A new Sensory Bin and making Sophie's Portfolio

          I made the kids a new sensory bin the other day.  They had taken the rice one outside and scattered it all over the yard (planting rainbow seeds!), so I had to go hunt down my container and lid and wash them up first.  I have been seeing tons and tons of "recipes" for Cloud Dough, which is basically home made moon dough.  It was super simple, just a bag of flour and a cup or 2 of oil.  You can use any oil you want.... baby oil, vegetable oils, olive oil etc.  I had almost a whole bottle of baby oil so I used that, and had to add some veg. oil to get to the right consistency.  I also added a couple drops of tea tree oil.  We like the way it smells and it deters insects.  A word of warning with cloud dough is that it is MESSY.  Like every where messy.  And I couldn't figure out how to color it, so we kept it white.  The kids got some measuring tools, but quickly decided it was more fun to use dino figures and cars to make tracks in the fluffy dough.  This started a discussion on fossils and how they are formed.  Sophie was pretty into that, of course.  She's interested in anything from that period in history lol

       We've reached the point in the "school" year where I have to provide the county with some sort of evaluation proving I have taught her something productive.  We have chosen to do a portfolio, which I will send to a certified evaluator.  She will look through Sophie's work, decide whether she thinks she has learned enough to go into the 5th grade, and then I will submit her decision to the Board of Education.  I'm a little nervous, having never done this, but I feel confident in what we've achieved in the last couple months.  We have quite a few worksheet type things, and Sophie's reading/resources list is long.  She has read a ton of books and browsed many websites.  I'm going to have to make a run to walmart or CVS to print out some photos to include, but other than that, we have everything ready to send.  We have to turn in the evaluation by June 30th to the board, or they get all butt hurt, and I'm going to go head and send in my NOI (notice of intent) at the same time, through a certified letter.  We're going to continue to learn through the summer, since everything we do is learning, and we'll be reading A LOT.  I have some really cute ideas set aside for making lapbooks to go along with the Little House books we'll be reading, and to explore the West (think Lewis and Clark).  I think we'll do a lot of Math review over the summer too, because I feel like she's still leery of multiplication and division.  I'm excited!!