What We Are Doing
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| Rutgers Day 2013 |
Piper performed with the Rutgers Children's Choir at Rutgers Day.
Piper auditioned for the next level of the Rutgers Children's Choir.
We took a tour of greenhouses and learned about poisonous and edible plants.
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| Greenhouse Tour - Rutgers Day 2013 |
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| I look forward to the falafel every year at Rutgers Day & lounging on the lawn in the sun at the Folk Festival! The fam did not know that Red Oak Lane is actually the main drag on Cook Campus--they were excited to see the sign! Listening to live music, taking photos by the old bridge, hanging with friends and Jason being goofy! |
Playing "Go, Fish"--or, as Jason and the girls call it, "Go, Patooskis"which is the same as Go, Fish but with a name they all find more fun to say--it started years ago and none of us remember how.
Playing Checkers.
Allie is researching and preparing to get the male gerbil that will (hopefully) impregnate her female gerbil. There is a lot that goes into this. She has to gradually get them used to each other before she allows them in the same cage. She has tons to do before the babies come....she's been "nesting" gerbil-style!
Playing Bananagrams
Making dinner -- Piper and I no longer eat meat
Making Fudge -- Allie made homemade fudge all by herself!
Baking Pound Cake -- Allie baked this again, all by herself!
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| Allie made homemade fudge. She made meatloaf and mashed potatoes and green beans one night--I coached on the meatloaf; since Piper and I no longer eat meat, but Allie and Jason do, I want her to start learning to prepare and cook meat. She also baked this scrumptious lemon pound cake all by herself! |
What We Are Creating
- Super groovy jeans--inspired by Lauren at Learning ALL the Time
- Handbags
- Piper wrote a script about a missing vintage necklace and four friends who search for it
- Allie spent a lot of time using a Home Design 3D app to create floor plans for houses
- Seven Cool Homeschoolers video blindfold taste tests
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| We have been watching "Switched at Birth" --it's our guilty pleasure--it is a little soap opera-y, but it has encouraged the girls to look for sites that teach sign language and learn some signs. Piper asked me to play Bananagrams--so fun, nice to have time for this! Allie spent a whole after noon painting on these jeans--she wanted to do this ever since she saw Lauren from Learning ALL the Time do it, but we couldn't find jeans we felt were right until...now! |
What We Are Reading
Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons (Jason)
Christy by Catherine Marshall (Allie)
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (Allie)
No Cream Puffs (Piper)
Ghoulfriends (Piper)
What We Are Watching
Seven Cool Homeschoolers -- we loved all the Room Tours this week!!
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (Allie)
No Cream Puffs (Piper)
Ghoulfriends (Piper)
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| I have been leaving these books around: This week, one of the girls asked about the New Deal and then told me what they had read in "Are You a Conservative? Are You a Liberal?" and the other girl piped in with all kinds of opinions. The girls both have small jobs and we are making them save 50% of their earnings and really think about how they spend the rest. They looked through this book and decided I am even more extreme than this book in saving. I admit, it's true. I am frugal to a fault. Jason and I want to give the girls some money to invest in the stock market (not sure if that is legal, but it would be in our account for now, but we would know which stock was theirs)...I've seen them look through the stock book a bit. |
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| As always, 7 Cool Homeschoolers...this week the topic was room tours...we loved getting a peak at everyone's room! They also filmed and began editing their videos for next week, as we have a VERY busy weekend this weekend and won't have time to work on videos! |
Seven Cool Homeschoolers -- we loved all the Room Tours this week!!
Switched at Birth - I am usually not a huge fan of allowing the girls to lose themselves in a show the way we have with this show, but it has lead to watching a documentary on cochlear implants and teaching ourselves a little American Sign Language
The Amish - a PBS documentary--did you know that more than 30 Amish families attended the funeral of the guy that shot all those Amish girls in 2006? Including some of the victims' families. Truly, truly inspirational. I could go on all day about this--it was a great documentary--we highly recommend it!
The Chris Hadfield Space Station videos - we've been watching these for a while--they are so cool and we all wish we could float around like that.
Favorite Apps & Websites
iCivics continues to be a hit around here - I love that the girls are learning about the law!
Minecraft--obvs!
Home Design 3D app for ipad
PopTropica
100 First Signs
ASL Coach app
