Random thoughts, cute St. Patrick's cupcakes, and school this week (letter R, CC week 18)

I'm sorry to all of you who have no interest in what I'm doing for our homeschooling week! : )  I'm actually going to be doing a book review before the week is out on a book that is keeping me on the edge of my seat...so...I will post something other than our homeschooling adventures!  I will also be receiving a children's book in the mail soon that I will be reviewing and having a giveaway (!!) before the month is out.  Stick with me!
 Honestly, during the school year I'm SO busy with teaching the kids, church activities, and just normal, everyday life, typing out these weekly blog posts is the only thing keeping me on track with school during the week! I know...I'm not a super-organized-have-it-all-together-Mom.  That image...that I'd love to have...is dying a slow death!  I'd love to have a clean house and all the laundry caught up...but with three little people 7 and under, two adults, and about 1400 square feet of space....it just isn't going to happen.  My house may never be as clean and organized as I want it to be.  Just keepin' it real.  But that's ok.  I love my life!  Anyone is welcome to come by our house as long as you don't mind me apologizing (I always do that...can't help it) for the messy state of affairs, making some kind of excuse as to why it's not clean this week (it rarely is...let's just be honest), and then once we're through those formalities we can get on with the fellowship.

I do manage a few Pinterest sessions during the week to, you know, boost my confidence in my cleaning, DIY-ing, and sewing abilities (ha!).  Actually, it is kind of therapeutic and helps me dream dreams.  My newest dream is to make some cool cupcakes for our school time next Monday, which happens to be St. Patrick's Day.  That also happens to be the day after my baby boy's birthday, so I thought cupcakes would be a fun way to celebrate both.  Here are some Pinterest-inspired ideas...

                                      
I think they're all SO CUTE!  I think what I would really love to do is cut out the middle of the cupcake when it's cool and fill it with the M&M's...that way it would be a cool surprise.  Then I could do the rainbow thing on the top or do the Lucky Charms.  Fun!  I would also make the cupcakes egg free for my little guy.  I'm excited already!  I know it'll be time consuming, but worth it for little man and for the other kids in our group...hoping I can manage it! : )

Now on to school this week.  We are on letter R for my PreK-ers so today at our homeschool group we did these crafts....

I LOVE how they turned out!  I got the ideas from Pinterest, of course, but they were super easy...especially since I had all the stuff.  I drew out the R cut them out for the kids.  Then I let them glue it onto a half sheet of construction paper. Then I let them glue the yellow road dashes on...they did a great job!  I had the car/train/motorcycle/plane stickers that I got in a pack from the dollar store.  We've used them three times now...they've definitely been worth the $1 I paid!  For the rain picture we glued cotton balls on the top, used my blue Bingo stamper (from the dollar store) to make the rain drops.  Then I took a mini cupcake paper, folded it and turned it upside down for the top of the umbrella and cut part of a pipe cleaner and formed it to make the handle.  Easy and fun.  Other ideas I'd like to do for this week:
Rr is for...
*Rainbow
*Rocket
*Raccoon

I also got a great book at the Goodwill called "Rain".  It fit perfectly into the crafts and things we did for letter R.

On to week 18...only 6 more weeks to go! (I'm going to try and put just a few good resources for each...I need sleep! : ))
*This blog post by Classical Conversations at Home on week 18 is a great resource!

History--United Nations
*Apparently my video is having trouble embedding here....I'm even having trouble pulling it up on YouTube.  If you search "United Nations for Kids" it should show a cartoon-like video explaining the UN.
*There's also an "episode 2" after this one
*Another video: The UN Explained

Geography--More Central Europe


*map of central Europe

Science--Newton's Third Law
*Click here to find an explanation of the third law, but it would be too hard for my littles to understand.  Better for older kids.
*I'm pretty sure I posted a video with Newton's Second Law that demonstrated this law.  I wasn't able to find a good one for this week yet!  If I do find one I'll come back and post it.
*Science blog entries with some free printables.  I really wanted to print their Laws of Motion booklet, but had trouble with the images centering correctly.  Technology...arggg!
*Laws of motions with matchbox cars

Fine Arts--Morisot
A great printable is available through the link I put above to Classical Conversations at Home

Geometry--area of a triangle



Ok..that's all I can handle for one night! : )  Hope you all have a great week!