Thankful

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  We had a nice day, albeit a long one.  This year I didn't have to make/bring anything.  We ended up at a buffet (long story) for Thanksgiving dinner.  Nicholas enjoyed the stuffing.  Daniel had his share of bread and a whole lot of butter.  And, Evan enjoyed the various meats – a lot!  I had a little bit of a few things and took the opportunity to try salmon.  The jury is still out on that one.  We had a nice time though.

Nicholas and G.G.

After the buffet, we headed to Evan’s parents’ house for dessert.  The boys got to play with their cousins.  Daniel is getting old enough where he can sit and kind of play with everyone, which is nice.  We also drew names for Christmas.  Each cousin draws a name.  That way everyone gets a gift, but the parents only have to buy two gifts, instead of four. 

We don’t really do any Black Friday shopping, but I did find that it was a good day to do my grocery shopping.  We got there about an hour after it opened and it wasn't crowded.  I finished most of my Christmas shopping prior to Thanksgiving anyway.  I’m hoping to have it all done in the next week.

Today is the big Ohio State-Michigan game.  Evan has had to work on this day the past couple of years, today included.  I feel bad for him, but selfishly, I don’t mind.  We don’t have to watch it at all around here.  But, I did make sure the boys wore some Ohio State clothing to show their support to the team and their dad.  Getting a good picture was a lot of work though because they kept wrestling.   Boys!

O

H

I

O!

We have a lot going on in the next week or two.  And, after taking a week off, we have school work to do for a few weeks before Christmas break.  We don’t have CC, so Mondays will be light, so we can enjoy activities with Evan since it is his day off.    December should be a pretty fun month!

Hanging with Nicholas and Nana

N week is over.  I was the only one to eat nachos (they were delicious).  But, Daniel got plenty of time with Nicholas.  

Daniel started out N week with a visit to Nana’s.  We had him pose with our two N representatives of the week – Nana and Nicholas!

The next day he decorated his N with numbers.  We were able to practice his counting at the same time.  He does pretty well counting to ten.  He’s been trying to count even higher lately.

Nicholas spent some time reading with him.  Daniel put his arm around Nicholas all on his own.

On Tuesday afternoon, we had our last home school group meeting of the year at our church.  We don’t think we will return when it starts up again in February.  It is just too hard on Daniel to not have a nap on Monday (because of CC) and then the next day for the home school group.  He fell asleep on the way home this past week.  I put him on the recliner so I could put some things away and he remained fast asleep.  And, that is where he slept for the next hour and a half.  That is one tired boy!

Daniel also glued bird eggs in a nest.  He didn't really want to color it.  He decided he would rather pretend to play the drums with his colored pencils.

He also dot painted his name.  We reviewed all the letters that he already had learned and then pointed out the “n” in his name.

Daniel practiced his gluing and fine motor skills.  His accuracy in pasting right on the blank space is definitely improving.

  

Finally, on Thursday, he got to see the nurse (and the doctor).  He went to his weight check.  If you didn't know, he was supposedly a little underweight at his 2-year check-up.  So, he had a weight check in August.  She wasn't quite satisfied with his weight then, so she wanted us to come back three months later.  I am happy to report that he doesn't have to come back until May!  He made the weight she was looking for by the skin of his teeth, but he made it!  The boy just doesn't eat if he doesn't want to eat.  So, now we don't have to worry about it for awhile.  :)

Well, we have our last CC of the year on Monday, which includes a big potluck lunch.  Then, we are taking the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving.  We’ll probably do some fun activities and run some last minute errands.  It will be nice to not have to plan anything school-wise.  A break is always a good thing for everyone.  But, we will resume with O Week the following week.  Daniel still asks for that week, so we’ll see if I can make it extra exciting.

Daniel’s materials were found from various websites, such as:

www.royalbaloo.com

www.1plus1plus1equals1.com

www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

http://ateachingmommy.com/

www.makinglearningfun.com

www.3dinosaurs.com

http://teachingmama.org/

www.homeschoolcreations.com

www.123homeschool4me.com

www.hsclassroom.net

Making Memories

M Week is in the books.  I had a lot more planned, but we had a busy week, so I did the bare minimum.  Daniel still had an activity to do almost every day though.

He decorated his M with monkeys.

Of course, I thought I had enough, but he went and put them all nice and neat, but close together.

He was hiding the picture from me.

So, I had him color the rest of the M.

He also colored a picture of Mickey Mouse.  Next, to Jake, Mickey is one of his favorites.

He also posed with Big Mickey and Tiny, Shiny Mickey.

We worked on putting different monkeys in order of size.

Being a silly monkey!

Daniel also dot painted our last name. '

Nicholas also wanted to participate in M week, so he asked me to take a picture of him doing his math.

Also, M could be for mess!  Daniel is an expert mess maker.  He used to be an expert cleaner too, but has recently become fond of the word “no”.  Good thing he likes games.  We ask him, “Can you put 10 things away?”  Then, we count as he puts each object away.  The room gets clean and he has fun doing it.

M could also be for memory.  Nicholas has an excellent one.  He knows most of the first 10 weeks of CC’s memory work.  Once in a while he forgets though.  The other day I was asking him a question and he just drew a blank, so he asked Daniel what the answer was.  Daniel happened to know it and told him.  Nicholas thanked him and then repeated it back to me.  Now, if you didn't know what Daniel was saying, you may not have caught it, but since we can interpret well for him both Nicholas and I were impressed.

Finally, M is for Mommy.  Taking a picture with Daniel is always interesting.  He can be such a ham.  But, we got a couple decent ones together.

Being silly again.

I wonder where he gets that from?

We’re onto N week.  Someone else in this family is excited about that week.  He’s already talking about Nachos with Nicholas or Noodles with Nicholas.  We’ll see what this week brings.

Daniel’s materials were found from various websites, such as:

www.royalbaloo.com

www.1plus1plus1equals1.com

www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

http://ateachingmommy.com/

www.makinglearningfun.com

www.3dinosaurs.com

http://teachingmama.org/

www.homeschoolcreations.com

www.123homeschool4me.com

Lots of Lollipops

I’m happy to report that I finally see a dent in our Halloween candy.  The boys are only allowed to eat 2-3 small pieces a day.  Evan and I must have had just a couple more than that.  ;) Daniel really likes lollipops, so he was given one a few days this week for his L snack.

He also decorated his L with lions.  Again, he was very orderly with his gluing.  I made sure that I had enough pictures this time.

Daniel colored some leaves and Larry the Cucumber with colored pencils.

He also did some more pre-writing exercises and gluing sheets.

On Tuesday, I taught the boys about elections and voting.  Nicholas had a lot more questions than he has in the past.  I think he’s starting to get the basics of it.

Serious about voting

Daniel has spent a lot of time with these electronic books that we rotated into his toys.  He likes to sing along with them.  He gets pretty emotional when he sings, “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find them.”  We had to reassure him that she would find them.  Now he likes to make a game with it.

Reading is still a favorite pastime around here.  I hope to keep nurturing it.  They like to read books alone, but it is also nice when they read together.

Daniel is not getting as much structure as Nicholas did at this age when it comes to schooling, but he’s still absorbing a lot.  His talking is really coming along too.  He speaks in complete sentences like, “Nicholas is not nice” and “Daniel is boss.”  Of course, he says a lot of nice things too like who he loves.  J

He still insists on having O week, but he’ll have to settle for M week.  It has to be one of his favorites, right?  Because M is for Mommy!

Daniel’s materials were found from various websites, such as:

www.royalbaloo.com

www.1plus1plus1equals1.com

www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

http://ateachingmommy.com/

www.makinglearningfun.com

www.3dinosaurs.com

http://teachingmama.org/

www.homeschoolcreations.com

www.123homeschool4me.com

Jake and a Jedi

Halloween is over, but we will have plenty of candy to remember it by for some time to come.  Last Sunday we started the festivities by attending my parents’ neighborhood Halloween party.  They marched in a parade (kids in costumes walking down one street), rode a hay ride, and went on a hike through the woods to find buckets of candy.  The evening ended with donuts, cider, and plenty of running around with the other kids. 

Waiting for the parade to start

Serious Jedi pose

Looking for candy

Donuts!

Running around, never letting go of his candy bag.

They also wore costumes at CC on Monday, but I didn't get any pictures.  Nicholas was in his Jedi costume again, but Daniel just wore his Batman pajamas.  I thought that would be easier on him as he played in the nursery.  He looked super cute in them too and they fit him perfectly.  I can’t say that about most things he wears - the fit, that is.

On Monday evening, we carved our pumpkin.  We found a random pattern on the internet and followed it.  It is hard to find a character that both boys wanted.  I guess we’ll have to get more than one pumpkin in the future.

Finally, Halloween arrived.  Last year was a very cold, rainy night where neither boy lasted out very long.  Neighbors gave out handfuls of candy because they felt bad for the kids that tried to endure it.  This year was a tad better.  There was still rain, but a lot less of it.  The temperature was cold, but not so cold that we wanted to run inside.  In fact, the boys lasted an hour this year.

Jake

The Jedi

Both were very polite, saying “thank you” at each house.  Daniel got the concept down very quickly and we had no problems with him wanting to stop and eat all the candy while we were out.   Even when his little nose started to get red, he wanted to keep going.  I even heard him say, “Happy Halloween” to a few people.

When we got home it was time to dump out the candy and sort it.  Both boys seemed to be pleased with what they got.  There were a few trades.  Daniel likes Smarties a lot right now.  I don’t know if that is something he’ll want to trade for in the future though.

Candy for me?!?

We let the boys have a few pieces and then put it up for the night.  On Saturday, I poured them all into a huge bowl, but it started to overflow.  I kept all the chocolate ones in the bowl (my favorites) and put the non-chocolates and lollipops into other containers.  We’re trying to limit how much we all eat each day, but I may have eaten four boxes of Milk Duds before bed last night just because they were there.

I’m glad that the boys had such a good time.  Now they both have costumes they can wear.  They usually just dress up as super heroes, so now they can branch out. 

Well, it’s time to get ready for CC tomorrow.  But first, should I have a Butterfinger or a Kit Kat?