You Know You're a Homeschooler When...

You take a look at your life one day and realize that there is something weird about your grocery list. Because it has only two things on it and they are Red Bull and ferns.

Yep. True story! :-)

8th grade Organic Chemistry: Food and Nutrition. And 5th grade Botany.
The Red Bull was for curdling milk / learning about pH and the ferns were for making sun prints. The floral dept. of the grocery story is a great place to find them if you prefer not to collect from the wild (or the neighbor's yard).

Talk about juggling the oh-so-various aspects of life! My planner for today: attend a webinar for Executive Women and plan a backyard Water Party... complete with loads of adorable snacks! And I skipped the webinar and took a nap (just between you and me) because my two year old was taking a great 3+ hour long nap and so, hey, why not. Life is short. Carpe diem.

And then I woke up and used scrapbooking stickers and patterned cardstock and calligraphy pens to make labels for all the cute party food.

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PARTY NOTES

Ok, for all the images which inspired this, check out my Water Party Pinterest page. This is our last-day-of-homeschool backyard bash!!!

GAMES

cornhole boards and bags

Frisbee

badminton

water bottle ring toss

super soaker sponge "bombs"

Squirt Gun Water Races

Water Balloon Hop Race

Water Balloon Pinatas

Fill the Bucket Water Game

Water Balloon Colander Toss (you wear the colander on your head)

SENSORY PLAY

a sink/float water station for the toddler crowd

and, last but not least, outdoor play with two-ingredient Metamucil slime
for the older kids

FOOD

sea foam (white popcorn)

waves (ruffled potato chips)

shark teeth (triangles of white cheese)

sea pearls (white gum balls)

seashells (Bugles corn chips)

driftwood (pretzel sticks)

seaweed (bamboo skewers of red and/or green grapes)

saltwater taffy

goldfish crackers

fish in the river (celery sticks with cream cheese and goldfish crackers)

dolphins (blueberries, bananas, mini choc chips, and goldfish crackers)

peanut butter & jellyfish sandwiches (cut with a fish cookie cutter)

bait (gummy worms)

oysters (Pepperidge Farm lemon cookies, blue icing, and white Sixlets)

Seashell Pasta Salad

"Take a Dip" Veggie Tray

pool noodles (colorful licorice sticks)

"Grab a Floatie" (gummy lifesavers)

beach balls (round orange cheesy puffs)

and adorable teddy bear tableaus in individual little cups:

swimming - blue jello, teddy graham, peach ring, paper umbrella

lounging - butterscotch pudding, crushed vanilla cookies, teddy grahams, peppermint, fruit leather, paper umbrella

DRINKS

water, of course!

I'll also have a sunscreen station, a bin of extra towels, and a DVD ready in case the kids get too hot/wet/tired/overstimulated and need to take a break, or it rains. The perfect one? A Plastic Ocean. This is so timely... there was just an article in the newspaper today: Tiny uninhabited Pacific isle has 38 million pieces of trash. I cut it out from the paper to share with my students. We ended up repurposing an unused MLB to be for "Current Events" this year and we add to it when an article is particularly striking.

"The researchers say the density of trash was the highest recorded anywhere in the world, despite Henderson Island's extreme remoteness. The island is located about halfway between New Zealand and Chile and is recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site."

A Plastic Ocean (2017)

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