Heads up on the 1000th post draw! If you haven’t entered already you have to go to THIS post and follow the instructions. If I get enough entries I plan on drawing two names!

Slow progress on the mood change today but we are working on it. The boys are simply not motivated right now so I am trying to mix it up with different worksheets, topics and breaks in our actual work time. We finished off our Stuart Little time with reading some books on REAL mice we got from the library and then as a group we made two lists – things we learned about Stuart and things we learned about real mice that interested us. Each of the boys then drew  their own mouse on our page. We have everything from a brand new baby mouse to a full out nest!

Our group mouse page

Today marks the beginning of two of our new topics of study – Snowflakes/winter and Recycling. There are lots of resources on the internet for both topics but for recycling we started with a maze and colouring pages both off of Education.com. You  can check out my Recycling Worksheet Collection on their site. I will be rating them and adding to it as we go along. 

Snowflakes began with some worksheets off of abcteach.com you can pay for membership but we have found a few useful free worksheets and printables there. This topic marks the beginning of our winter craft bucket as well… I try to find things on sale, at Dollarama, etc etc and save them according to season. You can find the dot-to-dot snowflake we did here.

I have ordered a mini kit from Fun-in-a-box-Canada for Emanuel and Trinity. I ordered the Christmas min kit and it came to under 8.00. They ARE revamping their concept though and after the 17th will not be shipping the activity boxes. So I am bookmarking their page and going to check back after then. If they remain reasonable and have the same sort of set up I may do a 10 month series for Emanuel when he starts his first registered year! 

We had a power outage today so I drug out the Winter Crafts bucket and let the kids create. I don’t know that they made much but they did familiarize themselves with the contents, muck around and keep busy when we couldn’t do our Starfall or watch their WordWorld DVD (the laptop it was to run in has VERY limited battery power). I love the big windows in our front room. Even when the power IS on it is rare that we need the light on over there in the morning or afternoon. 

Crafting in all natural light

It is a Christmas egg - there are red bells and blue stars pushed into it!

Poor Echo got woken up when Ken went to check our breaker before heading to the neighbours to ask them if they were out as well (the whole street was as if you looked down to the convenience store their sign was out). So after fighting her all day to get a much needed nap in celebration of cutting her top RIGHT molar she was woken up. Poor thing, she has a horrible rash and is out of sorts BUT now has FOUR molars! 

I was able to drag my craft supplies out of the bedroom before Echo started her naptime trauma and finish up a scrapbook page I started last night. This was back in June when Karyn was in New Orleans and Esther came to visit (you can see Esther and Echo chatting with Karyn via MSN video). I used up the last of my tiny flower die cuts. Now I have to remember whose punch I borrowed to make those!! 

Finished page

It has been a bit of a long day but I think we are making up for it over the week by gradually planning more and more fun activities. The little ones have their library outing tomorrow… the twins and I are going to decide on some snowflake creations… I found completely by accident a neat craft to create a pop bottle pot for a plant that the kids are going to do for their aloe plant… you can find that here. 

Snowflakes!

I was so busy this weekend with company and kids and such that I really didn’t explain our newest homeschooling hit – It is called Magnetic SuperMind. Which apparently “Makes kids super smart!”. It is slated for ages 5-9 but Trinity at 3 had a BLAST as did the Aunties and Uncles over this weekend past. I am hoping to get more cards as there is only a select number in the kit, but with the magnets and the nice tin to keep it all in this is already becoming a favourite. 

A new favourite!

Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully a much smoother one! 

Just the girls

Not a mid week puck me up but one day from… TWO packages today, BOTH from the UK! One for the kids and one for me! A fascinator/hat for me in white with feathers and tulle… so fun and in my mind so British! Now I just need to find the right hairstyle and pair it up with one of my dresses (maybe the polka dot one?) and take photos! 

Isn't it pretty?

The other package had a few Christmas items but some bits to share now too. I am very and truly blessed in my friendships here and abroad! 

We are still experiencing a healthy share of the “I don’t want to’s” here in the house. BUT we are working through it. I just really want the boys to embrace the excitement of learning new things – even if it IS just math or new words. 

Some workbook time

Playing games in the sunshine

Gavin is back to work designing another project to stitch, Zander is still on the lookout for a new passion. BUT everyone spent some time in the “Lego room” for the day – the twins’ bedroom… and created something to show. 

In the Lego room for the day

Two little builders

The hunt is still on for snowflake information and activities… that is the next choice of focus after all… and in the meantime we are working on our reading and math, cooperation, use of imagination and understanding of fair play and being a good winner or loser. I have taken some time today to be crafty as well… a new feltie in fact, though the debate is on as to whether or not it IS a dragon, or a demon, or in the case of the first attempt… a bat! What is universally agreed is that they are cute! And will be up on my Facebook page It’s a Hoot for sale for 5.00 a piece plus shipping soon! 

1st attempt

Much more dragon-y

Tomorrow friends start arriving for Ken’s LAN party so I don’t know that we will get much done. BUT we have managed to complete ALL our Halloween pages and activities, and tomorrow we have our mouse books to read. Gotta finish going over what a mouse actually is like vs. the Stuart Little version(s). The twins have shown some interest in making some felties of their own so once I get a spare moment I am going to enlarge the penguin pattern to a more manageable size for tiny learning fingers and let them try! 

Got your nose Fat Sheep

Boy has the weather gone downhill here. Cold, blustery and all together blah. I know that that certainly affects my mood and the kids’ as well. So it was a good day to just play around… I had some laminated games, colouring pages and cleared space for toys to be out. Not the most productive day but we worked on learning new things and cementing old and ATTEMPTING cooperation and sharing… mixed results but we keep on working on it. 

We did make time for a dance party in Trinity’s room. Sadly we couldn’t get the iTouch to work on the upstairs laptop as the library of music is already on the downstairs so we used the Leapfrog toy set on the music setting to boogie down. Even Echo got in on the movement. 

Dance party!

The twins worked on their site words with this nifty printable I got from the Moffatgirlssite. I did the pages half page to shrink the size of the circles and save on paper. The boys used their dry erase markers and tried to read what they could on their own. I then had them write out a list of those words and next time we will see if they can do more. 

Sight word practice

The little ones played with their Pumpkin Graphing pages and the dice. These can be found on this site. They played their own rules but were working on making graphs rolling the dice and using the dry erase markers. So much fun!

I took my times of silence and near calm to do up some scrapbooking pages. I am hoping to get through the pile of pictures I printed out months ago finally… use up the paper I have and do my best to be creative with what bits and bobs we have around the house.

Trinity's 3rd Birthday party for Echo

Valentine's Day 2011

Echo on the toy riding car

Echo and our Canada Floor Puzzle

I took another moment alone when the 3 little ones had their afternoon nap and photographed the two newest owls… hanging out with Fat Sheep. She has been rather quiet on blog and Twitter but you can check her out using the link on the side bar.

Fat Sheep and Owls

With our own celebrity

There was a reminder of how many lovely people there are in our lives though in the post of all places (I know I know – the bulk of all mail is NOT happy mail but today I have been blessed with ANOTHER package!). This was a lovely package from a lady who inspires me to be a better homeschooler. What you can’t see is the tea and coffee she sent since she couldn’t send slurpees. My mind is already spinning with ideas for the little shirt and pants set she sent for Echo… maybe some bows at the ankles… but what to do with the front of the shirt???

Thank you!!

The special treat for the day was time with Daddy (TWO sessions!) working on their traditional foam kit Halloween decoration… this year – a “spooky” Haunted House. Even Echo tried to get in on the fun.

Morning start on the house

With Echo helping

Proud completion

Which meant the day was over! What with the playing (cars were brought out and messes made and then cleaned up), the dry erase marker fun, the games with Mommy (Gavin and I played the gobble up game again)… we managed to have a rather good day. AND finish putting together the Stuart Little books!

4 completed books

I am still not sure how tomorrow will play out. We are down to the wire on the Canadian Tire getting us in to repair in time… which tears at my heart. But I would rather be stuck here and safe then on our way an hour and a half out and end up stranded in the fall weather with all 5 kids!  So fingers crossed! Ken IS a miracle worker!  

Flower baby with cookie in hand