Homeschooling Through Snow Days and a Pinched Nerve

It's a common phrase in homeschooling that there are good days and bad days. January is typically full of bad days as we try to recover from Christmas. Our workshops don't start back right away and we find ourselves just home a lot trying to stay warm. So, add me having a pinched nerve in my neck and not being able to move my head very well into the mix and it seems like a recipe for disaster in homeschooling. But, as I looked back on the past couple weeks, I realized that we really had accomplished more than I thought. Aside from the Fractions, Spelling, Place Value, Reading, Grammar, etc. that I didn't take pictures of - here are some of the fun things we've been up to.
#1 - Geography, scrapbook style. We are making a scrapbook of the states using our travel pictures. This is also counting as a family project for one of Jared's Scout Merit Badges.
#2 - Science via Robug. This was a Christmas present. It's the kit to make a robot bug using a soda can. Jared really enjoyed the wiring and we had a lesson in not crossing the wires to the battery.
#3 - History - Meet Hermes and the Turtlettes. Thanks to the Greek Gods we now have a family band of lyre players. Along with studying the Ancient Greek culture, architecture, literature, warfare, politics, and mythology, Jared and I have really enjoyed reading the Percy Jackson book series.
#4 - Math, particularly finance. The girls have been learning to count money and we had a life's lesson attached to it when they all decided they wanted to buy their own make-up (because I wouldn't let them wear mine). They counted out their money, added it all together, divided it up evenly and then we headed to the store where they had to count carefully to stay within their budgets. The result - a long time at check-out counting out money, a very patient cashier, and three beautiful and happy princesses.
#5 - Home Economics. Clarissa loves to sew, so Chris got her this sewing machine for Christmas and she just couldn't wait to make some Barbie clothes with it. This is Barbie's new skirt, unfortunately her matching shirt was a little snug and had to be passed down to the Polly Pockets as a dress.
#6 - More Science. Apparently while I was flat on the couch suffering through the worst of the pinched nerve, the girls were conducting Science experiments. They filled several cups with different liquids and froze them to see how long they would take to freeze. They discovered that the salt water took longer than the plain water to freeze and the frozen milk made for a nice treat after all was said and done.
#7 - Reading. Our read-a-loud book right now is Charlotte's Web and we are loving it. I can't believe that this is my first time reading the book, it is absolutely filled with all kinds of lessons and activity ideas. One activity we did was that each person wrote out a daily schedule for themselves. Which came straight from the book and promoted working on time, writing, following a schedule and even fulfilled another one of Jared's Scouting requirements. Another activity we did was to learn the parts of a spider's leg and compare them to the human leg (which also taught us some Latin). Then we made play dough spiders that were anatomically correct (well, not all of them were, but close enough).
#8 - Spelling. We started a new program called All About Spelling and I love it. One of my favorite things are all the great suggestions that it gives for ways to creatively practice spelling words. So far we have tried writing our phonograms in pudding (pictured above), shaving cream, sand, rice, and using letter tiles. This program is very kinesthetic, which is perfect for our family.

So, in the end. Maybe our bad days really aren't that bad after all. I just like to imagine what we could get done on good days.