Our O.R.E.O. Project

This is always so much FUN!!! : ) 

A few weeks ago I signed up for the O.R.E.O. Project (click on this link to check out the project).  Today was our Oreo day.

Of course we started out with our math worksheets (graphing, word problems, addition and subtraction)and writing. If you Google Oreo worksheets, you can find a TON of them! If I were to let them loose with stacking Oreos first thing then they'd want to eat them all right afterwards and then we'd never get anything done!

After the boring stuff was over it was time to break out the Oreos! The boys always have such a blast doing this project. I'm reminded of it through out the year and they always want to have another Oreo Stacking Day instead of doing anything else. I can't blame them though ... who can really pass up school work that you get to eat afterwards??? : )

Each boy made 2 attempts to make the biggest stack of Oreos that they could make. Snake had the biggest stack this year ... 23 cookies. (Way to go Snake!) Sonic's biggest stack was 17.  We also had a race - who can stack the most cookies the fastest. This isn't in the final stats, but it was a lot of fun for the boys.

After our stacking activities we then filled cups with milk and had the grandest time dunking our Oreos and eating them.

It was so much (again) and I'd recommend this project to everyone!

Here are some pictures of our OREO Project:




It is awesome to be able to homeschool and to be able to do fun things like this with them! : )  Oh! I am going to blame our OREO Project as the reason we missed the homeschool meeting today ... no way was it that I just forgot!!! LoL

Learn How to Crochet!

Dana over at the Craftyminx blog is starting a Crochet School.

 

Class startes on Saturday, October 1st ... yeah this is really soon, but  everything will stay on the blog for when you are ready to begin.

She also has a class syllabus that you can read over so you can be ready.

The best part is it's FREE!!! : )   Who doesn't like free??? : )

This is something I've been wanting to learn so I'll be taking these online classes for sure.

You can visit Dana's site for more information ... Craftyminx  or you can click on her button over there to the right. : )

The kids won't be the only ones learning something (although I learn probably just as much as they do during our studies!) : )

Our Spider

This is a spider that has built it's web outside my oldest son's bedroom. It's outside so I can enjoy this one ... I don't want to touch it and if it started crawling toward me it would be one of those rare times that I run, but outside ... it's okay. : )

This spider is called Black and Yellow Argiope - my youngest made me look it up on the internet ... otherwise we'd all just be clueless as to what it's real name would be.  That big white spot is a cricket that my 2nd youngest found & threw into the web.

The zig zag line through the web is from a male spider of the same species. The female makes a regular web and then the male (who is much smaller will build the zig zag web over the female's web). It was very interesting to learn about ... and this wasn't a part of our school day! Isn't it great to be able to learn everywhere!?! : )

Here are some links if you'd like to look up more information about this spider (parents please remember to check websites before allowing children on them! I didn't run into anything bad, but you just never know.)

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_and_yellow_argiope.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_(spider)
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Argiope_aurantia.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-24_spider_blackandyellow_argiope.htm

I think we'll do a lapbook on spiders now. I believe I have 1 or 2 somewhere in my files! : ) HOAC has one & I'm pretty sure I have that one. We'll have to get started on that! Good time of year for a lapbook on spiders too ... close to Halloween! : ) If you'd like to put together a lapbook on spiders you can get one from HOAC (Hands of a Child) HERE

I don't know of any free spider lapbooks, but if I run across any I'll be sure to let you know.

One last picture of our spider & I'll let you be ; )

Isn't she amazing! : )  Just stay outside & we'll love you from a safe distance. : )

Our Tennessee Vacation

Who doesn't just love a vacation after 4 weeks of "school"???

We had a great time visiting the Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg ... but I'm happy to be home!

We went down on a Saturday ... and there is no sign welcoming you to Tennessee ... not that we could see anyhow.  Spent the 1st day pretty much at the cabin. Well we had to go to the local Kroger to get groceries after we unpacked, but that was pretty much it for the first day. After spending the whole day in the van driving down there everyone was happy to get out of it! :)

Sunday we also spent mostly at the cabin. Kids enjoyed the game room ... they had pool, air hockey, ping pong, foosball, darts, and a tv/dvd in the game room. While outside we had a dog come to visit us. His name was Buddy (it was on his tag). The younger boys had fun with him.

Later that evening we visited Knife Works and our youngest 2 finally got their first knife ... a sort of swiss army knife. They've already been wittling with them!

Monday we drove around in the park & up the mountain. We stopped by the creek & all the boys got out to check out the creek for a bit. After leaving that little area we came up on a mama bear with her cub crossing the road! We were excited!!! It was our first bear in the wild ... and there was a baby!!! It was awesome. Didn't think to take pictures until it was too late though. We got to enjoy the moment though and that's better than having a picture to share :)

Tuesday we spent time in Pigeon Forge going to shops. Then all the boys went to Wonder Works (thanks to Nick who actually took the little ones - he can be such a great brother sometimes!). That gave Mike and I several hours to spend together. That was nice for us cause we got to look at some of the shops (like the Christmas Place ... that was such a great store ... if I had a million dollars I could spend it there!), visit the Apple Barn, and eat lunch together. So all of our boys had a good time & we did too! :) Had a new stray dog show up ... no collar, she was hungry, and her fur matted pretty bad. We felt sorry for her!

Wednesday we drove up to Cade's Cove. It's in the Smoky Mountain National Park. That was interesting! We seen 12 more bears! Some turkeys & deer (no elk ... and I really wanted to see some of those). Then all the little buildings & such from the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Thursday the older boys spent their day in Gatlinburg going to all those little shops & looking around. The younger boys, Mike and I spent our day in Cherokee, NC. We drove around the city looking at all the sites & painted bears. Then went to the Cherokee Museum (which tied in nicely with the unit we just did on the Cherokee before we went on vacation). The boys ended up getting an arrowhead necklace each and some tatoos. We ended our day with packing up our stuff cause we had to be out of there by 10 AM the next day, and it was our last night to relax in the hot tub ... which was one of my favorite things!

Friday we packed up the van, checked out & let them know about the dog, dropped off our trash, and then went to a HUGE Flea Market!!! I was sore, hurting, and so tired after that. They had a lot of really neat stuff but it's just too big.

Here are some pictures of our trip (you can click on the picture viewer to be taken to a page where you can see them bigger):


Well that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed hearing a bit about our trip.

Time for a REAL blog!

Why did I start this blog?  I started it because of all the contests out there wanted you to "blog" about their giveaway ... and so I did.  Really that was my only reason for blogging.

Oh I made a few attempts at putting up actual posts about something the kids had done or something we did as a family, but was never serious about it.

I now find myself with some actual time that I can spend on a blog ... and I've been thinking I would really like to put up what my boys are doing for school ... maybe seeing themselves online would encourage them to do more ... try harder???  We will see. 

I do know they'll like seeing themselves.  I've been snapping pictures like crazy while they've been working on their projects this week & they like that (little hams!).  Might be because they are enjoying what we are doing this week too! LoL  We are doing China for geography, the Cherokee for history, Plants for science, learning more cursive letters, and of course the dreaded math!  I wanted to try to throw in a bit about Daniel Boone, but we may have to wait until after vacation to do that one.

I hope to have a post up about our week on Monday or Tuesday.  Right now this is a lot of work for me because I'm not used to it.  I'll have to get the hang of posting, adding pictures, and telling about our days. I've spent this past weekend looking at blog templates.  I haven't really found anything I really like yet.  A lot of them are either too girly for my tastes (I have all boys & tend to like things geared towards the boy side - besides my boys don't want to see themselves on a pink blog!) or they are too public schoolish or just plain ugly ... like everyone of the blogger templates you can choose from are just ugly ... I'm so not happy with what they have to offer! 

I did find a couple, but they simply don't look right when I try to add them.

Ah well ... I'm sure I'll find something eventually. :)

Well that's it for now.