raw wool that we washed and carded in an earlier visit with Ms. Rachel. We now have the instructions for making a drop spindle so we'll be able to spin wool too.
# posted by Shannon @ 10:52 PM
Joshua playing Zoombini's Logical Journey , a math concepts game that so far has turned addicting for all of us who begin playing or watching. The deer-in-the-headlights look is because I broke his concentration when I took the picture.
# posted by Shannon @ 10:35 PM
To learn calendaring skills and to reinforce counting, Josh has been marking off each day in December and counting how many days until Christmas. He is also putting stickers on each day that show the picture of what weather we had that day.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:23 AM
Josh's latest Lego creations are boats with people and rescue equipment or weapons. Here he holds two new creations.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:21 AM
Saturday, December 11, 2004
"This is the most powerful one I've built so far," says Josh. Each little piece has a detailed description as to what it did. The side on the left "blasts off". Most days, Joshua spends at least 2 hours playing with Legos or Duplos.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:29 PM
Kate taking a break from talking and petting Sarah the rabbit. Feeding and caring for Sarah is one of Kate's daily responsibilities.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:24 PM
Kate holding the bird's nest she found today. After investigating what it was made of (primarily pine needles), she decided to put it back where she found it. "For other birds so they wouldn't have to work so hard. Right now, all the birds are going south for the winter."
# posted by Shannon @ 8:20 PM
Zachary at Josh's Futsal game. Zachary is still too young to play, but he loves to hang out in the bleachers and kick the ball around in between games.
# posted by Shannon @ 1:53 PM
Saturday, December 04, 2004
For the last two & a half months, Kate and six other home-schooled girls have been taking beginning soft-shoed Irish Dance lessons. Here she poses after her first performance.
# posted by Shannon @ 1:27 PM
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Kate and Josh have been making dolls with Ms. Rachel. These are the first two dolls they made. If you look closely at Joshua's doll, you'll see the infamous "Harry Potter" scar.
# posted by Shannon @ 5:47 PM
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Coming up this week...
Busy week in school this week:
Tomorrow Kate and Josh take a weaving class offered by Humboldt Handmade (www.humboldthandmade.com).
Saturday Josh starts KinderFutsal through Inside Sports (www.insidesports.ws).
And...
Kate has her Irish Dance performance on Saturday night. She's fully outfitted now with 'ghilles' (irish soft-sole dance shoes) and now feels the part. I'll have pictures to share next week.
Tomorrow Kate and Josh take a weaving class offered by Humboldt Handmade (www.humboldthandmade.com).
Saturday Josh starts KinderFutsal through Inside Sports (www.insidesports.ws).
And...
Kate has her Irish Dance performance on Saturday night. She's fully outfitted now with 'ghilles' (irish soft-sole dance shoes) and now feels the part. I'll have pictures to share next week.
# posted by Shannon @ 8:13 PM
A new way to share
Welcome to our new homeschooling blog. Our main purpose to share what we are doing and our thoughts on education with those who we care about. With family and friends spread across the country, this is one way we have to share with you what K & J are working on. Stay tuned!
# posted by Shannon @ 7:44 PM
