December 13-14

With the cousins here when they are not at school or clubs until the beginning of the next week accomplishing schoolwork during the traditional school hours has become a must. They slept the night on Wednesday and then were gone before we were up to school, so Thursday had to be a work first snow later sort of day. We have TWO packages left to mail, both American which required hand crafted cards or specially coloured Christmas pictures.

Ken spent some time with the boys finishing up their reindeer factual section. Lots of difficult words and interesting facts about reindeer digestion I am told!

Back around the table

The snow fort/igloo HAS really progressed… though with the weather getting warmer in the afternoon and then cold again I have made VERY sure they realize that unless there is someone on the OUTSIDE of the structure they are NOT to go in it. Hopefully this lovely weather holds, Wednesday they were out for hours and hours!

Quite the building

Room for 2

Even Trinity went out and joined in the fun for a bit. That is a first this week as she has been under the weather. Poor Emanuel AGREED to have a nap! I have to say Trinity looks so cute in her purple gear.

Out with her brothers (Zander standing)

We had ANOTHER Wild Kratts episode to watch and create a mini poster for. This one all about the porcupine. I have to admit, I am learning right along with the boys! 

Porcupine

Really with the lovely weather being outside has taken priority with the kids. I do have to admit – the final creation outside is quite impressive! Friday was a completion day of course! AND the end of our reindeer unit. Each of the kids got a Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer song bookmark to celebrate! You can find those on Activity Village HERE.

Zander left… of course

Emanuel and Trinity and I had to create our reindeer food – oatmeal and glitter. This is something we did at the local library up in Alberta LAST year. They had so much fun making “Magic” reindeer food!

Creating the mixture

Reindeer food!

To celebrate NOVEMBER’s reading accomplishments the twins got their pizza again. It really does help to motivate the reading for the next month. Though we are not doing as many stories in December, 15 to the usual 20 and even that is a bit of a struggle with all the to and fro and excitement of Advent!

Proud readers

Trinity and I made a Christmas angel to hang on the tree – we printed it off of Activity Village and then coloured, cut and pasted making sure to put our string through the top first. I think she is LOVELY! 

Angel

Our story of the day: Here Comes Jack Frost. I personally loved the illustrations in this one! There were very few complaints when I asked them to draw a picture in their books based on this one as the shapes were actually rather fun to reproduce for ALL ages. 

Here Comes Jack Frost

We had ANOTHER Art for Kids activity to enjoy, this one a 3D piece much like the turkey  from Thanksgiving. A 3D reindeer! Simple and fun. 

3D Reindeer

I lucked out as I have the ability to use my mother in law’s Prime Amazon account. That means that we can watch tv episodes for free streaming on there. So I was able to find the Dirty Jobs episode from season 5 titled Reindeer Farm. The boys absolutely thought it was a gas that it took forever for them to TRY and feed the reindeer. I actually find that Dirty Jobs is an awesome resource when you want to get the kids interested in something! I would love, someday, to own the series on dvd for the kids! I took our usual book journal pages and had each of the twins draw and write about the episode.

Thank you Dirty Jobs!

I also took some pages from Activity Village and had the boys each come up with some facts that they learned about reindeer. Not surprisingly, they were VERY clear about the predators! 

Reindeer facts retained

We finished our reindeer and really just enjoyed our day… until the evening when mid interview phone call I had to pull Ken OFF the phone to come help me extract a Lego with tweezers and a flashlight from EMANUEL’s nose! When asked WHY he simply said because he didn’t know he shouldn’t? Ummm I am rather SURE I covered that lesson multiple times. BUT at least it was a tiny Lego and easily extracted. Oh and the phone call was able to be picked back up!!

Excitement feels as if it is our cornerstone lately! But honestly, in a much less… hair pulling, brain wracking and traumatic way!

Building in all seasons, that’s our boys!

A weekend with the Reinsch-Johnson family NEVER goes as planned. We HAD thought to meet up with Steven and Quinn in the afternoon on Saturday for play time and picnic type foods. Sadly, Steven got called into work (sad for us, great for his pocket book) and by the time he was done his shift he was too worn out to meet up. What do to do with the day instead? Well… spend time with Ken NOT on the computer! After a week of Ken working on code for jobs and on the phone for interviews (2 in 2 weeks!) we were all feeling the lack of time with him. 

So we packed everyone up and headed out, first to mail off our intent to home school forms, complete with immunization records at the post office which closed at noon and then to the park! The kids were off and running as soon as the vehicle was parked and the seatbelts removed. They had a blast climbing, sliding, running… we really needed that time out without a string of errands to go with it. 

Digging

Swinging

Sliding

After some park time Ken figured what was better than checking out the walking path? So, we did! Sadly our walk included a dead bird but we managed to work through it (and walk AROUND it) and check out the grasshoppers (plentiful), leaves (everywhere) and trees (some cut down and left and one HUGE one marked for cutting that was noticeably dead).

Walking

We ended up in a little neighbourhood at the end of a path. There were some dogs to see (one with an invisible fence, a first for me) and some interesting vehicles and such and then we realized we could not find the path that continued on the way back to the park so we had to turn back and back track. 

We wore ourselves and the kids out and then headed to the stores for some groceries (Ken and Emanuel scouted out some sales for us) and Michaels to check out the teacher discount. Apparently they do not give out a card but rather have you bring in proof. Not something super simple as the proof I have is my intent to home school forms. BUT we managed and I picked up some more crafty bits (on sale or super cheap to begin with). Just a few more items and I have some rather cool crafts to create with the kids! I have to say, I prefer Jo-Ann’s for yarn (more selection) and crafty kits (again more selection). 

There was even time to wash out the pop bottles we need for a craft I have in mind for the kids to do. Lots of soapy water OUTSIDE.

Sudsing it up

We followed up our Saturday with a Sunday with the Novaks. We did NOT make it to church – we are just not organized enough as well as needing to have Ken home to code lately and working on that job hunt has slowed our search for a new congregation to join. I am hoping we can make to the church that the Novaks belong to and try it on for size some time really soon. 

Anyway, instead we tidied, got the kids ready and ran to Target for birthday cupcakes (belated) for Echo to share with the kids. Ken even went out of his way to get us out of the house with enough time to spare for me to stop by Jo-Ann’s with coupons in hand to purchase TWO balls of yarn for myself to create my OWN project… a… scarf of course. A friend on Facebook asked if it was a Cat in the Hat scarf… oops! I was going for Canadian/Valentine’s Day/Christmas colours… but that works too! I almost bought a sparkly blue to add to the mix but red white and blue just didn’t work for me. 

A beginning of my personal project

After our shopping trip it was time to head to the Novak’s and then onto the soccer game. Another one of Anthony’s in his new league. There were not enough kids in Anthony’s age range to create a team so he was moved up to the older kids. He really did hold his own. Sadly, they did NOT win but the little kids had a blast at the nearby park and the adults (with Andy there and all!), Echo and Andrew enjoyed the game. 

Running drills

Action shot

It was a lovely sunny day and I not only got to finish the actual crocheting of Ken’s scarf but put my red and white yarn into balls for my next project. Add in a tiny soccer ball for Echo to kick, some snacks and good friends and we had a wonderful afternoon. It was great to have (big) Andy there, we have seen so little of him since we moved down here. He and Ken have been friends since elementary school! 

In the sun

After the game we went back to the Novak’s for the rest of the day. Hot dogs and brats for supper… good company and… CUPCAKES for Echo! Target has some really yummy ones that are a good price. We didn’t do the candle and song and still she cried… until Andrew helped her out with her cupcake.

Not too happy belated birthday girl

Soothed by cupcake

We stayed past 8pm when the kids had to get ready for their bedtime routine and Echo had already voluntarily crawled up on Ken to nap. So I think we managed to fill our Sunday with joy, friendship and celebration. Just what we needed. AND we have planned a Tuesday cupcake get together with Quinn and his family here at home so the fun continues! I am hoping we can plan more get togethers with people… more games to see and more moments of joy with others.

Hanging with the Daddies

The ability to keep busy is definitely a great one to cultivate in the pursuit of home education! And Tuesday was no exception. I wish I could say it all went smoothly but with kids involved… NEVER! We started the morning with… breakfast… then time with Ken (gotta get it in before he is gainfully employed here in Minnesota) working on Minnesota… and that is where we hit a wall. Sadly when Ken read to the boys from the lapbook I found on Currclick they really didn’t listen so when Ken asked questions about it they guessed and really refused to try. So the response was a 5 min cool down in the bedroom to see if they could remember what was read to them, and then a redo… which didn’t work so Ken tried 10 min and a redo… nope… so the final solution was actually a rather smart one… he gave THEM the reading matter (which was rather advanced for them), their observation journals and some pencils and told them to read each word and write it out as they do. Every 3 words or so they came back to Ken to reread what they had written until the first couple sentences were done and amazingly enough they not only TRIED but succeeded both in reading the words (with some assistance, silent K’s are RUDE) and writing it down legibly! Although in the end there was an unfinished word I had to squeak a few letters onto for them! 

So while the actual lapbook progression was short and sweet we did get the boys TRYING and that is HUGE! I made sure to take advantage of that and jump right into the rest – workbooks, Farmer Boy (I think we have TWO chapters left) and of course reading their books. We have a new plan in action… each day each of the children has a chance to earn a check mark. Once they get TWENTY FIVE of those they get something special. Trinity is doing a workbook page PROPERLY a day, Emanuel 2 letters or numbers a day in his copybook, and the twins reading a book a day to myself or their daddy. I am hoping this will foster motivation and maybe even some special one on one moments with our busy family. Day 1 went VERY well!

Working on their check marks

Baby on the go

Animal Planet has become a family favourite as has Turtle Man and today’s marathon of Steve Irwin (remember the crocodile hunter??) on the anniversary of his death. Emanuel absolutely loves the snapping turtles and was excited to record some knowledge about it and the show in his journal. I figure if it has him on the edge of his seat wanting to know more it is all good! There is another show the kids have latched onto, by the way, on Animal Planet. This one about people making extreme fish tanks called Tanked. The boys were very impressed by the tanks and LOVED seeing all the fish! 

Gavin at work

The Perler bead pieces that the kids were working on over the weekend and such are FINALLY ironed. Gavin finished the last one Tuesday. Ken had quite the job to do with all that ironing!!

Terrific job!!

I actually finished my very first crochet project Monday night! The single stitch piece which is now going to be a headband once I get a nice strong snap to finish the back! I think it looks rather nice for a first project and have already jumped into my second project – learning the (US) double stitch with a ball of white yarn… the jury is still out as to what it will be, depends on how far the yarn goes! Thank goodness for Facetime and Karyn who was able to sit with me Monday night and watch me go. The best part about it is that the camera reverses  you so when she was stitching it looked lefty to me (though from the wrong side) and was much easier for my mind to wrap around. I found a great vid for cementing the turning of the row in my mind.

The new piece… dolly blanket?

We are still working our way through the registration process… it is very frustrating that we had to wait until last week Thursday to receive the information packet from the district we HAVE TO register in. In fact the packet only just sent us to a website. Not overly helpful yet. I am still attempting to figure out things like the age to the grade, the immunization records we have to submit and of course how much information we are LEGALLY required to send in to the district. I have asked on Facebook and lucked out with a lady who has a friend who is registered and homeschooling here in the state so I am hoping with her help, our research and hopefully talking to the lady who has the position here as liaison we can get all our ducks in a line in the shortest time possible!!

Reading with Zander

Today was one of those best laid plans going askew sort of days… Our morning actually was PACKED with stuff done! I was surprised at the get up and go. It helps that everyone was excited about having another set of letters to respond to! Jimmie’s Gammie is a TERRIFIC pen pal. Each of the kids got a letter and they all were more than willing to respond! Emanuel even included one of the completed Perler bead creations (an Emanuel original tiny snake) in his letter! And of course we had to send out two of our Moo cards! 

Zander working on his response

Sadly we were not able to take our nature walk as Echo went for nap over the span of time Ken had his phone interview (which went VERY well, he just needs to do his test code for them and then do the tour and then… second interview we hope!). So we couldn’t leave her in case Echo woke up while he was on the phone. So we are hoping to go once Ken finishes his code as a family. We did have ANOTHER completion of the review books… EMANUEL!!

Completion!

Sneaking in a pre-interview moment with Daddy

I think we are starting to find a rhythm… varying what we do is helping as is keeping track of what IS easy to accomplish and what we struggle with. And now, two nights in a row one of the twins has read their story over the IM on our iPad to Karyn! I love them including someone ELSE in their learning and progress!

Echo chatting with Aunty Karyn and visiting with her kitties

Gavin reading to Emanuel

With our new year begun and Ken’s job hunt progressing, well we are settling in and able to say that we are putting down some new roots this week. AND I am going to look into the Magic Tree House series for the boys. Apparently there are resource guides and fact books. Something new to think about! And on that note… back to my solo evening. 

I HAVE TO share this one… Gavin spent an hour or more outside with nothing but sticks… he made this table type thing!!!

Creative huh!!!