Spring Quarter at Hogwarts

For this quarter she wanted CSI, Tinker Bell, (Fairy dust and the Quest for the egg), Herbology, and I insisted on Arithimancy so she can keep up with her skills. We couldn't decide whether to have a 7 week quarter then a 5 week break before our vacation, ( a car trip so she will have schoolwork to do on the way), or a 13 week quarter with no break before vacation. There seemed too much to do in only 7 weeks, but not enough to really fill 13 weeks. I thought I would save myself the weekly hassle of collecting schoolwork by making textbooks for her to go at her own pace with. If I did a little extra work now I would have less to do later as we prepared for vacation and did girl scout stuff, planned a camping trip, cleaned house, and all the other stuff I knew I would have to do soon. I intended to put together the workbooks during her 3 week break after she finished her last thirteen week Magic Tree House quarter. But life interfered. I will write about it in a separate blog. She usually gets her assignments on Sunday morning so she can go over them with her dad, so he is included, and I can sleep in after staying up late to finish them. So she was expecting them when she got up. I did welcome letters, and packages (we found a CSI kit at B&N, and terrariums at fry's), for delivery on Sunday morning with a note from the Hogwarts Owls saying that due to the immense number of things needing delivered they had had to split it into two deliveries. I wound up staying up until 3 a.m. Thursday night, 4:30 a.m. on Friday night, 4:30 Saturday night, and 5 am last night getting the texts finished. I was up by 10 every morning, by 9 on Saturday so we could go see Grandma before DH's eye dr appointment. So I am EXHAUSTED. But there should be less stress as far as school for a while.

Herbology- I found mini terrariums at Frys on their clearance section last fall. I am hoping they will still sprout. If not I will be buying new seeds at OSH this weekend. They need to be watered once then will recycle the water as long as you keep the top on, or up to 4 months, so it seems pretty easy easy to maintain. We have to plant them, figure out where to put them where they get the right light, (one needs SW, one needs SE and one needs E), and check daily for changes. One is a "Princess' garden" with gemstones to decorate the terrarium, and make a path through the garden, which will grow into tiny flowers. Another is a "Dragon's Lair" which has lava rocks to decorate it and a plastic dragon to hide in it, it has seeds for some dark grasses and unusual flowers. The last one looks like an easter egg. It is in an egg shaped terrarium with seeds in a disc of plant food that will grow into polka dot plants. Which looks kinda like ivy only it has pink spots on it. I made her a log for her to circle each day when she checks her plants, C for any changes, (she describes lower on the page), and N for no change. Once a week she needs to draw a picture and write about one of the plants.

CSI-Mysteries, I spy, Logic, Spot the differences, Fingerprints, Footprints, Blood Type, DNA, Observation, Witness description, and other evidence . About 40 pages with about 1 activity per page.

Fairydust and the Quest for the Egg- This is a great book by Gail Carson Levine, the author of Ella Enchanted, (so much better than the movie), and other girl empowering books. It has Tink in it, but more as a connection to the fairy hollow, to show the reader what is happening there, while three other fairies go on a quest to save the source of their magic. It was supposed to kick off the line of new Disney fairies books, toys, clothes, etc. And they tried to save money by having other less known authors write the rest of the fairy books, (10-15 of them in paperback about 10 chapters each), but though they were cute, they were not on par with this one so they had her write sequel last year. I made up or found an activity for her to do after each chapter. Some are on the disney fairies site, where she can make her own fairy, decorate her fairy home, tour Fairy hollow, and play games there. Some are more active, (like acting silly to cheer someone up), or hands on, (such as laying in the tub and singing so she can hear herself like a mermaid). And some are in the workbook, some writing, (What do you think your talent would be and why), some coloring and some more fun activities like crisscross or word finds. About 20 pages for the 30 chapters. She follows along with each chapter on CD. then does her activity for it.

Arithimancy- I made a workbook with about 35 pages of math from single digit addition to simple division, adding fractions, telling time, and money. We also play lots of card and board games.