And Another Thing...

Boy Scout Camp

The boys went to Camp Frontier at the Pioneer Scout Reservation in Ohio last week.  Wednesday was Parent Night, so we went down with another scout parent to check things out.  This was the first experience either of them has had away at camp.  Although they were very excited to have this adventure and were having a tremendous amount of fun, they were both very glad to see us on Wednesday.  I'm very happy to say that Ben hugged me so hard, it hurt!

Ben was dubbed "The Kid With the Hair" by his fellow scouts.  You can see why they'd think that.

We got to eat dinner with the boys and after they consumed enormous amounts of food we had a lovely conversation.  As I watched nearly every boy go back for seconds and thirds, I deduced that 90% of the cost of camp was for the food.

Braidon participated in the Root Beer Cantina which I gather involved drinking an unhealthy amount of root beer in a very short period of time.

This is where the boys learned all kinds of stuff like lashings, rope tying, survival skills, first aid, etc.  The fenced in area on the right side is a human foosball table.

This is the tent where Braidon did some of the work on his fishing merit badge.

I may be biased, but I think these were the two best looking boys at the whole camp.

On a serious note, the boys had great time all week long.  This is including, but not limited to: each of them earning 3 merit badges, passing the swim test on the first try, learning a bunch of new things, eating as much food as they wanted at meal time and  surviving a tornado by hiding out in an unfinished latrine.  All in all, a very good week.  They're already talking about next year's camp.

Catching Up: Bowling with the Unschoolers

 A couple of weeks ago, we had the opportunity to go bowling with some friends.  I had no idea that my kids enjoyed bowling so much, we'll definitely do this again as often as we can.  I love the picture of Olivia up there after she got a strike.  That is pure joy, my friends.  I also had no idea that they made bowling shoes small enough for Saragh.

Catching Up: Halloween Party

We went to a Halloween party in Ann Arbor with some friends of ours and had a great time!  We played games, went through a haunted house, roasted marshmallows, played in a drum circle and hula hooped.  It was a really fantastic evening.

Word games

Olivia was bored of workbooks the other day (who wouldn't be?) so I made up this game to help her with reading and spelling.

Needed materials:  Letter tiles, counting manipulatives, pencil, paper

We spread out the letter tiles face up and then I chose a word for Olivia to spell.  She sounded out each letter and then spelled her word (I helped if she needed it).  After she spelled it correctly, she added up the numbers on the letter tiles for her score.  Then she chose a word for me to spell and we repeated the process.  She actually spelled out my letters too, but I don't think she realized it.  She also added up my score as well. 

I cannot believe how much fun she had with this, she spent the entire time giggling!  I was also amazed that she spelled "queen" correctly.  I loved that she practiced her phonics, spelling and addition skills all in one shot.  I think we will be playing this game quite a bit in the future.

Not-Back-to School Blog Hop - School Room Week (late)

I just found out about this blog roll, so I am a little late with the school room week pictures.

This is our dining/craft room where we spend a big portion of the day.  Please excuse the photos, it's a cloudy day, so they're very dark.

This is the craft cabinet that my fabulous hubby put together for us.  It's an old cabinet from our kitchen that we removed when we put a pantry in.  He repainted it and put a nice new counter top on it and wha-la! We have a great storage space for our oodles on craft supplies!

This is our library/family room.  We just switched our house around so that the books would be in the bigger, brighter room.  We're loving all the space we have to spread out and read and play games.  This room is really warm in the winter when we have a fire going.  We almost never leave it. 

Since we're mostly unschoolers, we don't really "do" school.  When we do work on something, we just find the place that is the most comfortable and well suited to our project and set up shop.  Sometimes that's at the kitchen table, sometimes it's snuggling on the couch and sometimes it's sprawled out on the floor.  I think it really suits us to be flexible and respect the different work needs of each member of the family.

What did you do on Saturday night?

We had some survival training Saturday night.  Oliver and the boys ties each other up and then had to try to escape.  The boys both needed some help to get out of their bonds, but Oliver was able to get out almost immediately!  The boys broke out the Dangerous Book for Boys and started practicing knot tying.  They have vowed to tie Oliver up so well that he can NEVER get out!

Loooooong time, no see!

I have been away for a very long time and I apologize.  It has simply been too nice around here lately to be in at my computer too much.  Here is a quick wrap up of what we have been doing since I was here last.

So, that's the last few weeks in a nut shell, so to speak.  We have been having a great time with friends and we are looking forward to a great summer filled with lots of sunshine and outdoor time!  I'll be back soon (er) I promise!

Chalk and Hop

This is a new game that Saragh invented today...

Not Laundry Day

Because of this...

I could not do this...

So instead we did this...

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, it is not a bright day and the basement light is not good.  Off to start laundry now that the sewer line is open again!

Note to self:  Baby wipes should be kept up very high and possibly in a safe with a very hard combination.  Better yet, the baby should be potty trained so that there are not baby wipes in the house.

The View From My Sick Bed

I was down with a cold yesterday, no surprise after nursing 3 little girls through high fevers and colds all last week.  Luckily, the recovering girls stayed very close to me yesterday and allowed me to rest without too much chaos.

They sat here on the rug in front of the sofa in the learning room for quite a while a played with puzzles, the train, read books and colored.  BTW, isn't that rug fabulous?  I just got it off of craigslist last week for $25!!!

This is a shot of my kitchen table at about 3:00 in the afternoon with breakfast and lunch still waiting to be cleaned up.  Yikes!

This is Olivia entertaining me in the early evening.  She is  clown with a cape draped over her face and she keeps running into things because she can't see.  She felt so much better yesterday that she was silly, bordering on insane.

Saragh also entertained me as a clown with her "pony" Philbert aka Merriadoc. 

The boys, of course, were nowhere to be found, and thus they were entertaining in their own way.  As a "reward" for everyone being so cooperative yesterday, they got to watch 2 movies today.  Not to mention, it gave me plenty of time to finish the sweater I was working on and get the house back in shape.