A New Approach

Another week quickly went by!  I changed up Samuel's routine a bit this week.  He was acting bored with what I had planned for him and, therefore, resisting the activities.  Since this is "just" preschool, I wanted to find a new way to "do school".  Doing nothing is NOT an option because he wants his own school work, if that makes sense.  It's complicated!

Anyway, I usually print off all kinds of things for the letter of the week but this week, I just printed off 2 sheets (and 1 copy for Nathan).  We did a variety of things, using all those fun games and toys that I have!

Making an umbrella craft:

Putting together a giant number puzzle:

Making homemade play dough...I let him pick the color of dye and the color of sprinkles so it was no surprise that it ended up yellow with gold sparkles.  He LOVES yellow!

I realized when I went to split the play dough that I had doubled the recipe last time...it worked, though.

We smashed spiders with letters on them--using my new swatters!

How cute are these two??  Hunter is such a good big brother and Nathan *adores* him, to put it mildly.

U was also for unicycle this week--here are the kids trying that out (Samuel refused, of course).

Hunter and Lily learned about Betsy Ross this week and we made graham cracker/frosting flags.  I resisted the desire to take a picture of mine but I do have to say that it turned out pretty good!

We finally finished our non-fiction read aloud this week but we all ended up enjoying the story of Pagoo.  Hunter and Lily added a heart to their bodies this week but since it's under the lungs, it's hard to see (so no picture!).  We had Wednesday off--I just planned for some days off and we're staying on schedule pretty good so we kept the plan.  Hunter said he was disappointed but I think everyone enjoyed the change of pace for one day.

The Long Week

I told Brian I remembered at the beginning of the school year, it seemed like days were so l-o-n-g and I was exhausted by the time they were done.  For the majority of the past 6 months, weeks have flown by.  Not this week, for some reason.  We just didn't have much going on and we were all happy to celebrate Friday with a trip to Target.  :)

We added lungs this week!  We also began our study on the heart (which we'll add next week).  We did a few different activities centered on the heart and blood that the kids LOVED.  It was a lot of fun!

Nathan got the hang of using tongs to transfer packing peanuts.  He loves packing peanuts--gets them out as much as possible.  I got these tongs in a 4-pack from the Dollar Tree--he broke 2.  Ha!  At least they were cheap.

Painting with watercolors.  'T' was for Toy Story this week and Nathan was so excited to join in!!  He recognizes Toy Story and Mickey Mouse characters.

Hunter played Toy Story Memory with Samuel.

Other things we did: 

The twins made an herb "garden" on construction paper, using herbs from my spice drawer.  They enjoyed smelling the different ones.  Lily was partial to rosemary and said dill weed smelled like dirt and mint.  Ha! 

We celebrated Valentine's Day!  I didn't get any good pictures that day. The kids made valentines and received a present from us.  The Grandparents all sent candy over, too!!  :)  We just stayed in with pizza and a movie that evening.

Hunter and Lily both had a math quiz and they both wanted to know their grade.  It all ended with a talk about competing against yourself, not your sibling.  *sigh*

Samuel wrote his name so well this week!  I forgot to get a picture.  I wrote it first and had him write it underneath--amazing!  He did the 'u' upside down but, otherwise, I was impressed. 

Moving Right Along

Another week over!  I can't believe how quickly the weeks go!  One day this week (I can't even remember!), I looked around and thought it was so funny because all 4 kids were in their own spot doing something independently for morning work.  I took pictures!

Nathan putting stir sticks into a Parmesan container. 

Lily doing her assigned reading--and then some--right by the heat. :)  She ended up finishing the book because she liked it.  It was called The Storm.

Hunter working on his Thinking Skills worksheet over in a corner.  

Finally, Samuel, matching letters to spell 'rainbow' with the letter disks.  He was obviously proud.

For art this week, Hunter and Lily transformed a box into Faneuil Hall, complete with the grasshopper we read about in history.

Hunter took artistic liberty by adding a picture of a person saying hi, as well as entrance and exit doors. 

Lily, being much more literal in her artwork, counted the number of windows in the picture of the building and drew that many on her box.  These 2 couldn't be more different--it's good, though!

I had a certificate for Learning Resources that was going to expire so I ordered this Sentence Building game.  We played it for language arts today and it was pretty fun.  I think the kids mainly liked the buildings to play with, though.

And, an update on our bodies...Hunter and Lily have added a stomach and intestines--no easy task to fit all that in!  

Looking forward to a new week!

Fun Week = Lots of Pictures

I'm pretty sure this will be the most pictures I've put into a post.  It was a full week.  I actually have a few pictures from the weekend first.

Hunter had his Pinewood Derby for Scouts.  He helped Brian make a 'Ben 10' car!

 This is the best picture I got of all the people there for Hunter.  Grandpa Lee, Grandpa and Grandma PJ, Anden, Lisa, Carley, Sydney (and the 5 of us, of course) were all there!  It was a fun morning.

We went from Pinewood Derby to McDonald's for a quick lunch and then on to Lily's 1st basketball game to cheer at.  She said it was a long game but I thought it went pretty fast (1 hour) and they keep the cheerleaders pretty busy.  It was a lot of fun, too, and we were worn out afterward!

On Monday, we had our makeup field trip/vacation day.  We spent the bulk of the day at a local water park for a homeschool event through a group I'm a part of but we did leave Nathan behind.  Next time, I think I'll take him because it was pretty quiet and I didn't have much to do!  Samuel and Brian stuck together like glue (no surprise there!) and the twins were relatively independent--I only need to get goggles and etc. when needed.  Everyone had a fantastic time!!  It was fun to meet other homeschoolers, too.

Also this week...Samuel's 5th Birthday!!!  How quickly it goes!!!!  He wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse AND Chuck E Cheese but we told him to pick one and chose Chuck E.  Brian took the day off so we could go during the day--it was awesome!  He spent his afternoon playing with Brian at home and then off to my parents for a birthday dinner.  Grandma Barb, Papa Lee and Aunt Nikki all plan on visiting him another day--and he knows it!!  Ha!  Here is Samuel opening up the musical card we got him (Brian picked it out--it was perfect...):

The girls.  :)  Lily doesn't look thrilled to have her picture taken--and she wasn't!  Ha!  

The birthday boy with his zhu zhu pet.

Chuck E Cheese!  We had not been there in 2-3 years so it was a treat for everyone (it even was for the parents just because we didn't have to fight crowds!).  Nathan loved riding the different rides.

Samuel loved the roller coaster!

This was a strange "game" but they got a lot of tickets out of it so they did it a couple times.

Lily saw this Guitar Hero game and said she didn't know if she was good at rock-n-roll but she'd sure try.  :)

After all that FUN of our week, we did have a day of not-so-fun.  Wednesday, Hunter ran downstairs to tell me Nathan was throwing up.  Thus began the worst morning of my life.  I went through 4 pairs of pajamas FOR MYSELF.  I have never been thrown up on so much in my life.  Poor guy was seriously ill and not cooperative about throwing up in appropriate places.  After noon, though, he finally passed out and woke up feeling back to normal.  So thankful it was a brief illness!!  This is about the only time the cat has wanted to get this close to Nathan.  :)

We did manage to get some school in this week with all that going on.  We skipped 'R' in preschool and did 'S' for Samuel, Star Wars, snow and spiders.  I couldn't resist skipping since it was his birthday week--but we will go back next week!  Here's Samuel working on Star Wars shapes while Nathan works in an old workbook.  :)

I love this picture!  Samuel is concentrating so hard on copying the number on his Inchimal.  He was measuring light sabers.  :)

We are learning about the human body in our science curriculum.  I wanted to expand on it so I picked up a Human Body book that has somewhat life-size copies of body parts.  We've looked at bones, joints and muscles so far!

This morning, I wrote Hunter and Lily's morning work on the white board and then went to pick up the kitchen.  I came back to find *someone* erasing the board!  :)

I also have to add that Hunter took a math test today and got 100% !!  He said it was easy and I know some of it was easier than he needs but some of it was more challenging for him and he did a great job.  He's been killing his speed drills, too!  I'm loving CLE Math for him!