One week down…

We made it through the first week of school! (and we’re halfway through the second…)

In science, we were learning about the weather, and on the day we read about the sun, we made these sun prints. Have you ever done these? They are pretty amusing. You place whatever objects you would like on top of the special paper and then put outside in direct sunlight for about two minutes. You then bring inside, soak in water for a minute and then let dry, and an image appears of the objects you had on the paper. The kids thought it was fascinating. They gathered some items from outside, and some from inside.

I made these Cinnamon Streusel Oatmeal muffins as a special treat last week. I had to hide them from Chaosman and Purpleicious because they wanted to eat them all. Animal Lover was not a fan; she said she didn’t like the crumb topping. Who doesn’t like crumb topping??! Apparently, Animal Lover, but she might be the only one. Here’s the recipe. The only thing I changed was substituting the regular flour for gluten-free flour, and they came out perfect. 

Chaosman usually finishes math before Animal Lover and has been playing some math games with Purpleicious when he’s done with his work. Sum Swamp is one of their favorites. It’s a pretty simple game, but kids seem to love it. When I was teaching K at the hybrid last year, the kids would ask to play it during math time almost every day.

I think the cats are really over us being home more since the pandemic started. I keep finding them in new hiding places. Here’s Pete in the girls’ closet. It does look like a comfy spot. Both cats seem to like the spot above the fridge now too.

I think when I was writing about our math curriculum choice for Animal Lover I was still undecided, but we ended up going with Beast Academy for her as well as Chaosman and it has been so amazing for her. (It is for Choasman also, but he loves all math, so that was not surprising.)

Last year math was a struggle for her. There were usually tears from one or both of us, and it took FOREVER. We’ve been using a combo of books and online for Beast Academy, and I’m not sure if it’s that, or just how the math is presented, but she has been doing amazing at it and has been enjoying it so much. She asked me to do extra lessons and told me, “I’m rocking this math!”
For some reason, I was feeling somewhat guilty about using an online program. I’m not sure why, but I am so glad that we went with this program anyway because it is working so well!

Someone decided to give herself a haircut. Was it the four year old? You’d think so, but no, it was the 7-year-old. Her BFF had just gotten a haircut, so I guess she needed a matching one. She is a repeat haircut offender. You’d think she’d have learned her lesson by now. I have to say though she’s getting better, maybe she has a future as a hairstylist.

Today we met some friends at the park. Last year when we were at the hybrid, I would have said no to going because we wouldn’t have had time to finish our work. It was so nice to feel like we could go to the park and not feel “behind” in school work.

I hope everyone is having a good week!