it was one long week...........

and now it is over.

the indian village is finished, but this is definitely the star!

straight from the imagination of a nine year old girl.

i told her that i think she can just go ahead and quit school,

we'll set up a cottage industry business and she can make me rich!!!

the pilgrims have come to join in the fun

can you see the logs and the fire?

and then there is that baby in a little papoose

on the ground practically in the fire...

i hope that isn't any indication of how

she will take care of her own children someday!
here is the entire thanksgiving scene. i give it a 10!

.......................
there was this sweet picture

made by my girl just for me:

the viking notebook pages

finally had a place to go

there is a hint of order in the schoolroom,

we can see the floor!

all of the boxes (yes, they are cheap, cardboard banker boxes,

but for limited space reasons, this was the best thing i could come

up with for now). they are each labeled:

puzzles, paints, cassette tapes, scrapbook supplies, arts and crafts, wooden crafts, flowers, garlands, sequins, etc. etc.

the book shelves are arranged so that certain little fingers cannot get into the glue, tape, scissors and/or staples because there are people in this house, whose names i will not mention, but they like to use and abuse gluesticks, scotch tape and other necessary supplies. and i must say that there is nothing quite like being right in the middle of a project and finding out that all 35 glue sticks are somehow DRY.

i have often thought of making this room soooooo off limits, especially when i have been in there cleaning ALL BY MYSELF. i had an idea that it might work kind of like the library and they could "check" things out. and only, and i mean ONLY, upon PUTTING a project/materials/game AWAY, could they take something else out. but that never works for long. i'll feel bad, like how would i feel if someone stifled my creativity...........

here is a moment of still this morning in: the schoolroom

we didn't finish up the viking unit today like i wanted

as we had an unexpected "field trip" to the mountains.

more on that later.

this will be our final project for the vikings/celts

-illuminated manuscripts-

sort of like the one below and then we will be done!

some of the art is more pagan than others.

I wanted to stress the Christian aspect of it.

You can visit here and here for some ideas on Celtic Art and illuminated manuscripts.

we'll be moving onto the pilgrims next week.

i plan to take it easy and mostly do a lot of reading and baking.

but i'll post more on that tomorrow. goodnight.