FOR PLATYPUS RESOURCES PLEASE GO TO “PLATYPUS IN DEPTH”

February 19-20

Of all the creatures out there the kids chose the Platypus to learn about… This rather unusual and unique mammal has been on their minds for some time. Actually since their first viewing a the children’s show Phineas and Ferb with its spy/pet character Perry the Platypus. With my still getting over a rather nasty head cold we didn’t dive right into our library books BUT we did discuss what knowledge we already had – regarding the platypus AND Perry. There had been a brief post episode chat about the platypus on Wild Kratts too, the boys told me about it. So I was rather impressed as to what facts they could come up with!

Zander’s “real” platypus and Perry as a spy out of Lego

Gavin’s Perry the pet and Perry the spy (note the hat)

Of course you and I know that P is for Platypus, but did you know that platypus can be rainbow coloured? Trinity assured me that it is very possible!

P is for Platypus!

We will be posting an entire blog that stands alone with all of our platypus links and resources. While I really am not the person to be creating a lapbook etc myself I love being able to collect and share all the items we combine together to supplement the lapbooks etc others have come up with. Like I did with the Chinese New Year poster I plan on doing so with the rest of our unit studies. Emanuel has requested PENGUIN after we are done the platypus and, also to look forward to, we are covering St. Patrick’s Day (poster) and Dr. Seuss’ birthday (mini folders) on March 2.

The boys with their tracks and the animals that make them

Zander and his Platypus with moving legs (not sure about the crazy smile, I think he just likes making faces!)

Emanuel and his Australian colouring page

Today Emanuel and Trinity watched Dinosaur Train on the laptop and then drew me up two meteor showers! Very pretty! I am looking forward to being able to read to them and get to the real story time and dinosaur fun!

Meteors

Of course Echo had to make her mark on our day… first with a mess, then dancing and then… pouting… she is talented!

Turn your back for a minute…

Boogie baby

/pout pout

Wednesday had us reading our first platypus book – Platypuses by Sara Louise Kras. We discussed where Australia is in comparison to where we are in North America. I have a tiny globe I picked up for a dollar or so from Michaels that worked to show them where we are, Australia is, where China is and of course where Aunty Esther and Uncle Ted are from… oh and where Nana and Baba are right now! I really want to invest in a good globe eventually. They tend to run rather expensive for the fancier ones with stands but I think it would be a great investment.

Sorry about the flash, but the link above will take you to purchase or has the info for you to find the book at your local library

We are starting to touch on St. Patrick’s Day a little too, just colouring pages and word searches but it is always fun to start thinking about it now. It think this is going to be a rather impressive poster, heavy on the green and gold!

St Patrick’s Day themed math problems

There was a new Wild Kratts to enjoy – we learned all about termites this time! I love how excited the kids get about each episode.

Termites

Gavin spent some time on his sewing. We are trying to get back on track with that. I love sitting together working on our crafts!

Stitching away

So we are not the most exciting of people to read about this week BUT we did learn a lot about the platypus! And thanks to the existence of Facebook I was able to share an image a friend posted of the most adorable baby platypuses! A combination of iPad, Facebook and absolute cuteness! I promise much more in the way of platypus knowledge and more interesting endeavors as this cold subsides and we move onto all the other interesting schooling items we have planned so check back!

Awwwwww

February 4-5

So we have Nana and Baba just until the early AM of the 6th so what are we to do but take a run out on Monday and see not only Mall of America and do a little shopping but head out to what we were told was the best Ethiopian restaurant around – Fasika! Bree suggested it, Ted ordered for us and it was… AMAZING!!! I mean seriously AMAZING! I want to go back. We had meat and vegetables and the most amazing tea… you eat with your fingers The company was as fun as the food… you eat only with your fingers and this amazing soft bread. Seriously TRY IT OUT!

lamb and mince

veggies

Ken and I

Anyway BEFORE that was Mall of America and a few stops… Legoland of course, the Sanrio store and I stopped in at Betty Paige to check out the dresses and debate some fashions. I really want another dress… I am torn between one I tried on before and THIS one.

Before that was our first day with Sean… the kids were INSANELY excited… where hanging with Uncle Ted seems to bring cuddling and calm, Uncle Sean is like a whirlwind of excitement which is hilarious because he is a champion NAPPER!

Uncle Ted time

Crazy Sean

Napping Sean

Add Uncle Sean to the post Birthday rush and well… EXCITEMENT… Having BOTH Uncles is insane!

Skylanders for all

Of course we squeezed in some drawing time. This time there were two different instructions used off of Art for Kids – the horse and cupid. The horse, especially, was more difficult than the norm as there were lines to be drawn and then erased.

Gavin’s horse

Zander’s cupid

We made ourselves some lucky goldfish to go on our Chinese New Year poster. The kids are absolutely enthralled with how many things are lucky.

So pretty

With a shopping trip at Legoland I am sure you can imagine what the 5th (also the twins’ birthDATE) brought – a rather simplified schooling schedule. The set that Sean got the boys to share was VERY complicated and did not get completed in the full day of work but WOW did they work together and ENJOY it!

Gavin at work with his assistant Zander

We skipped our dinosaurs but a friend on one of my egroups sent me a great link with cross stitch patterns of dinosaurs you can check out HERE. The last one is perfect for a beginner stitcher. I may have Gavin do that.

Instead Emanuel worked on his Lego gift – a helicopter

We needed to burn off some energy so I sent the kids out to shovel and followed with Echo to enjoy the decent weather. Trinity and Echo tried freezing bubbles outside but it wasn’t cold enough. So instead Gavin conscripted Echo to help finish off the walk… gotta start them young!

Don’t ask where Zander’s hat is… ugh

Catch the bubble!

See this is how you do it little sister

I love the Hello Kitty Sean picked out for Echo, and so does she! The only purple one in the store that was ALMOST as big as her!

In love

This was the last evening for Nana and Baba before their 7 weeks in Mexico! Snorkeling is on the list of things to do this trip I am told! So we had take out Chinese from the Rose Garden (total yum, great prices and large portions we never get it from anywhere else).

Post dinner carnage!

Then Ken, Sean, Ted, Christopher and Cory had a gaming evening here at the house. Another on of those things that we enjoy on BOTH sides of the border!

Gaming

So with TWO uncles here, a post birthday present pile to enjoy and some last minute time with Nana and Baba before their trip we spent the last few days more than a little content and the kids in a state of permanent excitement! Oh and we did some school work too…

Hanging out with Uncle Ted

November 5-6

We started talking about Thanksgiving and being thankful so here is today’s things we are thankful for:

Zander: having a mom and dad

Gavin: having friends

Emanuel: Jesus

Trinity: that we have lots of kids in our family

I am thankful that Trinity, with Ken’s help, wrote the word CAT!!

I was feeling poorly in the morning so I left Ken in charge with some worksheets and our usual morning things. The beginnings of Thanksgiving with Pilgrims to colour and wordsearches to do. All of which you can find in my Education.com collections HERE. And of course Activity Village HERE.

Trinity’s Pilgrim

Emanuel’s contributions

We got a decent start on our pen pal responses… With pictures to draw to go with each letter it is a bit of a production! We actually FINISHED our Halloween chapter story finally and the book joined the rest of our newly acquired Halloween decorations. Time to move onto those Thanksgiving ideas. So far there have been a few from people online. We just need to start assembling the necessary supplies.

The book

We had TWO sets of instructions from Art for Kids to work on! A turkey AND an alien!!! Zander created quite the picture using BOTH and Gavin decided he would send his turkey in his letter to Gammie. This site is a wonderful wealth of ideas! 

Gavin’s Gammie Turkey

Alien by Gavin

Zander’s picture… note the turkey in the middle of it!!!

Of course there was our dinosaur of the day which this time all 3 boys participated in. Again that post will follow later. The kids did another NetGalley book review for me… this time a wonderful upbeat book called Changing the World Before Bedtime. You can find our review HERE.

Tuesday’s Thankful Things!

Gavin: That I have toys

Emanuel: All the people in the world

Zander: For having Echo as a baby sister

Trinity: For my teddies

We actually had a few errands to run so less of a consistent school focus for the day. BUT we managed our usual basics AND since we are working towards Thanksgiving some more print outs. 

I had each of the twins work on writing their own sentences and illustrating them. I am planning on doing that once a week as right now they are rather dependent on me for creating full out sentences and such. Like with our pen pal letters (another kid down 2 to go). With it being a day that starts with T we had Minecraft time, that when you run errands first really does eat up your time.

I am enjoying asking the kids each day about something they are thankful for. I figured we will continue to do this right up until Thanksgiving. 

One of the many things *I* am thankful for! Echo’s continued health!

With errands came the missing colours of yarn (love coupons and teacher’s discount!)… I am working my way through Trinity’s present and figure I may have expanded my skill set enough to attempt a joint present for her and Echo.

My girlies

I have a dinosaur to blog about and another day to prep for, hopefully Wednesday will have more interesting things  to share! And hopefully, all Americans who CAN voted today! With an EDUCATED mind!

You spin me right round baby!!!