Category Archives: Homeschool

Learning at home with a second-grader and a fifth-grader.

This week in homeschooling: Gingerbread and fairy tales

The week marked one ending and one beginning for our homeschool, as Monday was the last day of this session of co-op and today the kids had some friends over to start a new project. They’re sad that co-op is over (I’m relieved), but they were excited to have their first Project Gingerbread meeting today. They’ve put together a team for the National Gingerbread House Competition, and now my kitchen looks like the Swedish Chef set up shop in there.

An actual photo of me supervising the gingerbread team.
An actual photo of me supervising the gingerbread team.

In history this week we talked about the German Empire and the Second Reich, and our end-of-week project was to write a couple of fairy tales a la the Brothers Grimm. The kids were supposed to take a story they’ve heard from our family history and give it a fanciful twist. Here’s what they wrote:


When Mommy and Daddy Got Married

by Pete

Once upon a time, there were a boy and a girl. But there was also a cat! The cat is very important in this story. So are the boy and the girl.

Now, our story begins in high school. The boy and the girl were in high school. One of them had a cat. The cat went to the boy and said, “Meow! Meow!” And so the boy followed the cat. The cat went over Mount Everest, into the deepest darkest cave, out of the deepest darkest cave, and into a house.

It was a nice house with boxes of Nerds everywhere. The girl was there eating Nerds.

The boy said, “Hello.” The girl said, “Hi.” The cat said, “Meow.”

Then the cat went back to Mount Everest.

The boy and the girl fell in love, and they got married.

And the cat lived happily ever after.

The End


The Story Of Marsha

by Poppy

Once upon a time, there was a boy and a girl who were married. They decided they wanted a cat. So they went to the cat store and looked at the selection. They had to journey through New York and met Dr. Strange. He made a portal for them and then they were outside the cat store. There were exactly 100,000 cats in the store.

The first 20,000 cats they met were not well-mannered. They were very gassy.

The second 20,000 cats they met were too hungry. The boy and girl did not have enough cat food for them.

The third 20,000 cats they met were too ginormous. The boy and girl only had one house, and none of those cats would fit in it.

The fourth 20,000 cats they met were too addicted to television. They did not even notice the boy and girl were there.

The next 19,999 cats they met were too strange. They would only walk on their back legs. (They did buy one for Dr. Strange and took it to his house.)

Finally, they met Cat Number 100,000. She was a dilute tortoiseshell named Princesshead. She did not toot, she was not too hungry, she was just the right size, she only liked the TV program “Cat Food Around the World,” and she walked on all four legs. She was very sweet and soft. They decided to buy her and rename her Marsha.

And the boy and the girl and the dilute tortie lived happily ever after. (And Doctor Strange and his cat went to fight Dormomu and his cat, Dormeowmu.)

The End


So other than the house becoming a gingerbread construction site, our week was pretty much par for the course? How was your week, school-wise?

Curious about what homeschoolers do all day? Check out more homeschooling adventures at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

I am the Jon Snow of reminiscing about our week

I’ve felt like I’ve fallen into a time warp all week. And not the good kind, with fish fingers and custard and a quirky, handsome guide to the universe. It’s more like the kind where you accidentally start a war with a small landlocked country or get eaten by a baby pterodactyl. I’m having a hard time recovering from Disney World / Halloween / having guests / the World Series, is what I’m saying.

(I know none of those are even remotely terrible things, but my brain is fried nonetheless.)

So while I know the kids have accomplished some school-related work this week, I couldn’t begin to itemize what they did. Here is a bit of what we did this week:


Reading

We are all beginning to understand that “Little Women” is the longest book in the history of literature.

Math

Poppy is supposed to have a math test today, but she really needs to have a solid day or two of review before the test. And we have definitely not had a solid day or two of review, so the math test will be postponed until next week.

History

We returned to post-Revolution France this week, and the kids seem to have paid attention to the information. Today we’ll be doing a little map work and playing a card game in which the rules keep changing. After Anne asked about it, the folks at Peace Hill Press said it would be OK if I shared the rules with you. Here’s how you play!

CHANGING RULES

from “Story of the World: Volume 4”

Materials:
– a deck of playing cards
– a score sheet with space for 6 rounds (Republic #1, Empire #1, Kingdom #1, Republic #2, Empire #2, Kingdom #2) and a total
– at least two people to play

Keeping track of points:

  • During the Republic phases, all cards with numbers are worth their face value. A 6, for example, is worth 6 points. Face cards and aces are worth 1 point each.
  • During the Empire phases, an Ace is worth 20 points. A King is worth minus 10 points, a Queen is worth minus 8 points, and a Jack is worth minus 10 points. No other cards are worth anything.
  • During the Kingdom phase, a King is worth 10 points, a Queen is worth 8 points, and a Jack is worth 6 points. An ace is worth minus 10 points, and other cards are worth nothing.

    Playing instructions:

  • Shuffle the deck.
  • The dealer deals 4 cards to each player. Everyone can look at his or her own cards.
  • The remaining cards are placed face-down in a draw pile.
  • The player to the left of the dealer discards a card from his hand and places it face-down next to the draw pile, then picks up a card from the draw pile.
  • Play continues around the circle. You should never have more than four cards in your hand at once.
  • Once each player has discarded and drawn four times, count up the points in everyone’s hand. Write you point total on the score sheet, then start the next round with the cards in your hand left over from the previous round.
  • At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
    Extracurricular

    Poppy only made it to two of the four tae kwon do classes this week, and she only had two of her three usual soccer practices. Pete did make it to both of his TKD classes, but the Monday one was a special-edition Halloween class where they just played games. He’s been working pretty hard rehearsing for his guitar recital this weekend, too.


    How was your week?

    Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

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  • The greatest, most stressful #OneDayHH of all time

    This was my third year (2014, 2015) participating in Laura Tremaine’s One Day thing on instagram. I’m writing this at 1am, right after the Cubs won the World Series — the Cubs! They won the World Series! — and I am so tired and emotional that I can hardly string a thought together. Rockford has been a Cubs fan for more than 30 years. This was a big, stressful, amazing day.

    8:06am | Breakfast

    9:37am | Chess class

    10:21am | Go Cubs Go

    10:58am | A Quiet Moment

    11:48am | Hometown Tourism

    1:07pm | A Quick Bite

    Lunch of champions. #tacodilesupreme #crunchytacobesttaco #OneDayHH

    A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

    2:05pm | Back to Work

    3:15pm | A Very Exclusive Concert

    4pm | Leg Day

    6:23pm | Game Face

    We are ready. #OneDayHH #gocubsgo

    A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

    7:20pm | Birthday Dinner x3

    Pulled pork, Brussels sprouts, creamed corn and hush puppies. #3bdaydinner #onedayhh

    A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

    8:07pm | It Begins

    This'll be the rest of my evening. #onedayhh #gocubsgo #therewillbetearseitherway

    A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

    10pm | Cake Break

    11:40pm | I Literally Cannot Even

    This is unbearable. #onedayhh

    A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

    12:40am | One Out Left

    #onedayhh #cubs I don't have any words left

    A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

    12:48am | World Series Champions

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh #onedayhh

    A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on