Merry Christmas!

Being first-time homeschoolers, we arrogantly thought we'd do school straight through Christmas break.  Well...we didn't.  I'm kidding about the arrogant part, but we were a little surprised to find that, as much as we enjoy school, we did actually want a change of pace for a while.  It was nice just to hang out with family and do Christmasy things without having to worry about schedules and checklists, for a while.

One of the highlights of the Christmas break was a long weekend in Sunriver with the Diefenbaugh side of the family.  We had a blast playing in the snow, playing games, and chatting with family.

This was one of the rare years that we actually spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home.  We did our usual traditions of watching a movie (Polar Express this year), drinking cocoa, and opening PJs on Christmas Eve.  Then the we opened stockings and presents in the morning, after reading the Christmas story.

Because of schedules, we had our Brownlee-side Christmas on New Year's Day in Eugene.  We had our traditional dinner at the Oregon Electric Station and opened gifts in the evening.  The kids enjoyed performing piano pieces and playing with their grandparents and cousins.

We had a great Christmas, and we are looking forward to another wonderful year!

And Now Presenting....The Planet Mars!

At the beginning of our astronomy unit, each of the kids chose a planet that they would eventually do a project and presentation on.  Kyler chose Mars.

He made a paper mache Mars, painted it, labelled it, and prepared a speech highlighting the main facts he had learned about Mars.  I will eventually post a video of the actual  presentation, but for now, here's a picture.

Good job, Kyler!

Martian Mania!

Did you know that the biggest known mountain in the whole solar system is on Mars?  Olympus Mons is three times bigger than Mount Everest.  Since it's a volcano, the kids made a model of it and made it explode, in a variety of colors!

Building Olympus Mons

Another fun event this week was pajama day.  The kids wore pajamas until P.E., which is just after lunch.  We had a "cozy" breakfast of pancakes, warm applesauce, and cocoa.  Reading time was enjoyed on the couch under a warm blanket.  The kids each picked a couple of stuffed animals, which accompanied them to their various stations throughout the day.  We'll definitely repeat it next year.

Kyler's education on PJ day was supervised by "Papa Bear"