Weekly Wrap-Up: The False Mustache Edition
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It was a busy, productive week for the Weird, Unsocialized crew. Monday we began our science unit on Earth and its layers. I was almost overwhelmed at the amount of vocabulary that Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space threw out in Lesson 2. We’ll be doing a lot of review for the younger guys befor they’ll be able to remember it all.
We discussed how the Earth revolves around the sun and rotates on its axis. We did a modified version of the activity in the book with Josh and a flashlight portraying the sun for our Play-doh Earth on its toothpick axis. We went more in depth than the book did on the activity, discussing things like days, years and seasons as they relate to Earth’s rotation and revolutions.
Tuesday, we made the paper model of Earth’s layers and began our paper mache model. I don’t know if it’s the cold weather or some other factor, but the paper mache isn’t drying as quickly or as hard as usual. So, we’re nowhere near complete on that.
Nim made a cute jellyfish for the letter J, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It was a paper bowl, turned upside down with crepe paper streamers glued to the bottom for tentacles and google eyes for the top.
I’m really enjoying the Bible study that I’m doing with a couple of ladies in our homeschool group at our Wednesday co-op. It’s A Woman After God’s Own Heart by Elizabeth George. I had even thought about posting to see if anyone wanted to discuss it online, but I keep doing what I do best: procrastinating. We’re just on chapter two, though, so if anyone wants to join us for an online discussion, let me know and I’ll see what we can work out.
We wrapped up our week today with a brief study of Alabama, the first in our series of state studies. The older kids filled out these forms for the state, while Nim did this coloring sheet. I placed a copy of the kids’ form in a page protector, stuck it to the white board with magnets and filled in the sections with a dry erase marker so that everyone could see, writing some information off to the sides so that it was larger for copying.
I had the kids draw in the state bird and the shape of the state, but we’ll be using stickers for the state flags. I forgot to get the stickers this week, so we’ll have to catch those up next week. I was really impressed, though, with how well the kids’ drawings of the state bird (the Yellowhammer) turned out. I was especially pleasantly surprised with Megan’s drawing. I should have taken a picture to share. We also read about Helen Keller, who is on Alabama’s state quarter and made rubbings of the quarter on our state fact sheets.
One of the interesting facts we learned about Alabama was a weird law that used to be on the state’s books: it used to be illegal for a man to wear a false mustache in church in Alabama if it made people laugh. The law made us laugh…and so did our false mustaches:
Brianna insisted that Josh needed a false goatee, too. 😉
The pecan is Alabama’s state nut, so we did what any normal family would do: we made a pecan pie cheese ball! Hey, it’s rolled in pecans and we’ll actually eat it. The recipe was shared with me by my cousin, Megan. It’s a little simpler than the one I shared around Christmas, and it doesn’t contain meat, which makes it better for everyone since Nim and her mom are vegetarians.
[print_recipe]
Cheese Ball
2 – 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 package ranch dressing mix (we used the dip mix, not sure if it’s any different)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix together all ingredients except pecans. Form into a ball and roll in pecans. Serve with Ritz crackers. Yum!
[/print_recipe]
After school, the younger kids went out to play. That’s so funny to me because a few weeks ago, Josh declared it too cold to play outside. Now that it’s really cold — so cold, in fact, that many local schools were closed today – he wants to go play. I have a feeling that it has something to do with this:
That’s the frozen block of ice the kids got out of the outside dog’s water bowl. It’s much more impressive than the one that came out of the cats’ bowl, but both have equal shatter potential. Apparently, shattering large blocks of frozen ice is fun. I actually had to make the kids come inside to thaw out.
Those are the highlights of our week.
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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
We loved the fake mustache picture! My daughter (9) asked an interesting question . . . What if a real mustache made people laugh? Hmmmm.
What a great week. I have been thinking about working my way through the states in a more thorough and orderly manner with my kids, probably not til after our iditarod studies though.
Our local schools were closed for these couple days as well. I don’t blame them, if I had to ride a bus, wait outside in line, and bundle up to go to and from school, I guess we would cancel, too.
I always love all your great pictures!
Erin
yay go my cheese-ball. I imagine Brianna was tickled pink!!!!!
And I am cracking up over the mustache.
That was a crazy law in Alabama!
The jellyfish sounds really cute!
I remember putting paper-mache projects in the microwave when I was in school… carefully monitered of course.
Sounds like you all had a busy week! Have a great weekend!!
Oh, and the cheeseball looks delicious!!
Hmmm…I hadn’t thought about the microwave. I think it would fit, but I’d be worried about the balloon bursting. I did dry it with the hair dryer a bit yesterday.
The fake mustache thing is really funny! I enjoyed reading about your week.
I love the fake mustache! Too funny. Thanks for sharing the recipe for the cheese ball too.
I didn’t know Helen Keller was on the AL state quarter. 😉
I think smashing an ice block would be lots of fun. Our sandbox is frozen like that. The rain got in it even with the lid on and now it is block of ice. My dh was out there smashing it.. LOL
I think Mr. Linky disappeared! I just got my post done, so I will put it here, but I’ll try to remember to check back tomorrow and get it where it belongs.
https://delightinginhisrichness.blogspot.com/2009/01/weekly-wrap-up-january-16.html
Enjoy your weekend!
Erin
Yes, Mr Linky is down. I checked his blog about an hour ago and it said that he was moving to a new server and would have everything back up ASAP.
I hope that’s like, tomorrow. If it’s not up, just leave your links in the comments.
Thanks!
Love the fake mustache. We have a book on wacky laws, it’s quite comical what things are in there!
Thanks for the State sheet link, those will certainly come in handy down the road 🙂
I’ve been wanting to participate in your wrap up but I keep forgetting-ugh! Sounds like you guys had a really full week!
I like this wrap up idea- here in the beginning stages of our homeschool adventure I love to hear how other homeschoolers are spening their time. And I’m always on the look out for ideas!
I love how you have fun with your lessons- that mustache thing was cute.
I must say, rushing out to find ice blocks and then smash them is a very popular activity with my 3 boys as well. With temperatures in the single digits we didn’t get out this week, though. :o(
I loved reading about your week! You’re doing a lot of fun activities! I like what you’re doing with the states. I’m trying to teach Daniel about CT, so maybe you’ve given me some ideas. 🙂 Cool Earth activities, too, and that recipe? Mmmm!
I’ll be around to read about everyone else’s week over the weekend. 🙂
I love reading your wrap ups-great pic of the mustache-and a very interesting fact behind that-
that’s a hoot!
What curr. are you using for geography or are you making it go on your on? [email protected]