Winter Break Day Four

As Michele pointed out in the comments yesterday, the kids are still being educated. Definitely! I don't do well with unstructured stuff, as I mentioned, especially since we never let them just watch TV all day. And in the cold weather, our tiny house gets small REALLY quick if they are rattling around bored.

They've all enjoyed the activities this week, even David, who has that typical teen ennui. Tomorrow is co-op, so our Four Day Break ends today with the following activities:

• Watching the end of The Magic Flute with Daddy
• My 3rd Live Meeting conference for job training
  
• Making paper airplanes (from a preprinted book)
• Having an impromptu paper airplane battle
• More Mad-Libs
• David listened to The Hunger Games on audio this week (Enjoyed it too!)
• James wrote a bunch more on his book.
• Played outside and made a cool fort (James and Suzy)
• Emily discovered crocus buds in the garden by the back porch.
  
• Visited two libraries
• Grocery shopping with all 4 kids, giving them tasks to do throughout
• Played Star Wars DVD Trivial Pursuit (David's choice - You're surprised, I know. lol)
• David tried to repair my printer (yesterday & today) and my Flip video camera (today) and wasn't successful with either one, but he learned a lot!

If you don't have a paper airplane book, check THIS SITE for some cool planes to fold.

Winter Break Day Three

Since it IS break after all, everyone (except James) got to sleep in today. (I don't think James can sleep in to save his life.... lol)

Other Highlights of Day Three included:

• My second Live Meeting conference
• Francis: Knight of Assisi VHS tape
• The first part of The Magic Flute (yes, in Swedish! lol)
• Scattergories game (chosen by Emily)
• Cutting out paper snowflakes (Try THIS SITE for instructions if you don't know how.)
• Read two more chapters of The Lightning Thief aloud
• More Mad-Libs (great and fun grammar practice! Check back for a post just on Mad-Libs soon!)
• Kids played outside for a while & David went for a walk
• David worked on his essay workshop homework
• A renewed interest in NaNoWriMo novels prompted James to start writing again and Suzy to think about continuing her story.
• Tae-bo workout for me
• Fried potatoes and sausage for dinner
• Homemade brownies for a late dessert

I'm loving our week and considering a unit study on Greek gods and Ancient Greece based on The Lightning Thief. (MICHELE - it's all your fault! LOL)

Winter Break Day One

Day 1 of Winter Break here at Cornerstone has brought the following:

• About 6 inches of snow
  
• A game of Disney Scene-It (chosen by Suzy)
• Some origami creations
• Several rounds of Mad Libs
• Homemade cinnamon rolls for lunch (Here is the RECIPE)
• Some time outside (for kids) shoveling snow and playing, and then again a second time outside for James and Suzy
  
• Watching National Geographic: Animals in the Womb (a little MORE INFORMATION than I would have imagined on some topics, if you know what I mean!)
• Read-aloud the first three chapters of The Lightning Thief
• Lisa did her job training.
  

My camera was left behind at a friend's house, so I can't show you any pictures. And we ran out of time for the second game. All in all, a good Winter Break day.

Winter Break to Shake Things Up

The upcoming week is going to be DIFFERENT here at Cornerstone. I am tired of the same-old, same-old, and so have decided to shake things up a bit.

Several schools around here had "Winter Break" and we usually don't do that enabling us to take off whenever we like in BEAUTIFUL spring and fall weather. However, I think this year, we need a break.

But I don't do well with unstructured time. So, I have chosen some fun learning activities to keep us moving forward this week but still allow us a break from the norm. Friday we have co-op, so we will have four days this week to enjoy this change. Then next week, I'm going to roll out some different learning activities to replace some of our boring ones.

So, this week will include:

MOVIES - aside from the normal entertainment movies, I've found a few educational videos to play (on our TEENSY television).

• National Geographic: Animals in the Womb (DVD from library)
• History Channel: Great Escapes of WW2 (DVD from library)
• Francis: Knight of Assisi (VHS tape we own)
• Ingmar Bergman's The Magic Flute (VHS we own, and I just realized it is in SWEDISH with English subtitles! That will be an adventure! lol)

GAMES - 2 per day, one chosen by the kids, one chosen by me.

ART PROJECTS

• Origami (found my book and origami paper in a drawer)
• Paper Snowflakes
• Water Colors (just painting)
• Creative Thinking Through Art (set of 2 books I own)

MAD LIBS

READ-ALOUD - We will begin a new book this week: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. This will be the first book I've read to them in more than a year that isn't one I've read before.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES
Sledding on Tuesday
Maybe swimming Friday night

We will probably keep our Bible routine going, since once we stop that, it's hard to get moving on it again. It's a centering way to begin our day.