Category Archives: Homeschool

Learning at home with a second-grader and a fifth-grader.

The Butterscotch Sundae children are growing tired of the 100-day project

So as it turns out, we have been very sporadic in our 100 days of art project. Rather than 100 Days in Which We Do Art Every Single Day, it’s turned into 100 Days in Which We Do Art Sometimes. That’s an improvement over the number of days we’d been doing art, though, so I’m still marking it down as a win.

A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

Last week we started making some papier mache bowls. We let them dry for far more days than they actually needed, and then when we went to paint them I realized that our paint had all dried out. I tried to resuscitate it with some water, but it was too far gone for me to save. I’ve added Acrylic Paint to my ever-lengthening list of Art Supplies We Need.

So instead of painting our little bowls on Monday, we took our inspiration from Beautiful Hello and made our own geometric watercolors. Pete requested a LEGO Darth Vader, and Poppy wanted to make a cat. I found some silhouettes online and printed them, and the kids started tracing them onto watercolor paper. Pete grew tired of the project pretty quickly (this seems to be a recurring theme), so I took over the Vader project. We made dots and lines on our paper, and eventually it turned into some very cool artwork. This has been my favorite project so far.

Yesterday I wanted to try to do some sketched copies of photos. I put a grid over our photos in Photoshop and measured a grid out onto our papers, then we started to sketch the image square-by-square. Poppy abandoned the project after one square, and Pete never started. I finished mine, though, and then I colored it in with watercolor pencils. It is not terrific, but I’ve never done any portraits at all before so I figure it came out pretty, pretty OK.

This week I discovered that I love watercolor pencils. We only have two packs of them, one in earthy tones and one in primary colors. I’d like to get some more. What’s your favorite art supply?

This week in homeschooling: We embark upon a lengthy project

Our regular learning activities haven’t varied all that much from the norm over the last few weeks. We’re reading “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows,” and Pete is reading a Tom Swift book. Poppy is working on exponents in math, and Pete has joined a math club that meets once a month. We talked about crystals in science, and all of our experiments failed. (That part wasn’t very exciting.)

We did, however, add a few new things to our repertoire this week.

There are a ton of opportunities for hiking and exploring nature in our area. Because of some anxiety issues on my part — no bathrooms! bears! tickborne diseases! no bathrooms! — I haven’t done a terrific job taking advantage of that. I’m going to make an effort to change that, though, by planning a (maybe) weekly hike into our schedule.

This week the kids and I went for a short hike on some nearby national forest land. I couldn’t find the trail I’d intended for us to hike, and judging by the ruggedness of the path and the number of people on mountain bikes we saw (10) as compared to other people on foot (2), I’m pretty sure the one we ended up on was primarily a mountain-biking trail. But we crossed a small creek via a very small fallen tree, we stumbled upon a lake, and I was pretty much OK save for a small moment of panic.

Midway through our hike, Pete said: “You know, I’m actually enjoying this.” I actually did too, pal.

I'm thinking about adding a weekly hike to our #homeschool curriculum.

A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

On Tuesday my friend Robin shared on instagram that she was going to participate in Elle Luna’s 100-day project. Robin is an artist, so it makes sense that she would sign on to create some sort of art every day for 100 days. I am not an artist, but I do have a couple of kids who love to do art projects. And so I decided that the for the next 100 days, the kids and I would do an art project.

Perhaps it wasn’t wise to decide on a whim to do something for 100 days in a row, but so far Poppy, Pete and I have had fun with our projects. Here’s what we’ve done thus far:

We used tissue paper and water to create today's #100artsydayswiththebutterscotchsundaekids works. #the100dayproject

A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

Looking for more homeschooling stories? Check out the weekly wrap-up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

This week in homeschooling: If you give a kid a hammer and a geode

We’ve reached that time of year when it feels like we’re doing the same thing over and over every week in our homeschooling adventure. Which I guess we kind of are, but it varies a little bit. Right? Right. I’ll keep telling myself that.

Here are the small derivations in the routine that we did this week.

STEM

Science
This week we started learning about crystals. We tried to make some with baking soda and hot water, but it didn’t work very well. We currently have a jar of sugar water sitting on the counter, and I’m hoping that rock candy will start forming on the string dangling within pretty soon. It’s been two days, though, and I don’t see anything yet.

We also smashed a geode with a hammer and examined the sparkly, crystalized insides.

We also smashed a geode with a hammer.
Oooooo sparkly!

Math
Pete had his first math test in his new curriculum this week. He did well on it, but he would’ve aced it if he’d taken a few seconds to review his work. That’s something we both need to work on.

Language Arts

Reading
We are four chapters from the end of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” And those of you who’ve read it know what that means. It means that Poppy will soon be saying “Are you going to cry again?” 🙁

Pete has been reading a “Moby Dog,” a Wishbone adventure. He says there aren’t any whales in it at all. It doesn’t even start with “Call me Wishbone”!

Memorization
We’re up to Nixon on the presidential-memorization project. Pete keeps getting stuck on Eisenhower. Totally understandable.

Extracurricular

Tae kwon do
Yesterday Pete finally earned the last stripe that he needed to test for his blue belt in tae kwon do! I’m very proud of him. I know tae kwon do isn’t his favorite activity — that would be playing a video game whilst eating a cheeseburger — but he’s been focusing and putting a lot of effort into it over the last few weeks.

Co-op
Poppy made Malva pudding, a deliciously indulgent South African dish, in her Desserts Around the World class. Pete made a bow and an arrow using PVC pipe and a few other materials in Ninja class. I’m not sure what they did in Mad Scientist class this week.

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!