Last weeks UpWords Game.

I wish I didn't have to work this weekend.

An easy week.

I've let the kids have a pretty easy week this week. They've all had colds and haven't felt their best and so we've used educational games and found easier ways to get things done. I would like to have some good history movies for them to watch as well. Hopefully, by Monday everyone will be back to normal and we'll get going again. I'm going to start the younger 2 on a new math unit next week. I have all of the Math Mammoth books on CD (somewhere) so I've just got to get that and print one for them.

My youngest son has been enjoying a castle building set this week. It's from Klutz books and I bought it last year when we were studying the middle ages. He's rediscovered it this week and first he built robots out of it (that's one in the picture, above), then he built a castle for the robots to destroy. He's spent the last couple of days building cottages, outhouses and dog houses from the patterns in the book. It's funny how if you hide toys away then rediscover them later, they're like brand new toys again.

Here's our version of the gold rush game.

It's fun making a game board. I got this map for free somewhere, I think at a restaurant. We had 2 routes, 1 across the main part of the country and one down through the isthmus of Panama, which wasn't actually on the map, but we improvised. It was funny, because my youngest wanted to put a space that said "go back 10 spaces" and we told him that was too many but he insisted. Guess who landed on that space 3 times!

Confession was good.

The kids watched me like hawks yesterday, so I got my list done. It's weird how I need to be held accountable, but hey, if it gets me exercising, I'll just accept that strange part of my personality and just learn to work with it.

We did get school done yesterday. We played a couple of dice games for math, all of us together, and had some good laughs over it. Mom really lost big and they thought that was hilarious. (Not due to math skills, but bad luck with the dice!)

Today, we are going to be talking about westward expansion and we're going to use a big map of the United States and make it into a board game. I found the instructions yesterday here.

I really, really, really, really want this Hands and Hearts History Kit but just don't know if i want to spend the money. I really want it though.

I guess we have to go back to work and school today.

It sure was nice having a couple of days off, but I guess we need to get back to it today. I confessed to the kids that I haven't exactly been doing my lists and they are going to check on me today. Honestly, it's so silly that I need that to get me motivated to do anything. But I do. Hopefully, they'll keep me in line.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, we use a list method for homeschooling. Each child gets a list and mom gets a list. Mine involves exercise, household routines and getting a certain amount accomplished at my job. Theirs have things like exercise, chores and their schoolwork. We have this deal that if I don't get the morning part of my list done, they don't have to do their afternoon school list. They get the afternoon off. This is a big motivator for me because I don't want their schoolwork to be neglected.

Silly, yes, but I seem to need it.

I'd better get busy.

What we did with today.

Not much actually. We had to take Zoey back to the vet to get her stitches out. We worked a little on rearranging the kitchen, so we can put some of the living room furniture in there while we're re-doing the living room floor. I made a nice chicken pot pie for lunch. I stopped by and saw my parents for a few minutes and went walking with a friend while my kids played with her kids. We watched Night at the Museum together. We did no school at all, but that's fine. We can miss a day here and there. We got a nice early start this year and the public school kids are on break all week, so we might get a few days ahead of them. I don't care if we stick exactly with the public school schedule, but when June gets here, I want to be done or close to it. It's nice to have a easy day once in a while.

Cats in the dog house.

Another photo taken by my daughter. At least it's not quite so close. I don't think our outdoor dog, Lucy, is very happy about the fact that the cats have been getting in her house.

Today?

I'm undecided what to do with today. It's my day off work and we were supposed to have a field trip to an orchard but it was cancelled for various reasons and so we have an unexpected day home. This weekend we were supposed to have put down new laminate flooring in the living room, but we didn't get very far on the project. We got the laminate, in the packages, as far as the kitchen floor, but none of it is installed yet. We may take some time and work on that today. Or not. Like I said, I'm undecided. The local public schools are on fall break this week, but knowing how bad we are at getting started back when we take a whole week off, that's not likely.