Keeping Busy

What a full week!  We accomplished everything even though Samuel had 1 day off.  The twins did 3 day kindergarten so I never stress about Samuel's attendance since we usually do school 5x week.  He had a sleepy day this week and I just let him skip but we did make up the work over the next 4 days.  It is nice to be flexible.  I think he is starting to really click with his reading so I picked All About Reading back up and it is going much smoother now.

We are officially done with Science but the kids love doing experiments so much that i decided to squeeze one in this week.  We did a liquid layer experiment and it went pretty well!  We had maybe 4 layers and the twins did all the work so they were proud.

Hunter and Lily have started doing their independent work in my room.  I have no idea why.  

Samuel's preferred outfit for handwriting on this day.  Ha!

We made some kiwi crafts for our New Zealand study this week.  Admittedly, these were bright kiwis but I didn't want to buy brown just for this craft.  :)  The kids loved this!  We also made Maori art bookmarks.  It was a good week learning about this country.

I downloaded a new math game to help learn math facts--it has been a hit!  It is called Math Rider and the kids are really into it so far (it is has only been a couple days).  :)

On Friday, we did some baking for Brian's birthday.  It was a big project (for me, who doesn't like to bake as much) but we made some really, really good Homemade Nutter Butters.  It was kind of a disaster but in the end, they turned out great!!

Australian Fun

This week was full of Australian fun as we focused on this country/continent for Geography.  We watched a cool video on the Great Barrier Reef and painted a picture of the Reef afterward:

At the end of the week, we made some boomerang souvenirs.  They did dot painting (I am sure there is a more official name for that) on the cardboard shape and they seemed to really enjoy throwing these around.  :)

Samuel worked on measuring this week so we got out the Inchimals for some fun Math playing.

 Just a cell phone picture I got of Nathan giving Hunter some love.  He loves to kiss people!!

Wrapped Up

This week we officially wrapped up Science (I think I may have said that last week but I found some sheets we hadn't done yet).  We also officially wrapped up Art, although I will add some art fun to the week because everyone likes that.  I feel like we are nearing the end but it is good to get lots done on these cold, rainy, gloomy weeks.

We tried our hand at our own American Gothic-inspired pictures.  We then picked our favorite artist of the year.  Lily picked Georgia O'Keefe because she was the only girl artist and Hunter picked Henri Matisse because he had a picture with some bare butts.  Seriously, my kids must be true art connoisseurs.  

We were in Egypt this week and enjoyed a pyramid dig for this Egyptian queen statue.  We attempted sugar cube pyramids but that is apparently harder than it sounds.

 We did a really fun Language Arts unit this week.  This link has a free Lego minifigure packet.  This was really, really fun--and hopefully, a good educational tool.  They designed their own alien minifigure and named them, gave adjectives to describe them, verbs to talk about their capabilities, wrote a short story and some miscellaneous things at the end.  

Lily: Snakera is sweet, funny, pretty, weightless, powerful, strong, green, snakelike, medium sized and caring.  She can swim, run, jump, hypnotize and sing.  

 Hunter: Acid is dangerous, strong, murderous, rude, gross, big, green, slimy and evil.  He can lift weights, juggle, read, steal and kill. 

Pretty fun stuff.  I didn't get any pictures of Samuel--we have been trucking along but nothing too exciting.  I am changing up my planning page because we have finished so many things.  It is exciting to be near the end, although math and reading will continue on forever.  :)

Back to School

 We took Monday off to recover from Easter and get the house in order.  It was needed!  The rest of the week, we struggled to get back into routine.  The kids were going to sleep at a good time but were sleeping in until 8 or later so we didn't do any school until after lunch for most the week.  It just worked out that way! Plus, we had an extra gymnastics class this week so it felt busier.  We still got it all done!  We started our last artist study (Grant Wood--had to add him since he's an Iowan), finished science by watching "Magic School Bus Lost in Space" and finished our read aloud by watching "The Trumpet of the Swan" cartoon.  Movie week, I guess.  We started our last read aloud ("Treasure Island")--the year is winding down.

Hunter got this cool rock/mineral collection at Scouts this week--I am so impressed with it.

We made quicksand this week.  Messy but fun!

The weather has turned a bit more spring-like so the kids were out most evenings at a park.  I am waiting for the 60s so these pictures are thanks to Brian.  :)

*Yes, Samuel is pretending to be stabbed.  Ha!*

Catch Up!!

First up is a catch up of school.  This is actually photo-motivated because I can't remember a thing from 2 weeks ago!  The twins did some Henna hand art for geography, which was pretty fun.  They enjoyed seeing examples online.

Last week was spring break for us!  Unfortunately, the very 1st day, I cut a bit of my finger off using a mandolin slicer.  That was quite the excitement around here.  It also put a damper on all my great spring cleaning plans.  Brian had already planned on taking the Tuesday off for some family fun so the timing wasn't bad.  We went to see a movie, went to the library and ate supper out for some fun.  The rest of the week was pretty quiet.  My Mom did take 1-1/2 days off to help with some organizing and take us shopping so that was fun.  It's amazing how an injury to 1 finger affects so many tasks.  I am still not washing dishes yet and that's been nice.  :)

Then, it was Easter!!  We had supper and an egg hunt at Brian's parents on Friday night.  Saturday, we did all the Easter egg dyeing, cleaning and preparation for the big day.  On Sunday, we had a nice day at my parents' house.  My family, my brother's family and my Mom even took a quick trip to Toys R Us to spend the gift card my parents gave the kids.  It was fun!

*Nathan is holding on to all his foil wrapped chocolate bunnies!!  He loves those!*

My sister and I showed up in similar pink-white outfits...

And our husbands matched with purple shirts!  What is the chance?

Fun pictures of the kids looking so nice in their Easter outfits.

Tomorrow is back to regular life!!