Week 31 April 25th-29th: Engineering, Programming, and Games!

 This was an abnormal week that ended up being a big week of learning fun! Michael took a drone programming class at Teach NW Hillsboro learning center, and really enjoyed it! 

Our Kiwi Crates came this week! Emmet built a battery powered fan! 

We also explored more about outer space with our Magic School Bus science kit. Emmet made a mobile of the planets. 

Emmet also constructed a "target practice dummy" out of wood this week. He got an idea and set off outside one night about 7pm to start work! LOL! John had to go bring him back in for bedtime around 830 and tell him he could work on it the next day. My little night owl....I just don't understand people who get creative at night, I am fast asleep by 8pm!

Between drone classes Michael spent a lot of time playing games this week! It seemed like a good alternative to school book since his brain was doing so much work programming drones! We got the expansion for Castle Panic and he played it over, and over, and over, and over!

We completed drone class!! He said his programming made his drone make it all the way through the obstacle course, the only student to achieve that! I am very proud, and best of all he had SO much fun. Needless to say its the one class he asked to sign up for in the fall!

Avery's Kiwi Crate was building a gear powered spirograph! He had fun making cool pattern drawings.

Another space activity was new books! This pop up book of space crafts was really cool!

Michael made a practice dummy too! It kept them outside and busy all weekend while we worked on building the newest greenhouse for our garden. Avery also made one that was pretty cool, but it fell apart quickly and he decided to not re build it.

Lunch break from all their wood building!

We got ducks!! Another Teach NW EF reached out about needing to re-home her ducks, one of our co-op families is under her and asked me if we have space, and I said YES! They have been so fun to watch and learn about. We are working towards building them their own habitat in the back yard and Avery wants to take care of them and sell the eggs. 

From our Magic School Bus Kit, Avery made a chart of our solar system and a sticker graph of the lifecycle of a star.

Emmet making the fan housing.

Another game we played this week was Grill Party! One of our favorites from Simply Fun Games.

We also had our co-op board game day and the boys played a multitude of games with our awesome teenage babysitter, while us adults also played a multitude of games in another room! After we kept a new to us game Ravine to play with the kids (Michael thinks it is SO unfair he cannot play games with the adults, so we borrow a game that he sees us playing and wants to try). Ravine is a really fun game the boys have played at least 12 times in the last three days! You are lost in the woods and have to flip over a night card, which may be uneventful or may be disastrous! During the day you can trade life point for foraging, which can get you supplies to build equipment or food to re store your health. The boys love it.

Hope you had a fun week, we mostly played and built things! Avery also had his first soccer game, which he LOVED, and practice again.

The Dillmans