September 30-October 1

Seriously where has the month gone??? Blink and you may just miss September this year!!

Of course Monday meant back to school… and we seem to finally have  gotten a bit of a rhythm to our mornings. So much so that I am finding we zip through things I figured would have taken longer and are having less and less anxiety or questioning of how much must be done or what is next!

We have some lovely art on the go in our ever ongoing journals…

Zander’s church regarding Sunday School

Trinity finished her first month calendar set…

And her 1-12 counting book! Total smiles on that one.

Of course we had to find time to play… Legos in the sunshine… Farms in the basement…

Ending the day with a lovely big brother moment. Gavin offered to brush out Trinity’s hair and did a marvelous job!

And that was that for September moving us into October and our final countdown to the return of Nana and Baba from their 5 weeks of exotic travel. Date home – the 10th!

The first of the month was also the beginning of our Pizza Hut reading program for the year – BookIt. We watched a special author read story HERE.

Our books for the day

We had Miss Echo in on the fun.

There were stories read…

And a science project to reboot… celery did not work so instead we used a carnation with dye.

Lunch was fun and fresh with fruit both canned and freshly cut up.

Our crafting for the day was fingerpainting. Although Echo had to be coerced and Zander refused outright.

I am really excited about the new reading program for our year. This year all 4 of the schooling kids are involved. The twins are trading off on reading to their brother and sister. Emanuel is reading absolute beginner books with me. Trinity is listening to stories with me and then drawing a little picture to share her story in her recording book. We are all going to work on our skills, hear some amazing stories and celebrate our growth as fledgling readers. Watch that library card go!

The potty is useful… as a stool right now

July 17-18

With the summer slow down comes boredom… so out came the instruction pages printed off of Art for Kids (link on right) and out came creativity. Especially when a picture is worked on TOGETHER!

I am loving that the Pizza Hut reading program has now moved into a summer version called Bookitsummer. You can find it HERE. Some of the challenges have them reading to different people, using funny voices or reading in unusual places.

Of course fairies are welcome!

And then the mail came!!! Thanks so much to Gammie who has once again spoiled us rotten… this time with lovely clothes, sunglasses, cups and even some magazines and a start to our coin collection!

The boys’ new shirts are awesome!

One of Echo’s dresses ended up in Trinity’s pile but here is the rest of hers.

So much Hello Kitty pretty!

The girls have a huge number of new outfits and are beyond excited. Of course we had to try on the sunglasses in the sunshine right away!

We had the cousins over on the 18th… so Baba and Daddy went out and got a kids pool! It took a while to get blown up but then fun in the sun ensued! In fact, that was about the day!!! So enjoy the pictures as we are totally taking advantage of some sunny days and some flexible learning (don’t doubt that we did our spelling in the mornings, it got done!!).

Park first, while the pool was blown up.

A peek at the straw bale garden.

A Gammie outfit

POOL!

And post pool snap pop things (you throw them on the ground and they make a noise).

Thanks again to Gammie for the amazing clothes!

May 31- June 1

I am a wee bit biased… June is my favourite month. Let’s see… my birthday, our anniversary, Father’s Day isn’t half bad… the boys were baptized in June… and the first day of summer… It is my first in the states and has given me a bundle of confusing emotions… homesick a wee bit I might add as there is another special moment to remember starting this June – my dear cousin Veronika is getting married!!!! I am dreadfully sad to have to miss it, but darn it… immigration moves slowly for those who are not willing to pay money into a lawyer.

Anyway first we need to END the month… so… Friday… Day one of the intrepid paleontologist Emanuel’s first dig. He has a box set up that we can store in the garage and it is all his show. He found the tip of a bone on the very first day! Everyone is rather jealous, but in the end this is something Emanuel is truly in love with, like Gavin and his art.

The clay block he begins with

Perfect chance for art in the sun… nature art!!

Working on the front steps

We have changed it up a bit with the reading now that our school program is over with Pizza Hut for the year… now the kids are reading for their younger siblings! Adorable and great practice telling stories to other people.

Did you know Batman is good at helping with workbooks???

Oh and after a long month+…. A COMPLETION!!! PENGUINS! I am beyond proud on this one… we learned so much and we did it together! We all learned something new and COOPERATED! Bask in the penguin glory! Oh, and enjoy the resources we share in the next blog.

We even topped the day with some rather impressive (and according to Ken who had to run out and cover the straw bale gardens painful!) hail.

What is a week without a weekend?? Let’s welcome in June with a Saturday… Time to spiffy up the twins with new buzzed haircuts thanks to Nana, Baba and Daddy! Not bad!!

All done

But even before that… HOME DEPOT! They made adorable wagon pencil holders… note that Trinity now has her apron too!

And then some shopping with the whole family… flip flops for the twins and a new swimsuit for Trinity… With the rest of the day freed up for play and relaxation… June has begun, lets hope the weather gets a little more consistent with some sunshine.

Fun in the sun!