Category: Activities for Kids

Tom and I took the boys geocaching this afternoon. We found a few caches in the new neighborhood connected to ours and on the trails across from the boys’ school. We also hid a cache, which was fun (our second in Nolensville)!

The boys and I put together Blessing Bags for the homeless today…thought we’d keep the bags in the van…that way we can give them out when we see a need.

Tom disassembled the treehouse in our backyard that he and his dad built for our boys when Roman was a baby. It made my heart a little bit sad, but he repurposed a good bit of the materials and built the boys a fort in the woods. They’re loving it, so their childhood treehouse lives on…

The boys were so excited to check out Pixel Planet Arcade today…thanks to Pops and Maw for the gift cards they gave the boys for Christmas!

Our October cooking kit from Raddish was a “Frightful Fiesta”. The boys didn’t have school on Monday, so we made it a cooking day. Yay!

Each kit comes with laminated recipe cards (for an entree, a side, and a dessert), a shopping list, a cooking tool, table talk cards, and a game. This month included the following:

Recipes: Mummy Enchiladas, Creepy Corn Dip, and Haunted Tres Leche Cake
Cooking Tool: Silicone Liquid Measuring Cup
Game: Pinata

They made their pinatas first thing in the morning…

Then, Jonas and I worked on his Haunted Tres Leche Cake. We mixed and baked it early on because it needed to sit in the refrigerator for three hours before adding the whipped cream ghosts with chocolate chip eyes. Jonas was so creative and named each ghost. HaHa!

Next, Xander and I put together his Mummy Enchiladas. His favorite part was decorating them with string cheese wrappings and black olive eyes. He really enjoyed chopping the vegetables as well!

Finally, Roman and I made his Creepy Corn Dip. He loved cutting up the corn tortillas to make his own tortilla chips AND tasting the end result…it was sooooo good!

We are loving these Raddish cooking kits and can’t wait for November’s kit!!!

I’m not really sure why I call “miniature golf”…”put put golf”…I think it’s a leftover saying from childhood.

Anyway, I took the boys out to Grand Ole Golf to play this morning. The weather was perfect. We were doing all right…even Roman, who usually loses it when he’s not doing as well as he wants to, decided he didn’t want us to keep score for him, which I thought was a great call/big guy choice.

Then, Xander came up against this really tough hole, that all of us were totally failing on…and he lost his mind and raged so hard, so quickly that he smacked the putter against a rock…and broke it. Yes. Broke it. So, he and I took a little trip back to the front desk, where he explained to the clerk what he had done and why and asked how much it would cost to replace it. Needless to say, he owes me $11. Not worth the rage, I’d say…especially to a 9 year old.

As we were finishing up our game, this really annoying music started blasting over the loud speakers. I was definitely starting to get agitated by it…then, Roman headed into full on sensory meltdown mode with it. The only thing I could think of to help him out was to bring up his Amazon music playlist on my phone and put some headphones in his ears, so he could be in his own world for a minute. I was afraid he was going to fixate on the fact that the headphones were too big and didn’t fit right, but he was able to get over it and calm down and pretty soon he was back in sync and jamming out to “Hall of Fame” by Script. So proud of him! Then, we took a BREAK. HaHa! Mommy needed one too (that’s who Roman gets his sensory processing issues from).

We drove over to an empty, expansive church parking lot and picnicked in the quiet, under the shade of a big tree (overlooking the place where Tom proposed to me!). They burned off some post-lunch energy on the playground, and then we picked up the most delicious snow cones from Cotton and Snow (right next to Grand Ole Golf) before heading home.

Tomorrow is going to be a veg day.

We had a Make It Monday today. The boys worked on our big sea turtle coloring page, folded origami, and re-painted pavers for our garden path.

The NVFD drove through the neighborhoods in Nolensville today, so the Easter Bunny could wave at the kids!!! How precious is that? I love our little town.

We also did one of our science experiments today, dyeing eggs with Cool Whip and gel food coloring. It was super easy, and the eggs turned out really well.

Roman went with Tom to work today (thankfully, it’s just Tom there) to do his homeschooling. He wrote a story, read a book, did some math on Beast Academy, worked on coding with Kano Code, and had some Daddy and Me Time.

Jonas and Xander homeschooled with me…

Jonas did a lesson on prepositional phrases and identified some in the book he was reading, started a lesson on poetry, completed a few math worksheets and continued to progress on Khan Academy, and watched a video and answered questions on “The U.S. Enters WWII”. For Mommy and Me time, we played Kubb.

Xander found compound sentences in the book he was reading and wrote a round robin style story with me, read a book and made a list of the story elements, watched a video and completed a worksheet on simplifying fractions, watched a science video on why your biceps bulge, and read a few articles and answered questions on Social Studies Weekly. For Mommy and Me time, we played the Milk Jug/Bean Bag toss game.

After Tom brought Roman home, he set up the most awesome Pickleball court in our backyard. We all had fun playing a few rounds before Tom had to go back to work.

Then, it was science time with…Peeps. The boys each chose four liquids to submerge their Peeps in for 24 hours. They made predictions about what effect they thought the liquids would have on their Peeps. Jonas chose salt water, grape jelly, vinegar, and teriyaki sauce. Xander picked heavy whipping cream, almond milk, oil, and lemon juice. And Roman tried ranch dressing, milk, ketchup, and pickle juice. It was fun (and a little gross) to watch! We’ll see what happens tomorrow…

Let me start out by saying that there was QUITE a bit of fighting today between the boys, and I think we were all emotionally exhausted by the time bedtime rolled around.

Roman had MULTIPLE meltdowns…I’m not sure what’s going on with him. He’s sleeping well, eating well, having special time with mommy and daddy, getting exercise outdoors, etc. Tom and I talked about it tonight, and we think maybe he just needs a break from his brothers (since there’s no school and no playdates with friends right now to break up the time with them…AND they’re all taking everything out on each other). So, Tom is going to take Roman to work with him tomorrow morning (luckily, it’s just Tom at his office) and let him do homeschool there.

This weekend, the boys’ teachers sent out activity suggestions for the week, incorporating WCS online resources and the packet they already gave us, for each grade level. What a Godsend!!! The boys took right to it…I think it’s much less overwhelming than having things completely open-ended or having to sift through a load of information/choices to figure out exactly what to do. We were able to slide it all right into the daily homeschool routine that works best for us without a problem. Yay!

During Writing:
Jonas responded to a letter from Ethan (his best friend).
Xander added another post to his classroom discussion online and reviewed compound sentences on Flocabulary.
Roman wrote a letter to Owen (his best friend), filled out a story elements graphic organizer for “Captain Underpants” by Dav Pilkey, and wrote his spelling words in shaving cream.

During Math:
The boys progressed on their individualized math programs on Khan Academy and Beast Academy (love these!!!). Jonas worked on ratios, Xander on shapes and skip-counting, and Roman on comparing, subtraction, and odds and evens.

During Reading:
Jonas sat on the upstairs couch by the window, read on his Paperwhite Kindle, and typed out the answers to a few questions from his packet.
Xander curled up on the downstairs couch with his blanket and dove back into “Tales of an 8 Bit Kitten: A Call to Arms” by Cube Kid for the third time (he has been LOVING that book since he got it from Amazon last week).
Roman tucked into his bed with all of his stuffed animal monkeys and read a “Big Nate” book by Lincoln Pierce.

During Mommy and Me Time:
Jonas and I made blueberry muffins (actually, he did most of it by himself…so proud of him) and played Kubb.
Xander and I played Milk Jug/Bean Bag toss (a game Jonas used to play in rock climbing class). Xander is so fun with his trick shots…he reminds me so much of his Daddy in that.

Roman and I played Milk Jug/Bean Bag toss and Kubb as well.

During Science/Social Studies:
Jonas had already finished the recommended Science/Social Studies activities for today before school let out…lucky him.
Xander read two articles, watched a video, answered a few questions, and played a game on the Social Studies Weekly app.
Roman skipped Social Studies today.
All three of the boys did a Peep and jelly bean STEM activity, building nests and houses for their Peeps with jelly beans and toothpicks. (These pictures were taken at the beginning…by the end, their creations were quite elaborate…especially Jonas’…he built a Peep mansion…ha!)

Yesterday, we did “unschooling”.

Today, we went back to last week’s homeschooling schedule, and it worked much better for everyone.

The boys did a little exercise warm-up and wrote in their journals (there seems to be continuous weeping and gnashing of teeth with this one for some reason).

Then, they each read independently and worked on math with Khan Academy (except for Roman who blew a gasket over Go Math, Dreambox, and Freckle…so, I ended up going a different route with him and tried him out on a math program later in the afternoon that a dear friend told me about called Beast Academy…he loved it).

For Mommy and Me Time, Jonas and I built a fairy garden…

Xander and I made banana bread and played Kubb…

Roman and I played Kubb and enjoyed sensory play time with play-doh, magic sand, and slime.

In Science, we tried out Rainbow Shaving Cream Rain Clouds and talked about how rain is formed.

Oh, this day. Sigh.

It’s kind of all a blur now honestly…starting late, each boy at some point having a minor/major meltdown over their work, each boy eventually going to their room because of their attitudes, all of us taking a looooooooooong brain break, doing the schedule all out of order, leaving some things completely out, etc. It was just one of those days where there was frustration EVERY step of the way for EVERYbody.

The only thing that worked out was our science experiment with baking soda, food coloring, and vinegar…it was a bit of fizzy fun that the boys seemed to really enjoy.

At the end of the day, Tom and the boys and I all had a pow wow about last week’s schedule vs. this week’s schedule…what we thought worked and what we thought didn’t work. We ended up deciding to go back to last week’s schedule, tweak it a little bit (adding exercise first thing and swapping out coding/typing for independent reading), and pull ideas/resources from their binders as needed. Hopefully, that will be our last switcheroo, and we can finally settle in to our new normal.