She knows I like blue....

Suzy (age 11) painted watercolors on wet paper yesterday as part of her art lesson. She and I both selected some lessons from The Usborne Book of Art Ideas and she has been completing one per week.

This lovely piece of art was waiting on my desk after she had gone to bed last night.

In case you can't read it, the words say: for Mom Because of the Blue. I ♥ U.

I ♥ her too!

Suzy Learns to Sew

Suzy wanted me to show her how to mend the strap on her book bag with the sewing machine. I thought it was a bit tough for a beginner, so I did the actual mending, but showed her what I was doing.

Then I showed her how to:

• thread the machine
• insert the bobbin
• bring up the bobbin thread
• sew along a straight line
• sew in reverse to end your stitches
• turn a corner while sewing
• pin two pieces of fabric together
• hand sew an opening 

  

She was very motivated to learn and went on to create a simple shoulder bag, a doll pillow and most of a doll comforter which I think is going to end up as a sleeping bag instead.

And now she's ahead of Emily! LOL

Suzy's Mini-golf Party

Suzy's 9th birthday party at a local mini-golf center. I didn't upload photos of the guests, but if you want to see all the photos, email me for the link.

Suzy's Soccer

Lisa's Logbook - February 28

Outside: Overcast. Lots of snow on the ground.

Sounds: Christian radio playing. James plunking away on the computer and talking to his friend on the phone.

Home: Talking with David about paint colors as he plans to paint his bedroom

Projects: planning a party for my teenage daughter's birthday!

Pondering: being the mom of two teenagers!

Teaching: working on a unit study for The Lightning Thief

Gratitude: thankful that today is the LAST day of February! Come on, Spring!

Recipes: Sausage Quiche and One-Bowl Brownies were hits this past week.

Duds: Jeans, black tank, red long sleeved shirt (with Christmas design), grey Pistons hoodie.

Reads: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier (author of Girl with a Pearl Earring). Next up? Wuthering Heights.

Vids: Cities of the Underworld, State of Play, I Hate Valentine's Day, Post Grad, Moon, Veggie Tales Pistachio, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (see mini-reviews at Mirkwood)

Hopes: that a new battery will "fix" my van since it doesn't want to start anymore and Bob can't find anything else wrong with it.

Love: the new Veggie Tales, Pistachio: Little Boy That Woodn't!

Plans: Start production for my new job, Spanish, Essay class, Unit study on The Lightning Thief (begins Tuesday), celebrating Emily turning THIRTEEN!

Pic:

Suzy and her very good friend, at co-op.

Christmas Cookies Again

From Christmas Cookies

Friday was the traditional sugar cookie decorating. I bought refrigerated cooky dough instead of making my own. A little easier and not really any more expensive.

The girls did most of it. James helped a little and David not at all.

From Christmas Cookies

I've added a couple photos to the blog, but watch the slideshow for pix and comments. If you can't see it, try clicking HERE to go to Picasa to see the photos.

And I don't know how many of these cookies will last until Christmas. I let them eat some for dessert.

Going Coco-nuts!

Suzy wanted to see what was inside a coconut.

So we bought one and there it sat in the fridge for weeks.

She kept asking, "When can we open it?"

I kept putting her off.

But yesterday, we finally went for broke.

I found a good website with pictures (and a creative name, lol).

They got out their supplies. Do you know what you need to open a coconut?

Hammer, nail, towel, bowl, knives.

James read the instructions aloud to Suzy and they did it all themselves. At least until it came time for the tedious cutting and peeling.

They didn't find it especially tasty.

Enjoy our adventure to the tropics!

Check the SLIDESHOW for even more pix!

First Two Recipes

Our first two recipes were Fudge-Mint brownies and Orange Cream Cookies.

I can't find the brownie recipe online but it came from this Betty Crocker Christmas cookie magazine. I asked the kids to each choose two recipes from this magazine that they'd like to try.

The brownies are a fudge brownie mix marbled with mint-flavored marshmallow creme. Then they are frosted with vanilla frosting mixed with white chocolate and more minty marshmallow, then crumbled mint Oreos on top.

ORANGE CREAM COOKIES
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix (I used my own sugar cookie recipe.)
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
5 drops yellow food color
2 drops red food color
1 bag (12 oz) white vanilla baking chips (2 cups)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, stir all ingredients except baking chips until soft dough forms. Stir in baking chips.
2. On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough with 1 1/2 tablespoon-size cookie scoop or by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake 9 to 10 minutes or just until dough is set (do not overbake). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely.

Both recipes turned out well. I immediately packed them away for Christmas. Didn't share even a bite! LOL

Suzy Soccer Pix

As I mentioned in the other post, the soccer season is done for James and Suzy both. They will play again in the spring with the same teams.

I didn't order soccer photos for those two; 'twas sadly not in the budget, but I will get a pic of Suzy with her team in the spring. Don't miss the other post with Jamie's soccer photos.

Suzy is also a strong soccer player. She has scored four goals this season, one in the last game. She thinks ahead to where the ball is going to be and she has a powerful kick. She isn't fearful at all of getting in and kicking the ball. I am so glad we stuck with it for her, and even more glad that I'm NOT her coach. Remember all the issues she and I had? ALL GONE with Coach Laura. Suzy takes joy in the game!

Here is her slideshow. Sadly it is short. I am sure I have more pictures than this! Where are they?

Read to me....

From Summer Sun and Fun

Working with Fondant Icing

Several people expressed interest in how it was to work with the fondant for Suzy's birthday cake. If that was you, you're in luck, since I had James take some photos of us creating the cake. Each [hoto has captions describing what we did.

The fondant was much easier to work with than I had anticipated. However, it was also more expensive than I anticipated. I bought a 2 lb. container for about $14.00. We only used about half of it though. What I bought was Satin Ice fondant. They had smaller packs of several colors of Wilson fondant, but it didn't fit what we needed. A brochure came along with it that helped me figure out what to do. As I said, it wasn't too intimidating.



The funny thing? Suzy didn't EAT any of the cake. She only wanted ice cream. Oh well! LOL

Eruption!

[NOTE - Michele asked where David was during this activity. He is doing a different history text this year, so he usually doesn't participate with the other kids on their history. If it strikes his fancy, he may do the activity. He's usually in the room listening to me read the MOH lesson aloud, so he does get the info. But, his Sonlight U.S. history keeps him plenty occupied!]

As part of our Mystery of History 2 studies, today we erupted volcanoes in the backyard. We were studying Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. The kids buried bottles containing baking soda, red food coloring, and dish soap. Then they poured in vinegar and WOW! An eruption!!!

I found a cool website to enhance our learning.

Pompeii: Unraveling Ancient Mysteries (Harcourt)

Also, just a warning - lots of extremely inappropriate pictures were painted on walls in Pompeii. If you just google image-search "Pompeii", you'll probably want to preview the results. A word to the wise!

Sight Word Game

Suzy is not adept at sight words yet, so I wanted a FUN computer game to increase her abilities with it. A google search turned up a lot, but most games weren't that exciting or were not free. I wanted it to be incremental - not too many words at a time, or in some unorganized manner. I want it to teach her to recognize the word and also to be able to spell the word.

Here's what I found that she liked and met my requirements:
http://www.sightwordswithsamson.com/

It takes you to the main screen, which has an option to buy. However, everything I clicked around on in the games worked fine. Start here, if it doesn't work from the main screen.
http://www.sightwordswithsamson.com/sw/sight_words.asp

There are some printable resources as well.

[EDITED TO ADD - It appears that only the first 3 levels are free. If we work through those levels and they are effective, we'll probably buy the program if I haven't found anything better. I really like it and Suzy liked doing it. More than that though, it seems like it will really help.

EDITED AGAIN - A friend found a promotional code WSBJ which should bring the price down to $20 a year. I haven't tried it yet.]

Field School at the Nature Center

This week Suzanne, my six-year-old, attended a Field School program at a local nature center. The class was for children who have just completed kindergarten. She had 4 two hour sessions this week, each focusing on a different sense. I stayed today and took some photos and videos and was very impressed at the knowledge and attitudes of the naturalists leading the class.

Today's plan was roughly as follows:

• Opened with talking about the featured sense today - Sight.
• The teacher showed several things the children could look at and touch - turkey feathers, a stuffed fawn, grey and red squirrel skins.
• They went outside to hide some nuts. After reading a story (What Joe Saw), they went back to find their nuts, as squirrels might do. Most of them could not find their hidden nuts! They hid some more and then looked at part of a picture book about animal tracks and then went again to hide the nuts. More success this time!
• Back inside for a Powerpoint presentation. She showed a closeup slide of something in nature and the kids had to guess what it was. Then she showed the whole picture. Examples - the neck of a Canada goose, The thorax of a grasshopper, part of a ladyslipper flower, etc...
• Then back outside for a long nature hike LOOKING for things that had been talked about all week. We saw spider webs, spiders, dragonflies, damselflies, chipmunk, bluebird, frog, fish, and more. We touched a spongy decaying log, some prickly dead pine needles, and more.
  
• At the end of the hike, each child was given paper and pencil and asked to sit and draw something he or she could see.
  
• By then it was time to leave, so we headed back to the nature center and said goodbye!

It was a great week! Two more of my children have field school yet this summer.

Becoming a Reader

Today I began teaching Suzy to READ! Whee! Well, she's been learning letter sounds all year, but today we began the section of Alphabet Island Phonics that teaches the student to decode short vowel words. YAY!

It struck me that soon I will have FOUR reading children and I will have taught all of them to read! How cool is that!