January 2-3

The second day of the year was slightly anti-climatic with Ken’s appointment being rescheduled in the wee hours of the day to Friday… of course though the email hit his computer at 7 am, he did not realize this change until after noon AND after he had already shaved. That was the biggest laugh of the day as Ken HATES shaving, and having done so on the 2nd would have to do it AGAIN for Friday!! Talk about super pout!

Of course, with Echo throwing up for most of the previous night I really couldn’t blame him. She really CAN eat a lot and was very upset when she was sick. Thankfully except for some extra laundry she managed to miss herself, other people AND carpet and furniture. Not bad! 

Anyway, with it being the 2nd it was also time to start back up with the homeschooling. I was surprised, Gavin was more than willing to sit down and do math with me! We definitely need to do some more fraction work, but it is coming along. I love that I can just hop onto the internets and print off help sheets. This time a sheet from Education.com was the answer. 

I have to say, the new boardgame we picked up for the twins for Christmas is a huge succees. The kids are determined to play it over and over again. 

Boardgame time

We started our work on the months of the year and the days of the week again. While we talked about each one I wrote them out in marker on some lined sheets and made a page for January… 

What does January make YOU think of?

We ALL learned about the tarsier that was featured on Wild Kratts. 

Tarsiers

Don’t forget Play Doh… a must on a quiet day. Here is Emanuel’s elephant with ball.

Very blue!

The third day was equally quiet, well except for a night time trip to Target for Ken and myself. Really this week has been a bit of a bust for excitement, but after Christmas and all that, I think it is what we needed! By request we have started the dino a day up again… Emanuel figured we had had enough of a break from the fossilized learning and needed to get right back on them. 

We have made our thank you cards… well started to, and wrote some pen pal letters… but all in all, our start back has been more of an ease into… and that is ok.

Echo and her Aunty Shandai mittens

October 10-11

Middle of the week can be interesting, Thursday always feel slightly anti climatic, not quite Friday not the middle of the week. 

Busy AND productive!

With Tuesday being a tip to the library Wednesday was a READING DAY! We started with dinosaur books (I listed them on the Tyrannosaurus dinosaur page… which will be up… eventually). Our Halloween story of the day was a silly one called Cheech and the Spooky Ghost Bus. A giggle of a book and a great first one for our Halloween stories.

Story time

We did our next Halloween themed craft as well – pumpkin bags. We had to make them slightly smaller than it called for as I could not get sheets of felt bigger than 9X12 inches at Michaels. But the kids had a blast weaving the ribbon and gluing on their faces. Tiny bags they are PERFECT for our finished ghosts. Now I just need to get some black ink to make some fingerprint art!! One step at a time.

Making pumpkin bags

Ken found us a season of Word World for the boys to work on their simple language structure issues. I love how they give jingles for the sounds of letter combos. 

Word World

Thursday morning was exciting for Emanuel and Gavin… though Ken forgot the camera while he let me sleep in (seriously!). The tooth fairy left her tooth offerings under our fairy looms! You can make your own fairy loom HERE. She brought them Playdoh no less! I was told in great detail about how wonderful she is and how happy they are. I think a precedent has been set. 

We have continued on with our book work. In fact, Zander had a completion – the reading review book  I bought halfway through summer is finally completed. Gavin still has a couple pages in the same book and Emanuel in his leveled reader. I am so impressed at how much progression there has been in their reading. Even Emanuel is trying to learn the sounds of letters a little more. 

Zander and his finished review book

We started our second Halloween book but as it is the HISTORY of Halloween we are taking it as a two parter. BUT we finished our Velocoraptor book… Velociraptor by Janet Riehecky (in Spanish and English). Friday is a no new dinosaur day so tomorrow Emanuel and I are going to go through ALL of our dinos and make a page of the herbivores. Today we looked at the Sauroposeidon… arguably one of the TALLEST dinosaurs ever found. OH and then I found out that one of the videos we have been using – a Discovery one got this particular dinosaur pretty much COMPLETELY wrong! I will share those links on the Sauroposeidon entry… eventually. I am so far behind on these! Time for some two post days I guess. 

A bit of Halloween

Ken had a second interview as well. It went rather well with a potential THIRD interview next week with the owner. So please keep a positive thought and a prayer for Ken and his job hunt!

Creative boys

I am not sure how many of my readers are aware of what the initials WIP mean but for many people it means WORK IN PROGRESS… now I honestly can say the dreaded WIP’s are not TOO numerous here in the Reinsch-Johnson home BUT they DO exist. One of the biggest thorns in my side is a WIP cross stitch that has chased me for YEARS… as in I think I began it back when Emanuel was little… it has morphed from tentative gift to tentative gift and for a while was placed out of sight. With the move to this present location the dreaded project was thrust out into the open (partially due to not having a safe place to store it and partially because seriously I NEED to get it done!) where any and all could see it. This has had the sad repercussion of people actually engaging me in conversation regarding it… Ohhh so it is by THAT artist (it is a Teresa Wentzler) and ooo when do you figure you will have that done… and how are you going to frame it… well, enough is enough… this WIP is officially PROGRESSING. I am at the drawing board for Christmas presents right now so I have no excuse, well until Ken buys me the duct tape he has promised me… but then again who can resist rolls of brightly coloured and patterned duct tape? I know I can’t. So… in keeping with my promise to myself to not unveil this piece until it is DONE DONE, here is a tiny chunk of progress… 

Just a bit

We are in full St. Patrick’s Day learning mode… another story today of course!!

Today's book

Rainbows have been added to our decorations… thanks to Trinity and Emanuel. Trinity cut MOST of hers out and then conned Emanuel into doing the rest… you turn your back for ONE minute! 

St. Patrick's Day curtain

I am hopeful that MARCH will be the month for Gavin to finish his cross stitch. He is making some progress but lacks the drive to go back to it every day. 

Stitching

Of course with fresh Play Doh in the house there are MANY spontaneous creative group moments. Note that in the below picture Echo is given “twisty crayons”… while she is one smart cookie it is not the best idea to tempt fate and give her something that seems so much more… edible!

Around the table (Emanuel was still napping!)

We started with some Ireland related videos today. I found the official Discover Ireland youtube feed last night and had it set up to watch their whole series. We skipped the first one on Bed and Breakfasts and the boys watched 2-13… the one item shared with Mommy during her bath – Ireland apparently has over 90 beaches! 

Each of the kids drew their own special pictures about yesterday’s Sledding and Skating Party. I love seeing what stood out for each kid… Trinity’s was very cute with a picture of myself with a marshmallow in my hand by the fire… with the bag of them on a table! 

Trinity's

Zander and Gavin's

Inside

I love having them reflect back on an event and create some sort of art or other memorandum. 

Emanuel's

We have worked on our mini books… cut out pieces for a couple games (pictures to follow tomorrow) and of course played Legos… I am amazed at how well the boys are sounding out their words now and the excitement that they feel for themed pages. Put a shamrock on most anything right now or a well placed Leprechaun and they are all over it!!

So we made it through our Monday with a minor amount of fuss and bother. I am hoping the rest of the week will follow suit. After all we have a birthday party in the city on Saturday followed by Sunday School. I honestly am not planning anything else until AFTER Echo’s surgery… so if you feel the urge to see our little pixie before it please let me know, we should be home! 

Our little girl