Philly Cheesesteak and Pretzels

This year we are studying US Geography. We have been doing an overview for the last few weeks. Today we spotlighted Pennsylvania, we started there because that's where Daddy lived as a kid. We made soft pretzels and Philly Cheesesteaks. Not as good as Bala's but still good.
We also unearth our mummy experiment from last week. The ones we did in baking soda got moldy and there was only one combination that actually shrunk the apple smaller than our control sample. That was the table salt/baking soda mixture. One apple still smelled nice, which was a little disturbing.
Michael entertaining his brother and sister.

Michael- Before and After

Before:


After:

I think Michael looks like a very popular news commentator. Can you guess who I'm thinking?

Birthday Pics

Daniel got some great presents from Mommy and Daddy and his wonderful grandparents. Do you notice a reoccuring theme with Daniel and chocolate?

Tera and Daniel's joint present was art supplies, there was even some crayons in there for Michael.

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Today you turn 8....




You've always been our fun-lovin' little superhero. Your imagination has always amazed me. Daniel, you have wonderful God-given talents that are shining through more and more. We are so thankful you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and that you pray to be more like Him. We are proud of who you are and who you are becoming. We love you and are so glad you are our son!

Peanut Butter Cookies

I love these easy 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies:

1 cup peanut butter (half crunchy/half creamy)
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Combine all three ingredients. Drop by teaspoonful on cookie sheet. (I do the little crisscross design on top) Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Makes 3 dozen.

I've even made these with Splenda for a diabetic evangelist staying at our house once per his request.

Easy cookies for a quick sugar fix!

Wrapping It Up!

Check out the kids' new blog posts:

Paramecium

Bug Battle

Today we finished up Egypt with a Lentil Stew with flatbread. The kids worked on their Art lesson on Creativity Express, researched and wrote their blog posts, played a game, read a whole bunch and worked on more Land Invention experiments. That's about it for our day!

I wish we had gotten around to this project: Egypt Desert Scene and Masterpiece but there are always things I don't get around to. This week I did better at planning than I have for any unit in the past, so I feel like the week has been very productive and successful.

Ancient Egypt Unit cont.

Ancient Egypt for Kids- This is a great site. I let the kids pick and choose some topics and they discovered a several interesting things. Like this: an online version of an ancient game called Senet and Egyptian Math- a game that has students explore place value and other math functions using the Egyptian symbols.

We read about the Great Sphinx, took a tour of the Great Pyramid at Giza, and tried to build our own virtual pyramid (which we never successfully accomplished- those Egyptians knew what they were doing.)

The kids had a great deal of reading today in their library books about Ancient Egyptian life. We also did some experiments with a science kit that talked about friction and movement similar to the method the Egyptians used to move the stones. I scored this set with all the pieces intact at a thrift store last weekend for 5o cents. WOOHOO!

I had planned on doing a sugar cube pyramid but could not find the sugar cubes. Several things I planned this week fell through so I am filling in the gap with other activities and thankful that I have the freedom to do that.

Tomorrow we finish up Ancient Egypt, it's been fun!

Warning: Personal Medical Info to follow

I just woke up from crashing out on the couch. I went to my annual exam yesterday to come home with antibiotics for a UTI. This is some crazy medicine. I have never seen a May Cause Drowsiness-Be careful driving or operating dangerous machinery warning on antibiotics. Here are some of the common side effects: chills, cough, dizziness, drowsiness, fever, headache, loss of appetite, nausea, rash, tingling or numbness in fingers or toes, upset stomach...give me a break. I hate taking medicine anyway but know I better finish this round so this doesn't get worse. Oh I forgot, it also turns your urine some radioactive green looking color. I have been irritable and cranky today and fell asleep to the point of drooling on myself, I feel better now! Hopefully that was enough rest to make it until bedtime.

A Day in the Life

When I see other people's posts on this subject, I realize we are a structured- go with the flow family. We do not have breakfast at a specific time, school...etc. But I'll give you a snapshot of our day anyway.

Get up/shower/ get the kids started on reading
Kids start bookwork
Get Michael up
Breakfast
Kids finish school work and we do our together subjects (I'm usually cooking, cleaning, doing things on the computer all around this time) This is also when we have our school get togethers once a week or any drs. appts.
Lunch- This is our main meal of the day because of my husband's work schedule
Down time/ Michael goes down for a nap/ Finish up any schoolwork left
Dad goes to work
Kids play time- play dates- my time to get any things on my list done while Michael is sleeping. Some days I'm tired and I just veg out on the computer. I'm trying to convince myself that is okay but I still feel guilty. I'm trying to work mandolin practice in there too but that hasn't been consistent at all.
Supper
Playtime/ Baths/Devotions/Videos and etc.
Bedtime for kids- Michael usually at 7 and then Tera and Daniel by 7:30 or 8. They read a psalm before going to bed, listen to audio cds or tapes (Adventures in Odyssey, Chronicles of Narnia) then read before lights out at 8:30 or 9.
After I get everyone in bed, I will eat dinner, veg out for a while and exercise. I'm trying to get in bed early so about 9:30 or 10 I go up and have my Bible reading and prayer time before going to sleep.

This is just a typical day when we do not have anything extra or out of the ordinary. On those days we really go with the flow but it all works out in the end!

Check out other Day in the Life posts at: Not So Back to School Blog Hop

Ancient Egypt- Mummies and Such

I had a doctor's appointment today so I left the kids a list of sites to visit in my list of favorites. Below are some links:

The Story of King Tut

You wouldn't want to be a mummy!: This is one of those cartoony sites that explains the gory details of mummification in a comical way. My kids do not usually like this kind of thing but even Tera thought it was hilarious.

A short King Tut exhibit video

Escape from the Mummy's Tomb- video game

King Tut Picture Gallery

Egyptian Scribes and tons of other Egypt info

Hieroglyphics Generator

Rosetta Stone info

They also learned how to play a strategy game from Egypt called Nine Men's Morris. Here is an online version: Nine Men's Morris

We did a painting on a surface project from this book: Art for Fun Projects that was comparable to the Egyptian cave drawings found. I really like this book because it pairs a technique from a specific artist with a project. The students then try the technique in their own work of art.

We also designed our own sarcophagus. It seems like a kinda morbid activity. Tera gave hers a smiley face.

That was our crazy day!

Ancient Egypt and other Fun

We had a group of friends over today for music and math activities. In Math, the kids worked as a group to rearrange shapes into three squares by sharing pieces. Sounds easy but they couldn't talk at all while trading. Now I know my kids can be quiet for at least a few minutes, so I'll start expecting that more around here. Then they had a people puzzle, where they had to move around the floor one place at a time until everyone reached their specific place. Those puzzles always confuse me if they are not on paper, but the kids all worked together and everyone made it "home".
I taught a group music lesson. We learned about Beethoven, today. Made listening maps to go with his 5th symphony. Composed ABA 8 beat musical pieces- first on body percussion and then instruments as a large group/smaller groups. Learned a musical story- The Farmyard Song and then assigned each animal an instrument. Played Taco Dip on the Booms.



I woke up late again so we had our Egypt lessons after lunch today. We made salt clay cartouche. Those are Tera and Daniel's name in an adapted form of hieroglyphics we found online.



Then we played around code breaking... Then painted our own hieroglyphic codes...

We also reviewed a Bible verse from last week by making a doorhanger and reviewed some electricity information by making an insulator collage.

Michael just says: "Cheese!"
Tomorrow we are talking about mummies and King Tut so stay tuned!