April 22-25

Once we finished our day out with zoo fun and egg hunting it was right back into the school fray. England was our topic over multiple days thanks to a combination of Little Passports, Activity Village print outs (on right) and library books.

Of course we are hard at work reading Treasure Island. Though the twins have suggested at times that MAYBE with all the deaths and mean pirates that this classic is not really kid friendly. Oh the world they have yet to experience!

We are, of course, keeping up with our reading.

But on advice of the always amazing Brave Writer and other inspirational homeschooling blogs, we have started to take advantage of the sunny days. So in the afternoon we dropped everything to enjoy sunshine and fresh air.

To celebrate all that spring and sunshine the kids had their last Pizza Hut reading program pizza for the year! We are already registered for the following year and are eagerly awaiting the summer program (though that one is online only with website rewards instead of pizza). We accomplished a lot of reading and together time over some really good books this year!

Our next big countdown is a short one… Trinity turns SIX on the 26th with her birthday party on the 27th! So we kept ourselves busy for the rest of the week cleaning and thinking happy nice day thoughts. After all the 26th is a bridal shower and the bachelor party for Gavin’s godfather Cory and his fiance Karen. Of course all of the adults were invited to these events so there was some kid juggling as we tried to work out ways to have the girls at the morning event and the guys at the afternoon… but that is skipping over a whole bunch of school and family fun!! So back to our week…

Tuesday had us watching Wild Kratts…

Bison

Reading about pirates…

And the girls hard at work on Echo’s ladybug mask thanks to her Easter stash from Gammie.

Middle of the week has our soon to be 6 year old completing her adding and subtracting book! I decided that since I already had a copy of our beloved Canadian math series for grade one that it was time for her to hop right into it! She is so pleased that she is on the same book as Emanuel… Emanuel… not so much!

We did spend some lovely quiet time with our Dirty Jobs episodes…

More Treasure Island… really the portions that stand out to them in a chapter are varied and interesting! Actually, we continued the trend with ANOTHER chapter the next day… I think we are ready for individual book reports in the summer!! At least by the twins! Exciting!!

And the decent weather is holding!!! And with that, our week is over and one of our busier weekends begun! Wish us luck!

Ok, Sometime this week I HAVE TO put up the old dinosaur blog posts that are languishing in drafts un-loved and alone. So be sure to check back for some BELATED dino fun! Anyway…

March 27-31

March 30th – Happy Birthday Little Brother!

The twins are really excited about coming up with new questions and then working together to answer them all. We use Ken’s netbook and hunker down and go one by one. It is hilarious as we find answers, sometimes follow links to further information. Some of the questions are an adventure for me too… things like Why are snails slow? Who created the first superhero? Are there more meat eaters or plant eaters on the planet?

We moved on from Google to working on our hunting skills with the I Spy game!

And best of all – a lengthy Skype call to Aunty Holly and Cousin Jimmie. Jimmie was on break from school so he had lots to show and the time to do it.

We ended the week with some creative endeavors. Gavin made some rather interesting cookies out of Play Doh. Trinity made up a cupcake.

The kids all did reflection journals. Working our way through Dirty Jobs episode by episode has been great fun!

We also started a new book for family reading time – Treasure Island. The kids are quite put out with me. I am reading it WITH them so they have TONS of questions I simply CANNOT answer. This is not a classic I have read! I think we will either read Little House in the Big Woods or Charlotte’s Web next (Gavin is quite worried about me reading the second one as he says… I do not like spiders so I shouldn’t have to read it.). For this story we are doing a pictorial summary of each chapter. Drawing out main points and the like. Something all ages can be involved in!

On the last weekend of March we had errands to run and quiet at home time to enjoy. I lucked out and in a walk through Walmart looking at Easter stuff we found FAKE eggs to dye. We plan on still making the real eggs with Nana but the fake ones could be saved and used year after year!

Trinity and I worked on ANOTHER special page in her scrapbook. After all Ken had ditched us for a guys’ only night over at Chris Schwartz after errands so it was time to be rather low key.

We tried something I saw on Facebook – making string eggs and found that we REALLY need to use the small water balloon balloons. (back onto the shopping list they went).

The kids just sat back and enjoyed the day with me.

On Sunday Ken got home in time to take them out to Sunday School.

Definitely a stay at home sort of day after that with a fort to build and music to make.

AND being the 30th a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my younger brother James! So we had a looooong lovely call. I miss the heck out of him and his family!!!

We ended March with a relatively quiet day at school.

And Ken and Emanuel running off to Scouts. I am so glad we decided to put him in this. He and Ken are enjoying it a lot. It is time to work on the extra stuff at home as well to get him I think what is called Arrow Points. luckily a lot of it is stuff we do at home through school. I just have to have us sit down and do some of this stuff we have done over the years again!

There goes March… did you blink and miss it too????

March 13-17

On Thursday it was the twin’s turn to work on their pinewood derby cars. Sadly we all sort of fell apart to a rather nasty cold which had our school week light and our napping heavy!!

This is all part if Gavin’s master plan I am told.

We did make a Sam’s Club run that has started a new family tradition. If the kids can at least attempt to behave on our shopping trip we then agree to have a post shopping snack. The prices on their food that is ready to eat are AMAZING… and also include a family favourite – pretzels! It is a great way to bypass the frustrated kids in line at the cash. Ken stands in line with the purchases and I have them sit at a table and order food to share. 5-6 dollars and we have some pop, pretzels and even a hotdog or pizza slice (that is really like a quarter of a large pizza!). We even caved and chose the more difficult cart to push around to humour the girls.

In fact, once the car working was done and the sickies were STILL sleeping it was back to the Lego game. Having that table out has saved my bum during the sick time.

Friday was quiet learning. Mainly things like watching Veggie  Tales and then going and doing the Sunday School sheets or what we have now started – Dirty Jobs. We are watching episode by episode and then doing a reflection journal page about it. Trinity is drawing and then I write, Emanuel drawing and then copying two sentences and the twins 4-5. We are working on having a title for our pages – Dirty Jobs Episode whatever… and on working more on telling all about something not just simple sentences. Anything to expand our work and our skills!

Keeping tabs on our week thanks to Activity Village

Saturday was a special day. We had plans to meet up with Matt and Fran and their twins again… but this time at IKEA for our favourite family lunch – meatballs! Although, with kids still recovering we had smaller appetites than usual. I really need to carry some ziploc in my purse for extras when we over order!

After lunch it was time to go across the street to MOA and the Lego store. They have this great play area out there for the kids to build.

Echo and Izzy

I was especially excited to go… this is the only place that has a Typo store for my favourite pens AND Body Shop (except airport where I never fly anyway to get into the store section and when anyone does they are closed) for my facial soap.

I could not resist.. I had this sort of pen in high school!!! 4.95 plus tax!

Sunday was really nothing special. We had way too many sick kids to do anything and no Sunday School so it was a lay back and enjoy naps and rest…

And time to set out our leprechaun trap! Because we all know Lucky Charms are the perfect lure! Sam’s Club had a double box on for sale so the kids were over the moon… as long as the leprechaun didn’t take off with the goods!

Monday was St. Patrick’s Day. With kids still suffering from this cold we did the best we could with our Green clothing. Got the picture in at the very least… but no green lunch.

Trinity and Emanuel were starting to bounce back so we focused mainly on THEIR St. Patrick’s Day fun.

Emanuel’s cover for his dinosaur book we read together

Playing a number game

Father, Son and Holy Spirit on a 3 leaf clover

Not the most impressive start to the week but it is great to see that even limping with illness we do get a wee bit done each day. Progress is progress! Enjoy the random MOA pictures!