Ready For The Weekend & Camping Unit

Well, I had hoped to accomplish great things this week, but early in the week it became obvious that Sahara was not feeling well. Well, let me just say that I think she has not felt well for a few of weeks. It is teeth sprouting time. She only has two, but her upper gums look like all four are going to sprout at once. Her gums are bulging, but it is not swelling. Her teeth are showing their form on her gums and they look big. Anyway, on Tuesday she spit up a couple of times. I know that babies are supposed to spit up, but she is almost 11 months old and she is kind of past the spit up stage. I thought it was odd, but did not ponder it too much. I just thought she was over-nursing due to teething pain and I was also having a bit of problem that seemed like a clogged duct, but could have been some engorgement... not sure still, but I say that to say that if it was engorgement then she could have been getting an abundance of milk, hence the spit up issue. Okay okay, I forgot to mention that she had a running nose for a couple of days at that point. I awoke to a very warm little body next to me on Wednesday morning.... 102.8.... lucky us... Our kids all run high temps. Rarely do we have one with a temp in 99 range. We always seem to have 102 and higher. Savannah, our oldest, was feeling a little croaky, too. We obviously have a virus of some sort, because Caden has had some nasal issues and coughing. Those two have not had fever, though. Thank you Lord!

In spite of all this we have been getting our school stuff done and trying to manage the other household duties. When I have a little one sick it seems that everything stops, though. I want to hold them and cuddle them. If they are fussing I just want to give them what they want... cuddles and love. So, that has been my primary focus this week. I have thrown together meals on a whim and just kind of gone with the flow of the week.

Meanwhile, our little potty trainer, Caden, has been busy whizzing on everything! He is 2 1/2 and he just does not get it. Much to our amazement he is not really interested in potty training. We can take him potty and put his underwear on, then five minutes later.... whiz!! :O On Monday we put fresh sheets on our bed. On Tuesday Sahara was laying on our bed. Savannah, Sierra, and I were laying around her Oooohing and Ahhhhing at our little one. Along comes Caden who climbs up on the bed and stands there and whizzes all in middle of my bed!!! :O What is going on in the mind of a boy!! Oh! And he has starting swaying from side to side when he stands in front of the toilet to whiz. It is like his own little water gun! He is quite impressed with his ability to spray it in different directions... some of which do not make it into the toilet! We are using a lot of bleach at our house. The same day he whizzed my bed he pooped in his underwear! I just can not be changing poop underwear. By this age my girls would only do that if they had diarrhea. I mean, who wants poop in their pants?! And yes, I realize there is too much poop talk on my blog this week. Sorry... really... very, very sorry!!! Okay, so off that subject. I will give you all a break!

Hmmmm... so one of my main purposes of this blog is to share ideas with others and I have not really done that lately on a little kid level. I am trying to tie my kids school work together with a theme, so that arts/crafts time is unified.... science, also. Kind of like Unit Studies, but much more simplistic. If it has a name, please feel free to share that info with me in the comments. Anyway, Savannah's A Beka Math has camping as the final theme for the workbook pages. Everyday we are trying to focus on camping related things to do. So, this is my "share" on camping ideas. Some things we have done in the last few weeks are:

1. Roasted marshmallows on the grill
2. Had hotdogs for lunch
3. Had Fishy Crackers (Ritz with a squirt of Squeeze Cheese with a Goldfish cracker on top
4. Made fishing poles (Find a stick from outside approx. 2' long. Tie a piece of string or yarn to the end. Make a "hook" using foil that you scrunch up and shape like a hook and tie to the string.)
5. Made fish. (Fold paper plate in half. Make a quarter sized whole through both layers for an eye. Decorate with anything.. markers, crayons, tissue paper bits, bingo markers, paints, whatever you like.)
6. We caught our fish (#5) with our pole (#4). I had the kids "fish" over the edge of their desk and I put the fish on the hook through the eye. Ouch!!
7. We made boats out of a regukar white sheet of paper. Folded origami style... then, they colored their boats.
8. We did a Hidden Picture activity in a book where they had to find all the fish.
9. For science we studied mosquitoes.
10. We observed a dragonfly.
11. We found some lapbooking print-outs that we used to "pack" camping supplies. We cut out camping clipart and glued it in a simple (very simple) booklet.
12. We packed a First Aid Kit.... another lapbooking print-out. We cut out a double side medic bag, folded it in half and taped the sides to for a purse-like pouch. We cut out some more clipart for our First Aid supplies.
13. I checked out some library books that were camping themed for us to read.
14. I thought about pitching the tent in the backyard... Does "thinking about it" count as doing it? ;) We might still do that.
15. Suprisingly some of Sierra's workbook pages were camping themed. And some could be like stars and constellations.

I just worked in what I could... nothing real complex. It may appear complex, but we kept it simple. We will be doing camping as our theme through the end of our school year... a couple more weeks. So, if we walk outside and see June bugs they could easily become part of our camping unit and become a Science project. I still might put some mosquito larvae in a jar with a screen over it and let the kids observe it molt into a mosquito. Our study says they "pop" out one day... Weird! There are so many things that go with camping... studying bears, raccoons, birds, butterflies, and other creatures. Smores would be a good snack! Catching fireflies... or worms for fishing. I think tomorrow we may do leaf rubbings. Maybe we will end our unit willl real camping!! We'll see! I am just trying to learn how the two girls schooling can work together... BECAUSE ONE DAY IT IS GOING TO BE FOUR OF THEM. :o ;)

So, What do you do to unifiy your various age kids schooling? Got a tip to share? Got a wonderful curriculum or other book, etc... I would love any suggestions and tips!! Let's share our ideas to become better homeschoolers!!