Awesome Week

Some weeks are uneventful and other weeks are super full.  This was a full week so I have a lot of pictures!!  We had some freakishly nice weather in the beginning of the week (with a lot of rain, too) so we were able to take art outside.  Samuel doesn't care for messy art so he watched from afar.  Here are the 3 willing children painting with the splatter technique:

The last nice day for awhile fell on our field trip day so that was awesome.  A fellow homeschool Mom planned a trip to Bloomsbury Farm so we signed up and took advantage of the discount.  It wasn't a guided tour but we did see a few families we knew so that was fun.  

We were in France this week for Geography.  It was the best week yet!!  We had a lot of fun and I had some extra books and activities that we all enjoyed.  Our favorite book was Adéle & Simon, a really cute picture book I picked up from Goodwill.  We took a look at the 3D Eiffel Tower puzzle I picked up this summer at a thrift store.  We then shut the box up.  Ha!  Way too hard for me!!  Here are the twins checking it out:

At the end of the week, we tried our hand at making bars of soap {ignore the Sesame Street house Nathan added to the table}:

We also made chocolate raspberry truffles. This was a favorite!

We started Wind in the Willows this week for our read-aloud and all I can say is that I hope it gets better!!  The kids seem so/so about it--very wordy and what's up with the swear word every chapter??  It's a classic so I'm sticking it out but I hope we enjoy it more.  :)  I'll be back with a Halloween post mid-week!!

Week 9

Week 9 passed without any pictures of our school time.  Woops.  It was just a busy week, I guess.  On Monday, our supevising teacher came over to see how we were doing.  She was impressed we were on day 40!  She always has good advice and resources for me so I enjoy her visits.

On Tuesday, we took a half day of school off.  Brian got off work early and we took the kids to see Hotel Transylvania!  It was a good movie--we all loved it.  It was Nathan's 1st movie and it was an almost empty theater so it was perfect.  He did fall asleep for the last part, which is fine because he was free!  :)  

Enjoying the games in the lobby:

Lined up with their pop and popcorn!  The 3 bigger kids sat still for the whole thing--1st time this has happened.  :)

Wednesday, was back to work!  We had a science unit review and it was pretty pathetic.  No one is in love with this science and they still talk about last year's science.  We're sticking it out, though!  Science is a bonus for this age, anyway. 

Thursday, Samuel had an egg hunt for math.  This was the highlight of his week, for sure.  However, I should have had more eggs for Nathan.  Samuel continued to play and hide the eggs for Nathan, me and anyone else available.  It was cute.  We started our new artist study on Thursday.  The kids are so excited to try out Jackson Pollock's style of painting!  I'm hoping it's a warm day when we do that so we can be outside for any splatter.  :)

On Friday, we ended our study of the UK with these really cute drawing sheets for either a beefeater or a Buckingham guard.  We also finished our 2nd read aloud, which was Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.  It seemed like a good week of school!

Changes

We have some changes coming up in our curriculum.  The immediate one is our English.  I like our English just fine, but it's not working for us.  I sent feelers out to see what people use for English when they have a struggling learner.  We are taking the advice to go through First Languages Lessons 1 and 2 in one year and then jump into Shurley English 4 the next year.  I am not committing to next year but I found FLL for $7 and it seems great--very gentle and non-workbook-y.  I think it will be a good change--for both kids.  

I also recently bought Victory Drills and went through a page with both twins, just for my own curiosity.  Lily doesn't need the practice--her score was way above her grade level.  Hunter was definitely challenged and I think this book could be a great supplement to his reading time.  I already have him working on Explode the Code workbooks and reading with me so this is something I'd do maybe once a week.  My homeschool moms meetings are so great for issues like this, though.  They are definitely in the camp of "Why should a child read fluently by 8?" and they offer a lot of great advice to this newbie.  There is still hope that he will learn to ♥ reading!

Too Much Fun

We had too much fun this week!  It seems like when we have one outing planned, we end up having a week-full!  I plan school around these outings so we do the same amount of work as a no-plan-week but I juggle things around.  I love my planning method this year--it's working really well!!

A zoo nearby has free admission during the week in the month of October so we decided it was worth a trip.  We hadn't been here before so we were all excited to visit a new place.  It was a small zoo but had a lot of great animals and a nice picnic/playground area for our packed lunch.  Here's the Discovery Zone with tarantulas and chameleons and other gross  neat stuff:

We found a T-Rex!

We went on an Australian walkabout and one wallaby did brave the cold to hop around for us.  :)

A train ride!  This was Nathan's wish come true!!

These 2 sat on every animal statue they could find.

Nathan is showing his Dora Halloween book to the pig.  That's how close he puts things to your face when he wants you to look.  :)  Shortly after this, he threw the book and sat on it, refusing to move.  2 year olds are exhausting!!

An attempt at a picture of all the kids.

The next day, Lily had her girls' book club so the boys and I were stuck wondering what to do.  She meets at a house 20-30 minutes away from us so going home isn't a good option!  Last time we hit a park but it was COLD, especially after a day at the zoo in the cold the day before.  We decided to visit the Science Station since we have a membership this year.  It was pretty empty and the boys had a great time.  Lily was bummed to have missed it but she had a tea party so I think all the kids had a good morning out!

We did have time at home, too!!  We were in Russia this week--it was a lot of fun.  For their souvenir  they made Russian stacking dolls (only they accordion fold instead).  This was a hit--Samuel wanted to participate!!  We enjoyed beef stroganoff for supper--yum.  

For science, we demonstrated how sedimentary rocks are formed by layers.  What better way to do this than make "rock snacks"?!  I haven't tried them but they look great and everyone seems to love them.  Yum.

Nothing else too exciting in school this week--we chugged along.  I wish I could make spelling a more enjoyable experience for Hunter because it's definitely the downer of our day.  Samuel is still loving his handwriting so that's awesome.  We got the scale out and measured counting bears in kindergarten math this week--all the kids gathered around for that.  :)  Lily is doing well in pretty much everything but she doesn't care for math right now.  She still does well with it, though.  Nathan had speech this week and pouted when they left.  They were impressed with his progress--he's starting to take off with talking!

I forgot to mention (I think) that Lily was in a cheer camp a couple weekends ago:

 Oh man, it was tough to leave her because she had cold feet at the last minute when she didn't know anyone.  But she was very brave and stuck it out all day long.  She did awesome performing at the pep rally--she's a great dancer!  She did tell me she has zero interest in participating this winter so that's it for cheerleading!!

Happy October!

We LOVE this time of year!  My kids have always been into Halloween, especially Samuel.  He used to watch Mickey's House of Villains every day when he was 2 years old.  :)  Anyway, I ♥ this time of year, as well so we all feel like celebrating!  Oh a whim, I decided to make a sensory bin with some Halloween goodies I found at Dollar Tree and the $ section of Target.  I also made orange play dough with black sparkles in it.  I surprised the kids with this tub on Monday (October 1st) and it has kept them busy all week!

We took advantage of the final warm days (that we could see) and got our leaf walk in.  There is arboretum near by and it's one of our favorite places to go.  This time of year, it is just gorgeous!  I found an Autumn Scavenger Hunt on Pinterest so I took that with us to keep the kids busy on the trail.  The funny thing that happened was a woman stopped me and asked if this was a daycare.  I said no, they were all mine.  She said she was envious so I figured she had wanted more kids but then she went on to say all my kids were just so pretty.  That made me wonder if her kids were ugly?!  Just kidding!!  :)  

Eventually, the clipboards were tossed aside to climb!

Nathan was done walking about 1/4 through the trail.  I brought a stroller but I had to force him in--he wanted me to carry him.  :)

Samuel found (and loved) a yellow tree!  He said he wishes he was born there and that he's going to plant one at his house when he grows up.  He loves yellow!!

Nathan is such a stinker.  I gave him my phone to try to calm the crying down in the stroller.  He insisted on keeping it with him--under his chin, of course.  He likes to thump his chest like Tarzan and jump off of things so that's what he's doing here.

Samuel started his new handwriting this week and LOVED it.  It seriously took me by surprise that he loved it that much.  The wet-dry-try method is his favorite but we also have the capital letter wood pieces that we use, as well as the workbook.  I think he's catching on!  

I took a basket of foam dice out today for Samuel's math time.  Next thing I knew, Nathan had stacked all the dice by color.  I was impressed!!

Not great pictures of the twins but I do what I can.  We played Rolling in the Money {a Learning Resources game I found at Marshall's for $3!} for Friday's math time and it was a lot of fun.  I think we'll be playing this a lot.  Both kids had math quizzes this week...Hunter got 88% and Lily got 91% so I'm very happy with that.  I feel like Hunter is getting back into the groove with math since the summer break.  I need to make sure he doesn't have such a big break next time!

We were in Thailand this week, our last country in Asia!  We made floating boats today but this picture is just bad.  I didn't want to leave them out, though.  :)  They were not impressed with the child's life we read about--he was learning to be a Buddhist monk so no toys, TV once a week and only 2 meals a day--plus, he didn't live with his family.  It was interesting to read, though!

We finished Pollyanna (finally) and enjoyed the movie this week.  I was amazed the kids sat through it and watched it.  They have even asked to watch it again!  It is very different from the book but it was fun to see, anyway.  We started Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle as our next read-aloud.