The Nutcracker

We were back in the homeschool saddle today.  The girls woke up to full workboxes and handwriting waiting with breakfast on the school table.  Lucy made letters while Zoe worked in her journal.

Then, Lucy and I played in the sensory box.  Here, we made a penguin birthday party.  There are 3 red candles on the cake, and the jewels on the outside make an A B pattern.  There are 3 penguins at the party (same as the candles) and 1 birthday penguin which makes 4 penguins total.  Plus they are funny singers.

I am not loving our Saxon math right now, so we are switching things up a bit.  I am using this for Lucy and this for Zoe.  I have used them both supplementally but am phasing out Saxon for now.  Both of these emphasize mathematical thinking, estimation, predicting, real world application, and just generally a more mathematical way of thinking instead of just learning skills.  Not sure it's a long term solution but I'm liking it for now.

Then, we were off to dance class.  The last day before the holiday is always fun because they reenact the Nutcracker.  Today, Lucy and Zoe's classes did it together.

Lucy finds the broken Nutcracker after the rat attack

The toy soldiers marching to fight the rats

Lucy admiring the Barbie tree.  The Christmas she was 1.5, we battled that tree for an hour a week during Zoe's class.  It was exhausting.

Zoe performing her Santa Tap number

Then we had our sweet new friend Anna over to play and do science with us.  I had a great magnet painting activity planned.

Lucy helped me prep the paints

While the big girls found proper science attire.  

Are these two peas in a pod or what??

 Here Anna demonstrates how a washer dipped in paint will move across the paper when a strong magnet is moved underneath the washer.  Except it really didn't work.

So we turned it into a fun art activity.  How many rainbow paintings can we make in an hour of painting?  More than I can count.

After a brief rest, Carson and Ella came over for our annual Christmas party and gift exchange.  We ordered pizza and decorated cookies.  A good time was had by all - this is our 5th Christmas together!  They were our family in Mexico and are in Allen as well.  We are lucky to have them.  We realized the other day that Ella was Lucy's age when we met her.  Hard to believe!