Collage Friday - Back In The Groove

It's been a REALLY good week ~ being back in the groove of "school" has agreed with everyone in our family.   While I believe we are learning all the time, getting back to some of our formal studies after nearly a month off has felt good.

These collages are turning out to be highlights of our week.  It's impossible to fully document our whole week this way, but it's sure a good start!  


 Feel free to link your own collage... and grab the cute button from my sidebar for your post or blog.   (Need help making a collage, click here.) I think it's a fun way to document our weeks, dont' you?   Wouldn't it be great to print the collage each week and keep a record of your weeks that way?  

1.  Miss B's current read is Misty of Chincoteague.   We've read King of The Wind aloud, and I thought it might be nice to have her start the Misty books. Did I mention she's completely obsessed with horses, too??    I'm requiring her to write a book report on this one, because she will be required to complete one for an upcoming homeschool  literature fair.  

2.  The weather warmed up at the end of the week so we went on a few bike rides.   The kids each have new (to them) bikes.   I walk, and they ride bikes - we go about 2.5 miles each time and it's good exercise for all of us.   

3.  Miss B has been working on some home making skills.   I have had her prepare lunch this week.   Tuesday she met Jiffy Corndog mini muffins and they were excellent!  

4.  We have been learning a lot about Carl Sandburg this week.  (Check out the read-aloud Thursday post to learn more.)  I've been printing their poetry copywork from Handwriting Worksheets - if you don't know about this site, you should!

5.  It was COLD here early in the week - lots of school by the fire!  

6.  The Lego obsession continues.   Gman and daddy built this Star Wars set on Monday.  I think my little boy has Legos on the brain 24 HOURS.A.DAY!

7.  Two things that have changed my life are Pinterest and Plan to Eat.   Between the two of them I have found tons of new recipes and am more efficient with meal planning and shopping.   Wednesday night I made Ham and Cheese Sliders - yummy!  

8.  Puzzles are great mental exercise and I've discovered keeping one on the dining room table all the time is a good stress reliever for my husband.  For two nights now he has come home from work and gone straight to work on the puzzle.  This particular one is a Diary of a Wimpy Kid puzzle - it's pretty hard, too.  Miss B has read all of the books, so she loved the puzzle, too.

9.  Ahhh --- our new favorite book is The Phantom Tollbooth.   This is a map of Lands Beyond.   I was so excited to be able to download the book for FREE from ePubbud.   There are tons of free children's books at this site, and you can even publish your own ebook here -- might be an interesting projects for the kids one day?    EPubbud wins my favorite resource this week, too!  

Not pictured:  Learning about Muslims in Story of the World, the next chapters in Writing With Ease,  stress-free math (yahoo!) and learning all about birds' eggs in science. 

Happily linking with my friend Susan, @ Learning ALL the time!!

Collage Friday Second Edition ~ Birthdays and Music

Welcome to the 2nd Edition of Collage Friday!!  Please feel free to make your own collage of the week, grab the button from my sidebar, and link up below.  It's a great way to recap the week! 


If you missed the first edition with a tutorial on how to make a collage, click here.  

If you missed my "pour your heart out get your priorities straight slightly ranting" post earlier in the week, you'll know why I'm going to be backing away from the blogosphere.  I was truly overwhelmed with the supportive comments and private notes I received after this post.   I think this problem is EXTREMELY COMMON in the blogging world! 


I will continue Collage Friday (it's such a great way to document what we do) and an occasional post, but I've decided to make an investment in living my life rather than blogging about it! 

1. Thursday was National Cupcake Day.  A very sweet friend of ours left two beautiful cupcakes on our front porch last night and when we arrived home we had a wonderful dessert!  

2.  Miss B's Christmas piano recital was last night.   I'm always so very proud of her.  She played three pieces (one of them was a duet with mom, so that was fun!) and had her own little cheering section from our church there.  We LOVE our little Lutheran church.  

3.  A day was spent in Atlanta riding Macy's Pink Pig and eating lunch at The Varsity - two of Atlanta's institutions.  The Pink Pig has been a Christmas tradition for over 60 years.   The best thing about this day was the fellowship we enjoyed with another homeschool family.  I got some very good MOM TIME chatting with my friend, Rhonda.  

4.  Miss B and her friend, Madelyn.  These two are thick as thieves and it's very cute - I'm thankful she has such a good friend in her life.

5.  We played UNO a lot this week!  We're keeping a clipboard with the scores - it's a running tournament this holiday season. 

6.  LEGOS, LEGOS, and more LEGOS.  This is a set GMan chose for his birthday.  He built several sets all by himself this week. The focus and determination was astounding. 

7.    Do you love the Lego cake we made?  This was a group effort between my children and I.   We used this tutorial and I used a recipe for this wonderful little book!   Homemade frosting made it good, too.  YouTube was our favorite resource this week - is there anything you can't learn on YouTube??   On G's birthday we went bowling and had a family party - it was perfect! 

8.  A very happy seven year old at the Lego outlet store!  He pooled birthday money and a gift from his dad and I to pick some sets he had been wanting.  I am SOLD on the educational and creative value of Legos - in my opinion there's nothing better for little boys this age.  

9.  If you're a musician, this will make you laugh.  I just saw this last night on Facebook and I laughed out loud.  We've had lots of music this week between a piano recital and our daily Christmas hymn singing and the music playing at all other times!  

Not pictured:  Many read-alouds, a short Poinsettia unit study, completion of a unit about Charles Dickens and his life and times, and introduction of area and volume in math.   

Happily linking with Susan for Favorite Resource this Week, and with Kris, for the Weekly Wrap-Up!.  All of these pictures were taking with my iPhone, so I'm also linking with Dawn for Camera Phone Friday.