Flashback Friday...It may just look like a can of soup

but it's not. It's a step toward independence, a step toward not needing mom and dad quite as much, a step forward that left me surprised and proud

After a morning of completing our required standardized testing, we were ready for lunch and a break. I told Quirky to give me just a minute and then I would get lunch ready, then I called Dork for his daily "what do you feel like for dinner call".

Biome Kids Meal Project

Kids Meal Project

At any given time Quirky and I usually have at least two science units going on. She absolutely loves science. She will dig right in and research, read, and take notes. She loves it...but truth be told Quirky works at her own pace...and by that I mean slow. Which is another reason why we often have more than one thing going at a time. If I didn't I don't know that we would get very far at all. My expectation when introducing this unit was for it to last about three weeks,  but Quirky was so excited about making an educational kids meal that she just didn't want to stop working. She researched, read, and took notes and got to work. The next thing I knew her project was done...more than a week early. So what exactly did Quirky have to do?

Literary Device Posters

This school year Quirky has read several novels independently, and we have read several novels aloud together. Everything from Harry Potter to Hugo Cabret. She loves to read and To be read to, and I am so glad. For each novel, along with her readers journal and other book specific projects, we payed close attention to the authors techniques...

Lined Denim Tote Bag

Hello...my name is Nerd and I am a fabric scrap hoarder. Everything has potential, even if it takes a while to figure it out. If you sew, then you understand exactly what I am talking about. I have been saving the scraps leftover from making shorts for Quirky for years now, and although I have made a minor project here and there with them (an outfit for her favorite stuffed dog...AKA Oscar Fido) but still had quite a pile of them and burning urge to do something with them. So I pulled all of them out and pulled out the pieces that I wanted to work with and got busy. 

AAAAHHHH....Multiplication Facts

I have tried just about everything that I can possibly think of to help Quirky memorize her basic multiplication facts, as had her teachers back during our public school days. Unfortunately, she is still inconsistent when it comes to multiplication. So when I ran across some multiplication rules posters that

Homemade Gnocchi Soup

Quirky's Homemade Gnocchi Soup

Homemade Gnocchi has been on our list of things to make since Quirky was a little girl and a huge Curious George cartoons fan, and a huge fan of the little cat named....Gnocchi. She thought it was hysterical that the little cat was named after pasta, and she thought it was hysterical when Curious George tried to cook. Maybe that's why she likes to help out in the kitchen now. So why has it taken us so long to finally make our gnocchi? Fear. Plain and simple. The word gnocchi even sounds intimidating. I was absolutely positive it would be both difficult and time consuming. Last week however, the perfect opportunity came for Quirky and I to give this a try.

Supermom...well maybe

Quirky and I have been working on a Unit Study of the Human Body for several weeks now, and I have been saving the awkward for last...yeah you've got it...the reproductive system. Of course Quirky and I have had the "birds and the bees" talk but now we are looking into things a little more closely...Yikes!

Basket Weaving...and a Thank You

Quirky's Basket

Back in February Quirky was lucky enough to attend a one day basket weaving course offered by our local library and taught by  her former art teacher. I've been meaning to post about for awhile but kept forgetting. The class itself was a mixture of teens and adults with Quirky being the youngest one there.

Sculpture Mini Class

Sculpture Mini Projects

I posted recently about the iTunes University class called Introduction to Comics, well in addition to the comic drawing lessons it also has lessons on sculpting. The course once again was set up as short instructional videos and geared toward a younger audience, but not so juvenile not to be worth it. And although clay is not usually Quirky's medium of choice, nor mine, I still felt that having her continue with the course was worth our time. Due to our lack of resources...ie we don't own a kiln, we chose to use air dry clay.