November 13-15

The day after company leaves is always a hard one. No one is motivated and most of us are far from happy. The kids lost an avid storyteller and willing listener. She even WROTE her own story to add to the stack the twins have been creating. (Mommy blew that one, I should have been writing the dates on the stories but instead have a stack of lovely and varied ones I will put in a book and keep regardless) Of course we had to journal all about our visit with Karyn and the fun we had.

Aunty Karyn with her iPad

Ken decided that now was as good a time as any to start teaching the twins Python programming. He has two VERY excited boys – they not only get to learn more computer stuff BUT they get Daddy’s undivided attention while they do!

I took advantage of this time to work on our Grocery unit with the two littles. We have been working on healthy and not so healthy foods, balanced meals, and of course read some terrific stories.

Miss Echo stole BACK the netbook eventually and gave it a go herself. Just a bitty future programmer maybe? Hacker? More likely knowing her mischievous streak.

Thursday morning we simply had to take advantage of another relatively sunny and not too cold day. There are going to be less and less after all!

After running and playing themselves out it was back to work. The littles are still loving their grocery unit! Gotta clip out the foods for a pretend grocery list!

More programming…

AND being THANKFUL. I do love how we all come together to add our daily item. This poster is then going to go up in the boys’ room.

We ended our week sunny so most of the day was outside. Leaves to deal with, warm time to enjoy… I figured it best to do our basic stuff and then turn around and run run run.

Echo got her sun in the sunroom with the train set

I am so grateful for Karyn’s visit. Before this one came about and was planned it was looking like it would be more than a year between visits. We lucked out with her mom giving her all the extra air miles and Karyn’s work being willing to do without her for that week.

Checking the mail with Nana

And check out our Hot Rods thanks to Art for Kids (link on right)…

October 25-27

Our next book on the grocery store unit covered the food pyramid in a fun story version. Emanuel and Trinity drew their own pyramid and we had a rousing discussion about NOT eating tons of sweets (a very good conversation to have so close to Halloween).

The days are running down to the end of our first month of reading program as well. I have set our goal at 20 sessions each per month.

Our special Daddy activity was an artistic one. A piece of our IKEA roll paper and the box of markers (I need to start replacing those… they do wear out over time and some of ours are ANCIENT) and the simple direction to – draw something Halloween-y – I love the results! I walked away from this one so I had ZERO input beyond the originating of the idea.

Saturday it was Zander’s turn to update his winter look with a new winter jacket thanks to Nana and Daddy.

Otherwise it really was just a quiet Saturday afternoon… napping, tv and stories… and… DONE.

This was all for the best as Sunday… AFTER Sunday School (of course) was Cousin Zachary’s birthday party at a malt shop. But first… a mini fashion show thanks to Gammie. She sent each of the girls and adorable Halloween themed Hello Kitty dress. I had them put on their new sparkly purple leggings and we were set to impress. (I wore my last year’s Halloween Hello Kitty shirt too to match!)

So you can see the pictures better

There was delicious malts to try…

A Skylanders themed cake…

And the birthday boy had to open his presents (he seemed to love his sock owl… Halloween themed for October).

After all that fun we headed over to what Nana and Baba call the Net Park and the kids climbed and ran until they were cold and pooped out. Everyone except Echo was climbing like a monkey out there.

And here are some more party pictures! Enjoy!

October 19-21

What to do on a Saturday morning in fall with your cousins??? Play video games of course! We had a half a day with cousins and then a quiet ending to a quiet day.

On Sunday we of course had Sunday School but AFTER that Daddy and Baba built the boys a different bed to replace the bottom single bed. Now there are TWO uppers together and then the bottom bunk way underneath. Emanuel, how gets the bottom is in heaven. He says it is like having his own room!!!

Miss Echo had to make her fashion statement as well!

Monday meant back to schooling. The pattern of our weeks in this new year of school has become VERY comfortable. Lots of together opportunities.

Trinity and Emanuel worked on their own versions of healthy meals to start off their slow unit on the grocery store. Since we have not taken a true summer vacation we are slowing it down a bit right now. With a grocery unit to learn about, the twins and their Minnesota unit and our Little Passports Australia waiting in the wings there is no lacking of things to do, BUT it is fun to take some time to see things… do things… experience  things together that are not exactly ON the school plan… sometimes a step off the beaten path is how we find our gems. So I am pledging flexibility this year. More so than previous!

We also had a trip to check out… Andy and Darcy did a route in a semi that they clocked back to us state by state (and sent some postcards) via Facebook. So we not only tracked it, read about the states from our book Friends and Mates in 50 States but the twins wrote their own imaginary and wonderful stories about what COULD have happened on their trip.

I found a fun activity that uses a piece of orange paper, scissors and a story! You can do this fun and quick Halloween activity by clicking HERE.

Really it has been AMAZING. Ken has found a new interest in including himself in our routine. There is no better gift that he could give us than a willingness to be a part of our learning. It is moments like these that help me deal with the difficulties and embrace the future! Thank you so much Ken for coming back to our schooling and our routine!