Co-Op Presentations

I love our co-op.  We have some really great kids as well as some really great moms.  Each week on child presents a Physicist.  Will & Collin present back - to - back weeks.

Will did his on Galileo Galilei.

We learned so much about Galileo. Will did a wonderful job presenting.    Click here for a fun short animated videos on Galileo.  Will's favorite Galileo invention was his thermometer.

Collin presented the next week on Benjamin Franklin.  This was his first time ever to present.  He was a little nervous, but did a great job.

Collin was a host of the game show "Your Life, Benjamin Franklin".  He was highlighting Benjamin's science discoveries.  Thankfully, we were only presenting on his science accomplishments & not the rest of his life's achievements.    When were half way finished with the research, (being the good home school mom that I am) I said that I wish he would stop inventing things. (I was tired of researching)  Collin cleverly said, "Mom, he did stop, he's dead."

Josh Wilson - Before The Morning (Slideshow With Lyrics)

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Two snows in less than a month.  That is unheard of where we live.  Oh the fun we had.  Of course since we homeschool, we don't get off for snow days.  Our school was so fun, that the kids didn't even know we were doing school.

We have quite a few snow experiments going on in the kitchen. Writing our spelling words & math problems in the snow, calculating how far a snowball will go & then measuring it. Reading books about snow, researching snow vs. sleet.  Of course we had a lot of snowball fights, snow angels & flipping in the snow too.

 First, we discovered bird prints on our Welcome mat on the front steps.

 Will on a white blanket of snow.

Faith looked like a cute little Eskimo.

 Measuring the snow.  We had 4" when we measured here, 

but it was still snowing pretty good for a long time after this.  

We think we got 5 - 5 1/2 inches.

Collin causing an avalanche on Leia, our dog.

 Some of our math, a Venn diagram.

The kids enjoyed a Coke Snow Float.

 

We walked around the neighborhood so the kids could experience how it was many years ago, when they had to walk in the cold for miles & miles.  Half way around the block, I was beginning to regret this little experiment.   But it was fun.

After a snow fall, I love riding around looking at all the beautiful scenes.  We stopped by Target so the kids could climb a big snow mountain.

 

The boots we had were not water proof.  Poor Faith's feet were as pink as her jacket.  We stopped by Wal-mart to get the kids some rubber boots.  While we were there, we had fun with the sea gulls.  They were everywhere.

We also stopped at our local park.  After a little visit, Faith & I had to run by the house.  The boys & Daddy wanted to take a little adventure & walk to their grandparent's house which was just a little ways up the way.

The snow fun was not over yet.  We went to my sister-in-law's house for some snow sliding.  They had so much fun sliding with their cousins, Ashton & Nathan.

 

:Will snow sliding:

:Collin snow sliding:

Follow the pics to see how Faith's snow sliding went.

:Wipe out!:

Faith: "I'm okay!"

A Skating We Will Go

 I hadn't been skating in years.  Then with in a 2 month period, we go skating 2 times & ice skating.  This was the kid's first time doing both. 

 Will really picked it up & took off.  We don't have pictures

of Faith, but she did a great job too.

Once Collin got going, he was super on wheels.

We were treated to an birthday ice skating party by our friend, Audrey.  The kids had such a great time.  By the end of the day, everyone was able to let go of the side & skate, including me. (Sorry, not pictures)  It was so much fun.  Being from the south, I knew the ice was cold, but I forgot how cold it was in the room.  Buuurrr!!

Collin really loved it.  He was skating with out holding on in just about 30 min. 

Faith & one of our friends.  

Will was having so much fun.

 

Let's Eat Cake!

Our Christmas Season part 4

When I was little, my brother & I used to wake up in the wee hours of the morning & sneak into the den to see what presents were under the tree.  Everything was wrapped, so we didn't know what we were getting, but the excitement of seeing the presents & shaking them to figure out what was inside was so much fun.  Needless to say, we didn't sleep much that night.

I told the kids this story a few years back & now they have adopted this tradition.  The funny thing was, they were not very quite.  I was awaken at 3 a.m. by loud whispers of "Come on, Collin, it's time to check out our presents."  A few minutes later: " WOW!  Look at that big present."  It was so fun to listen to them.

Will's favorite present of all...... Starbuck's gift card.

Faith received many wonderful presents, but her favorite was this spin top that she found at Books -A-Million & fell in love with. 

Collin wanted a Clemson pillow case.  He never saw me sewing on the sewing machine, so he didn't think he was going to get it.  He was so excited.

 The big gifts were........

A Karate kicking mat  &

 The Wii Fit Plus                      

Will's scarf.

Faith's Puppy scarf.

Collin's Clemson scarf.

After opening our presents, we had our Christmas breakfast & then played with all of our presents for the rest of the afternoon. 

We celebrated Christmas Dinner at Mammy & Papa's house with Uncle Kyle, Aunt Leahan, Ashton & Nathan. (cousins.)

Our Christmas continued the next day with a White "after" Christmas.  What a fun day.

 Living in the Southeast, we don't get a lot of snow.  We are lucky to get some every few years.  To have snow after Christmas is almost unheard of.  The day after Christmas always seems a little sad.  What a blessing to have a fun day.

 

I love snow angels.  Faith & Collin had so much fun making them.

We didn't have a heavy snow, but it was beautiful none the less.

Our Christmas Season part 3

 We were invited to a Christmas, music party.  I have never been to a party like this.  One of Tony's trumpet student's family is very musical.  Each year, they invite families that have musical talent.

Tony is playing behind the hanging light in the middle.   

Most of these people were from our sister church.  

So even though we didn't know them, we already had

a bond.  

Will played a song.

Everyone sang carols together & then some families did specials.

*****

Christmas Eve Day

We surprised our friends that live about 45 minutes away.  Mr. Dennis loves playing trumpet.  He & Tony can talk for hours about music.  

Tony took him some trumpet books.

Mrs. Yvonne had some play clothes that her grandchildren like to play in.

After trying them on, Faith was ready to join her brothers in climbing

the tree.

Can you find Collin & Will in the tree?

 

The area that they live in is known for gems & gold.  The kids were so excited to try to find these treasures. They had already made plans of how they would 

spend the money.  I was happy to hear that they wanted to buy us a new house. :)

So far, no luck, but they still have plans of going back to find the treasure.

For now, all we have is a lot of big rocks that we brought home.

*******

Christmas Eve Night

Since Tony is a trumpeter, he has to play on Christmas Eve.  In the past, we have gotten together with my Nanny on Christmas Eve, but since she is now enjoying being face- to- face with Jesus on Christmas, I knew that I needed to make big plans so that I wouldn't miss her so much.

We had our first Christmas Eve tea.  We had so much fun.

 

I am looking forward to the day that we can have traditional tea food, 

but until then, we enjoy the kid's finger food.

:Me:

Notice in the background the 3 big presents?

On Christmas Eve, the kids open their presents from each other.  For the last few years, they have all wanted Build-A-Bear coupons.  So they knew what they were getting.  This year, I made up a present clue hunt.  I wrapped the 1st clue in a huge box.  I made them stay in the back while I hid all the clues. When they came out & saw 3 big presents, they were so excited.  The hard part was having to wait until our Tea was over before they could open the presents. (I had to build up the excitement.)

Collin was a little bit disappointed when he opened up his present & there was nothing inside.  He had missed the clue.  After realizing that they were about to have a clue hunt, they were so excited.  3 big clue hunts.  The excitement was in the air.

After the present hunt, we did Christmas Crackers.  I found these at World Market for $8 on sale for $0.80 after Christmas last year.  They pop when you open them & inside is a little game piece.  When you've opened all, there is a game to play.  Each one also has Christmas jokes & trivia.

After the crackers, we put out sheep food for the traveling shepherds on their way to see Jesus.

It looked like snow.  Faith was really hoping that the sheep would stop by. :)

Our Christmas lights.  Sorry, but I could never get the picture in focus.

After feeding the sheep, we read the Christmas story.

With young children, I have found that this is the best book.  The book is all scripture, but has pictures so there little minds won't wander off.

We sang the 12 days of Christmas using this book & began to sing other Christmas songs.

Since we don't have cable, it was a nice treat to find Christmas movies online. 

ABC Family had Holly & Hal's Christmas Adventure.