Snow

The LAST Pinewood derby (or is it?)

It's that time of year again, Pinewood Derby Time. This year is special because it's our boys last Pinewood derby, the boys will be too old next year, this is their final year of cub scouts.

From the box the boys get just a block of pinewood, 4 nails for axles, 4 plastic wheels and that's it!




First the boys did a little planning and discussed what they may want to do with their cars this year.



They drew out plans and then the cutting and sanding began.


Tristan is a super sander. Getting the cars nice and smooth can make a difference.



There is a parents and siblings race too, Below is the start of Hayley's car.


Although the cars come with black wheels the boys are allowed to use colored wheels as long as they're BSA approved. Sanding the wheels can help in case there are little bumps from the molds.



Painting comes next.


Then it's race day! Unfortunately I FORGOT MY CAMERA! I should have some pictures coming soon as a friends daughters took a bunch for me. I was so upset to forget my camera though!

The short story is that Tristan was doing awesome. Winning every race he was in. Colin was doing very well but had a couple seconds not all firsts. Sadly in one race Tristan's car jumped the track a little and that gave him a last place putting him way back in the scoring. He never quite regained his lead although by then end he placed in the top ten. Colin's car on the other hand seemed to get faster with every run. Colin found himself in the final 4! It was a nerve wracking time waiting for the final 4 to race 4 times. In the end Colin came in Second! he got a trophy and will race again in the regionals in May. So in fact this was not our last Pinewood derby after all!

Colin and his trophy.


Hayley and her car. She raced in the parents and siblings race and won all her rounds! It's just for fun though no trophy.She patterned her car after the stuffed animal she's holding.


Tristan did very well but he was understandably sad after the race. Hard to be winning and then fall back. hard to see your brother bring home a nice sized trophy. About an hour after taking the photo below (and one even more forlorn looking picture) Tristan saw the photos and said we need to take a new picture of him and his car tomorrow because these didn't look very nice. I think he was starting to feel better about the whole thing.


Colin on the other hand is thrilled, I don't think he expected to do so well. he worked hard on his car though and it paid off. Now we get to do it all again on a bigger scale in May when we go to the regional race!

Past week

I worked last week so not many photos. The kids did pretty well with the folder system for their schoolwork. The weather has been getting colder and colder and so much wind lately! Don't like that at all!! here are a few pictures from the week.

Guess it's time to EAT the gingerbread house, well houses, some friends gave the kids a second gingerbread house.

It looks yummy.....


Does it taste yummy???

Th general verdict was that Gingerbread houses are more fun to make than eat. The kids didn't like them much...the birds and squirrels outdoors are enjoying them now though!

Below was the funniest paper I got back last week. Colin wrote i need help! on a math problem.


Turned out his problem was how can I know what shape the park is and how many sides it has, kids in the countryside don't tend to picture square shaped parks so finding the area was impossible to Colin's way of thinking!


I had to create this:


The dreaded 'I lost my folder-Folder', Tristan lost his Wednesday folder so will be the first owner of this dreaded folder until he finds Wednesday. Mind you I haven't shown him it yet, it will be a silly surprise when Wednesday rolls around again.

It has been soooo cold. negative temperatures, wind. I feel bad for the birds some of the look so cold. Keeping the feeders filled for them maybe it helps a little.

This little one sat on a low branch for ages and I was about ready to go outside and see if he/she was ok when finally it flew off.


I got lucky with this cute picture below, a bird is looking. It can be hard to photograph them through the window.


I spent most of Saturday getting the kids work for next week ready and looking over what they did last week. The things that are going best is work they do on the computer. We will have to make ski season more of a computer school time I think. The boys didn't really like the various crafts I put in the folders each day. Hayley was the only one who did each days craft. I guess I will not take the time to do some much of that, it took awhile to print out all the crafts and activities! Tristan did like the winter people paper dolls. He and Hayley have printed out many more paper people and clothes from www.makingfriends.com and have been making them all weekend the kids have always enjoyed that site.

Getting Organised for my days as WHSM (working homeschool mother)!

I had been thinking and thinking about how to organise our homeschool days once I was a working Mom. I considered workboxes or going to all "computer school" or flipping the days and HS'ing later in the day. I decided that workboxes just weren't practical as we don't have much spare space and there would be the cost of all those bins, drawers or boxes. All Computer school would add cost and possibly be boring for the younger two since each child already does at least one subject on the computer. Flipping the day and schooling later when I'm home from work did not seem like a good plan once I was working and saw how tired I was. Plus Trevor already does his work in the evenings if I'm busy all afternoon working with the other kids...well I need some free time too! What I finally came up with is a folder system. There are 5 folders per child labelled with the weekdays.

Here are all the folders.

I found seasonal days of the week art with a search.
I already had a large variety of file folders in my stash of lapbooking stuff. I used a different style folder for each day of the week.

Inside is a list on the left side stating what each child needs to do that day. In Tristan's it says eat breakfast, feed and water ferrets (each child does different pets), do the schoolwork that's in this folder, do computer work- ETC-6 and 1 dog (or cat) That part means 6 lessons of explode the code online and one lesson of click n read (dog) or click n spell (cat). He will know what it means anyway since that's what he calls them! Then do chores, finally play!

I tried to put easy papers for the first week while the kids get used to the system. There is also a fun winter themed craft or activity each day. It is my hope that they will look forward to seeng what's in their folder each day. I put all the parts of the craft or activity into large clear bags so they aren't searching for things.

A sticky note on the front of the craft bag explains that days craft or activity.

There is also a seasonal calendar page (which they can color if they want) for them to check off the day when they are done. If it's not checked I will know they need me for something they couldn't finish.

I think this could work well. The big kids can help Tristan and hubby will be around if they have any questions.

More from Christmas Time

I fell behind in my blogging while busy with Christmas and getting used to working. These are an assortment of pictures I wanted to get blogged in no particular order.

Tristan was so excited for Christmas, he was counting down on his calendar!


The Christmas symbols lapbooks were fun and a real hit. The kids had fun with this. I tried not to be fussy about placement or the exact way to use the components. We did the research and reading for one, two or three little booklets a day through December. It was nice and low key and we all learned more about Christmas symbols. The kids added extra artwork here and there.

Tristan's lapbook is this first series of photos.

Below is the series of Colin's lapbook photos. He had one major problem though, he glued his entire lapbook together! That boy has a heavy hand with the glue!! I was eventually able to get it apart without too much damage.

And here is Hayley's lapbook, below. (Trevor didn't do one. I started one with the kids but didn't end up finishing it)

We had one awful incident on Christmas day. Flower the cat was very, very lethargic (he honestly looked near death and I was trying not to let the kids know) and then he disappeared before I could decide on a course of action and find a phone number for an emergency Vet. When we finally found him the next day (in the cellar next to the furnace in a wonderfully warm spot) he was much better but seemed a little off and a little sore. We can only guess that he was hit by a car or ate something he shouldn't have from the Christmas tree or goodies that were around for the holiday. He recovered quite well though and now is completely back to normal.

Don't scare us like that again Flower!

Freeze got many toys for Christmas and has been playing with them since.

The children cared for the neighbors sheep for 5 days and even did the last day of sheep care completely on their own as I was working and Bobby was busy.

We had a marathon shopping Day and Tristan had a marathon shopping tantrum. A few simple toys from "the dollar shop" saved the day and he was able to regain his composure and behave the rest of the long day.

A third Lionhead bunny was purchased for Colin when he was upset about the other kids getting one and not him. This too was done while I was at work (hmmm, I'm missing things here!). The kids did photograph the bunny in the car for me so I could see when it first came into our family!

A trip to Build a Bear with Christmas and/or birthday money in Hayley's case. Hayley and Colin chose new animals and Tristan bought a Star Wars Darth Vader outfit for his bear.

This photo from the marathon shopping day represent about half of the Christmas gifts bought for pets. There was also new bowls, various toys and chew bones at another store. It can't be seen as it is small but in the cart is a small plastic floating lily pad for the frogs, I thought it was the perfect gift! It was like..what does one buy for frogs???

I think that's it for my catch up photos.