Homeschool Discoveries

We’ve had another fun and adventurous two weeks of summer break since my last “wrap-up” post.  Of course it’s been hot and sticky here…I think that’s true everywhere at the moment, right?!?

Here are a few highlights from the past two weeks:

1.  Almost two weeks ago (wow, time flies!) we went to ride the Como-Harriet Street Car line. (Read more: S is for Streetcar).

2. Our monarch caterpillar finished it’s metamorphosis and became a lovely butterfly (Read more: From Caterpillar to Butterfly).

3. We visited the Minnesota History Center with my mom last week.  We viewed a rare early copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, saw Depression-era art work, viewed a few of the regular exhibits and the kids made “fly around Minnesota” pinwheels.

4. Homemade ice cream in a bag — another item checked off the summer bucket list! It was tasty but we didn’t shake the bags long enough — the ice cream was a bit liquidy!

5. Spontaneous kids-doing-something-educational-together time.  The boys were working on a Kumon cut and paste book while Miss M did tanagrams.   What was particularly significant about this was that Mr. K  (age 3) was actually following the directions.  After Mr. E told him what to do, he did the activity as directed! Aww, he’s growing up!  😉

6. I cleaned out our “done bin” today. (See more about our “done bin” in this post).  I had done this only two months ago, but it was already stuffed completely full.  This stack was just Mr. E’s item.  It was so tall I counted the stack — 175 items!  Most of them are original drawings…only a few are coloring pages or worksheets.  Amazing!

7.  Some of the kids’ “big kid” cousins visited last week.  Lots of fun and wrestling was had by all.  🙂

8. With all this hot, hot weather we’ve spent a lot of time at the Richfield Pool (where we have a pass).  Happy 8 months old to Baby J in this picture, who loves to sit and splash at the edge of the wading pool area.  We’ve also had our backyard wading pool inflated twice, and the kids have been to three neighborhood park wading pools. We are so thankful for all these ways to cool off.  I think the kids have cooled off in the water in some way maybe 12 of the past 14 days!

9. “Music Man” movie night with friends!

10. & 11.  We skipped a couple of our usual 4th of July traditions (going to the parade and hosting a big backyard BBQ) due to the humid, 101 degree heat.  Instead, we did some decluttering and cleaning, made solar-oven cookies (Read more in this post!), and had one family over for dinner, and still went to fireworks at our neighborhood park!

12. Today we cooled off with a trip to Target and a treat of Frappucinos (thanks to two BOGO coupons, they were even a good deal!).

Hope you are keeping cool in the summer heat! I’m linking up with the Weekly Wrap-Up and Collage Friday!