For all of our Easter resources please refer to the blog entry titled “Easter Resources“.

April 3-4

I am pleased to report that we have COMPLETED our Easter lapbook… all it took was a little time Wednesday afternoon and a good glue stick. I hate how when you run out of one key supply things can grind to an absolute halt! I am quite pleased with the end result. Ken picked up some of those soft binders to put our platypus (and later penguin) books in and another for the Easter one. Job well done!!!

A couple of our pages

We have jumped in with both feet on our penguins and have already amassed some lovely links to share in the end (or contact me for them in the meantime of course). Mr. Popper’s Penguins is a lot of fun already. One chapter a day, with as much of the suggested activities the lapbook we found online that meet our age range plus additional links… I see the purchasing of a blue paper pack (varying shades of course) in my future!

Our National Geographic cover pages!

Our second book of the day was Penguin Says Please by Michael Dahl. Very cute lesson on being polite!

Poor runny nosed baby

Of course we crammed as much as we can in for a reason – tonight the cousins (Gabriella and Zachary) are here for a 2 day overnighter (this week is their Spring break). So effectively no school Thursday. Which gives me a day to tidy, organize and maybe hide a little?

Enjoying the penguin book together

We also recorded our Easter song: Jesus Christ is Risen Today! words by Charles Wesley. We are having some issues getting the video up so I will have to link it later!!!

We finally got our practice chopsticks in the mail. Sadly all the instructions on the back are in Chinese so I am not sure if I can alter them for a left handed person…

Chopsticks

Supper was special… all 7 kids out at a favourite Chinese restaurant. We survived but it was by no means a LEISURELY meal.

SEVEN kids

YUM

The 4th was not only Thursday BUT also our God Son Anthony’s 11th birthday! Where has the time gone??? I am waiting to hear on the birthday plans but in the meantime was able to wish him a happy day over IM on the iPad (the joys of modern technology!).

I squeezed in spelling practice and writing for Zander but otherwise, it was kids and grandparents’ rule and lots of gaming… after the girls (less Echo) made a run out to JoAnn’s.

Trinity’s wand, self decorated

We had Minecraft and PS3 games going on.

Gamers galore

With homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner…

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

And ice cream floats for desert…

Floats

Add in a movie and the day was complete.

Princess Bride

 Definitely a kid filled two days!

Mini E

For all of our Easter resources please refer to the blog entry titled “Easter Resources“.

March 20-21

CAN mix! It just takes a few extra adults and some strict corralling of the family kittens!! But first… Wednesday..

Easter learning continues with books books and more books… I just love doing a minimum of a book a day… The more I read the more they seem to want to read. Today was Piggy Bunnyby Rachel Vail.

Piggy Bunny

In honour of it being the first day of spring we WANTED to go on a walk looking for signs, but it was rather cold and snowy so instead I drew out a ground and a basic tree with a snow bank and said – MAKE IT SPRING…. did they ever!

Group project

Spring!!!

When finished the Spring poster Emanuel took initiative and drew me his own spring landscape! What they can do with paper and markers makes this Mommy VERY proud!

Emanuel in Spring

We also filled some time with games and cooperative play! I am told that Dora version Candy Land can get positively cut throat!!!

Zander and Emanuel

To round out the creative vibe… clay creations! Note the Triceratops!!

By Emanuel

The twins’ snakes

We actually started our Thursday out in the afternoon. Ken worked into the night on Wednesday to clear up time for us to spend out getting a few errands done the next day. I had coupons… so free undies at Victoria’s Secret. We had to sit and watch the Carousel of course. Which happens to be right near the  ride. It is always fun to watch the horses go around. We even got adventurous and use up AND down escalators to get to the different levels of the mall! A first for Trinity for sure.

Watching the horses (Gavin left)

We had a run into JoAnn’s to grope the yarn… Echo really loves to touch it. And I stopped in Dollar Tree to get Nature Journals (can’t beat a dollar a piece). We are going to use them for nature walks as soon as  the snow melts. Get fit, get fresh air and get to know the nature around us!!

With a stop at a Best Buy to check for a wanted (and saved for) Skylander (no luck) it was time to head to the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. It was the third Thursday of the month so a busy day (oops) and they were opening a new exhibit (we didn’t make it there). So lots going on including a place that was cutting hair for free, a band (we all agreed TOO LOUD) and lots of people.

Yes, there was a harpist in one of the handicap stalls in a bathroom!

These pieces were from Ethiopia

We went with Shandai and Emily who are both quite well versed on the exhibits to see. Ken and I a figure we want to go on a NOT the 3rd Thursday (the only late night opening) and WITHOUT the kids to take in more of the art and less of the highlights. There was so much to see and enjoy though. I have to say, taking pictures without a flash as you should in an art museum without a tripod is trying. So not as sharp as our usual photos but you get the idea and we will go back tripod in hand! And maybe play with our camera settings a little??

Such a variety of pieces, there were even a few hands on tables with interpreters.

A moment with Aunt Shandai

I wish this picture had turned out better.. this was one of the period rooms and it was DARK!!!

…Me

ART

In the end Ken and the kids went to the family room, made friends and built things out off the toys they had there.

Building blocks

So much fun!

We have started our decorations for Easter with a pastel coloured paper chain… yes we do really love our paper chains in this family but it is such an affordable way to decorate AND work on patterns and colours and hand eye coordination.

Such pretty colours

We DID do some school work on Thursday – most notably was Gavin’s first foray into pastels thanks to Art for Kids. I love that now that his reading has improved he can navigate their archive and find the videos to watch and do on his own!

Shading

Though with our half day Friday is going to be busy with reading and drawing and all sorts of fun Easter themed stuff!!

Hard at work

For all resource links please check out the entry “Saint Patrick’s Day Resources“.

March 11-12

The Bodhran was our first instrument to cover this year. We are reusing the videos from our previous year with just as much enjoyment. So I am going to re-embed them in the entry of course! (they will also be in the resource entry)

Today we saw daddy off to the office and are running solo. Thankfully we had our St. Patrick’s Day themed book of the day – St. Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons. And started working on our poem for Friday.

Book of the day

We started work on our leprechaun trap… a great way to learn the rainbow since we changed out plain sticks (which were actually MORE expensive???) with coloured ones!

Working on our box

The twins painted our 3 heart shapes to make our shamrock for the lid.

Green paint and the twins

Our second instrument covered was the Uilleann Pipes…

We played some simple but fun St. Patrick’s Day themed board games that you can find on Education.com. (link on side bar)

Gaming together

Trinity made her Trinity teaching shamrock (yes yes her and Emanuel with their religious names confusion… O Come O Come Emmanuel was a horrible song for a small child who kept saying BUT I AM HERE).

Our Trinity representing the Holy Trinity with a fun craft

And Echo proved how much she HAS grown with her new proficiency with getting into the fridge and asserting her wish to have what SHE wanted WHEN she wanted it!

Hot dogs???

We even squeaked in a Wild Kratts episode on the Tasmanian Devil.

Tasmanian Devil

Our Tuesday started us on the Irish/Celtic Harp….

and the Tin Whistle.

Just like last year the sound of the tin whistle is a siren call… a siren call to DANCE!

Trinity and I used a JoAnn’s kit and made a pretty St. Patrick’s Day themed headband.

Crafting

So pretty and festive

And of course we continued the work on our leprechaun trap… think it will tempt one well enough???

Finishing the lid

Our book for today was Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola. St. Patrick has quite a few interesting legends connected to him. We have 6 we wrote about but we did not include the one where he prayed and a man turned into a FOX or where horses were lost and his hand glowed showing the way! Seriously, there is a lot of interesting things connected to the patron saint of Ireland!

With our book about the Saint

Echo napped through the tin whistle so she had a Bubble Guppies dancing moment.

Get down

And dance

We also made our monthly mini poster for the ‘fridge. March! What do you think of when you think of MARCH?

March

Girls in pretty dresses simply must be photographed!

So pretty.. this is a dress I added a sash to over a year ago to alter to fit our skinny minny… and now it actually fits… better

My girls together

And for us… a “romantic” dinner and a movie… well some anime…

noms

With it being spring break around here the boys ALSO got some time with the neighbours in the snow!

So much snow

St Patrick has been interesting and the weather cooperating… not bad not bad!

All smiles