December 31- January 5

How to end a rather interesting and unusual year… (but since when has the Reinsch-Johnson family experienced a USUAL year???) Well we enjoyed some print outs from Activity Village for the 2014 New Year. I love their pages… they have number searches, colouring pages… it is just the place to go for our print out needs lately. 

Education.com (link on right) has also been helpful, though without paying I am now limited to 10 pages per month.

We did up our last Wild Kratts page of the year too. Who can resist Seahorses?? Seriously cool little fish that have an amazing resemblance to horses. We may just have to do a whole on lapbook on them one of these days! 

Both of our girls had their hair in plaits. 

Our last meal of the year? White Castle! Definitely not something we would have in Alberta. I do love their chicken rings. Not so much their sliders.

The kids did not stay up until midnight but we adults did. It was calm and alcohol free for yours truly. Maybe next year we will attempt company? But really, being with Ken is all I need. 

Miss Echo figured that a new year meant a pretty dress. I have to agree… she does do fancy on a regular day with flair. 

That evening we had Chinese from the family’s favourite place The Rose Garden. Fortunes on the first day of 2014!

I was further convinced to extend our vacation from schooling. BUT the boys did do some fancy math and reading while playing Sorry. Which really meant they were only mildly sorry as they trounced each other royally. No fist fights yet!

Miss Trinity actually WANTED to do schoolwork on the second day of the year. Dot-to-Dots are a great way to practice our counting and this book she got last year from friends here in Minnesota has ones up to 50! 

On the third day of 2014 Miss Echo modeled a Christmas outfit as she showed her dollies her cooking skills. 

And with that we wrapped up our week and moved into the weekend… the first of the year. Which is ALSO the first of the month… so.. HOME DEPOT. This time to make a calendar. We are seriously in love with this free program. Apparently it is also running in Canada! 

We rounded off the weekend with a look at our microscope. A bit of science to end our holiday… and ease into schooling once again! I don’t know about the kids, but I am ready! I love the organization. 

So our year has started well. I have not come up with any resolutions BUT I have decided to continue with my happy thoughts jar. I have a little pile of happiness already but no jar to put them in yet. 

September 30-October 1

Seriously where has the month gone??? Blink and you may just miss September this year!!

Of course Monday meant back to school… and we seem to finally have  gotten a bit of a rhythm to our mornings. So much so that I am finding we zip through things I figured would have taken longer and are having less and less anxiety or questioning of how much must be done or what is next!

We have some lovely art on the go in our ever ongoing journals…

Zander’s church regarding Sunday School

Trinity finished her first month calendar set…

And her 1-12 counting book! Total smiles on that one.

Of course we had to find time to play… Legos in the sunshine… Farms in the basement…

Ending the day with a lovely big brother moment. Gavin offered to brush out Trinity’s hair and did a marvelous job!

And that was that for September moving us into October and our final countdown to the return of Nana and Baba from their 5 weeks of exotic travel. Date home – the 10th!

The first of the month was also the beginning of our Pizza Hut reading program for the year – BookIt. We watched a special author read story HERE.

Our books for the day

We had Miss Echo in on the fun.

There were stories read…

And a science project to reboot… celery did not work so instead we used a carnation with dye.

Lunch was fun and fresh with fruit both canned and freshly cut up.

Our crafting for the day was fingerpainting. Although Echo had to be coerced and Zander refused outright.

I am really excited about the new reading program for our year. This year all 4 of the schooling kids are involved. The twins are trading off on reading to their brother and sister. Emanuel is reading absolute beginner books with me. Trinity is listening to stories with me and then drawing a little picture to share her story in her recording book. We are all going to work on our skills, hear some amazing stories and celebrate our growth as fledgling readers. Watch that library card go!

The potty is useful… as a stool right now