Tinker Crate ~ Our new Tinker Crate arrived. It is all about automatons. This crate really excited Dean. He loved making the different automatons. We learned how to make an automaton shake, go up and down and lower one body part. Dean is talking about using parts from his solar powered car to make the walking stairs solar powered, too. He's not sure he can do it, but it will be interesting to try. I love having a subscription to Tinker Crates!
Thinking Putty ~ The kids got Crazy Aaron's Made by Me Thinking Putty for Christmas. This project was a huge hit. The Thinking Putty comes clear. You then add a colorant and a special mixing agent (glow in the dark, glitter, or shimmer). The kids love to keep their hands busy with Thinking Putty while I am reading to them. How much cooler it is that the putty was custom created by themselves.
Crystal Kit ~ Over the holidays, we completed a large crystal kit from the Smithsonian. The crystals came out really nice. I remember doing these when I was a child. This kit even had "geodes" you could grow.
Literature ~ We started the Narnia series. The kids are eating it up! We have already completed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy. If you are interested in how we are reading this series, you can go here.
New Goal ~ We have decided to try to pull our grocery bill down to $125 or lower a week. We want to have more cashflow for other things. However, I am not willing to give up our healthy, homemade, organic meat and dairy, whole foods diet. I am going to try to reduce our weekly bill by planning our meals more, eating what is in season, and decreasing our meat while increasing vegetarian meals. We are planning on eating no more than three pounds of meat a week. Did you hear the collective groan from my boys? Here is week one -- I spent $118.42. Not shown in the pictures are half a gallon of milk, a bottle of canola oil, one dozen organic eggs from my friend's farm, and two bags of salad. I shopped at the scratch and dent store, Target and Whole Foods this week. I still have about half of the meat left over for next week.
Blessings, Dawn
That tinker crate looks fantastic. And, great job on the grocery savings!
ReplyDeleteMy Sammy would love Tinker Crate! I have seen the ads for it on FB (of all places), but didn't realize what they entailed (as I tend to skip those ads). He'd love a box of stuff to build! All those science kits provide a lot of learning fun, don't they? I'm trying to get our groceries down to $150. :sigh: I have some big eaters around here! Since we all could stand to lose a few pounds, my biggest change will be portion controls and less snacking.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, perhaps we should have gone with Tinker Crate instead of the craft one. Amber never got to her projects and we still have 3 from the summer unused. It looks really cool though.
ReplyDeleteI need to look into that putty. Amber's theraputty is getting a little old.
OK --- I'm going to look into that Thinking Putty right now -- that looks cool! Happy New Year, Dawn!
ReplyDeleteWe love Tinker Crate! I never thought of using all the kitchen time with the kids as home ec - I am now putting that stuff on my homeschool report for my district! YES on the food bill..you are right in line with our goals of the year too...we each the exact same way...love it!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of the Tinker Crate -- looks interesting! We use Thinking Putty in our read-aloud, too :) I'm not doing too good at sharing much our homeschooling days and your posts always inspire me to get on the ball.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of thinking putty whilst I am reading aloud. That might calm the fidgets in one of my little ones. I still wish we had Ticker Crates over here. I think my son would love them!
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