December Homeschooling Miscellany

We didn't get to do our Solstice Wreath this year due to a little more craziness than usual.  But other stuff got done.

10yo figured out how to make fingerless gloves using her loomband loom and wool after watching a few Youtube videos:

She has since either given this one to her best friend or made her best friend one and there has been a request to teach another homeschoolie how to make them.

7yo made a "quarry" with some collected rocks (not sure where they're from as they collect rocks and never label them...)

10yo was looking up some science experiments to do and found a cloud in a jar experiment (not sure if this site was where she specifically got it from), so we did that.  Multiple times.

The kids had their gymnastics end of year display which was pretty great to watch.  Because it was the PCYC's 75th anniversary there was actually a story arc over all the performances rather than the spectacular dancefest it usually is.  We got some video and a number of artistically blurry photos (there was a lot of rapid movement, we were inside a building and it didn't occur to either of us to bring one of the bigger cameras), nothing that I think I can use as it's hard to tell what you're looking at from the angle we had.

In a continuation of her studies into makeup artistry, 10yo has been doing a bit of nail art. 

7yo has been getting into Magic: The Gathering in a big way (which has made JJ happy, he really loves the game but playing was a bit difficult when the kids were tiny).  It's pretty good mental maths practice for all the kids and has also been helping 7yo with reading, which he is still struggling with.  He has also crafted his own Magic deck without any help (which is what he's doing in the below photo) and it worked pretty well, which isn't bad for someone who has a lot of trouble reading.

We got the kids a trampoline for Christmas so they have been outside.  A lot.  Bouncing.  Except on the two hottest days of the year (yesterday and today) for obvious reasons.  We spent the Christmas/New Year period not doing a lot and chilling with extended family, and had 10yo's best friend over for nearly a week before she went and spent 3 additional days sleeping over at her best friend's place.

I've been slowly letting the bigs take more responsibility for their own education this year.  There have been days where I've questioned if they're mature enough yet for this as they have spent entire days watching random crap on Youtube and/or playing video games (yes 12yo has done both simultaneously several times), but during casual conversations have come up with all sorts of things that I know they didn't know previously (usually biology and history related with the boys and art related with 10yo) so it seems to be working overall.  Then I hit a big transition period with work-related things and didn't pay as close attention as I usually do, so I think a fair chunk of the first month will be establishing a general rhythm and me working out where they're at so I can devise this year's program and go from there.