In starting out week we started our concentration on learning about the days of the week. We have walked through the names multiple times but this week I have decided to use some of my online resources and find some worksheets to help cement the information. This ties in nicely with what Gavin needs to learn about to progress in his math book. Though I am finding it harder to track down good worksheets about the months.

I finally found the time to trim down our coin flashcards my sister-in-law Holly pointed out to me (they are using the same website for some resources in my nephew Jimmie’s classroom). I printed them out on cardstock and wrote the answers on the bottom left hand corner on the back. Gavin spilled a little paint on a few of them but on the back so I am not going to waste the paper to reprint.

Flashcards

With dealing with the months I found a variety of pages to get us started. The first worksheet was more about seasons and time to just sort of tie that in to the months in the year. The bulk of my pages ended up coming from EnchantedLearning. Just search out months and days of the week and there is quite a variety of printouts for all sorts of ages and levels. This is one subscription I am planning on keeping up for as long as I can! For starting with the days of the week I gave them this worksheet first based on the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We have a couple copies of this book though I have already packed them up (figures). the boys are rather familiar with the story. We did, however, find a youTube video of the story for tomorrow.

Working on the worksheets

Completed Weekday book

I sent out emails to the two homeschooling egroups I am a part of to see if anyone else has some ideas and personal experience on this subject. I cannot emphasize enough how helpful it is to have cyber support group when homeschooling. We are the only family in our group of friends and even our family who is homeschooling so often times when things come up or we need information our usual avenues are simply not there. The city we are moving to has a rather active homeschooling environment. The big yearly conference is based there. That is actually one of the reasons we chose this city as our new home. Where we live now is surrounded by schools so people who chose to live here tend to enrol their kids in them. I think we all are looking forward to a fresh start.

The boys have all rather consistently proclaimed that the basement playroom is “boring” and that there is “nothing to do” down there. So the solution to that – take advantage of the sentiment and BOX IT ALL UP! Everything except for probably their downstairs Legos and either their Lincoln Logs or Mega Blocks is going to be put away. That saves me a bundle of work right before we move. All they want to do lately is play outside anyway. As the scuffed and bruised shins, dirty faces and worn out children at the end of the day show.

We do have a concrete sign of permanent spring into summer season here. The owners of this house planted tulips in the front yard years ago. They are still coming up. We haven’t started any sort of container garden this year as we are still not sure what we are moving into. I think once we get settled I will go get some starter plants or a houseplant though for the kids to watch. I would LOVE to get an aloe plant. My mom had one when I was growing up, it got HUGE! I must sneak out to the front tomorrow and take a picture.

When I was packing I came across a book I had originally bought when I was pregnant with Trinity with the intention of reading it while I breastfed her. It was a great find and now has reappeared for me to read over the month of May. I do love a good history book and this one is a wonderful look into the French Revolution. I really need to get into a bookstore and peruse the history section again and try and find another gem.

Liberty

We are starting to go through the stuff in the cupboards with the intention of using up and NOT replacing. Tonight was a package of pudding, the kids certainly were not complaining. I want to use up as much as we can and each time we go to get groceries we are taking our time and truly thinking through what will FOR SURE be used. I want to get focused on the idea of having nearly NO toss out of food. What we bring into the house must be eaten not wasted. We did really well at that the year Ken was sick. After all there aren’t much in the way of left overs when you have so many kids anyway and ours are thankfully not overly picky.

I am still on the hunt for super affordable Hello Kitty things. I scour eBay every so often and have friends keeping eyes open. The plan is to keep collecting affordable items to give our resident Kitty fiend for Christmas. At this age expensive just means she loses or breaks (potentially) something expensive… lower price means I don’t have to be on top of her when she plays. If I can get ONE kid out of the way early on all the better.

Now to continue with the cleaning, packing and watching of Black Adder.

Our cookie monster

Another two day entry. It is not that Sunday was hugely busy, I was just a little less organized, distracted and somewhat lazy. On the plus side, I spent time with the kids, got an outing with Karyn AND packed some of the stuff in the upstairs. Don’t get me wrong there is much more to do but it is a good start. What quickly became a necessity is the downsizing of Trinity’s toys in her room. She is determined to drag out as much as she can each day which seems to find its way into corners, chairs and other unexpected places. VERY counter intuitive to getting packed to move in a timely and orderly manner.

Miss T

With our van still limping we were unable to drive to the area in the city where our church is, so instead we packed up the family and headed to the nearby McDonald’s. Only to find out that the ice cream machine was NOT working! The kids were VERY unimpressed but all but Trinity were won over with the cinnamon bun like treats. To make it up to them Ken ran over to the wholesale place across the street and while getting the needed pull ups and baby cookies grabbed some ice cream for supper.

Playing at McDonald's

I mentioned going out with Karyn, well we ran to Dollarama and the grocery store and then KFC and right at the entrance was one of those toy vending machines… for a toonie there was a little Hello Kitty tin… I couldn’t resist, and with the luck Karyn brings go Miss Trinity a PINK tiny heart shaped tin! I know I am spoiling her but it was soooo cute!

Hello Kitty

I have packed some more bits and bobs up… we have narrowed down the month of May to specific homeschooling activities and goals making it easier for me to pack up the smaller items. This week I am hoping Zander will finish his story, Gavin is starting his diorama and we are finishing our spring/Easter stuff up. The next week will be lots of crafting, making sure everything is done and of course workbook fun… that leaves us a little over TWO weeks to sit down and go through a novel. The book of choice – The Trumpet of the Swans. It is a loaner from Karyn and the plan is to alternate illustrating and writing about the story, maybe coming up with creative ways to discuss, act out or connect to other things in our lives. June is going to be exciting with Canada as our focus leading to CANADA DAY… sadly Karyn will be on the plane home to Alberta so we will have to celebrate with her after the fact but the plan is to find out what there is to do in our new city!

I picked up a new pair of girl’s tights at Dollarama this weekend, black to match Echo’s dress for Chris and Chris’ wedding. We have come to the realization that she is NOT going to have enough hair for a lovely ribbon clip so instead I am making a headband to match. I just have to get cemented in my mind which of the ribbons my mom gave me go with HER dress and which go with TRINITY’s.

Soon to be made into 2 headbands

I am starting to feel the genuine excitement connected to a new adventure… Zander, on the other hand, is becoming more and more surly. He is VERY unimpressed with the idea of leaving our church and Sunday School and in turn is starting to act out a bit. For the longest time he has asked to be moved back upstairs to sleep. Now that we have moved them back up he has had a couple fits and wanted to be back downstairs. I was really getting frustrated and confused with all this backwards behaviour until I realized that this is probably all a result of his upset about moving. I am trying to get the boys involved in the packing and find ways to make our days a little out of the ordinary. I am hoping that our new church with have VBS which will definitely soften the leaving blow and open the boys up to meeting the kids sooner than we would waiting for the new school year.

Gavin has started his own shoebox diorama today with the decision of making it an indoor scene. He chose his two paint colours – purple for the walls and ceiling and yellow for the carpet and did up some tiny window and picture scenes to glue on later. We have not yet faced the issue of actually making the furniture and other objects in the room. I think we may have to ask Daddy for help!

Pictures and windows

Painted box

Zander did another page for his story and sadly had to remake the title page after a marker accident (I think he put the paper on top of an open marker and it soaked through). I am hoping we can finish the story by Friday.

Newest page

Lately I have felt no small measure of frustration connected to the prior 2 yrs of difficulty we dealt with with the economy and Ken’s illness. There are days when I wish we had a magic wand that could just poof everything back to where we want. I am very proud of Ken though, he has worked hard on both himself and our family to ensure that we do improve and move forward. Every day I am reminded of all the wonderful qualities I first saw in him when we met. Even through the worst he has been there to pick me up and dust us off and keep going. The inner strength I see in Ken every day is comforting, the fact we can work together and face the future uplifting. I am just hoping that we can find something to boost our speed of recovery for the second half of 2011… well it WOULD be nice!

To combat frustration and no small amount of exhaustion I have taken to taking some ME time… sadly most of my crafting supplies (mainly the scrapbooking) are now in boxes out of necessity. That leaves me cross stitching and the frustrating long term ongoing project and playing on the computer. So I have taken some from both categories and tried to remind myself that there is more to me than being MOMMY and all of the wonderful AND frustrating things that come with that.

We did get a call from the office in charge of doing Echo’s genetic testing. Apparently what they do is call us like they did today to confirm our mailing address so that they can send us the questionnaire to fill out about family history. We then send that back in to them (and I can only imagine how time consuming it is going to be to fill out! Good thing I have a lot of information about our history due to the twin pregnancy), once they receive the forms THEN they work out an appointment date. So the process has started. I am really looking forward to getting the paperwork, I really want to get the ball rolling. The hope was that we could have the test done BEFORE we move over an hour away but that is not looking like it will be happening. As it is when I called the boys’ specialist to make all 3 of their yearly appointments the only date I could get was the same week as Echo’s at her paediatrician. Two trips into the city in one week… OUCH but in August so maybe we will have something else to do or see by then? It does feel good to have the appointments booked, written into the agenda and ready to go.

Our little miracle

Beyond the one big phone call and a lot of work on unfinished worksheets… well the kids played soccer with Ken before bed… and I wrote this blog… I think I accomplished a decent amount but at the same time am wrestling with a lot of other issues both minor and major that are taking time and concentration away. The goal for tonight – to work on design of a cross stitch, spend some quality time with Ken and of course keep in mind that ALL of this (aka  the negatives), they too shall pass!

Playing soccer

Ok so I got lazy on the blogging yesterday, BUT we had a family walk (to the gas station of course) and on the way back we stopped off at one of the parks for the kids to run out some of that excessive spring energy. Sadly Trinity is not a fan of the sand interacting with her new sandals (courtesy of our traditional Easter gift from Grandma.).

Sandals and all

It is so wonderful to have the sun without snow… the weather was lovely, to the point where we can turn OFF the heat in the house. A little chilly in the mornings but we just put on sweaters and keep busy. Great  time to do the chores, send the kids outside to run around or in the basement to scream their hearts out. Trinity LOVES wearing different sweaters… she is such a little fashionable little thing.

Helping push the double stroller

A Teeter totter?

Gavin on the slide

We did do a stack of Spring themed worksheets (and didn’t get our lapbooks started…) All of the sheets I chose for Friday were off of the EnchantedLearning site. I have to say it is SO worth the yearly membership!

I took the pictures off the wall in the livingroom and Trinity’s room… the house is starting to feel less and less like home. Taking down the baby photos is a HUGE thing for me. We had made the decision NOT to put up Echo’s just for this reason. So now our walls are working towards bare… all that is left is the homeschooling stuff… I have their 1-16 numbers up (I do have to 20 but ran out of wall space), our names all laminated, and of course our Spring/Easter wall. I figure over the next week I will slowly take it all down because the room is already feeling like it has a new echo (is educating Echo on what an echo is going to be FUN or what?).

There is the potential for the owners of the house to be getting in some construction people to do work on their basement in the upcoming month (if they can find someone available that is) so I have made the executive decision to bring the boys upstairs to share Emanuel’s bedroom. This has meant packing up the last of the toys in Emanuel’s room as well as sped along my packing of the livingroom/kitchen. We have one of the twin’s couches upstairs in Emanuel’s room (moving the bookcase in there out to the livingroom and more  toys into boxes) which works for the boys to share or they can share the big bed with Emanuel. Already this has made bedtime more… exciting… prolonged… noisy… BUT by the end of the weekend a portion of the basement should be empty, cleaned and off my list!

I told them to fold out the couch to a bed...

We had hail today… the twins were out over naptime for the little ones and came in saying it was raining… went out to check and they were being pegged by some hail! Better than snow!

Hiding from the hail

We have survived another mini growth spurt courtesy of Miss Echo, and this time it seems to be weight over length. She is firmly into her 3-6 months clothes (excepting the odd US brand that was big on Trinity let alone wee Echo). I have embraced the idea that she is going to be in smaller pieces longer and am going to have to hunt down some used/unwanted but good condition little girl clothes as our Trinity went through this phase quickly and in a different season. I am hoping to avoid the more expensive new clothing route… I am hoping I can go through my 6-9’s and find items that are on the small size. Once we get moved I am going to do some Kijiji hunting in our new local. Right now I can’t pick anything up which makes it VERY hard to do any Kijiji shopping. Grrr.

Nom noms

Last night to make up for a cancelled walk to the park (too windy) the kids got to stay up WAY past their bedtime and watch movies with popcorn (we picked up popcorn at the gas station). We started with Megamind but it scared Trinity so switched over to two of our Veggie Tales DVD’s. Amazingly enough Trinity was up at the crack of dawn anyway! (And cranky by noon!)

Watching Veggie Tales

With the weather being iffy, Emanuel’s room to clean up and other random chores we really didn’t get much done… but tomorrow should be fun with a trip to McDonald’s for ice cream, maybe some cookies to bake and of course the backyard to sort through we will definitely keep busy!!

Asleep at the park note the residual cookie on the nose