March Away from Facebook

I am getting the shakes already. Can I do it? Can I actually commit and follow through? Is my willpower enough?

What am I doing away with? Soda? Nope, did that in February! WOOT! Cigarettes? Nope, I don't smoke. Wine? Hahahahhahaha.

Facebook. I'm taking a March break from Facebook.

Now, before you laugh hysterically, let me preface...I am not doing away with ALL social media. (baby steps, baby steps.) I am doing 99% away from Facebook. I say 99% away because there are still 1-2 groups I am either in charge of or need to check in on, such as the local Home School Co-op. If I need to tell my students' parents something, I may need to hop on our Facebook group and do so. But that's it...no sharing, no updates, no group discussions, no banging my head against the keyboard.

Now, before you yell at me on March first that something posted....hang on. My Instagram is connected to my Facebook so I will share from time to time,  Instagram pics just as I do now. My flickr is also connected, although I am grossly neglecting my photography as of late. There's probably a few other things that auto post that I forget about like running apps and My Fitness Pal, etc. So if something pops up, don't start yelling at me that I'm on Facebook.

So why am I doing this? Well, I don't actually have any issues with Facebook, I feel like I can manage it effectively. I don't feel the need to post every time I eat a sandwich. (although a successful gluten free baked good deserves sharing.) I tend to check it from time to time during the day when the kids are busy with school work and then at night when I'm snug in my bed with a dog and yarn.

I have met a HUGE number of AWESOME people via Facebook, from a variety of interests that we have in common such as motherhood, homeschooling, gluten free, opposing Common Core, handmade business owners, crocheters, craft addicts and more. I've met amazing people and am forever grateful to Facebook for that. But sometimes you need a break. Sometimes you need to step away from the screen and focus on other things.

So, if you see me on Facebook here are the things I'm allowed to do:
Check in on the local co-op.
Plan and share an upcoming Common Core/Homeschooling workshop I am organizing. I may not have the contact of people other than Facebook, so if I need to message them I may have to do so via Facebook.

Other than that, if it's not an 'auto post' or connected app, TELL ME TO GET OFF FACEBOOK!

The world will NOT end I'm not on Facebook and maybe, just maybe, I'll get some stuff done.

To stay in touch, follow me on Instagram, www.instagram.com/mamaslittlemonkeys and if you really want to go old school, message me on Facebook for my email address and let's EMAIL! Or REALLY really old school and WRITE A LETTER!??? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

But really, if you honestly need to contact me and have no other way, you can send a facebook message, those can pop up independently of Facebook so I can sorta cheat that way.....

I'm a little leery that I can actually do this.....Getting the shakes already.

Could you March Away from Facebook?

~~Amy

Home School Unit Theme: Legos!!

I was trying to figure out what in the world our February theme would be. Since the Lego Movie comes out February 7th, I thought, hey, let's roll with what we know! We all know what the little simple blocks are, including a painful object to step on in the middle of the night, but I had no idea there were so many ways to incorporate Legos into learning. Here are some ideas we can try.

First this super cool site came up on my Facebook feed today. What a cool way to get your little one building, especially when they don't have "all the right pieces". http://www.buildwithchrome.com/

Lego Math from Milk and Cookies: http://www.milkandcookiesblog.com/2012/04/lego-math-for-elementary-school.html

Building a Lego mosaic map, perfect for my geography nut. http://buildinglegoswithchrist.blogspot.com/2013/07/our-world-lego-mosaic-map.html

Several great lessons in here, including some Ancient History which H said he wanted to learn this month.
http://www.easyfunschool.com/Lego-Unit-Study-Links.html

Nifty little Lego Unit Study: http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/LEGO_final_RV%281%29.pdf

We'll of course play some Creationary.


Tons of links here, too many for me to sort through right now! http://livingmontessorinow.com/2013/06/20/free-lego-printables-and-70-plus-lego-learning-activities/

We'll make some countries also for the geography obsessed H. http://www.ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/is-there-anything-you-cant-do-with-lego.html

As always Mary has great ideas over at Homegrown Learners. http://www.homegrownlearners.com/home/2013/8/28/learning-with-legos.html

When my guys are off screen probation they can use the Lego Movie Maker app to do some stop motion films about their Legos! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lego-movie-maker/id516001587?mt=8

Apparently this is not an ongoing blog anymore, but here are the 52 Lego Quests to create. http://legoquestkids.blogspot.ca/2012/10/final-challenge-quest-52.html

We're naturally going to see the Lego Movie, preferably as a field trip with our homeschool friends. I'm also making Lego inspired chocolates with these molds.

So I hope you find some Lego inspiration here! I'm looking forward to a great month!

~~Amy

Penguin Unit Study Wrap Up!

We had a blast this month learning about Penguins! As was with our last theme of Charlotte's Web, it seemed everywhere we turned we found penguins! At the library, the store, online, of course it could've been the frigid time of the year...

We read plenty of short penguin books from the library including the very awesome "One Cool Friend".



We really enjoyed this book and it's very much worth multiple reads because you see many things the second time you didn't see the first. It won a Caldecott Medal in 2013 and it was well deserved, super fun, beautifully illustrated and funny story.

We also read "Mr. Popper's Penguins" as our chapter book and watched the movie with Jim Carrey. I'm very glad we read the book first because the differences between the book and movie were immediate and plentiful. Harrison especially was not happy with the changes. (Good boy! Books are always better!) But it was a good read aloud, and Eli loved when I made the penguin sounds of GORK and ORK!



I made a penguin sensory box one day out of ice cubes, colored water and the Penguin Toobs. We love those little Toobs, can't praise them enough.



The boys had a blast with the box and taking their penguins everywhere. I hope I can keep up with all the Toob's we've purchased so we can reuse them!

We made lots of penguin inspired art of course.

Did a little bit of penguin math....

And of course had to go see the penguins at the Audubon Aquarium! They were very active and happy, and it was awesome to see them up close. We are very blessed to live so near to such an awesome resource. If you aren't near such a great place, you can always see our penguins at www.apl.tv!

I think she liked us....

Either way this was a super fun, great unit that we enjoyed and I think the boys learned a lot from.

GORK!

Stay warm!

~~Amy



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