Dissection, Spilled Paint and a Trebuchet

On My Mind ~ What a week! We were blessed with getting a good rest break while Goldilocks "worked on her life" in respite care last weekend. Upon her return, we started a new, much stricter routine. The kitchen/dining room is our "hub" and she is expected to be there with me most of the time. She now has her own desk for school (or for times that I do not need to keep line of sight) and periods of rest in her room. We placed a keyed lock on Tom Sawyer's door so that she can't barge into his room anymore. That was one of his biggest concerns. There will be locks going on the laundry room doors this weekend. She also has very short play times with her siblings (10 to 15 minutes at a time) and limited play time with pets. She freaked out about the changes which resulted in Monday and Tuesday being filled with challenges. However, I was rested and ready. I've been down this road with her before. Because of the high level of structure and her siblings being rested and prepared, even the rough days this week went well. By Wednesday, she seemed to have decided that she wasn't going to get me riled up so it was best to just comply.

Another Easter Egg Hunt ~ I took Little Red Riding Hood to an Easter egg hunt at a historic house in the area. It was a rainy day, but she enjoyed the Easter sing along and story time. They then found eggs hidden in the hallways of the house. My kids are growing up. Only Little Red Riding Hood wanted to go.

A Trebuchet ~ What happens when you send your husband and son to an educational toy store with a GREAT coupon and suggest they get something science based? They went out while I ran errands.

They had the trebuchet built before I even got home. This thing has provided so many hours of fun this week. They have shot hundreds of plastic eggs at every imaginable block building.

A Poetry Tea ~ We had a poetry tea for Robert Frost's birthday. It was a delightful time of reading poems over breakfast. If you would like to view the entire post, go here.

Dissection ~ There are graphic pictures below of our dissections this week. If this bothers you, just skip it by scrolling down. I promised Tom Sawyer that we would dissect four creatures this year. We did a cow's eye at the beginning of the year. Today we did the remaining three. We dissected a frog, freshwater clam, and a freshwater perch. The frog was the most interesting and held the kids' attention very well. The perch smelled the worst and was difficult to find all of the organs. Tom Sawyer lost interest during this one. Little Red Riding Hood really liked removing the scales. The clam was easier to get into than I expected it to be. It was hard to figure out all of the parts. However, we found it interesting as well.

 frog tongue

Gross, it leaked!

Freshwater Perch

Little Red Riding Hood loves science!

Freshwater clam

Goldilocks did do some of the dissections. She preferred to be behind the camera as much as possible, so there are no pictures of her.

When life gives you lemons... Goldilocks stood on a can of paint in the kitchen this week. It tipped over and spilled all over the floor. I was very proud of myself for staying calm. I just got out a brush and started painting the rest of the kitchen cabinet doors...with the paint from the floor. It is a bit unorthodox to use spilled paint for a project, but I am living through an unorthodox life. I kept muttering about how when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I think the kids were a bit perplexed with the situation. They all sat around the computer watching an education film and peeking over the counter at me.

All the Rest ~ We started a short unit study on Picasso this week. I will have pictures and more to tell next week. The dissections completed our Five in a Row unit study on Night of the Moonjellies. I hope to have a blog post up about that this weekend. We also did lots of math and language arts this week. We are also listening to Royal Diaries Anastasia in the car. I like this series so far. Tom Sawyer is enjoying Ragweed by Avi. I always like Avi books and was glad to find one age appropriate for Tom Sawyer. The librarian showed me several books by Avi that were fun and lighter than his books geared toward middle school and older kids. I think I will be able to keep Tom Sawyer in chapter books for a few weeks. Well, that is all for this week ~ more than enough!

Blessings, Dawn