Slices of Life

We play so many games together that I honestly could not have used G for anything else!  We spent January breezing through a Gameschooling challenge; adding games into our homeschool day for the whole month. It was a breeze for us!  We have always enjoyed playing games for learning. I find that games keep our homeschooling days light and fun.  They help keep us focused and motivate us to keep on learning. Playing Beat the Parents-- the boys did in fact beat the parents! We've purchased many games over the years but we enjoy making up our own games too!  Just about anything can be turned into a fun game. Of course we can't always play games... well, we could but it would take up a lot more of our time. A few years ago the boys convinced me to add regular workbooks into our days and just sprinkle in some games here and there.  We try to play at least one game a day but even on those days we don't manage a game in our school day we often end up ...

My middle son has been on a real kick of making cupcakes this past week.  He started recording Cupcake Wars and by the time he had watched the third episode he really wanted to start making his own. He has been experimenting with different flavors of cake and frosting. He has been playing around with decorating tips and different candy/ food toppings to garnish his cupcakes with. He has been creating edible art all on his own and I just knew I had to include these cupcakes as part of our 100 Days of Art; they don't call it Culinary Arts for nothing! His first cupcake: vanilla with blue buttercream frosting and sprinkles: He decorated the rest of his vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting and conversation hearts for Valentine's day: His brother asked him to make some chocolate cupcakes and since Alec is not a big fan of chocolate, he decided to make some Oreo frosting to go on top; along with an actual Oreo cookie.  He also played arou...

There are so many great children's books out there and though my boys are starting to get a bit too old for many of the picture books I have so many fond memories of reading to them. We loved reading about families and found so many great stories about grandparents.  Here are a few of our favorites: What Do Grandma's/ Grandpas Do Best? -- My boys always loved this reversible book about what Grandmas and Grandpas do best.  How to Babysit a Grandpa I love you Grandma Just Grandma and me I'm Going to Grandma's  Here Comes Grandma!  Because Your Grandparents Love You  I Loved You Before You Were Born 40 Uses for a Grandpa Grandpa's Tractor  My Grandpa is Not Grumpy Nana and the Banana  What Was it Like Grandma? Stop Snoring Grandpa! Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa  The Berenstain Bears and the Week at Grandma's  Gram...

We had such beautiful weather here this week!  It was sunny and in the upper 50's/ low 60's all week.  This meant a lot of snow melting, lots of time spent outside, and the definite clawing of spring fever.  Alec has continued to bake up a storm; making lots of cupcakes for us all. Friday we got a late start on our schoolwork Friday since all the boys had been up late on Thursday night.  We started by watching a few more episodes of Cupcake Wars and Alec told me he REALLY wanted to make some more cupcakes; Cookies and Cream flavored this time.  We sat at the table looking up recipes and writing up a shopping list while Ian made waffles for everyone for breakfast.  While eating breakfast the boys listened as I read aloud two chapters in A King's Ransom .  The boys then took their Friday spelling tests and their math minutes.  Each of the boys worked on either 2 pages math or on Khan Academy.  Alec read The Five Kingdoms Rogue Nig...