December 5-8

Here I am writing about Thanksgiving well into Advent but this year the two were so close together! Trinity and Emanuel had their coffee filtre turkeys to finish with Daddy after all. You can make one  yourself thanks to Peapod Labs HERE.

We brought out our Little People Nativity set. Echo is enamoured with the angel. Apparently this one is ready to ride!

Of course we had our advent calendar and a craft to add to the fun! What we can do with markers, popsicle sticks, paper and glue!!! I think Trinity did a great job.

Then the boys had the exciting completion of their Minnesota lapbook plus extras. Only took FOREVER for us to get it done and together. Of course I saved the resources in a separate blog entry HERE. We did a mini lapbook and then went from there. I hope the little nuggets of facts and truths we found will stick in our minds for at least a little time. It was fun learning more about the state we now call home.

We have also started using Trinity’s daily reading as family story time. Every time we read one of her Christmas themed books (or watch a Christmas movie) we draw a group picture that will go in our Christmas binder!

We ended our school week with a paper craft that I picked up last year at an absolute steal. This was making a fancy paper gingerbread house with accessories.

It was the first Saturday of the month so of course the kids headed over to Home Depot for free craft time. Ken also signed them up for a special extra craft on the 21st.

Emanuel drew a wonderful Christmas themed dinosaur page to send up north to a special someone.

Of  course Sunday brought Sunday School. Cold Cold Cold.

And then Baba and Ken put up the yard decoration that Nana found at Fleet Farm. Very pretty.

Later in the evening we had Facetime with Aunty Xinny, Alex, Izaac and Isabella. It was WILD!!!

We ended our evening with decorating the new 8 foot tall tree. The ornaments this year are from our stash. Not ALL of them but soe many memories and old favourites. The kids had a blast showing them to Nana and Baba.

Christmas is very apparent in the house now. And after a busy weekend it feels so much more real

We did not cover the origins of the American Thanksgiving this year, rather the emotions that are connected to the holiday – being  thankful and together with friends and family. However, I do have some resources to share!

Our Crafts:

• Thanksgiving Tree (Activity Village) HERE
• Paper Turkey (Peapod Labs) HERE
• I am Thankful Pumpkin (Moffatt Girls) HERE
• Horn of Plenty – Gratitude printable (Kids Activities Blog) HERE

Our Worksheets:

• Thanksgiving skip counting (The Homeschool Den) HERE
• Thanksgiving Activity Pack (Itsy Bitsy Learners) HERE (I did not use some of the pages as I was not impressed by the illustrations but they had a nice Mayflower picture and some colour and shape pages that were ok)
• Thanksgiving math and number families (The Homeschool Den) HERE

Lapbooks:

• Thanksgiving Dinner – A Fun Study (Homeschool Bits) HERE

Helpful sites:

• 3 Boys and a Dog reference list HERE
• Cornucopia explanation with more links about Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving-Day.org) HERE
• All things Thanksgiving at Activity Village HERE
• Wild Turkey Facts at NWTF HERE (National Wild Turkey Foundation)

Books:

• An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott HERE
• The Apple Doll by Elisa Kleven HERE
• Free emergent readers by The Measured Mom HERE
• Nursery Crimes by Arthur Geisert HERE
• A Thanksgiving Turkey by Julian Scheer HERE

Videos:

• Modern Marvels: The Turkey HERE
• The Land Before Time: The Time of the Great Giving HERE

May 19-20

That was most definitely NOT a question for Trinity or Emanuel… but the twins… well we made the leap and not only got them lovely brand new bikes (the used stores just were not a good enough deal after researching the ones open on Sundays) but bikes WITHOUT training wheels! Yikes!! Oh and helmets, do not forget the helmets!

We took the whole family to Target and hunted the mighty bikes… there really is not much left for options so early in the season (though I saw a retro style bike for an ADULT at Walmart that if I had had 95 dollars sitting around… well… maybe later in the year?)…

Check out

The girls got sunglasses… adorable ones… 1.00. And Emanuel got a dinosaur (another 1.00 purchase… gotta love the dollar area at Target).

Sunglasses

Once we got home, and got the baby down to nap, it was time to bust out the new bikes and helmets and give it a go. Results are mixed and of course it is going to take some time… but I have high hopes for successful 2 wheel bikers!

Starting in the grass

Better on the pavement

Gavin

Zander

Daddy Son moment

Nana and Baba took the twins out on double bikes to try and work on balance, looking up and keeping their hands on the handles and feet on the pedals.

Off on the double bikes

Ken had a game that got rained out so that evening we snuck out for ice cream and together time… it was nice… I miss just us from time to time!

Some beautiful flowers around here now!

Monday marked the beginning of what feels like monsoon season. So much rain and muck, definitely not pro walking weather for us. We did start a mini multiplication book I was emailed as a printable from Peapod Labs… It is connected to an app but regardless, a fun way to start those tables going! You can find the printable HERE.

We started our Ready Freddy penguin themed book… which prompted a list of all the things we found interesting that we have learned about these flightless birds.

So much knowledge

And then there was an afternoon of the twins working on putting seeds on paper towels. They worked with Nana prepping the seeds to go on the straw bale garden. They learned all about the need to keep the seeds spaced and how the plants need certain things and certain space to requirements depending on the plants to grow properly. Oh and the math about the spacing, looking at the ruler board (inches!!). Quite the educational fun!!

Gardening prep with Nana

Lines of seeds

Trinity has embraced the workbooks. I love seeing her sit there and really get at it!

Pages done, pages to go

Miss Echo took two days of dress up fun… Sunday in her pretty dress thanks to a handmedown from Aunty Xinny… oh and a flower from Nana.

Darling

Super pixie!

And on Monday… TINKERBELL! I have to say, the highlight of my days at times is taking pictures of her partying it up in whatever outfit she chooses… but woe on you if you want her to NOT wear a dress… PARTY is her word for it! And the fancier the better!

Little Tinkerbell… Thanks to Aunty Holly

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I wish the outfit tag was now showing in this one.