Medieval Castle

We're a week behind in actual hideaway structures. We may stay that way and build the Tudor House next week, or skip the house completely.
But as my daughters live to be princesses, spending time making the castle was definitely high on our list of priorities!

(word to the wise. If you're going to use the flaps upright to add height, tape them together BEFORE you paint. The paint warps the cardboard. Don't be like me.)

Pouting because I didn't do her hair the way she wanted it. She is a princess.

Prince Hudson, all decked out in clothes from India.

(he just keeps getting cuter. Oh my goodness.)

The Queen

(which makes me the Queen Mother!)

The kids all helped paint the outlines of the stones on the castle. Don't they look realistic?

New Directions

Things are changing a little.
After pulling teeth for the first 11 weeks of school, trying to get Jasmine to do the workbooks, I realized it just wasn't working. So after talking to a friend a few years ahead of me in this learning experience, we're now using Susan Wise Bauer's materials for language arts.
We're using Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons, Level 1. She still didn't want to write yesterday for the first copywork assignment, but she eventually did it (she got paid in chocolate chips for each word written. I fed her like a sea lion, which she thought was hilarious. We will not consistently use bribery or sweets, but I needed her to start out with a success).
I also bought triangular pencils in hopes that it would help her hold the pencil properly. Hopefully that will help it be more comfortable, in case comfort is part of the problem here.
It's possible it's just some of Josh's genes showing up. He's always hated writing. Fought it his whole life. But she needs the basics, no matter how much she wishes she didn't.

We celebrated by finishing a project that Bekah did the bulk of. I traced starfish onto a bunch of pieces of construction paper, and Bekah cut them out (and added smiley faces to most of them), and this morning we taped them to yarn and hung them up. We learned a little about sea creatures last week and have been reading about shells and the animals that live(d) in them, so this was a fun little celebration! The kids think it looks like a party in the homeschool room!

Back in the saddle again

Just a quick check-in...
we're finally back up and running again. Week 11: Medieval England. I'm fascinated about what we're learning already this week! I read a book called "1066 And All That," which is a very silly "English 'history'" book, but since I don't know any of the real history, most of it is over my head. So reading about Alfred the Great made the jokes a lot more understandable!

We cut out a large castle. I donned my very bad British Accent as I cut out the doors and windows. Bekah got on my case as soon as I lapsed into my normal voice.
Tomorrow we paint and glue the two boxes together, and then I'll get pictures. I have too many pictures to edit from our vacation last week to want to touch the camera again today!

Last week was a great learning experience, though. They had a horseback riding lesson, we visited the aquarium, Old Fort Niagara, a botanical garden, the county fair, watched their daddy take a flying lesson, went to the Museum of Play...so to read all about our educational fun week, check out my other blog!