Monday, November 22, 2010

Frosty the snowman

It was the first real big snow of the season yesterday- and some boys were SO excited they could hardly stand it. (I definately didn't have the same emotions!- snow- UGG!) So after church they were begging to dig out the snow stuff and go play in it.
And here's Mr. Frosty It's snowing and blowing now. BRRR!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wind, oh Wind!

In the words of Marie Hall Ets in Gilberto and the Wind, (a picture book I've read with each of my boys as we do a unit study on wind) "Wind, oh wind, I don't like you today!"


The wind was just a howling yesterday- And the boys told me "Mom, Come look at the Trampoline!" It had blown from the back yard to the front yard, and crashed on the fence near the truck. Right on top of my rose bushes. Smashed the fence, smashed the tramp, luckily it missed the truck by a foot or to. Here's what it looked like after Ben and Bug moved it off the roses.Needless to say- it's not fixable. :( Doodle said "Maybe we'll have to ask Santa for a new Trampoline." Maybe so.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Car Time

It seems sometimes as homeschoolers we are never really at "HOME" And we spend a fair ammount of time in the car. I began to realize that this was prime time- they are a captive audience with nothing to do- and I wasn't using it well enough.

Every morning I have to run pick Bug up from his class at the public school- he's taking a first hour class this year- he has PE right now- and will have Band the next 2 trimesters. So every morning- We pile into the car to go get him- it takes about 10 minutes there, and another 10 back home- not to mention the few minutes we spend waiting for him to come out- so there's lots of car time.

On our way to and from the school we practice the songs and poems that the kids will perform at the care center each month. Doodle and Roo practice their poems, and we go through the songs. It seems to be perfect timing- we finish the last song right as we pull up to the school.
The car seems to be a perfect time to practice memorizing poems, they have to say them loud, so I can hear them over the car engine. After they have their poem memorized, we work on Articles of Faith, Math facts, spelling words, or other stuff that needs memorized.

As we are waiting in the car- I keep the newest copy of The Friend magazine Each boy takes a turn chosing a story to read while we wait. We also have a copy of The Big book of 5 Minute Devotionals and we read a story from it. On the way back home we practice the songs for the care center again, with Bug's help.
Other times when we are out running errands or in the car- we have a book on CD to listen to. The library has wonderful selection of children's books. I've found if the kids are listening to a story, they are less likely to fight amongst themselves (maybe I'm the only one who has kids who like to fight in the car- but I kinda think not)

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Science Saturday!

We have been studying astronomy this year- so when we read that the Ott planetarium was offering free shows along with Science Saturday- we decided to go. We were a little dissapointed at the shows that were at the planetarium- we were hoping for something more "astronomy like" the Nature of Science and the Legend of Orion that we saw were good- just not what we were expecting. BUT-- the Science Saturday stuff was AMAZING! :D As we went in- each kid got a passport to stamp after they did the various activities, and a book bag with a science experiment in it- complete with all the necessary materials. Also there were rules, pencil sharpeners, a small notebook, and other cool stuff.
They taught us about snakes and bearded dragons- Roo looks a bit scared! ;) He's like his big brother Bug- who stood at the door-
A neat Magnet game-
Bug's trained termite- the termite followed his pen line around the paper Testing to find out "Who did it" and solving a crime.
While we didn't learn more about the solar system like we set out to- we did learn a lot of other cool science stuff- We'll have to fit Science Saturdays into our schedule more often!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Just a few- Roo-isms

I love learning along with my kids- it's one of my favorite things about homeschooling, is learning new stuff with them. Quite often, they are the ones teaching me- Last night Roo taught me a lesson. It was our family's turn to clean the churchhouse building, so Roo and I had our paper towels and window cleaner and were working on all the doors and windows in the foyers. We were just about finished when Roo told me "This is like cleaning Jesus's feet." I was confused. He told me "Yesterday at church we talked about how Jesus cleaned his apostles feet, and now we are cleaning his house- and it's kinda like cleaning his feet. We are serving others." I told him how right he was. I'm amazed at the ways he can remember his church lessons and simply apply them in other situations.

A few days ago he was upstairs playing with his cars and trucks, And told me that one of them was broken and went to the shop to be fixed. He said we were like cars. - me halfway listening- "ok Roo, how are we like cars?" "A broken car is kinda like a sinner" he told me "They have to go to the shop to be fixed, and a sinner needs to repent to be fixed"

Monday, November 1, 2010

We're the Chipmunks....

Alvin, Simon, Theodore....do do doo doo doo...


3 boys have been planning their halloween costumes since LAST year- so here's the chipmunks- Doodle is Alvin, Bug is Simon, and Roo is Theodore