HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

On Sunday we drove to a neighboring town just to go and check it out.  The drive ended up being a learning experience for us and the girls.  As we drove we discovered that they grow cotton and peanuts in this area.  It was so different seeing fields of white cotton instead of green corn and beans.  We pulled off and stopped on one of the side roads and let the girls pick a piece of cotton.  It was so cool!  Then on Monday we searched the web and read how cotton is grown.  We even found a youtube video that a cotton farmer posted that allowed us to watch the machines that they use to pick and harvest the cotton.  It was very interesting.  The girls were glued to the screen! 

On Monday we had a VERY windy day here.  So we got online and read about wind.  We watched a Bill Nye the Science Guy video about wind.  We also watched a couple of videos about wind turbines and how they work. 

We bought the girls each a cardboard heart box from Hobby Lobby.  They had fun painting those this week.

I have been having trouble with Lorel not wanting learn anything.  I noticed that she loves to be on the computer.  So I was looking around online and I found a website for homeschoolers that has online curriculum.  It teaches every subject through games, videos, and activities online.  It is called Time 4 Learning.  So I decided to give that a shot with Lorel.  Her first day with it was on Tuesday.  She seems to really like it.  She seemed to take better to their reading program then she does to me trying to teach her to read.  So I think we will try it awhile.  I am going to supplement it with activities for reading, writing, and math.

We downloaded a Nancy Drew mystery game this week for the computer.  The girls really enjoy trying to solve the mystery.  It is pretty difficult and I feel it promotes deep thinking.  It also gives us time to work together as a team!  We also got a new board game called Blokus.  It contains little shapes that are placed on the board.  Your shapes can only touch corner to corner.  Whoever places the most of their shapes on the board before it fills up, wins!  It is so neat!

Mackenzie has been working hard on memorizing her addition facts to 11.  She has the zeros through the twos down.  We are working hard with the threes this week. She did some some Mad Minutes!  She is also working hard with double digit addition, carrying and place value.  She has also been working with letter blends and ending word blends.

We found a game called What's on my head.  A picture is placed on your head that is attached to a headband. The object of the game is to guess what the picture is of on your head by asking others questions about it.  We had a good time!

We bowled this week!  Well at home anyway!  The girls needed a little activity to clear their heads!  This was one of the things that the girls bought with the Halloween money that Grandma Stewart sent!  Thanks Grandma Stewart!  They love it!

It is Mackenzie's week this Saturday to bring snacks to the soccer game.  We went to a local bakery and ordered some cupcakes for the team.  They came out so cute that I had to put a picture on here so everyone could see!  Also last week for Mack's game we sprayed her hair with green polka dots so I added that picture too!

On Friday we went to safe trick-or-treat.  It started at 3 in the afternoon.  Then tomorrow, Saturday, we are going to a Halloween carnival. Also we decorated our window for Halloween!  Thanks Grandma Diesel for the mini pumpkins!