March 18, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
Our morning exercise at the gym turned into a fun jaunt down to the creek when we found the Gym beautifully set up for a wedding reception. With sunshine, lack of wind, melting snow, and above freezing temperatures the walk was great! In fact the boys took their “speed bikes” and we had a little bike ride along the melting creek.
When we got home, the boys really wanted to play with blocks, and mommy really wanted to try a new recipe, so we didn’t get down to learning until the afternoon.
Giant helped me get a second set of “Tomato Tree” tomatoes ready:
Then he busied himself cutting the box for the tomatoes…
…into a Turtle house:
He helped me fold laundry,
And we looked at some cute math games from this book, “Anno’s Math Games”:
They have cute ways of comparing and categorizing:
And to top off our math work, we got to do a totally awesome math sheet sent by Grandma and Grandpa:
Too Fun!!! Giant counted the people in the pictures (pictures from our trip to Texas) and wrote the corresponding number on the line beside the picture. Ettin loved talking about all the people in the pictures.
These are great! I think every letter we get follows the boys around the house, comes to the dinner table, and is lovingly re-read throughout the day.
Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!
Finally, just before bedtime, we had a gospel lesson.
We talked about the parable of the ten virgins, modernized with flashlights.
We talked about what we can to to fill our oil and charge our batteries (like, praying, reading scriptures, service, having a clean house, showing love to one another, and so on).
Then the boys turned out the lights and played with flashlights for the next hour.
I think they’re learning,
I think they’re learning,
I think they’re learning.
March 17, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
We started the day with Irish Oatmeal.
Not the steel cut kind.
The chocolate kind:
With milk turned green by a sneaky leprechaun:
(who didn’t want to add too much green dye to the milk, apparently)
For Gospel study, we discussed Matthew 24 and the signs of the Second Coming. First we talked about how we can know when winter is coming (Giant offered that leaves die and fall off trees, and it gets cold). Then we talked about how we are told to be of good cheer and not fearful, and that we have a Prophet to lead and guide us today.
During snack, I found a note and stash of goodies left by a leprechaun in need:
It asked the boys to please help him find a rainbow.
Okay, this was a big and cool learning moment for me. I had simply planned to do a rainbow art activity (I even had a colouring page all printed out). Then I thought, well, I should make this more open-ended. More self-directed. I suppose they could choose to paint or colour or even glue different coloured pictures to create a rainbow. I was feeling proud of my ability to let loose a little. So we read the note, and I asked Giant what we should do to help get a rainbow for the leprechaun (expecting him to say paint, colour, or choose another quietly controlled craft). He said, “well, when rain comes down and the sun shines through the rain it makes rainbows. So we should get some rain and sun and make a rainbow.”
I just about gave the answer I would have had to give had I been in a preschool setting, “Oh, what a neat idea. But we can’t do that.” But, I wasn’t in a preschool setting. And we very well could do that!
I had sunshine.
I had glass raindrops (pieces from a chandelier).
So we made ourselves a rainbow catcher:
Which sent rainbow sparkles all over the walls and table, and sent us into many discussions about refraction and transparency and the light spectrum.
The boys were delighted with the dancing rainbows:
Then, on his own, Giant asked if he could colour rainbows.
So we talked about the colours we could see, and picked out some crayons:
Ettin said he wanted to colour purple.
So he did.
(and I may have snuck in a lesson on the names of colours)
Just think. If I had been feeling more controlling, we would have missed out on the magical experience of colouring rainbows while sparkly rainbows danced all around us.
Lunch was shamrock pizza buns:
Ettin was dubious. I was treated to lots of extra green peppers from all my boys (Hubby is not a fan of peppers either).
After lunch I found another note from the leprechaun, saying that he was grateful for the rainbows they had caught, and that he had brought a gift from Grandma for them.
Which he had left for them in the “nest” we have beside our bed (where they can sleep on our floor anytime they want during the night, so long as they start the night in their own beds).
Woweeee!!!!
The boys were elated bouncing off the walls with delight:
They opened lots of fun presents: felts, colouring and connect the dots books, candy, and green bouncy toy, Bob the Builder, jello, nifty napkins and plates for supper, and mommy and daddy got some lovely clothing and jewelery. Utterly spoiled on St. Patrick’s Day!
Thank You Grandma!!!!
(Just look at Ettin’s face)
They spent a lot of time playing with the blocks (and exclaiming every few seconds, “this is so COOL!”):
Even Galoot got to chew on Pilchard:
We read a few stories before naps:
(doesn’t that kid look huge?!)
Giant spent nap time building many different towers…
…doing dot-to-dots…
and finding rainbows around the house.
Ettin woke up from his nap and coloured with the new felts:
Then they helped me make green jello for dessert:
Supper was bean stew, with a shamrock toast topper:
After the boys had baths and had gotten into their jammies, I tried to surreptitiously ask Daddy if the boys could e-a-t j-e-l-l-o. And even though I’d spelled it out, Giant piped up right away with, “I want to “eat Jello!”” Smarty.
So we ate Jello:
Galoot approved. (Yes, he got a tiny tiny taste, and thought it was the best stuff in the world.)
March 16, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
Giant helped me plant two flats of babies:
Peppers, Rainbow Tomatoes, Beefstake Tomatoes, Early Tomatoes, and Cherry Tomatoes in one,
Lavender, Hostas, and Asparagus in an experimental other.
Guess we’ll see what happens!
March 16, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
After playing at the Gym, Giant went to the library reading program with one of his friends.
So Ettin baked some buns with me:
And played happily on his own with trains:
(Galoot had a wonderful snooze the whole morning)
Giant came back to show me his work:
I’m not really certain what Spiderman has to do with St Patrick’s Day, but we put up the Shamrock under our tree anyways.
After the little boys were napping, I had Giant help me with some planting.
He filled trays with dirt:
Poked holes for the seeds:
Labeled our trays:
Nice!
Ettin woke up from his nap and was more than a little disturbed at the mess we had made:
He was pretty sure the dirt should be outside:
So we cleaned up:
After supper, haircuts, baths, and stories, I finally did our gospel lesson (about how a hen gathers chicks under her wings, and how Jesus loves us so much He is like that hen)
Good night, little chicks.
March 15, 2011 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
We brought home friends with us after Gymnastics:
And had a talk about cups.
I asked the boys (without showing them the insides) which cup they would like to drink out of (a clean blue cup or dirty yellow cup):
They all chose the clean blue cup.
Then I showed them the insides. The cup they had thought was clean was full of mud, while the cup that was dirty on the outside was sparkly white inside.
I asked them again which cup they’d like to drink out of now.
They all chose the blue cup again.
I talked about how the scriptures told us that people can be nice on the outside, but not nice inside: they might say they’ll share, but then they don’t. And that people who might look a little plain or dirty on the outside can be wonderful on the inside. That it is what is inside that matters.
And I asked if they would like me to put some milk in the blue cup (the one with mud in it) for them to drink.
Finally, they said no to the blue cup.
Later as the boys played and I got lunch ready, Ettin came to help me bake:
Seriously, which preschool bakes things just about every day? The benefits of homeschooling! 😉
