We use watercolour pencils and then wetbrushes. Keep in mind that all of these things start to get heavy and you have to haul it all around. Sometimes keeping it simple is best. We have a bag packed with all the things, but I often put it in the car and then only select a few things once we reach our destination. Hand loupes/magnifying glasses are a must. And my phone with camera. Everything else is optional and depends on how far we have to haul everything.

What about online post-secondary courses? He could try courses in various fields to assess his interest. If he finds something he likes he could pursue a degree.

King of Tokyo

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

How about an adventure? For dh’s birthday I got him a day at a local zipline place. In the past I have given him a rock climbing lesson at a climbing gym. Season’s pass to a local place he would enjoy? Tickets to a show? Concert, play, etc.

We make the Martha Stewart marshmallows with a few modifications (you may be able to make them as is): https://www.marthastewart.com/333974/homemade-marshmallows We substitute Lyle’s Golden Syrup instead of corn syrup. I’m pretty sure I made them with rice syrup years ago and that was fine as well. We also substitute natural cane sugar instead of granulated sugar. They turn out light beige instead of white and taste carmelly. Everyone loves them. :) This week I am making a chocolate treat where I melt chocolate chips, add raisins, dried cranberries, and a little bit of a crunchy cereal (GoGo Quinoa Cocoa, but this is totally optional). Mix all together, pour into a silicon mini muffin pan (I have a super mini one for chocolates, but you could just cover the bottom of the normal mini cups, or place as spoonfuls on parchment on a cookie sheet). Refrigerate until solid, then pop out of mold (or remove from cookie sheet) and store in sealed container in fridge until time to eat.

I let the kids make cloud dough today. It ended with cornstarch all over the room and a trail of footprints leading out of it. Vacuuming the floor and furniture, washing most surfaces in the room, and showers for the kids... finally my room is back to the stage of legos on the floor and play food out of the bin. Which in comparison is very tidy. So... just know that it could be a whole lot worse!

wikki stixx magnetic drawing board (boogie board) art supplies (you can get a portable little suitcase with a variety of pencils, chalk, crayons, pages to colour, etc. or assemble one yourself)

I recently created a spreadsheet of our games so I could sort by subject and keep track of when they are played. Lately ds9’s favourites have included the Cardline and Timeline games, Blokus, Quoridor, King of Tokyo, Knockout, Mythmatical Battles, Botswana, Telestrations, and 10 Days in Europe. 10 Days in Africa 10 Days in Europe 10 Days in the USA 12 Days of Christmas 24 Game Factors/Multiples 6 nimmt! 7 ate 9 ABSeas Alhambra All Creatures Big and Small Alphabet Go Fish Amun-Re Animal Rummy Animal upon Animal Apples to Apples Junior Apples to Apples Party Box Arena Roma II Attika Avalon Backgammon Balance Beans Bang! Bang! Dodge City Battleship Block Party Blokus Boggle Jr Bohnanza Botswana Brain Box Discover Canada Brain Box The World Burg Appenzell Busy Bugs Camel Up Canadian Trivia Family Edition Carcasonne Carcasonne Catapult Carcasonne Hunters and Gatherers Carcasonne the Castle Carcasonne the Expansion Carcasonne the Princess and the Dragon Carcasonne Traders and Builders Cardline Animals Castle Logix Catan Junior Caylus Chess: Once A Pawn A Time Chunks: A Word Building Game Citadels Classic Rummy Close Up: National Gallery of Art Clue Harry Potter Clumsy Thief Code Master Colorku Colossal Arena Compose Yourself Condottiere Cool Circuits Crazy Chefs Cribbage Deluxe Triominoes Ding Dong Forest Dinosaur Dominoes Dinosaur Snap Dixit Journey Dominion Doodlebugs Dotty Dinosaurs Double Bananagrams Dragon Dash Dweebies El Grande Elementeo Elfengold Elfenland Eric Carle’s ABC game Evolution Exact Change Exploding Kittens Family Math Farm Snap Fish Stix Five Crowns Forbidden Island Fractions Dominoes Frog Juice From Time to Time Gathering a Garden GeoBingo World Go Fish Go Fish for Impressionist Artists Go Fish for Renaissance Artists Go Fish for Van Gogh Gobblet Gravity Maze Gubs Hanabi Hey, That's My Fish Hide & Seek High Bohn Hit the Habitat Trail Hive Hooey I Never Forget a Face I Spy Inca Empire IQ Block Jambo Jumpin Monkeys Kanoodle Keltis Kerfuffle King of Tokyo King of Tokyo Power Up Knock-out Knot so Fast Labyrinth LEGO Creationary LEGO Pirate Plank LEGO Robo Champ Lemonade Stand Lift It Deluxe Logic Links Loopin’ Louie Lord of the Rings Lord of the Rings Friends and Foes Expansion Lost Cities Love Letter The Hobbit Löwenherz Lupus in Tabula Machi Koro Mad Libs the Game Magna Grecia Maharaja Mahjong Make ‘n’ Break Mamma Mia! Math Dice Jr Mathable Deluxe Medina Meuterer Mille Bornes Mix and Match Clocks Mix and Match Dino Monopoly Jr Finding Dory Morphology Jr Muggins Munchkin Booty Munchkin Deluxe Munchkin Legends Mythmatical Battles Celtic/Greek Mythmatical Battles Norse/Egyptian New England Northwest Coast Native Animals Outfoxed! Pandabo Peek-a-Who? Penguins on Ice Perfection Phase 10 Pictionary Pirate Snakes and Ladders Pit Pizza Fraction Fun Playful Patterns (Discovery Toys) Pop n’ Drop Penguins Power Play Prime Climb Professor Noggin’s Ancient Civilizations Professor Noggin’s Dinosaurs Professor Noggin’s Geography of Canada Professor Noggin’s Hockey Professor Noggin’s Wildlife of North America Puerto Rico Q-bitz Quebec 1759 QuickPix: Geography QuickPix: Animals Quiddler Deluxe Quoridor Qwirkle Race Through Space Rack-O Rat-a-tat Cat Reno-Keno Rhino Hero Richard Scarry’s Busytown Rivers, Roads, and Rails Robo Rally Round and Round Royal Turf Rush Hour Rush Hour Card Set 2 Rush Hour Card Set 4 Rush Hour Jr S’Match Saboteur Samurai Schotten-Totten Scotland Yard Sequence Dice Sequence for Kids Serenissima Set Settlers of Catan Shadows Over Camelot Smart Car Space Beans Spot It! Spotty Dogs Squashed Starship Catan Steam Park Stephenson’s Rocket Stone Age Stone Soup Story Cubes Story Cubes Actions Story Cubes Prehistoria Story Cubes Voyages Sum Swamp Sumoku Super Why ABC Letter Game Sushi Go Swish Taj Mahal Takenoko Tangoes Tangram Telestrations Tell Tale Tens The Amazing Mammoth Hunt The Brain Game The Count of Carcasonne The Kids of Carcasonne The Kids of Catan The Princes of Florence The Traders of Genoa There’s a Moose in the House Ticket to Ride Europe Tigris and Euphrates Tikal Timeline Inventions Tiny Polka Dot Too Many Monkeys Torres TransAmerica Travel Blurt Trias Tricky Fingers Verräter Vinhos Water Lily Wild Cards Dinosaurs Wits and Wagers Wiz Kids Word on the Street Jr Wordwright Zeus on the Loose Zig-zag Zingo 1-2-3 Zircus Flohcati Zooloretto

:grouphug: Thinking of you

We completed the first volume of BFSU but got bogged down in the second book. We did a year of REAL Science Odyssey and really enjoyed it. Mystery Science did not work for us, although we do watch their weekly question/answer videos. We continue to do some lessons from RSO, but our new find this year is Picture Perfect Science and Picture Perfect STEM. So far we are loving the PPS books and I wish we had known about them from the beginning. They pair a fun picture book on a topic with a nonfiction book for a scientific explanation. Some of the topics are different than the usual elementary science fare. You make bracelets using UV beads that show when your sunscreen needs reapplying. You grow rice to learn about experiment design. You make ice cream to learn about states of matter. You pop popcorn in test tubes held over a flame to observe the changes. You learn how lightbulbs work and compare incandescent, fluorescent, and LED bulbs by design and for efficiency. It's a lot of fun! The downside to the program is that it is expensive, and some of the topics require equipment you may not already have (test tubes, a laser thermometer, etc.). But for us, it has been a really good fit.

:grouphug: I'm so sorry

:grouphug: thinking of you and LEGOManiac

The Lighthouse Family is a charming series of early chapter books.

A close family member has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. For those who have been through this, are there any books you can recommend for helping children through this time? Ages 4-10. Or for adults for that matter? I am a complete mess. I don't know how to talk to them when I can't even keep myself together. Is there anything you wished you did in that remaining time, or anything you are glad that you did do? Is there a good resource to help with making a memory journal or something like that? Something that will help me ask the right questions for my loved one to share their stories?