September 9-10

We decided that Monday the 9th was our day to begin our new year. But first, a run to Walmart to purchase our very first brand new lunchboxes!! They were on sale and everything (one of the joys of having the ability to wait until AFTER public school starts). Each of the 4 big kids picked their own. We had only 2 that duplicated.

After the excitement of a lunchbox well chosen we went out to the front yard with our special signs for our new grades! Poor Echo had a blister on her foot and so was not in a picture mood but I think it suited her colourful “Toddler” poster!

Self decorated, of course!

We had a parcel come in the mail from England with items from France AND England inside! We have some amazing Facebook friends out there! Thank you Anne and family! I need to find a place to display these lovely things.

I found and printed out multiple beginning of the year worksheets, games, mini books… anything I could think of to make it fun and interesting to say what our goals are, find out what we like and dislike… that sort of thing.

Lunch was a special experience for us… we have never done the lunchbox thing before! The kids were quick to see alternative uses for these items… snacks on rides, toys, collections. I am sure we will get our use out of them!

We also started a new weekly program of 4 days of one on one time with each kid… what I am doing is Monday – Thursday each child gets their day with 30 minutes Mommy only time! Our order for this week is Zander, Emanuel, Trinity, Gavin. Zander chose to sit on the iPad and chat with me!

Tuesday continued on our trend. We had a couple science projects to start…

And a garden to pick through…

Schoolwork to explore…

and games to play…

We ended day one with supper together…

I think it was a beginning well planned and executed!!!

Girls working side by side

July 21-24

After such a wonderful package coming in the mail from Gammie, is it any wonder that life right now is like a daily fashion show? The girls are loving their new pieces…

Limping or not Ken is loving his time with the kids in the playset HE built!

And then the kids brought our their little kits they bought at Lakshore (2.00 a piece!) to get  their dig on. Zander loves the gems and the other two boys are in love with digging their own dinosaur bones.

We had some mad growth with our beans and some spare time in the evening with Ken not playing soccer it was time to pot our beans. We kept our best of the littles’ beans in a pot on the table in the kitchen (remember the sunflower attempt?) and the rest in a large pot in the front yard.

The most excitement was truly in the watering!

Back to our half days with some fun in the sun thrown in. Funny how focused the kids can get with the help of a 2.00 toy!

Zander recording his findings.

On Tuesday it was time to learn about FRANCE thanks to Little Passports. I added in two books – Around the World, Let’s Visit France by Susie Brooks and France by Liz Sonneborn for Emanuel to look through for fun and of course went to Activity Village (link on right) for printable book marks and a map.

We had time for fun in the sun, both art and bringing out the bubble maker for another go with the homemade bubbles (interesting but NOT the same as their brand… yet).

With the next day just a morning of learning.

All in all a successful few days! Summer in Minnesota is certainly treating us well!

And now for something completely different… well sorta!

We have covered dinosaurs and reptiles that were NOT dinosaurs but this is our first mammal! With the fossils unearthed earlier this month I just could not resist teaching Emanuel (and in the end Zander as well) about the Woolly Mammoth! You can read all about the rather unusual find in France HERE with a video or a simply textual with the National Post HERE. Either way, a rather amazing find. The only dissapointment I found with the research on this creature is that the main focus of the videos was on a hoax of a debunked image of a so called living specimen (I do believe it turned out to be a bear with a fish or something) and another batch talked about ALIENS being the cause of their extinction… so we stuck with the I’m a Dinosaur video on youTube and the one about the French find.

As well as a rather good but short BBC Science one.

In addition I have a long list of links to share so I figure I should get right to that! Enjoy our information about our last Ice Age mammal! First off there are some AMAZING images of a frozen specimen found in Siberia back in 2009! You can find those HERE. There was actual fur, skin… all of that. What we found most interesting was the smaller ears and tail to keep warmth in and the more nimble trunk and long tusks to allow for food collection!

Discovery has another article on this amazing find but a young boy in Siberia HERE. Apparently this is not an unheard of occurrence, unlike the surprise in France. As the weather at the time of death for the Mammoth was ideal for freezing. National Geographic Kids has a nice printable card and article HERE (if we had colour toner I certainly would have, I plan to return to this site later and do so). eHow.com has a short blurb about the history of the Mammoth HERE.

A site called Interesting Facts has… well… interesting facts about the Woolly Mammoth HERE. Dinosaurs.about.com has their usual 10 questions HERE. Fossil Treasures of Florida has some information and what looks to be an example of fur HERE. AnimalsTime.com has a great article HERE. EnchantedLearning has an article about this late Mammoth HERE. Wiki has the usual article HERE. And you can find out print out that Emanuel coloured HERE. 

Such a cool character with his Woolly friend