Tag Archive | Paul Bunyan

A Touch of Warmth

March 8-12

Another weekend, another series of visits. Saturday afternoon/evening Ken and the boys went to a sleepover at Joe and Faithe’s. Total boy time. That left Echo, Trinity and myself to dinner and a rather quiet evening of a movie and popcorn.101_6440

Oh and dress up!!101_6437

We have some fairy hackers coming along it seems.101_6438

Trinity and I even took some time to start her Hello Kitty scrapbook.101_6439

And at bedtime we called Daddy to say good night.101_6441

With our ride gone overnight there was no Sunday school for us. Just some quiet play time before we had to get ready to go out.101_6442

101_6444Ken and the boys picked us up around lunchtime so we could head over to Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s for a visit. And to return their now fixed computer. Robbie and Jessica were there also, along with all sorts of puppies, a kitty, ducks… fish… and so forth.101_6445

We had pizza for lunch and hung out until almost dinner time. It was a great visit on a beautiful day.101_6446

101_6447101_6449101_6453Monday was the last session for the  twins’ first set of swimming lessons. With all the weather delays we actually went almost a month late. So the next session that we decided to schedule all 3 boys into gives us only one week grace to get Emanuel’s swim gear ready. They are all very excited to get to it. The twins have a little more work to move out of the beginners group to advanced beginners. But they are learning and loving it. Which is all we can ask!

Trinity was so excited… she completed her first addition AND subtraction book! With minimum tears and fuss no less!101_6454

With all the visiting and excitement we had gotten behind on our Art for Kids (HERE) drawing instructions so we had an art session using a variety of the newest ones.101_6455

We had penpal letters to illustrate…101_6458

And India to learn all about… a light lesson as sadly EVERYONE was getting sick.101_6459

101_6460Oh and I have to share our follow up on Paul Bunyan! Quite the interesting legend and a perfect chance to discuss how a story can be real or really cannot. I used two library books:

  • Paul Bunyan by Steven Kellogg
  • The Story of Paul Bunyan by Barbara Emberley

We had three worksheets from Education.com:

  • Tell Fact From Fiction HERE
  • Coloring Page HERE
  • Write a mixed up fairy tale HERE

We are finally seeing some spring like weather… Perfect opportunity to go out in our light clothes and scrape some of the muck off the driveway. Now let’s not get too excited about this sudden warmth… it IS Minnesota and spring is not something winter allows easily here!101_6461

101_6465Ken and I got around (finally) to assembling a long forgotten shelf and organizing our school stuff even further. Organization is always a calming influence on my soul I swear! And now with some labels thanks to my Christmas present from Ken I even have some spiffy LAMINATED labels for three of our section. The kids were impressed by the fact that they could now SEE some favourite games and puzzles on the bottom row and keep better track of their workbooks.

Pre labels

Pre labels

I am loving the bigger boys helping the little kids. Their reading skills have smoothed out enough that at time they will VOLUNTEER to read the other two their workbook assignments!!101_6470

Ken and Trinity did our grocery shopping for the day on Wednesday… and Trinity made sure to come back with a special treat just for me! So sweet!101_6471

We finally got around to decorating our Valentines Day folder. It is also more full than expected! But everyone had a blast colouring hearts and messages on our folder.101_6472

Of course Echo had to bring out our 100 day markers and draw us up something nice. I think the past 100 school day have had their rough patches but were honestly very nice!101_6473

We are forging right on through the weeks with school mixed with fun! March is certainly following February’s lead!101_6468

Paul Bunyan and Other Topics of Interest

February 19-21

Mid week and we dove right back into the stories. I am loving our reading time. There can never be enough of it!101_6261

We watched a great episode on Minnesota from an aerial series. I asked the kids to draw what they thought was the most interesting, most memorable. And for the first time in ages the three boys drew the same thing – PAUL BUNYAN. So guess what Mommy has to jump on the internet to research and request? I thought for sure one of them would want to learn more about the Mississippi river or… some sort of city building or something but NOPE giant lumberjack and blue ox for the win! So keep an eye out for our further information! Watch the video HERE thanks to the Smithsonian Channel.101_6258

The kids and I finished our Chinese New Year binder. It is amazing how much we actually end up doing when we totally get into a topic! So much creativity and learning. You can, of course, check out the resource blog entry HERE.101_6259

Thursday was a read to the family sort of day. The twins are totally our leaders of story time and WILLING leaders now!101_6256

Emanuel read this one to me!

Emanuel read this one to me!

I found a wonderful resource to split up the portions of a story into sections to map out a story in a castle shape that the twins tried as well. Anything to get us looking at the parts of a story to make more in depth and well thought out stories. You can find this amazing resource HERE thanks to This Reading Mama.101_6262

Trinity and I are still trucking through the Valentines books…101_6263

And Emanuel and I started a Dinosaur book that was sent to us in a set from Gammie for Valentines. We are going chapter by chapter and then I write down  a couple sentences that Emanuel remembers as the main details and he draws a picture. It is fun reading together and including dinosaurs. I totally want to get back to the dinosaur research we have been doing but I admit it – we have been lazy. The obvious dinosaurs are covered.101_6264

We borrowed a series of 10 Veggie Tales videos from the library as well. So each day we watch a video and then I have been printing out Sunday School resources… the little 3 do the colouring page and the twins the 4th page. The next day we do the first two read and discussion pages together. You can find the pages we have been using HERE. I am not including A LOT of religion in our class time but this is a chance to enjoy a wholesome program and reflect on some very important lessons for life and love. Lets use any resource we can to find the best ways to interact with each other.101_6265

101_6266The kids all finally got around to wearing their Valentines day craft t shirts. Gotta love the heavy Minecraft theme. But it was so much fun and definitely something we want to repeat!101_6268

And then…. MORE SNOW… I swear we have feet and feet of snow!!! The kids are getting sick of it even!

The inside of their snow structure looks so cozy!

The inside of their snow structure looks so cozy!

101_6271With more snow comes more inside time… so more books…101_6273

101_6272Dressing up…101_6274

Playing on the electronics…101_6275

And then BANG the week is done! The time goes fast but slowly at the same time it seems!!!101_6255