Category Archives: National Blog Posting Month

Jet lag can lead to questionable meal planning

NaBloPoMo November 2015We returned from California on Thursday night; battled mild jet lag, attended our co-op Halloween festival and decorated creepy cookies on Friday; went to two soccer games and trick-or-treated on Saturday; and rested like it was our primary vocation on Sunday.

Monday: Fish sticks and mac & cheese
Tonight’s meal is a result of me trying to make a grocery list with jet lag.

“What do you want for dinner, kids?”

“Fish sticks!”

“Ew, fish sticks are gross! OK!”

Tuesday: Tacos
Because taco Tuesday is the best Tuesday, especially if avocados are invited to the party.

Wednesday: ???
Wednesday’s my birthday! I don’t know what we’ll be eating!

Thursday: Sandwiches
Most likely ham sandwiches, because I’ve been enjoying ham lately.

Friday: Chili
We’ll be having dinner with 13 other people. The CrockPots will be working overtime on the meaty, spicy Chili by George and the vegetarian Queen City Chili.

So. How was your Halloween?

Let us transition from NeverBloPoMo to NaBloPoMo

NaBloPoMo November 2015My blog turned 10 on Friday, and I did nothing to commemorate it. Not only that, but I didn’t write anything at all the entire month of October. Sorry, poor little Butterscotch Sundae. It was a crazy month.

I’ll attempt to make up for my unplanned Never Blog Posting Month by posting every day in November, because it’s National Blog Posting Month and that’s what we do here (see: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 2006). In the past I’ve gone into NaBloPoMo with at least some sort of plan, but this year we’ll be flying by the seat of our pants.

Allons-y and whatnot!

Astronomy (and “Star Wars”) activities for the homeschooled kid

In the Fall session of co-op, you may recall, I taught an astronomy / “Star Wars” class. Here’s a bit of what we did!

We started the “Astronomy and also some ‘Star Wars’ ” class at co-op by reading a Magic School Bus book called “Lost in the Solar System,” and we also read a little from “The Solar System” most weeks.

We made our own story cubes featuring “Star Wars” characters, planets and vehicles. Ours were made from card stock, but there’s a nice tutorial for wooden story cubes at RedTedArt.com.

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We made suns to go with our solar system models. There was a sun with the solar system that I printed, of course, but the swirly painted ones we made looked so much cooler.

We made little Yoda puppets on sticks. They were painfully cute, and Pete’s been using his as a bookmark.

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We discovered new planets, which we wrote about and illustrated. This was probably my favorite activity from the class. The kids were really creative in describing their planets, and the craft activity was simple and sweet.

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We made constellation viewers. This one was also pretty successful. The kids very much enjoyed punching out the stars with the ginormous thumb tacks I bought.

In retrospect, it would’ve been better not to make it a mashup. I’m not sure I would’ve had enough activities to cover 9 weeks of “Star Wars,” though, so I suppose it’s just as well.

p.s. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s the end of NaBloPoMo!