Dude Perfect!

Posted in children, Experiments, Family, Field Trip, Food, Humor, Kids, parenting, Travel, Uncategorized by hecticpeace

If you aren’t familiar with DUDE PERFECT, a YouTube sensation that is marvelous according to my kiddos! then you might want to check them out!

As a parent I am happy DUDE PERFECT is who my kiddos choose to watch, because they are a group of friends having good clean fun! I haven’t heard any swearing, or anything inappropriate for that matter, and they are hilarious!

Well maybe one episode wasn’t super clean. 💩

Anyhow, when my son heard his scout troop was going to spend the night on the U.S.S. Midway he was thrilled, not because HOW COOL IS THAT, GET TO SPEND THE NIGHT ON AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER?!?!?!?!……nope, he’s thrilled because….

…. he would be staying in the same location as his favorite YouTubers have been!

(One of the trick shots is off the U.S.S. Midway)

He is happy to pose in some of the same poses as his favorite youtubers!

Here is Ty on the U.S.S. Midway

Here is my son on the U.S.S. Midway

Of course as a Boy Scout earning merit badges they had all kinds of fun activities, but the fact the DUDE PERFECT crew was in the same location made his trip complete! ❤️

Now, his FIRST LEGO LEAGUE robotic team is going to the state championships soon and he is hoping they win, once again, not because that’s the point of competitions, but BECAUSE the national tournament is in TEXAS and “mom that’s where DUDE PERFECT lives, maybe we can go meet them!?!?” Uhhh not always that easy dear. Texas is a big state and it’s not polite to show up on someone’s doorstep unannounced, bit rude and stalkerish…plus DUDE PERFECT is a busy crew…but of course honey if you want to dream, dream the big dreams! ❤️ Maybe one day you and your sis will meet your favorite youtubers!!! But for now, please flip that water bottle OUTSIDE!!!

***ps I hope there aren’t any legal problems I’m unaware of with sharing DUDE PERFECT clips here? If there is, please tell me and I’ll pull them down!

27Mar2015

Whale Watching Field Trip

Posted in Beach, children, Deschooling, Family, Field Trip, Healthy Living, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Relaxed schooling, School-at-home, Science, Travel, Unschooling by hecticpeace

This week we decided to stock up on Dramamine and go whale watching! It was great fun! We watched a couple of whales for a while, traveling at roughly their same speed and expecting their spouts at the 4-6 minute mark. Very predictable, which was nice for the kids. However, the photos we captured look more like barnacle filled rocks with a poof of spray…as seen here:

It was much more exciting in person! And my son got some fantastic glimpses using his binoculars!

However, we did find (or maybe they found us?) a very playful and large pod of dolphins.

One of the dolphins my daughter named Hannah and said she could identify her by the rake marks on her back. When we got home she was thrilled to find out I captured Hannah on the camera twice!

Hannah is now a favorite and she wishes she could track Hannah’s life. This moment has spurred a desire to learn more about wildlife/biology.

We spied some lazy sea lions sleeping in the sun on a buoy.

The most interesting and exciting part of whale watching for my kiddos were the dolphins, by far! There were mamas, babies, fast swimmers, jumpers and curious cruisers that would look up sideways at the boat trying to figure us out.

If you are interested in learning more about whale watching (or dolphin watching haha) you can find a plethora of web sites on the web…here is a site to start with: http://www.whalewatching.com

Have fun!

Side notes: One question that came up on our drive home was how do barnacles reproduce if they are stuck on a whale or a rock? If you too were curious, here is the answer…Beware barnacles are apparently porn stars!

https://baynature.org/articles/how-do-barnacles-make-baby-barnacles/

And a great documentary to watch after a day of enjoying the beautiful ocean is: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2277946/

it is a good reminder of what we can do to keep our oceans healthy and let those barnacles continue on with their rock star parties!

23Mar2015

Bed Head Mornings

Posted in children, Deschooling, Family, Field Trip, Homeschooling, Humor, Kids, parenting, Relaxed schooling, School-at-home, Unschooling by hecticpeace

As my son woke up this morning (at 9:45!) He had a bummed look on his face. I asked, what’s wrong? He replies that Charmander (a stuffed animal) gave him a smug look as he got out of bed, because Charmander gets to stay in bed all day! Little does he know, he stayed in bed roughly 3 hours longer than most school kids did this morning!

22Mar2015

Our Week in Pictures

Posted in children, Deschooling, Family, Field Trip, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Relaxed schooling, School-at-home, Travel, Unschooling by hecticpeace

Not sure how many of you remember my daughters adventures with pink hair a while back…

The color stayed in her hair for over a year!

And stained a few things along the way!

She is finally back to a more natural color and all week she has been telling me she wants to color it blue now, or maybe purple, or possibly red…

Her friend who attends public school, told her she’s not allowed to color her hair until summer, it’s against the rules, then she remembered we homeschool…

Few rounds of ping-pong took place.

Some attempts to find new planets, stars, etc…but something was “clogging the lens”, so now the telescope is collecting dust in my entryway, along with five billion coats no one wears!

Reading…lots of reading this past week!

Dreaded worksheets!

Clay creations and sewing projects.

I told her of a local homeschooling girl who made clothes for her dog; since this is one of my daughters favorite past times and one of our dogs most dreaded duties, she promptly decided she needs to go into business with this other girl, whom she’s never met! Haha!

We went on lots of walks!

Trying to identify plants, not so good yet at this adventure!

Anyone know what this flower is?

Swinging stick weapons in our best rock star pose.

Trying to steal sticks away from the dog.

Cruising up the road…we walked a ton this past week!

We had friends join us on our walks.

Of course we always have play dates with friends!

Time for a make over! Boys included, most of the time he is the make up artist or desperately trying to convince them they are beautiful enough to play a game of dead man on the trampoline now!

My son has been reading and creating a TON of these “mini weapons of mass destruction!

I highly recommend this book! Amazon.com has several from the series. I think the ninja version will be making its way to our house in the near future!

Comedy watching her attempt to saddle a tall horse! Especially with a western saddle! The english saddles are much lighter!

Tricycles aren’t always for toddlers!

My son found this tricycle at the horse stables and attempted to go down hills fast enough then stand up on the seat. Think there is more practice needed…and maybe a helmet?

Love our FLL opportunities!

Lego Robotics is a favorite for sure!

We also love chess club!

(Which ends with friends and s’mores around the fire)

Sidewalk walk chalk is still a ton of fun!

Another past time that isn’t just for toddlers!

Adventure Time is a current favorite.

Climbed a few trees, Have I mention I have a couple of monkeys?

We ended our week with a Girl Scout camp out.

And a great game of “Sharks n Minnows” on an air pad…because camping apparently isn’t all “nature” anymore!?!?

Came home, took a nice hot bath to shed camping scuzzzz of our bods and are ready for a nice new week full of new adventures!

13Mar2015

Horses, Swim, Performances and Playdates Oh My!

Posted in children, Deschooling, Family, Field Trip, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Relaxed schooling, School-at-home, Uncategorized, Unschooling by hecticpeace

This week actually felt fairly relaxed,

but we had plenty of adventures to keep us busy!

Trips to the museum and another chance to adore the horses!

Practicing her “walking dismount” during a vaulting lesson.

My fish love to swim, but their current lessons are driving me crazy! My kids WORK their teachers and get away with insanely basic level skills!

Like floating! Come on, you’re killing me here!

And for the first few lessons they let my cannon ball jumper sit on the edge and flop in because she seemed “scared” ugh….she jumps in ALL THE TIME during free swim!

Luckily my son switched classes and has a real teacher who is pushing him to perfect his strokes and teaching him the butterfly stroke!

My son’s Cub Scout leader demonstrated “healthy eating” and made a smoothie with his bike. Of course an auditorium full of boys couldn’t stop making he’s pooping the smoothie jokes! So when it came to tasting it….there were too many eewwww gross, you’re drinking his poop! Jokes! Boys and their bodily function humor! Do they ever out grow it?

We attended a fun play that sparked a reading fest in the house!

We also spent a lot of time going for walks and identifying plants. I had no idea how many edible plants are right in our own back yard! Nature exploring to me is one of the best parts of homeschooling!

And it’s always more fun when dad can join us!

And of course lots of Playdates….a homeschooling family must prove to the overly concerned world that we are socialized!

(Do you detect sarcasm here?) 😜

5Mar2015

Fun Adventures with My Kiddos

Posted in Arts and crafts, children, Experiments, Family, Field Trip, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Relaxed schooling, Science, Travel, Uncategorized, Unschooling by hecticpeace

This past weekend was full of travels and adventures. We had a whirl wind trip to southern California.

Day One we explored the Los Angeles Science Center. There are plenty of exciting exhibits as you can see in the photos like:

Wind tunnels that blow hurricane level winds all over the kids.

and rock walls

which of course he must make it to the top to ring the bell and light the lights up…

then get his congratulatory slam down hug from his sis!

There were “crystal balls” which magically make your brother do ridiculous things!

Wind poppers that are irresistible to my drum player!

Thermal Imaging is always fun…

…and of course MY kids were hoping they could create gas that showed up on the screen!

The science center also has a fantastic aquarium/touch pools.

There were ICE (real deal COLD) walls

Quickly my son discovered punching ice, isn’t quite the same as punching snow!

(ouch!)

lots of opportunities to push, pull, feel, examine, etc…

and last but not least…the Endeavor Space Shuttle has a home at the science center.

My kids were thrilled to touch wheels that have ACTUALLY BEEN IN SPACE!

“mom seriously these wheels have been in outer space! touch them mom, they were really in outer space!”

Day Two we met up with some friends and conquered LEGOLAND!

Day Three we celebrated with my childhood friend and her daughter at her daughter’s “Fancy Tea” themed birthday party.

I can remember as kids thinking when we grow up our kids will play with each other and we will all live happily ever after! ❤

Well it’s true minus a billion miles between us…amazingly our daughters are really close regardless!

I was cracking up watching these girls attempt delicate moves! One little girl had a tea-cup airborne giving the host a heart attack,

another nearly ripped her dress trying to break dance and my own sweet daughter ended up ripping off one of the roses on her dress…

Graceful they were not, but beautiful and happy they were!…these girls loved being fancy for a day!

It’s great when homeschooling gives you the freedom to learn on the go and share such fun memories with close family and friends!

20Feb2015

Our Week

Posted in children, Deschooling, Family, Field Trip, Homeschooling, Kids, Language, Math, parenting, Relaxed schooling, School-at-home, Science, Uncategorized, Unschooling by hecticpeace

Everyday we find time to laugh and on this day, we couldn’t stop laughing. My daughter was a crazy girl with the hose! She ended up bathing not only this horse but the three surrounding horses and all human beings in the vicinity! I think she might have a future career as a fire fighter! NO ONE was safe! We were all drenched!

Horse care is a big part of her responsibilities! And she LOVES it!

~~~

First Lego League http://www.firstlegoleague.org is a great group to become involved with. The kids learn so much more than Lego robotics. They learn valuable social skills, how to be part of a team and how to support not only your own team but the teams you are competing with.

~~~

While at the park we stumbled upon a woman who was spinning yarn and her daughter was knitting. Both of these wonderful people shared their talent and craft with our children.

Another crafty person was making balloon creations for a donation. I did not have ANY cash on me, so my children were upset they couldn’t have a balloon. However, they didn’t waste a second sulking, instead they started to problem solve! Before you knew I they had found several coins on the ground at the park and made that donation and got their balloons! I was so impressed with this balloon artists creations, I had to share! Aren’t those swans too cute!

More fun with friends…

Climbing the baseball stop is always exciting!

During tea time, the girls found these “eggs” on this plant. If you happen to know what kind of eggs they are, feel free to comment!

~~~

Chess Club is another exciting adventure in our lives!

After Chess Club our host family had a lovely fire and supplied the kids with good old fashion s’mores!

~~~

This week our daughter tried her hand at the trumpet. She is very excited about this possibility, but I can’t tell if she’s excited about playing the trumpet or the homework of blasting her notes to wake up her brother in the morning?

~~~

All little girls need a “friends forever” necklace to share with a good friend. Sadly this particular friend is moving away this summer. Thank heavens for technology, they can still keep in touch.

More re fun with friends.

A great game of “dead man” on the trampoline…an all time favorite!

An interesting thought on homeschooling…

…We were at an appointment this morning and the doctor asked if we were finished with school. He seemed half shocked and half concerned. I said we have already accomplished our math and language studies, why? Turns out he was a little shocked it can be conquered so quickly compared to traditional school.

This got me thinking about our days…

I’m not sure if the Spanish Vocab CD we were listening to in the car counts as our foreign language, or if our discussion and research on ancient Egypt counts towards history or if the ancient Egyptian picture my son drew counts as art, or if the books my kids read during their free time count as language…because those are just every day occurrences. My kids don’t count those activities as SCHOOL. They only consider WORKSHEETS and WORKBOOKS to be school…

…and they hate school!

But they LOVE TO LEARN!

We’re we finished for the day? Are we ever finished for the day? I don’t think we ever stop learning! Our entire lives are educational. We were finished with our worksheets for the day! Yes! TGIF! But we are never finished learning, it’s a homeschoolers life to love to learn! ❤️

13Feb2015

Mellow Week

Posted in Arts and crafts, children, Deschooling, Family, Field Trip, Homeschooling, Kids, Language, Math, parenting, Relaxed schooling, School-at-home, Uncategorized, Unschooling by hecticpeace

Well I started my blog post on Thursday and forgot to finish it….wonder if I will ever get into the groove of weekly blogging? I hope so! I used to have negative thoughts about blogs, but over the years they have been helpful in many cases. This means I have to conquer a sub-conscience negative feeling toward the process and a weekly goal. I must accept the fact I’m a blogger now! Haha!

This week has been filled with lots of love, snuggles and cuddles! Mostly a mellow week.

We celebrated Valentine’s Day a smidgen early with some homeschooling friends.

The kids decorated cupcakes and ate way more sugar then they should have, but the mamas saved the kids from licking the frosting beaters….shhhhh it was Delicious!

And I found lovely notes and chocolates around the house from a secret admirer. (Who happens to need admirer as a spelling word) haha!

It was a quiet week over all, with a lot of sofa school (which translates to mama Lou reading educational books to the kids and discussing our new-found information.

My son, has been earning all his states on the app “Stack the States” during his free computer time. He loves that game and has learned so much about the various United States thru play. Next up “Stack the Countries”

Another fun way we’ve been learning this week is thru the tv show “Horrible Histories.”

I love when education just happens in a fun and entertaining way! So much more fun then our boring old academic worksheets.

However a “marshmallow test” is a good incentive to finish your worksheets! (Look close there is a marshmallow taunting him)

We found a bush that was full of berries. I remember as a child being told to not eat the berries because they are poisonous; yet, a friend of mine thought they might be a berry you can make some sort of edible something with…

….so this week we have been searching thru various herb and plant books to try to discover what plant it is, and whether or not it is poisonous or useful and in many case it could be both.

We are having trouble identifying it as there are many plants with similar berries and leaves. We snapped off a bit of it today and will be taking it to the nursery for help with identification.

We also had fun with friends, making artwork, getting beauty treatments, building Legos, playing with transformers, over all making a giant mess of the playhouse.

Last but not least! Drum is always a lesson we are excited to go to and practice for!

5Feb2015

Friday 1/30 – Thursday 2/5

Posted in Arts and crafts, Beach, children, Deschooling, Family, Field Trip, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Relaxed schooling, School-at-home, Science, Unschooling by hecticpeace

My new goal is to show a better idea of how our weeks go for those new to homeschooling. I remember how difficult it was to wrap my head around the idea of homeschooling, because I never knew if I would be doing it right. Nearly five years later I can assure you, there is NO RIGHT WAY, in fact over the years we’ve mixed and mingled many styles and philosophies. The bottom line is: if your children are learning, your family is successfully homeschooling.

So this past week we had a few fun adventures outside of our typical academics.

The kids were enrolled in a Home schoolers Bike Safety Course. The organization that set it up, was fantastic. They had laid out an entire course of faux streets, stop signs, lanes, pedestrians, sidewalks, texting drivers, bushes where random things came darting out towards them, even had car doors that flung open as they tried to pass. I was particularly impressed when they had ten kids on bikes riding in a figures 8 sorting out the intersection issues on their own! Kids are really capable when given the power!

We also attended a homeschool PE class. (Always cracks me up when people think homeschool kids don’t socialize…still makes me giggle a bit when someone asks me if I am concerned about socialization.)

This weeks class was dodge ball, which was an all times favorite of mine! After the hour-long class, a majority of us stayed and the kids played for another hour or so. All ages, sizes and genders happily engaging and having fun together!

We hiked up to a painted “cave” (although I’d call it more of a “wall” myself)

We learned about the Native Americans and the theories on what the paintings mean. I personally thought the picture the experts debate being a bird or a turtle I thought was more of a round circle with nothing more to it, could be a dinner plate, the sun or moon, etc..regardless it was interesting and fun to see.

We we spent some times at the tide pools. We found some pretty cool creatures, shells and rocks. best part was we had our very own archeologist guide with us to share her knowledge both at the cave/wall and the tide pools!

The weather was BIZARRE…at one point we were freezing and wearing giant ski coats, the next moment we were baking hot and seeking shade!

My son who at times likes to “be tough and manly” decided today was an ok day to let down the guard and spend some time wool felting a blanket and sewing a pillow for his favorite stuffed animal. Winters can be so cold and we wouldn’t want his stuffies to freeze!

And last but not least, “Fiesty” (the only hen in the eight eggs we hatched out a while ago) started laying eggs…you can see her “practice egg” below next to an average sized egg. Isn’t that the cutest little yoke you’ve ever seen?! ❤️

Of of course our week also included academics, horse riding lessons, drum lessons, Spanish lessons, lunch with grandpa, play dates, swimming at the gym pool, etc…

See ya next week…

(please excuse any autocorrection I’ve missed…autocorrect might be the death of me one day!)

29Jan2015

New Goals and updates

Posted in Arts and crafts, children, Deschooling, Experiments, Family, Field Trip, Food, Healthy Living, Homeschooling, Kids, Math, parenting, Relaxed schooling, School-at-home, Science, Unschooling by hecticpeace

I have a few new goals this year.

We started a new routine to our day when we started back from the holidays. We are aiming to keep this routine for 100 days. So far we are forming new habits and it’s going well!

Now that is flowing I’m going to try a weekly post on this blog. I am telling myself there is no reason I can’t do this! I have a gap of time every Thursday, and if I make that gap of time blog time in my mind, it should work out.

As for a mini update, here are a few things we’ve been doing (or dealing with)

We hatched out 8 eggs (think I blogged about it in previous posts) well seven of the eight chicks were roosters! Yes I use “were” because a few of them became dinner.

It it was difficult to watch. I don’t think I’ll be able to endure that again unless I saw something far swifter!

But once dead, I felt it was a waste if we didn’t eat them and honor their life in a way. My daughter and I plucked them and discussed life and death. It was a nice opportunity to have a meaningful conversation on this topic.

It was honestly THE BEST CHICKEN DINNER I’ve ever had!

A few lucky roosters have gotten to stay, because they were the least dominate and we weren’t interested in having a lot of cock fights or children being chased after.

Black beard and silver seven (grey one on the left, with his less dominant tail down) got to stay. The grey rooster with his tail up, Greyson, was given to a friend…his outcome is unknown and I don’t want to know because I have a feeling eventually he will be dinner.

So far silver seven and black beard are doing alright, but this spring we will need to get them some lucky ladies, as our current rooster Frosty is not sharing his flock what so ever! Not even one hen!

NEW DRUMS!

Another new addition to the family is my sons beloved drum set. He has put together his own “band” they are named “THE PIXELATORS” remember that name as one day he’s certain he will have a famous rock band!

Best part of this electronic drum set is….drum roll please…you can play with headphones and it’s quiet! Haha! He can also play loud without the headphones, so best of both worlds!

Recently we had a band practice…it was priceless!!! The Pixelators Rock!

Another fun adventure is seeing my children find their curiosity! I was worried it left the house, but recently while having free time, they are doing science experiments and art work again! Another good reminder not to worry too much, life does truly come in waves.

And of course we are still doing our school work…

…nothing better than graphing CANDY!

we also attended an acrobat performance. The kids we’re very impressed with this man balancing on six chairs, on top of a stand…

And this man riding a bicycle with eight passengers!

This performance has encouraged a few acrobatic activities at home!

Have a great week…hopefully my goals of working out 7 minutes a day (with the “SEVEN” app) and weekly blog writing will take place! Just a few goals at a time…once these are in place I will add more goals, or new habits!

Hectic Peace

Please do not use my content or images without my permission.

Category Archives: Field Trip

Dude Perfect!

Whale Watching Field Trip

Bed Head Mornings

Our Week in Pictures

Horses, Swim, Performances and Playdates Oh My!

Fun Adventures with My Kiddos

Our Week

Mellow Week

Friday 1/30 – Thursday 2/5

New Goals and updates

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