What I Love -- Apps

For today I thought that I would share some apps that the kids are loving with the school work. First up are the ones that Sam likes. 

 GeoDash Wild Animal Dash  --- This app is a lot of fun.  It is set up kind of like an arcade game.  If you see in the bottom corners there are dials that help control the direction that they move and how to Jump.  You move the character around collecting the different things.  It then gives them ability of different animals.  Once they finish the level they earn a new animal card that has a  picture, fast facts, goofy jokes, and weird trivia.  Overall a really fun game and the app was free. 




WWF Together
This is a new one that we got.  Sam really loves learning new info about animals all the time.  This is full of amazing info about animals all over the world.  Absolutely stunning photos of animals and lots of fun interactive activities.  This was also a free app.



                     Stack the Countries
We all love this app as well as the Stack the Countries.  It is a lot of fun to try to figure out how to balance the countries to make it to the line.  The end gives you the total of miles that your stack was, the kids find that really fun to know that.  What can I say my boys are a couple of geeks.  The game does have a few mini games that they can unlock with more countries that they earn.  This app does cost.  It goes for a 1.99.
Tiny Countries
This is one of our newest ones.  Sam found it really easy and beat the game in one sitting.  Gabe however loves it.  The little chick is actually a spy that is trying to stop Dr. Evil.  Each  mission involves answering questions about different countries.  This app is also free.

We of course have other apps that we love but when I asked the boys what was their favorite this is what they told me right away.  What are some of the apps that you are loving.  I would love to hear what they are, leave me a comment to let me know.

Animal faces

Don't look but I have been over taken by wild animals, LOL.  Checking out my favorite site, Pinterest, I found these really cute straw faces.  The kids were having so much fun with them.  Gabe loved trying all the faces at once.  If you want your own just check out here and print them off for free.  If you also have a kid that loves learning about animals make sure to check out the entire site.

My Kings!

 For our world geography we are using the program Expedition Earth.  The boys are really loving it.  We stick pretty much to the schedule for Gabe but we added in extra country pages for Sam.  The program is wonderful full of crafts, recipes, and fun facts.  Today we are finishing up our South Korea.  Sam actually made supper today, Korean BBQ beef.  I was really yummy.  The craft was to make jeweled crowns. 

 Sam's crown is on the left and Gabe's is on the right.  This is a top and front view of the crowns.  There was no specific directions on how to make them it was the kids decision.  The crown was just supposed to represent the metal work that South Koreans did.  Sam made his first and added all of the feathers, they represent different things of the Korean Flag.  Gabe made his second and idolizes his big brother so it looks just like his. 

 Both of the boys showing off their creations.  Such cuties they are.

My two kings!  Love these two!

Goals and snowballs

Ok so I am not quite up to speed on getting these entries done but I am getting much better.I know that yesterday I was supposed to put on our weekly goals.  Then today was supposed to be "Tasty Tuesday".  I thought that I would do a little combo. 

I will start with the "Tasty Tuesday".  We have been busy around here so I have not had much time to have some yummy treats made up.  I did get one made up today though.  I LOVE Pinterest and found this treat.  It is called Pineapple Coconut snowballs.  They are super easy to make and really yummy.  Check it out.

Now for the goals...
Myself --since Christmas we have been fighting off illness and exhaustion.  Because of that we kind of fell behind on cleaning up all of the holiday and project supplies.  I have been working on my room this week so the goal is to get it completed by the weekend.  I am always working on the kids school schedule.  Those boys of mine are always hungry to learn new things and in fun ways, so it keeps me busy on that front.  On the craft front  I have a couple of projects in the works.  Then again I always have something in the Works.  LOL

Sam -- We are working on more independent learning with Sam.  So his goals are ongoing.  We are working with him on his time management skills, so he has a new day planner.  He is still working on how to figure out how to set it up.  He is working on learning about Monet and his art.  This week he is trying to get his research paper about Lincoln done.  Plus working on the Human body and Math lessons. 

Gabe-- Oh Little Gabe he is ever the hand full.  The main goal with him is to get a little focused and not have to be on his case so much about getting the work done.  He is covering all his basic subjects as usual.  He is looking forward to Friday when we have these two little cuties joining us for a day of school.  It should be a lot of fun.

Things I Love

Our favorite new product around here is the MasterKitz. MasterKitz are these great art kits put out by Kidzaw. They are wonderful kits that allow people to make paintings like the masters.  We discovered them at Christmas time and got one for Sam for a gift.  He loved it so much that we had to go and get more.  The only place that I seem to have noticed them was at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  The site does have a list of different stores that sells them.  We got our first kit for 30 dollars but after Christmas they were on clearence for half off so we picked up more sets.

The boys now have three sets "Starry Night" by Van Gogh, "Water Lilies" by Monet, and "Tree of Life" by Gustav Klimt.  The boys love them and can not wait to get more.

Each kit comes with the supplies to for you to create your own master piece.  There is stampers, stencils, paper, paints, and stickers.  There is also a booklet that tells you about the artist and some history of there art.

Once you open it up all the way it has step by step directions on how to do the paintings.

Here is Gabe's finished painting, "Tree of Life". 

He wanted to take a picture of it outside with the artist.  He really is too cute.

Animal art

Today I thought that I would share the new book I got from the library.  This book takes major art pieces from world famous artist.  Then they break them down into easy to do lessons for kids to create there own art pieces. 

The first lesson that the boys did was called wax elephant.  It is based around the style of Franz Marc.  They outline the drawing with crayon (the wax) and then paint the rest in with water color paints.

Sam followed the directions and made the wax elephant.  I think that it turned out great.  I love the bright colors that he choose.

Sweet little Gabe.  First off he is trying to give him self bunny ears.  When I asked him why he is giving himself bunny ears he says "I want to give some one bunny ears"  LOL this kid cracks me up on a regular basis.  Second this kid NEVER wants to do the actual assignment.  In this case he did not want to make the animal.  So I of course I allowed him to do what he wanted as long he used the technique.  So in true Gabe style he did his favorite superhero Iron man with the superhero that Sam created, World Man.  I think that is final project is just as amazing as Sam's.

So I have two amazing little artist on my hands.  I can not wait to try out the other projects in this book.  Have a great night everyone.  See you tomorrow with "what I love" school editions. 

American Reveloution Crafting

Time for a craft post for you.  This one has to do with schooling (obvious huh.)  It was a presentation put on by Sam.  We have always had a hard time teaching Sam history.  That is because the kid know so much about it.  He has always been an avid reader and his choice of topic, history.  We do work on Story of the World with him but more often than not he stops us to add in facts that the other did not mention.  We decided that he needed extra in his studies to satisfy him.  We thought that we would give him a time period in which to research and then present us with a presentation over the topic.  There is no rules just be creative and have fun.  First up is the American Revolution.

The first picture is of his entire board.  If you click on it, you might have an easier time to see it.  It was huge, hard for him to get closer and fit the whole thing in. 

He drew all of these little people to represent the most influential people in the war.  He actually has them going all around the whole display.  They actually have facts listed on the backs of them and carry the flags for the countries they were supporting.

He had plenty of battle diagrams.

There was also lots of lift the flap sections to give more info.  He really did do a great job on it.  He is already starting to work on his next project, the industrial revolution. 

See you guys tomorrow, have a great one.

A return to blogging...

Ahh time, it really does pass as quickly as the wind.  How many times over the last several months have I thought "I really need to get back to blogging" but something comes up to stop it from happening.  It makes me kind of sad when that happens because I really do enjoy blogging.  So I made a schedule up with topic ideas to make it a little easier to get to blogging.  It goes a little something like this...

Mondays - I will do a review of school from the week before and post our goals for the new week.

Tuesdays - I am calling them "Tasty Tuesdays" ( I know an original name, LOL).  I will share any of the tasty things that we have going on in our kitchen.

Wednesdays - It is the day to share crafts.  They might be school related or personal, maybe even our Etsy shop listings. 

Thursdays - A mish mash kind of day, not sure what I will write about.  It will all depend on what I feel like that day.

Fridays - "What I love" school edition.  I will share different items that we are using that I am in love with.  It could be anything books, crafting, games, or more.

The weekends I am going to take off so that I can focus on my family and get ready for the new week.

I know that this is Tuesday so according to the schedule it should be "Tasty Tuesday" but I thought I would start off with the intro back and start in with regular blogging tomorrow.  Things have been busy here (imagine that) and we are just getting back to school after a little hiatus, we did kind of an unschooling method over the holidays.  Hopefully I can get back into the routine rather quickly.  Since starting back to school this week Sam has been thriving.  He really loves having structure and routine.  One of the things he really needed to work on was time management and goal completion, so we picked him a day planner.  He LOVES it.  Gabe on the other hand is the same old Gabe, SPECIAL.  I love that kid but man can he be a big pain when it comes to getting any of his work done.  He is so imaginative and loves to play all the time that he has a really hard time shutting that off. 

Thought that I would mention the photos.  The top one I took when we went to the local farmers market.  I edited it using instagram.  The bottom one is of the boys at the botanical gardens.  It is actually the picture we used for our Christmas card this year.  Well I think it is time to wrap it up.  Still got more work to do tonight.  I will be back tomorrow for any of the readers that I really hope I still have.  Would love to hear from you so leave me a message.  Good night all..

Madagascar on Jumpstart

I was asked to do a review of the new Madagascar^TM section of Jumpstart^TM.  It is available at jumpstart.com. The Madagascar^TM section is modeled after the Central Park Zoo from the film.  It starts off with you going around the zoo and looking all the stars of the film, Alex, Melman, Gloria, Marty and the Penguins, play games, and you learn interesting fun facts about each of the animals. You then go on a train ride through Paris, France and Switzerland to Italy.  Italy is its own interactive area.  There are all sorts of games and videos.  You can even climb the Leaning Tower of Piza.  My 9 year-old son, Gabe and my 12 year-old son, Sam love the game.  Here are some thing they think about Madagascar^TM section:

Gabe: "I like Europe a lot. I like how the city is laid out. They have lots of stuff like canals, gondolas, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa."

Sam: "I like the Transmorpher in the Penguin Head Quarters.  If you collect the right amount of things, you can mix them in the Transmorpher and turn people into animals."

Our only complaint about the game is that you see Paris and Switzerland, but you can't go visit them or any other country in Europe except for Italy. 

It is an absolutley wonderful interactive.  My family loves it.

 
“Disclosure: I was provided with a JumpStart membership at no cost by JumpStart in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.”

The Oldest Wooden School House

Well as Sam kept saying "since we are homeschooled we have to check out a school house on vacation"  My boy thinks that he is so funny.  In reality I would love an area like this to school the boys in.  With some more modern features though.  :0)

 This was the yard that classes happened in sometimes.  The view is from our staircase in the hotel.  We were right next door.

 This was actually taken from our window in the hotel.  We were so close to it and the funny thing was that when we first got there we tried finding it on the map.  We could not find it, some miss readings were happening.  LOL.  The building in the picture is actually the kitchen/teachers lounge for the school.

 This was actually taken to the front of the school house.  If you see there is a chain wrapped around the house.  It is attached to the anchor right behind Sam.  That was ment to keep the house safe during hurricanes.

 This was the list of the last students to attend the school.  They were the class of 1864. The years written next to their names were actually the year that they died.

 The yard had several statues of like this.  They were of different people that had effect on our education system.  I do not remember his name for the life of me.  The flag though tell me he was from Honduras.  Each of the statues had the country flags next to them.

 My guys just relaxing in the back yard.  I would love to do schooling in the yard.

 There was beautiful plants all over the yard.  The kids even loved the little animals such as the lizard Sam found in the plant below. 

The yard had so many statues like this all around.  It was Gabes favorite part.  He must have taken 25 to 30 pictures of all the different ones. 

Sam's favorite part was that when you finished the tour they gave you a diploma.  He thought that was so cool that he got to graduate.  See I said he was a funny boy.  Still got a couple more years before he actually graduates. (Thankfully)

Fort Castillo De San Marcos

Well after a partically rough tax season we finally got away for a much needed break, even if it was just for two days.  We went to St. Augustine.  It was absolutly wonderful time.  I feel that I need to sort the trip into multiple entries.  This is because Gabe discovered that it was really fun to take pictures and he took pictures of EVERYTHING.  If he was not in the picture it is a good chance that he took it.  He kept holding the camera and calling it his precious LOL.  I am trying to narrow it down to pictures that I think everyone might like.  The kid did not make it easy, he took over 500 pictures and most of them were really good (don't worry I will not show all of them) 

To start with I thought I would share pictures from the fort.  Hands down it was probably the kids favorite part.  Gave actually wants to work there when he grows up.  :0)

 These top three shots were just random shots from around the fort.  It was really beautiful there.  We arrived on the first day and could not go on the top because they were having thunderstorm warnings.  Our pass (only payed for the adults, kids were free) lasted for a whole week.  We could come and go as much as we pleased.  So after exploring the inside for a little bit we decided to head back to the hotel and came back the next day. Really glad that we did.  We arrived at the opening so no one else was there yet and the kids got to talk with a park ranger a little bit.  When the park ranger heard that they were homeschooled he gave them each an activity book about the fort. 

This whole section was all about the cannons.  The kids loved the cannons. (good thing because the town had cannons all over the place.) 

 This picture is really neat because you can see where all of the cannon balls have hit the wall over the years. (just click on the picture to make it larger for easier viewing.)

Saying good bye to the Fort.  We had to put a limit on it because the kids did really love it and wanted to keep going back.  We had to little time there and wanted to see so much more.  I will actually put a link for the museum that was right across the road that we went to.  It was the Pirate Museum.  A very cool museum that I highly recommend.  My only problem with the museum is that we were not allowed to take pictures.  So sorry no pictures.  Check here though if you want to learn more about the museum.