We are having such a wonderful time preparing for the holidays! I always mention how grateful I am to be able to do what I do, and now is no exception. I feel so fortunate that we can stay home when we want to, take it easy, and enjoy every second of life as it comes. I am so thankful to my husband for doing all he does so that we may live this life. I am overwhelmed with gratitude.BabyGirl made the decorations in the above picture for a little ornament exchange we had today at a home school Christmas party. We had to make 3 extra since they were so cute! They look adorable dangling from the tree!
One of her favorite things about the holidays is making our Christmas shaped Jell-o jigglers! This year, she was able to do all the steps by herself! She was so proud! Especially when they all disappeared from the party! Here she is mixing the Jell-o, and then pouring it into the mold.
We like taking advantage of the cold days to do a little baking. Here she is helping make a pumpkin spice cake. She has gotten so good at reading recipes and fractions that she can do basically the entire recipe by herself!
We had our art class for the month of December. This time it was about shapes. The girls made presents to one another on this big piece of butcher paper. They used different shapes, and had a great time pretending to open them! It was so cute to hear them describe what was inside!
Here is a snow man she made of circles, and a Christmas tree made of triangles.
We had a tour of a local Veterinary Clinic and Pet Resort with our home school friends. The children enjoyed getting to see behind the scenes, and (of course) pet some of the residents! Here they are getting to know a little Boston Terrier.
For science we are continuing our study of weather. We have gone over many different aspects. First, as we mentioned in an earlier post, we discussed different forms of weather measurements. Since then we have covered the seasons, and done different experiments involving them than we did last year. And, this week we have studied climates. Here is BabyGirl feeling our Arctic environment. We placed different rocks, shells and soil in a pie pan. Then, we covered them with water and put it in the freezer. That represents the Arctic winter. After the water froze, we took it out...felt and documented the results...and left out the pan to monitor what happens during the Arctic summer.
Here she is with our rain forest climate experiment. We took a house plant, watered it, then placed a clear plastic bag over it, sealed it, and left it for 3 hours. When we came back we were able to observe the results of humidity.
Here she is with our winter experiment. I made a bowl of ice water. Then, she went around the house choosing different things to use as insulation. We covered her hand in a waterproof bag, and she took turns using the different materials to keep her hand warm in the ice water. The warmest one was her mitten :) She LOVED this one!!
This is our fall experiment. We took apple rings and placed some in plastic wrap on a dark shelf. Then, we took some and strung them up in an open place. After 7 days, here are the results. The ones on the string were completely dried out, while the ones in the plastic wrap were preserved. This helps to explain why animals store food for the winter.
Here is our spring experiment. We used 4 beans, 2 containers and a 2 paper napkins. We made the napkins damp, and placed 2 beans in each napkin. We put one napkin in each container. We labeled one "spring" and one "winter". We placed the winter one in the refrigerator since it's dark and cold. We placed the spring one in a nice warm spot near the heater. In 3 days we checked back and found the spring beans had sprouted, and the winter beans had remained unchanged.
The rest of our studies have been going very well. We continue to enjoy our phonics program, and I am amazed at how well she can spell. In math we have been covering different forms of measurement. We covered the thermometer, ruler, body parts, clock, measuring tape, rain gauge, etc. Our math curriculum takes everything we have learned and puts them together. So, last week we took our knowledge of fractions and put them with a clock learning the terms "half-past", "quarter to", and "quarter past". I really enjoy the way math is introduced in this book. It's in ways that are relevant to our every day life. This week we have mainly been using dominoes for addition and subtraction, time lines and predicting. For history/geography we are wrapping up Mexico. Each time we finish a unit in this curriculum she thinks she doesn't want to quit learning about that one and move on. But, when we do she likes each one as much as the one before! Our drum lessons are going so well! She has mastered several strokes, and was given some much more complicated ones during the last lesson. I can't believe it when I hear her play. Maybe Santa will give her a set so I can video her playing and post it on here! :)
Last, but not least, here are a couple of the pictures my wonderful relative took of BabyGirl and I around Thanksgiving. They are just beautiful and I look forward to seeing the rest!
Until next time our hopes are that each and every one of you can just slow down and enjoy the real reasons why the holidays are such a special time of year. Relax and spend time with the ones you love. Take a day or two or three and do nothing but play games and watch Christmas movies together. You will be so glad you did. 
