So Much Going On

What follows is essentially a month in pictures.  We have been busy and had a lot of wonderful things going on.  We have been to two classes at the aquarium, a class at the seaport, a field trip to a sugar house, studied the moon phases, learned to add and subtract fractions, lots of geography, the kids are learning French, they have had first penance, and McWeeds classes.  We have studied geometry, entomology, phenology, chemistry, physics, paleontology, and Queen Victoria.  The kids are learning coding, and we have been doing workbooks, music, art, and all kinds of great things.  We saw the Eastern CT Symphony Orchestra perform Mozart's Requiem.  We finished a unit on the Inuit, Greeks, Romans, and began learning about the Aztecs.  We took a fire safety class, and have been spending a lot of time outside quite recently.  We did a bacteria and fungus unit, growing mold and bacteria in petri dishes.  We studied space, and have been doing Star Wars yoga.  We studied medieval food and have been growing plants.  I am sure I am forgetting stuff, but here we go with pictures: 

 Sugar house trip.  CJ is looking through a tool called a refractometer.  Eliza is hammering in a spile.

 We took a walking tour of a town after a nice drive, and found a museum we want to visit in the spring.  We are really excited as we are currently reading the Boxcar Children.

 Eliza is now seven years old, and loved her birthday.  She got nunchuk pens, and was crazy excited.

 This was her beautiful tasty cake, that was the texture of concrete.  At least it was pink.

 And for her birthday dinner we had chicken kiev because it has butter, and we had to play Ticket to Ride all during dinner.  It was required so said the birthday girl.

 The kids have been diligently practicing math, Roman numerals, adding, subtracting, multiplying, division, and fractions.

 Fire safety class at a local firehouse was fantastic.  The kids loved it and now have a fire escape plan.

 This was from a walk around some historic parts of Norwich just as flowers were starting to bloom.

 New exhibit at the Aquarium, I was so excited that the kids got to see the sleds like we studied in our Inuit unit.  They have been to this new exhibit three times, and keep asking to go back.

 CJ as a paleontologist, and Eliza as an arctic scientist.

 Homemade natural dyes for Easter eggs.  These were ODD!

 Beautiful Easter clothes they only got to wear the night before, as they got sick during Saturday night church and we missed Easter dinner.  C'est la vie.

 Some fun outside time with friends not that snow is finally gone.

 The kids practicing place value all over the floor.  Of course we do school in tutus and jammies.  Doesn't everyone?  Some days it is ninja costumes and paleontologists outfits.

 Everytime I turn around I see the kids like this, curled up reading.  They sort of ignore me when they are into their books.  Sometimes they forget to eat.  Not gonna lie, I love it, and not going to be mad at them for being crazy into reading.

 Notice Jack Sparrow in the back.  He was GOOD, even had the mannerisms down.

 My kids throwing harpoons.  Honestly I cringed, like a lot.

 My little pirates on mock trial for piracy.  Spoiler:  they hung.  Just kidding!  But they were found guilty, as most pirates were.  This was followed by sea shanties.

It has been a full fun month.  What I am really looking forward to is gardening, sunshine, walking in the fresh air, and studying some new fun things.  Anyone have good suggestions for new topics?

Recap and Review

We have had a lot of great stuff going on in the past month.  We finished a unit on chemistry, and a unit on the Inuit.  We started classes at McWeeds this past week, and it was great.  We are looking forward to great classes over the next several weeks.  Tomorrow we start monthly classes at Mystic Aquarium, and Tuesday we start them at Mystic Seaport.  We did Seaport classes last year, and they are phenomenal.  The kids are super excited.  I am just excited to be getting out of the house and doing stuff again.

The kids did a few sessions of ice skating, and are starting to really enjoy it.  I will be looking into finding reasonably priced classes or lessons.

And this is what it looked like outside the first day we were supposed to start classes.  So glad it is starting to melt and we can see some grass.  To celebrate we have been planting seeds and we made a terrarium in a giant jar.

It adds a beautiful element to our school room.  And the kids learned a lot about plant requirements and ecosystems.

We had a great field trip for Homeschool Day at The Connecticut Historical Society.  The prices are low and the classes are fantastic and really hands on.  The museum is small but great, really interactive and interesting.

We finished our Magic School Bus Human Body kit, did lots of painting and artsy craftsy stuff.  We made Valentines and did cooking and baking lessons.  We watched a lot of Liberty's Kids, worked on a dinosaur unit, worked in our Star Wars workbooks, studied Mesopotamia, physics, and square roots and square numbers.  We did a unit on rocks and minerals, did geography, studied the periodic table, and learned all about the number pi.  We also started playing Settlers of Catan with the geeklings.

We also saw an amazing glass blowing demonstration.  Which prompted CJ to state that he wants to go to RISD, and study glass blowing, since it is beautiful art and studying thermodynamics at the same time!

We finished a unit on Pompeii, and the kids have shown a lot of interest in studying things on their own.  They have been doing their own research in their books on topics that interest them as well as showing a lot more effort in their work.

We are very grateful for our network of families in the Southeastern CT Homeschool group.  We have had such great field trip and playdate opportunities, great parties, and a lot of support.  It has made a huge difference in our homeschool journey.  We had a curriculum swap, and it was fantastic to share ideas and materials with each other.  I am excited to start our spring schedule.  My favorite part of our spring plans is to start hiking with some friends, and then to start some cooking classes utilizing Alton Brown videos on Netflix.  Getting into the air and then into the mud, it will be amazing after the cooped up horrible winter we have endured.  Our homeschool group will be planning field trips to the Dinosaur State Park, and nature centers.  We can't wait for spring!!