What a week! We got a new door in our family room. There isn’t really any other feeling like watching them create a giant hole in the side of your house. It made for some great entertainment for the kids, but I was “uber” relieved to realize the door was in place. It’s beautiful!  

The kids have done such a great job of cooperating with the contractor’s instructions and listening to avoid touching wet paint. I’m so, so, so proud of them. They were incredibly excited to discover that since the workers removed the pond and tree stump that there is a big pile of dirt and sawdust in which to play. I’ve elected to allow them to enjoy this rare if messy treat until the deck is built this week 🙂 

Must Do’s Every Day

There are three main things we ALWAYS accomplish every day even when things are busy or off kilter.

• Read
• Get Outside
• Play

We also pray, eat, and take care of our bodies, our house, and our pets.

Anything else is purely extra 🙂 

 

Read

We are five chapters into our family read aloud, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Clearly.  The kids are loving it, especially my little car/truck/motorcycle fan! 

---

I’ve been working to sneak in a little bit more math with our picture books to a very warm reception from both kids! This book was an awesome find and I highly recommend it! It’s my favorite picture book from this week. It weaves really cool scientific facts (several I didn’t know) about animals into mathematical phrases that describe the activity being displayed in the illustrations. So cool!

---

We also pulled out some of our favorite fall and Halloween books this past week! Ladybug remembers most of them from last year and is thrilled to see her old friends. Seasonal books are one of my favorite family traditions! 

We are also adding some new books to our list from Read Aloud Revival member recommendations. So far we have loved all of the ones on this list! 

I’m looking to increase my fall stack. Do you have a favorite Fall/Halloween book? 

 

Get Outside

My friends, this is the last picture taken with our very first pumpkin while it was still on the vine!

 

Daddy cut the pumpkin from the vine!

 

True love!

She insists that she is going to take care of it and carve it herself! I’ll have to see what I can do to help her:)

  

Play

Ladybug has decided that she might like to be a falconer. Given my own avian interests I’m curious to see if this desire sticks. I love watching her practice with her stuffed eagle, but have warned her gloves might be necessary. I’m also not sure what to make of the flamingo on her head. LOL

 

Extras 

All About Reading 

We conquered the Letter G with All About Reading. The game this week had her standing when two words rhymed and sitting when they did not. She was happy to play as long as she could hold Ziggy Zebra. She’s already asked if Ziggy Zebra is coming again next Monday 🙂 Love this program! 

 

Poetry Tea Time

We reviewed “Celery” this week. We continue to use the Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization from the  Institute for Excellence in Writing. We also ate processed, package fall treats from Little Debbie. Honestly, they were horrible. Must do better next week!

Ladybug did a lovely recitation this week.

And to our surprise and joy, so did little Owl 🙂 

 

Mama Moments

One of the contractors working on our house stayed home on Monday due to neck pain. He has chronic issues from military service. Ladybug and Owl wanted to make him cards! They remembered Band-aid man, which we had made for a sick individual at our church. Ladybug created a card without any prompting – she just asked for paper and a band-aid. Owl quickly followed suite. They have such good hearts.

 

Mama Gratitude

This week, in addition to all the big things I have to be thankful for, I am also grateful for

• The pumpkin in our backyard is truly one of the coolest things ever! Thank you God for having the amazing miracle of seed to pumpkin occur in our backyard. Our whole family watched it grow a little more each day and participated in the harvest. Amazing!
• Fortunately, I figured out that I read the wrong book for virtual book club before I was to lead it. I read The Good Girl by Fiona Neill. I was supposed to read The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. Whoops!  Oh, well they were both good. 
• I have found some amazing Home School Moms on Instagram and am grateful for their insights, especially with regards to some fantastic book selections for the kids and family! 

Our Family’s Week in Books

 Our Current Family Read Aloud

On Dad’s Shelf

On Mom’s Shelf

On the Kid’s Shelf

**Friends, there is a giveaway for Baby, Baby! on the blog until 10-4-16.**

 

I try really hard to include links to all the goodies we are playing with at our house! If there is ever anything you want to know about please ask in the comments. Or feel free to recommend something.  I love trading fabulous finds and good ideas!

You can also check out our big box curriculum picks and some of our favorite home school resources on the blog! 

What has your family been doing and reading this week?