Super Glue.........

So does the title say it all? 

What do you get when you mix a curious 7 year old and super glue?

Don't know???

You have that 7 year old with super glue all over her hands...

Yes Samantha did this this morning right before I was leaving the house for work.  

She was trying to glue a fake finger nail to her pumpkin.  Why she thought it needed that I am not 

sure. Why she thought to use super glue and not craft glue I don't know.  What I do know is its hard to take

supper glue off of a child's hands.  

Tried nail polish remover but since I only had the kind without acidtone in it, that didn't do the job.  

As she learned as she tried to wash her hands off with soap and water that just doesn't do the job.  

Time is what takes super glue off of a little girl's hands.  

These are the moments where I just shake my head and wonder what was going through her mind while she 

did it.  My wonderful curious little girl I bet she wont touch super glue again.  

I love that this is one of those moments where she will have the natural consequences to her actions with her 

all day long.

Great day of homeschooling...

Today was a great day.  Homeschooling went smoothly. She even cleaned up her messes in the living room without too much of a fuss. She tried on some pants to see what fits.  We got through so much work.  It was a great day!

To start the day she went ice skating at the Portsmouth Abby.  They open the rink to homeschoolers for free every Tuesday.  We love it. Samantha loves to skate.  Today she fell and hurt her face. But she was a trooper she went back out on the ice once she was done crying. She is sporting a nice cut on her face.  But besides that she did awesome.

We even read further in her history then planned as she wanted to find out what happens next.  The history I picked for this year is 2 books that read like a story.  The book we are reading now is all about the the first settlers to our country.  About the different people who settled different areas in our country.  So it reads like a story with the children being the main characters in the story.  The facts are all real.  She loves it.  She would devour the whole story that is made up of 4 chapters/lessons in one day.  We always end up doing a craft to go along with the story.  But since she insisted on finishing so quickly the craft will come tomorrow when I am more prepared.

Started a new book for FIAR.  Papa Piccolo.  The story is much different then I expect.  Its a good surprise.  Samantha really enjoyed this book.   I will post more about this at a later date.

For science we were talking about living things.  She then had to create her own "new" living creature.  It could have been anything an animal or plant.  Just from her imagination. She then has to explain how it gets its food, water. movement and how it reacts.  She of course made a new type of cat.  Then went on to make its food and water and surroundings all out of air dry clay I can't wait to see what the finished product will look like.

Tonight going off to bed Samantha was coughing a lot. I hope its just allergies and not a cold.  Praying she will be fine in the morning.

Five in a Row... Clown Of God.

Last week the book we rowed is called  Clown Of God.  We both really enjoyed this book.  It sparked some interesting conversations.

One interesting thing from the book.... In the beginning of the book Giovanni would juggle vegetables for his bread. The couple who owned the market that would give him a bowl of soup for his juggling was Senior and Senora Baptista.  Baptista is my maiden name.  Samantha thought that was amazing.  

From this book Samantha learned about homeless children, the Renaissance time period and its art, clothing and way of life, elderly people, about monks and monasteries  We worked on reading comprehension, what a balanced story is, repetition in a story and contrast in writing.  She learned about how even as poor as he was he was thankful he had this wonderful skill of juggling that could earn him his food.  Talked about gravity and that is what made the balls fall to the ground when he dropped the son of the heavens ball.

Some interesting things we did, We read up on Michelangelo and what his life was like, what kind of art he did and some of his famous works of art.  She learned about how he painted the ceiling in the Sistine chapel  I had her paint a picture like Michelangelo painted the ceiling. I taped a paper under the table and let her paint it that way. She spent a little time trying to figure out an easy way to do it so her arm wouldn't start hurting.  

Some pictures from the week...

painting under the table

 Her finished work of art

art water color with sequencing. with water color and ink. 

 Fun way to do vocabulary... She had to first match up the word with the definition then cut out pictures in a magazine to show she understood the meaning of the word.  

We are both sad to say good-bye to this wonderful book.... we started our newest FIAR book.... Papa Piccolo 

Fun while learning....

So there has been many things that we have done in the last week or so.  I will post about our Five In A Row time tomorrow.


We started a new science kit.. This one is all about flight... how air pressure helps you fly.  So her first experiment was... what will happen when you suck out all the juice from a juice box and keep on sucking. Her hypothesis was nothing.... but she learned that the sides collapsed due to the air pressure. taking the air out of the box making the air pressure on the outside stronger as it pushed on the sides to fill that space.

I then found this great idea to practice math.  Each ghost has a number on it and she had to match them to the right addition problem. I have been making new ones each day for her to complete.  She loves it. 

The last week was a busy week with one day off.  We went along with the public school and took off Columbus day.  She has gotten very independent with some of her work.  I can now leave things for her to do like math, phonics, spelling pages and cursive for her to complete without me being in the room with her or while I am at work.  I don't leave her anything new.  Just work that if it gets done while I am not home or doing something will free up some time to get in the fun hands on learning.  

Last week we had fun with our Five In A Row Curriculum.  We did the story The Clown of God. It was a very good book that she learned many new things from.  I will post all about that tomorrow.    

Samantha was very excited about scoring her first goal in field hockey tonight.  So exciting!

Samantha is also so excited about her first father daughter dance coming up in a couple of weeks.  I bet they are going to have so much fun!  

Traveling Buddies

Samantha is participating in a group called Traveling Buddies.

We sent out Samantha's stuff bear named Star to another family.  Along with Star we sent a description of what its like to live in Massachusetts.  What Samantha's life is like.  What are some important places and things of Ma.  

In return we will be hosting each week for the next 31 or so weeks many other homeschool families stuff animal.  All the while learning about their state. Taking their stuff animal to our activities and then mailing it off to the family next on the list.  Its a fun project.  

Last year I purchased a curriculum from Confessions of a homeschooler called Road Trip USA.  This will  be the perfect time to get it out and use it.  So each week as we receive the stuff animal we will study the state it comes from.  

I will post more as the weeks go along.  

Samantha was a little sad that rainy day as we sent Star off to the family in ND for his adventure.  But we just got word that Star has arrived safely in ND and the host family is taking wonderful care of him. 

Here is Samantha saying goodbye to Star at the post office 

For those of you who really know my child you will understand how proud I am of Samantha letting go of a stuff animal. Even knowing its coming back was hard for her. But she did it!  Samantha must have 100 stuff animals in her room.  I have tried to get rid of some.  But that is one of her obsessions.  So we just accept the fact that we are over run with stuff animals.  

This is why I love homeschooling so much. It gives her many opportunities to grow outside the box. To grow at her speed.  

I signed Samantha up for a once a month class at the Museum of Natural History in Providence.  Each month its a different topic.

This month it was on animal communication.  I took Samantha and my friend Danielle's 2 children. They had so much fun and learned a lot.

When we arrived the kids did a scavenger hunt looking for the answers to the questions on the paper they were handed.

Then onto our class.  Animals communicate so many different ways. Some were really shocking to what category they ended up in.  Did you know that scientist use the behavior of elephants to predict an earthquake?  Its due to their behavior.

Next month we will be forces and motion.  I love that I can actually plan some of our science around this class.  We have been talking in Science about animals and their habitats living and non living things and how they respond. Next month I will move onto forces and motion.  In between we have been doing our science kits.

Meeting with the principal.

I had my beginning of the school year meeting with the principal.  It went fine.  I showed up not nervous like I was last time.  I handed over my list of this years curriculum and resources.  She was impressed with all I have planned.  She wasn't too happy with our spelling. Said it didn't contain high frequency words and it should.  But over all she signed off on another year of home educating.  The Vice Principal suggested Samantha take computers at the school along with music. So like the crazy person I am... not that I don't have enough on my plate already I said YES. So twice a week I rush around like a mad women to get my daughter there on time.  Then I get 43 minutes to myself!  Yes a whole 43 minutes to do anything I please. Not that I can really get much done in that time. I usually come home and go on facebook or read a book.

All the kids remember Samantha and were excited she was back in class with them.  They all greeted her excitedly.  What fun for Samantha.