Plan Book Before & After: Tuesday

Zac and I had a lovely little trip to the grocery story after dropping Becca off at the carpool location for Farm Day. Here are the recipes written up on my "menu board" (our chalkboard downstairs):

buttered noodles with Italian seasoning, tomato soup

pasta, sauce, veg

Slow Cooker Venison Roast with Apples and Onions

Crockpot Venison Stroganoff, egg noodles

Cheesy Tuna and Rice

waffles, scrambled eggs, yogurt, fruit

Crockpot Yogurt

Sweet Potato Brussels Sprout Quinoa Bowl

Chocolat Guinness Cake

Cream Cheese Frosting

The cake recipe is my own special treat for myself. I promised the girls that we would have cake if I reached 600 followers on Pinterest and we did yesterday!

We had a very sweet Valentine's Day celebration and got a goodly amount of stuff done in school, too, although not as much as I expected because the handmade valentines took longer than I thought.

I'm working on a series this week that follows from Sunday's post Do I Try to Fit Too Much in a Day?

I listed my entire plan book for the week on Sunday and now I'm going to go through day by day and post what we actually accomplished.

Tuesday, February 14

Yes, we are still working on learning our new morning verse:

We are truthful and helpful and loving in trust For our heart's inner sun glows brightly in us
We will open our hearts to the sunbeams so bright
And we'll fill all the world with our heart's inner light

No doubt this was meant for younger children but it really resonated with me so we are doing it with my pre-teens. So there. :-)

Yes, we did Article of the Day and our Quotes for Kindness (the Atticus Finch one). No, we didn't do math facts or practice with the Montessori bank game (dynamic long multiplication).

Yes, we completed our absolutely drop dead gorgeous handmade seed paper valentines. The red and white specks of paper combined to be a perfect pink. We blended it in my Aunty's vintage blender, which leaks a bit so we don't use it for smoothies anymore, and got a scant 1 1/2 cups pulp. This made seven hearts using my 3" wide heart cookie cutter. We poured the pulp in a bowl and added the contents of the seed packet. Then it was time to make pulp into paper!

We simply stacked an enormous pile of folded bath towels on some newspaper, laid a linen dishtowel over the top (this will get stained), and placed the cookie cutter on the dish towel. Then we spooned a few spoonfuls of pulp into the cookie cutter and used our fingers to spread the pulp evenly around inside, adding more if needed. Lift off the cookie cutter while the pulp is still wet, and repeat.

After one hour I lifted up the dishtowel and put it on a cookie sheet and set it in the oven with the pilot light on. Our stove is from 1952 so the pilot light is very very warm. We let them sit in there so the remaining water could evaporate. It took about 1 1/2 hours, flipping the valentines over halfway through.

Then we chose what planting information we wanted to write on the back of our valentine doilies, so people knew when and how to plant their thyme-seed-infused paper. We used 10 inch wide circular doilies, writing the to/from and "you're in my heart all the thyme" or "I always have a fun thyme with you" on the front and the planting instructions on the back. We attached the seed paper with a little loop of tape so it was easily removable for planting when the thyme came. (See how I did that? The puns were so fun!)

We added in a new recipe into the plan for Tuesday. Becca requested Rice Krispie Treats. They did that and then she also used our heart cookie cutter to cut out two rice krispie treats, one for each of her older sisters. That was their treat when they got home from school.

We also added in spreading a layer of corrugated cardboard mulch along our garden paths and around our roses because my pile of boxes in the laundry room was getting bigger than I could stand! Plus, we had nice weather yesterday.

Yes, we started weaving the limestone cave from the top down. No, we did not do the braided hearts form in Form Drawing.

Yes, my Geology student added Coal to her MLB, doing an awesome two-page spread of her Carboniferous Period drawing with the Coal summary squeezed down at the bottom as if they were the layer of decaying matter down below. No, she didn't have enough time to add the three types of rocks. Yes, she read her water cycle story but she had to do it for homework. No, she didn't start to draft a poem for the water cycle to go in her MLB.


Yes, my Astronomy student added the Phases of the Moon to his MLB, after laying out all eight of our dark side of the moon balls and our earth in the middle. He traced his sun, his earth, and his eight moons at the eight points of the compass in his MLB. Then we used a ruler as a straight-edge to color the dark side of the moon for all eight. Having to rotate the ruler as you go helps drive home the fact that the moon is moving around the earth. You have to feel it to get it, I think.  We used Prismacolor pencil black #935.

Then we used a ruler as a straight-edge to color the sun's shadow. Having the ruler stay in the same orientation the entire time helps drive home the fact that the sunshine is coming from the same direction throughout the cycle. Again, you can physically feel this with the ruler.  We used Prismacolor pencil dark green #908. Seeing how the amount of white surface that was left and available for the sun's light to bounce off of was really helpful in driving the whole thing home.

For the Geology MLB, I'm thinking about three more 2-page spreads. Hers will be
1) the three kinds of rocks on the left - the rock cycle on the right
2) the water cycle on the left - wind on the right
3) glaciers on the left - topographical map of Illinois on the right

For the Astronomy MLB, I'm also thinking about three more 2-page spreads. His will be two 2-page spreads dedicated to the famous astronomers, but I'm not sure how much space to give to each. We did the story of Ptolemy and the music of the spheres (from Kovacs) but I didn't have him draw anything because the idea of embedded transparent 3-D spheres just seemed too difficult to draw on paper! His last 2-page spread will be the heavenly bodies he is researching.

So, no, he and I didn't read the planets chapter from Kovacs or begin to add the planet research to the MLB, leaving in space for astronomer biographies.

And I really want to do some Geology field trips, so that needs to stay in the mix as well. Although we can do that over the weekend or on Monday if needed before we start Business Math and Geometric Drawing. Also for next week... starting seeds! It's mid-February already!!!


Time for photos!

the basket on our nature table, filled with little notes to each other which we opened and read at dinner last night

yes, hydrangeas really are acid-loving! 

look at that pink!

Qwirkle at indoor recess

"helping" Becca with her Colorku game - happily the extra pieces store in a tray so he had his side to work on and she had hers (Colorku is Sudoku puzzles with colors instead of numbers)

carrying our foam ball Earth

wait... I think I hear a car coming

Zac loves his little stool by the window

adding the top edge of our weaving so we can make stalactites

Becca made a little star with the remaining pulp for her brother... and we are going to plant his seeds in a little pot for him

adding in the green (new moon is #1, full moon is #5)

adding all the details, like giant dragonflies (2 1/2 foot wingspan)!

sweet treats for sisters

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