Archive | October 2011

We Reach the Mid Point of the Week with a VIDEO!

Boy has the weather gone downhill here. Cold, blustery and all together blah. I know that that certainly affects my mood and the kids’ as well. So it was a good day to just play around… I had some laminated games, colouring pages and cleared space for toys to be out. Not the most productive day but we worked on learning new things and cementing old and ATTEMPTING cooperation and sharing… mixed results but we keep on working on it. 

We did make time for a dance party in Trinity’s room. Sadly we couldn’t get the iTouch to work on the upstairs laptop as the library of music is already on the downstairs so we used the Leapfrog toy set on the music setting to boogie down. Even Echo got in on the movement. 

Dance party!

The twins worked on their site words with this nifty printable I got from the Moffatgirlssite. I did the pages half page to shrink the size of the circles and save on paper. The boys used their dry erase markers and tried to read what they could on their own. I then had them write out a list of those words and next time we will see if they can do more. 

Sight word practice

The little ones played with their Pumpkin Graphing pages and the dice. These can be found on this site. They played their own rules but were working on making graphs rolling the dice and using the dry erase markers. So much fun!

I took my times of silence and near calm to do up some scrapbooking pages. I am hoping to get through the pile of pictures I printed out months ago finally… use up the paper I have and do my best to be creative with what bits and bobs we have around the house.

Trinity's 3rd Birthday party for Echo

Valentine's Day 2011

Echo on the toy riding car

Echo and our Canada Floor Puzzle

I took another moment alone when the 3 little ones had their afternoon nap and photographed the two newest owls… hanging out with Fat Sheep. She has been rather quiet on blog and Twitter but you can check her out using the link on the side bar.

Fat Sheep and Owls

With our own celebrity

There was a reminder of how many lovely people there are in our lives though in the post of all places (I know I know – the bulk of all mail is NOT happy mail but today I have been blessed with ANOTHER package!). This was a lovely package from a lady who inspires me to be a better homeschooler. What you can’t see is the tea and coffee she sent since she couldn’t send slurpees. My mind is already spinning with ideas for the little shirt and pants set she sent for Echo… maybe some bows at the ankles… but what to do with the front of the shirt???

Thank you!!

The special treat for the day was time with Daddy (TWO sessions!) working on their traditional foam kit Halloween decoration… this year – a “spooky” Haunted House. Even Echo tried to get in on the fun.

Morning start on the house

With Echo helping

Proud completion

Which meant the day was over! What with the playing (cars were brought out and messes made and then cleaned up), the dry erase marker fun, the games with Mommy (Gavin and I played the gobble up game again)… we managed to have a rather good day. AND finish putting together the Stuart Little books!

4 completed books

I am still not sure how tomorrow will play out. We are down to the wire on the Canadian Tire getting us in to repair in time… which tears at my heart. But I would rather be stuck here and safe then on our way an hour and a half out and end up stranded in the fall weather with all 5 kids!  So fingers crossed! Ken IS a miracle worker!  

Flower baby with cookie in hand

One Step Closer to Finishing Things

One day further into the week and the van is STILL not in for repairs. With our Friday departure to Grandma’s looming I have already made a back up plan for as much as the van IS drive-able here in town… well I do not fancy risking being broken down in the middle of no where with all these kids in SUMMER weather let along fall. Thankfully I have friends ready to jump in and join in the fun if we are grounded to town limits. 

We finally got our covers done for our Stuart Little books… the interest in actually learning about REAL mice was simply not there today, but everyone was more than ready to draw their final picture. That leaves me an evening of punching holes for our plastic rings to get the whole thing done and put away. Our facilitator is coming middle of November for our first of two visits for this school year so it is great to have something to add to the show to collection. 

Stuart Little cover pages

We found another printables site for Halloween things. You can get some free or buy the entire series. We opted to print out a few out of interest, including a word search. You can find them here

Wordsearch time

All four of the big kids spent some much needed burn your energy time outside… Trinity just ran and ran and ran!

You can just see the soccer goal they made out of some wood pieces we got off of Freecycle

Run run run

And thanks to the skillful hands of Victoria and Karyn being our lovely courier I spent much of tonight finishing Gavin’s Lemur ears!! Aren’t they great??

Ears!!

And them time got away from me while I was crafting and finishing up cleaning… so back to work with me, gotta  get the table cleared for the morning… Ken and the kids have their yearly foam kit craft to do!!

Our own little cookie monster - note the trail of crumbs behind her!

Starting our Week

As is the pattern for the month of October… the kids woke up anti school and anti mommy. We did manage to wrestle our way through the few sheets I did have for them to do, courtesy of EnchantedLearning, Bogglesworldesl, and our favourite UK site. The mini books were a big hit and limited to two pages only of colouring, word copying and cutting and assembly. Thank goodness I did remember to pick up staples on my payment order funding shopping spree.

Gavin and his Mini Book

For once the word search was a hit, each of the twins had their own sheet but were allowed to work together. Zander went so far as to include Echo in the exercise! She REALLY enjoyed that!

Teaching Echo about word searches

I got some LOVELY mail today – a package (one of many if you go by the fact that PARCEL ONE! was written on the outside – and what I was told by the sender) all the way from the UK! Some sweets and ponyholders for our Trinity. I am thinking I will hold onto the holders for Christmas! Then she will get something OTHER than Hello Kitty from us!

The kind of mail that makes you feel spoiled!

Certainly makes the week feel like it is starting out the right way. And with Ken hard at work in the basement… we are going to make October end properly. The weather is still lovely in the afternoons so the boys spent quite some time out in the backyard. The twins were more than willing to show off for the camera on their bikes and scooters.

Bikes and scooters

We made pictures using black cardstock and white crayons  today as well… the boys remember doing this before but it was a new idea for Trinity – she was SURE it would not work!

Some Halloween art

We had some fun with Play Doh as well… those new Halloween coloured mini containers have been a great time filler for the kids!!

You can just see 2 cows

The twins were the next ones to finish their 8X10 scrapbook pages… They picked the colours, the ribbon, the embellishments… and we worked together to make something we are all proud of.

Zander's hot springs

Gavin and Maligne Canyon

It inspired me to get a page that has been awaiting my attention for ages done!!

Zander and Gavin's 7th and Emanuel's 5th birthday party

So tonight I still have stuff to clean, laundry to sort, wings to sew onto owls… the list goes on. I am told Lemur ears are made and mittens on their way… and Ken is working hard to complete some outstanding issues… I feel like we are working towards achievable goals and that feels GREAT!

Pre-Naptime story

More storytime

And just cuz she IS adorable

This entry was posted on 24/10/2011, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments