Shaving Cream Prints

Ada and I recently made shaving cream prints by the lake. This is a project that the big girls and I used to do all the time. In the past, we used food coloring or liquid watercolors to swirl in the shaving cream before placing the paper on top to make a print. This time Ada and I used acrylic paint, and I think it worked much better. This was a fun and simple activity that we highly recommend.

Halloween Sensory Bin

Our Halloween sensory bin has been around for about 12 years, and its still going strong!!! After Halloween, I'll pour it all into a gallon ziploc bag to save for next year. I add random things now and then, but I don't think thr base has changed since the beginning.

Montessori Knobless Cylinders

I haven't done as much Montessori work with Ada as I did with her big sisters, but I'm trying to remedy that. We recently worked with the knobless cylinders, and she loved it!

Mathseeds Workbook for Kindergarten

My oldest 2 kiddos weren't interested in workbooks, and I've always been semi-opposed to workbooks. Ada, however, loves workbooks. She's been working her way through the kindergarten Math Seeds workbook since this summer, and she has enjoyed it and learned a lot. She's started to get tired of it as she nears the end, but I have a feeling she'll be asking for the next level soon.

Take Time for Art- Online Art History Courses

We subscribed to Take Time for Art, online art history courses, this summer and really enjoyed them! All of the girls completed several of the Ancient Egyptian projects and watched the videos, and my high schooler also completed the Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece courses. The project that has intrigued me for years and what made me finally subscribe to the classes was the Egyptian funeral masks project. This project was suprisingly simple and very satisfying to complete. I also LOVE O(15)'s William the Hippo that she made from air dry clay. We recommend these classes for a fun and easy way to incorporate art history into your homeschool day!

Back to Blogging...

Thanks for all of the kind and supportive emails in response to my last post. It looks like I'm going to be blogging again! Since its been a few (or 5) years, I'll re-introduce myself... My name is Melissa and I'm married with 3 daughters. I'm a former School Psychologist. After working in the public school system for 16+ years, I realized that I needed a break. So, for the last 4 years I've been exclusively homeschooling rather than trying to juggle working part-time as a School Psychologist while homeschooling. The relief of this decision was immense, but I did and still do miss all of my work friends. This year we have a 10th grader, a 7th grader, and a kindergartener, and we are very busy!!! I've always been adamant against overscheduling the girls, but that has not been the case this year, and it is exhausting. I've also always been scared of homeschooling high school, but it turns out that homeschooling high school is the easiest level to homeschool so far. This could always change, of course, but O is motivated to get her work done and needs very little help. There are some subjects that we do all together, but she prefers to work on her own. We've also joined a new co-op this year that all of my girls are loving and I am enjoying teaching classes. As I get back into the blogging routine, I'll highlight more of the specific curricula and projects we are doing to make school and life fun!

Blogging…

Now that I'm honeschooling a 5 year old, 12 year old, and a 15 year old, Im considering starting to blog again... but do people even read blogs anymore???

Chasing.cheerios on Instagram!!!

Rather than starting back to blogging right now, I've decided to start a chasing cheerios Instagram account. I hope you'll follow me to check out our fun adventures! Find me @chasing.cheerios. Hope to see you there!

Oops!

Clearly, I jumped the gun with my announcement that I was going to start blogging again. Thank you for all of your sweet emails! I AM going to start blogging again, but it just isn't going to happen as quickly as I was hoping. Between work, homeschooling, and a baby who believes that sleep is only for the weak and she is STRONG, I just haven't been able to find any time to do it. However, summer will be here before we can blink, and I have lots of fun summer activities to share. See you then!

We're Back!!!

I can't believe that I have neglected this blog for 2 years!!! I didn't mean to stop blogging, but life happens. So, here is an update on us... O is 10 years old and is in the 5th grade in our homeschool, and E is 7 years old and is in the 2nd grade. Our big news is that we have a sweet new addition, Baby A who is 7 months old. The big sisters are thrilled beyond belief to have a new baby sister, and they've both said that the day Baby A was born was one of the best days of their lives. Homeschooling with an infant is more challenging than I ever anticipated, but we are making it work and enjoying our time together. I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog anymore, but if you do I'm hoping to start posting again fairly frequently.

Sick Days

Oops!  I'm finally starting to get back into blogging, and I posted my post on the wrong blog.  Obviously, that post was meant for my private blog.  Sorry!

#sing2lines

My girls accepted the challenge to sing 2 lines today to help save Eliza!  You should, too! It's fun!
Read more about it here.

Self-Portrait Mirror Painting

E(4) LOVED painting her self-portrait on a mirror about a month ago!

She wasn't really that interested in this activity at first, but I encouraged her to give it a try.  As soon as she got started, she was into it!  She spent a LONG time painting and seemed to love every minute of it.  I planned to wash the paint off the mirror, so she could paint it again another day, but she wants to keep it forever!

Picking the Bounty from their Birth Trees

We planted fruit trees (or bushes) at the birth of each of our girls.  O(7)'s peach and fig trees produce abundantly each year, and E(4) was THRILLED to see pears on her pear tree for the first time ever this summer. (Unfortunately, it appears that her blackberry bush has died...hopefully, it will come back).  We picked almost all of the peaches today, but have barely even scratched the surface of the figs.  We really need to learn to make fig preserves because there is no way we can eat that many figs!  Hopefully, E(4)'s pears will be ready to pick soon!

Our Cucumber Dome

We planted our cucumber plants over our old climbing dome, and they is doing wonderfully!  (we did this last year, but all of the plants died)  The girls are reluctant gardeners, but they love to pick the cucumbers.

I planned on the cucumber dome being a fun outdoor playhouse for the girls, but it hasn't worked out that way at all.  The cucumber plants are covered in bees, which is great, but O(7) is allergic, so we certainly don't want her to be in an enclosed area surrounded by bees!  Also, I'd forgotten how prickly cucumber vines are...it would be no fun to play in a house made of them!  So, next summer we may grow a more kid friendly dome, but this summer we are just enjoying our delicious cucumbers!