We had a busy week with outside appointments and unexpected life events (i.e. a random dog came for a visit).
As always I had my camera on hand and took several shots of our comings and goings 🙂
A lovely lady told me in one of the Facebook groups that a weekly blog record like this might serve well as a home school portfolio if needed – how cool is that 🙂 Just what I needed – another good excuse to blog!
So, here is the rest of the story for this past week!
Saturday
Daddy has to work this weekend, so we decided to enjoy a few more of the invitations to create from our Mother Goose Time Family and Friends curriculum. This one involved glitter, so we headed outside. You can see our gorgeous pumpkin plants growing in the background.
Ladybug sprinkled a little glitter on the leaves. She decided that if the the leaves made food for the plant and she fed it glitter that maybe the pumpkins would have glitter too. 🙂
Grandma made some Caribbean Fry Bakes from Saint Lucia to celebrate the ending of Latin America week with Give Your Child the World! Look at that concentration! They did such a good job 🙂
Owl is coming along in the kitchen. I gave him the chance to sprinkle on the powdered sugar ALL BY HIMSELF. He did great!
Sunday
Guppy spent Sunday upside down with one or another adult hanging onto his ankles. We may have another little gymnast in the family…..LOL It’s either that or he’s been watching too much of the Olympics in the evening.
Monday
My husband finished making our sensory table complete with washable bins. We are planning to use them with A Year of Playing Skillfully this year. Even though we won’t start that program until September, we couldn’t resist going ahead and trying them out today as part of our #MessyMondayMornings. We used flour. Next time I’m bringing a book. It was more than a solid hour of joyous play.
We do our very own version of the Olympics in the backyard. This kids aren’t all that interested in watching them on the TV – I think it just moves too slowly, but I do show them snippets and encourage them to learn about the different sports. Ladybug loves the uneven bars and can’t wait to give it a shot. She is practicing here on the playground bar.
Note the white hands! She was using some of the flour as chalk – just like they do in the Olympics. Hilarious! I can’t tell you just how much I love this sweet, smart, silly girl 🙂
Ladybug gave up napping very early on in her life, but she still has quiet time everyday. This lacing game from Timberdoodle was the favorite activity for quiet time today.
For #BooksForBreakfast this morning, we read “Wombat Divine” as part of our reading about Australia in our Give Your Child the World Reading Book Club. In the story, wombat wants to be in the nativity play and finally finds the roll he was born to play – the baby Jesus. Ladybug set up her very own Nativity using her stuffed animals. Baby rabbit is playing the baby Jesus. 🙂
There was rain and in our family that means there were marshmallows. An owl favorite 🙂
We covered Latin America last week, but didn’t get a chance to finish decorating our Carnival shirts, so we busted out the iron on decals and fabric paint today and created our way into some pretty eccentric and colorful costumes 🙂
Tuesday
When Ladybug was an infant she was enrolled by her Dad and I in a study at the Dept. of Psychology. It was a long-term study that lasted over a year. She just turned four and we went back for a follow up visit. No surprise – she was a super star and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. She thought the study was super fun and would like to know when she can go again 🙂
We spent some quality time in our backyard on the swings. Ladybug just barely visits in her first swing – she’s had that since she was a baby. She’s determined to swing with her brothers.
We did another invitation to create with Mother Goose Time. This time our inspiration was this shape based, abstract art from Picasso. The kids did incredibly well with this one and we enjoyed almost an hour of focusing on this activity. Ladybug even asked for additional materials!
Here is Owl’s final effort.
Here is Ladybug’s effort. She calls it “Picasso – When He Was a Baby.” 🙂
Here’s my contribution. The kids thought this one was OK; so apparently I’m improving 🙂
Wednesday
Ladybug “writes” letters to everyone. She recites and she writes. It’s hilarious. This particular note was addressed to our neighbor inviting her to come over and play. She always signs off with I Love You 🙂
My mom was kind enough to take the kids to gymnastics class and the library. Guppy hung with Mom and tried to watch me work, but after some sweet potato he was a goner. I love this little man so much. He also cracks me up! My other two kids would never, NEVER have just fallen asleep like this…..LOL
This girl loves Science Wednesdays!
She’s prepared, even if her shirt is on inside out and backwards….lol
We used our Primary Science Kit to complete this simple experiment of how water travels in plants. We got ours from Timberdoodle, but it’s also available on Amazon. We used celery and some white roses left over from Ladybug’s birthday. She’s a flower kinda girl and roses are her favorite!
We did an Invitation to Create with Mother Goose Time that went along with The Quilt Story. We had some fun with glue, tissue paper, and the hole punch 🙂
Owl thought the hole punch and the yarn were awesome! His finished product was a work in process just as the invitation to create intends!
We read a participation story with Mother Goose Time called “A Sad Giant.” They are pretending to be turtles here. They used the blocks to build a variety of objects to help the giant feel better as cued in the story 🙂
Here is Ladybug’s bird nest, built to give the giant a nice place to stay warm and dry and happy. It was just right for a a bird, but too small for a giant of course.
Owl eventually did his own thing as he often does and created a bridge and ramp out of wood blocks for his favorite toy cars.
Thursday
We spent some time with shadow puppets courtesy of Mother Goose Time. We made up an entire story using their imagination play ideas!
Then since it was storming like crazy outside, we made some playdough monsters with lots and lots of eyes.
Check it! Our celery from Science Wednesday turned blue 🙂 We also tried it with some fresh moon flowers from out of the backyard and turned them purple and green 🙂
Friday
Guppy had his 9 month appointment and was declared happy and healthy 🙂 Amen! As an added bonus, our doctor was incredibly supportive when I told her of our decision to home school. Our four year old volunteered this information and she immediately started listing all kinds of resources – home school expos, umbrella programs, music groups – it was amazing and inspiring and totally unexpected!!!
My husband found a dog in the middle of a busy road on the way to work and so, it ended up in the backyard for the day. Fortunately, this sweet dog was microchiped and we were able to locate his owner. His name is Sampson and after a day of lots of love from our kiddos and a few pretzels snuck to him by his biggest fan below, he was on his way back home!
We also got a Koala Crate that let us play and learn about campfires. Ladybug was all over it!
This backpack was an especially big hit! She hasn’t taken it off since making it. She slept in it last night 🙂 LOL
A Family Culture of Reading
We read a TON of kids books, but those listed below are some of the current favorites for each child.
If you follow us on Instagram you can see some additional favorites with the tag #booksbeforebreakfast and #momreads
Our current family read-aloud is……
Dad is reading
Mom is reading
Ladybug (4) is reading
Owl (2.5 years) is reading
Guppy (9 months old) is reading
What has your family been doing and reading this week?
What a lovely update! Favorite pic? Guppy asleep in his high chair. You just want to give that little guy a squeeze!!
Lynna @ Homeschooling without Training Wheels recently posted…A Mediator Worthy of Trust
I know! He’s scrumptious 🙂 🙂