Our library now offers free passes to the Northwoods Children's Museum in Eagle River that you can check out for the day. Our friend group headed up there to check things out and it didn't disappoint. There was a ton for all of the kids to do and they really had a great time playing with their friends!
We discussed biomimicry and the kids were tasked to come up with an invention mimicking an amazing animal adaptation. Olivia use tree frog toes to make climbers to climb up walls. Nolan made an anteater tongue grabber to pick up small lost things.
The kids worked really hard on these beautiful polar bear art projects for the Co-op showcase. They did all of the work themselves. Nolan's was done with markers and Olivia's was watercolor and oil pastels.
We finished our first semester of Co-op with a showcase. The kids performed bucket drumming songs to "We Don't Talk about Bruno" and "Fireflies," showed off their PE rope ladder skills, and made some beautiful artwork for the art gallery. Grandma and Grandpa came to watch them show off their skills. I continue to be so blown away by the blessing that co-op and our homeschooling friends have been in our lives. This has been the best year of homeschool yet!
We decided to start freezing ice blocks to build an igloo!
Olivia got this adorable make your own unicorn kit from Grandma Patti at the Christmas tea. She loved sewing it together and it turned out so cute!
We had a huge snowstorm and the Rhinelander Schools closed. The neighbor kids came over and they spent all morning building a huge fort in the front yard.
Our writing project this month was a 5Ws project. Each kid chose and event or story and answered the 5W questions - Who, what, when, where, and why. Nolan chose the story of how Athena won the city of Athens in Ancient Greece and Olivia chose the first walk on the moon.
We made suncatchers, bird feeders, and honey cake to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
The kids got these Tubelox for Christmas and built this vehicle that they can ride on!
Both older kids have been asking to start sewing so I thought they could start with making some cloth napkins for our poetry teatimes. Unfortunately while he was practicing, the needle on the machine wiggled free and I dropped it down inside while trying to put it back. I need my Mommy to come and help me fix it!
We joined our friends at Northwoods Golf Course for an afternoon of sledding. The hill was enormous and while it was fun going down, it was not so fun walking back up. Simon liked to roll around at the bottom of the hill in the path of the oncoming sledders, so I made lots of trips down and up the hill to attempt to keep him out of harm's way. It was exhausting, but was a beautiful warm, winter day, and the kids had fun.
The kids drew names to do a Secret Santa gift exchange. They had a lot of fun carefully picking out things for their buddies, all while staying within the $10 budget. They were so excited to give their presents and it was great practice teaching them about the process of giving gifts.
We wrapped up our December school with a book party for, "The Very, Very Far North." We had to delay a couple of weeks because we were exposed to covid and ended up getting sick. It made it feel so good to be back together! We had pizza, and Snow Delights sno-cones, went sledding and played in the snow, and warmed up with some adorable Duane hot chocolate. It was the perfect end to celebrate our favorite Dart book yet!
