dirt

We did a reading lesson this morning, learning the ending blends /tch/ and /nch/ as in Catch or lunch. E caught on right away but is still so painfully slow to read words. I know she's only in Kindergarten so I should chill out and wait a year or so before I start getting impatient!

The kids spent a good part of the day today and yesterday playing outside digging up dirt in my garden. They had so much fun for the first 5 min before I discovered them, that I decided to just let them play... how much fun is it for kids to play in dirt? They were busy building a castle with rocks and sticks and of course, dirt.

I was amazed that with the addition of just a little bit (ok, a lot) of dirt to their outside experience, they more than tripled the time before they came ringing the doorbell, whining about being too cold, or hungry. I think a hole in my garden, and a little bit of dirt on my floor is worth the extra 2 hours of peace I got!

Oh, and this afternoon while I was napping, my sweet little E was busy downstairs cleaning up (emptying the cutlery from the dishwasher, cleaning off the table, sweeping the floor and putting away toys). Was I ever surprised to see a clean house when I came down!! She even volunteered to vacuum for me, and she did a pretty good job! That was worth an A+ in Home Ec. for the day!!!

Potholders

E has been very busy the last few days making potholders. she made a special one for daddy on his birthday and then crafted another two for her cam and anna before they came to babysit. She wanted to make about 10 more (for every one who comes over to visit LOL), but she ran out of loops.

The kit is from Klutz! and is really fun for her to play with. She even crocheted the edges all by herself. H tried helping too, but she had more fun pulling all the loops out of the bag.

Mud turtles and toddling

We started reading Among the Pond People again. Today we read a story about a slow little mud turtle, and learned many things about turtles. E practiced her handwriting, and then drew a nice picture of a mommy turtle and her eggs.

Now the kids are outside enjoying the warm sunny weather, and H is banging on the window laughing at them (wishing, no doubt, that she could be running around out there with them too!). Won't be long for her... she's been practicing her walking every day and looks so delighted with herself when she manages to stand up and take a few steps all by herself. I guess I'll have to dig out some real shoes for her soon. Kids grow up too fast!

Mommy sitting down to eat her food before the kids (daddy warmed it up faster for her)...

Zach: I want MY pizza!!

Mommy: Wait for daddy to get it for you. I got mine early because I"m really hungry and I'm pregnant.

Zach: I'm pregnant too!

Mommy: no you're not!

Zach: Yes I am! because I'm hungry and I want my lunch.

Mommy: you don't even know what pregnant means.

Zach: It means when you're hungry and you want your food, you get it!

~HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY~

No pictures today because I can't find the camera... Guess it's time to clean up the house!

Today is Daddy's 30th birthday!! Elizabeth was proud to dial the phone all by herself to wish him a happy birthday, but she only got his answering machine. We'll try again later.

They spent all afternoon yesterday in the kitchen making him a surprise batch of cookies that they wrapped all up to give him as a surprise on his birthday. E coached Z all day to not say anything to dad when he came home, but as soon as Daddy walked in the door Z ran up to him with all the excitement of a 3 year old boy and told him 'We made cookies for you, Daddy!".

You should have seen the look of disgust on E's face LOL. Now they are waiting for 5pm so they can give them to him (they slept in and didn't get to see him this morning).

We are going to daddy's parent's house tonight for a little party for him, and then we are having friends over on Sunday night to celebrate again. E has already brought me the streamers today to decorate the house before he comes home ( it's only 8am).

........

We've been taking a mini school holiday for the last 2 weeks while mommy adjusts to being pregnant. I forgot how exhausted you can get while you are growing a new baby!! Today we are having a big lesson in home economics again (using the new central vac, washing the floors, cleaning bathrooms)... and then we'll try to fit in a reading lesson before mommy crashes for a nap. Good thing we are mostly already done kindergarten. It's been fun!! We need to finish reading the pond people, and we need to finish up her math. This week we are working on adding tens. 10+10, 20+20, 30+30 etc..

Yesterday in the car E was so proud of herself when she suddenly yelled up to the front that 3+2=5. She had figured it out herself!

Well, my floors are calling to me. The kids are busy doing their morning chores, and H is trying to escape from her highchair so I guess I better get at it.

Oh! I almost forgot, H is learning how to walk!! On St. Patty's day she took her first steps, and yesterday she took about 5 steps all at the same time!! My little girl is growing up.

Bless you all on this foggy morning!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we read a story about St. Patrick, and learned about his life. We also talked about what legends are, and then talked about leprechauns and how they hide their pots of gold at the end of rainbows.

We had fun going on a virtual field trip to Ireland and looked at old castles, rainbows falling into emerald green fields, statues of St. Patrick, and beautiful scenery.

We also colored some pictures about St. patricks day, and then Elizabeth wrote a letter to someone on some St. patty's day stationary and drew a picture. She was very proud to sign her name in cursive.

A few days ago I was delighted to come home and find out that she had tried spelling her own title for a picture she drew. It says "When the cat napped" if you can't tell LOL.

Brrrr!

I can't believe that even little H is big enough to go out and play in the snow now! She will be turning ONE next month, and my other baby is turning THREE already!

This weekend we were at the homeschool conference, and had a really nice time. The talks were very encouraging and helpful, and it was a treat to meet so many families who were also homeschooling. Many of the families had 8 or 9 kids already, so being pregnant with number 4 seemed like we were a small family :-)

The kids had a lovely time staying with their relatives, and came home loaded down with presents, and lots of energy. I'm not sure how much energy the grandparents and auntie/uncle had since they reported that the kids woke up consistently around 6am each morning.

Yesterday we were back at school work again. E learned the /sh/ blend in reading, did a worksheet on /i/ and colored lots of pages in her princess coloring book. She also had her very last art class.... she wasn't sad though, because now she's looking forward to starting swimming lessons. (although I'm not sure what she thinks she's going to learn, because when I told her that she would learn to put her head under the water and blow bubbles she got this horrified look on her face and said " I don't want to do THAT!").

This morning we are off to mass to pray and get those much needed graces to get through the rest of the week. 

First spelling test

For language arts, I am using a program that I am really enjoying called Little Angels, and today I followed the TMs suggestion of having a spelling test for E. She didn't even know what a 'test' was, and thought it was lots of fun :-)

I read to her a list of words and she wrote them down. Then I read to her 3 sentences which she wrote down. She did amazingly well! I was pretty surprised by how quickly she could convert what she heard into words on the paper. We haven't done a lot of practicing this at all... I guess it just goes to show how phonics is a great tool for teaching reading AND spelling.... even at this young age.

Afterwards she wanted to draw a picture of the first sentence: Dad had ham. Another one of the fun things with homeschooling because she has the time to indulge in these creative sidetracks.

I had to laugh looking at her test, because my handwriting ('elizabeth's spelling test LA pg 27) isn't much better than hers.

more artwork

This morning before her class we read another pond story. This time it was about water spiders.. we didn't have lots of tim for math or reading because E had her art class again. they had fun making puppets with various materials. She chose to make a bird and had lots of fun using feathers, styrofoam, material, buttons etc...

She also got to take home her t-shirt that she made last week. She is so proud of it :-) I love the colors.


After art class we went for a visit with grandpa ed who is resting up at home after his surgery. The kids had lots of fun playing with their grandparents, and got a special treat of being able to look at grandpa's incision complete with his staples to keep it closed :-)

Yesterday we went to the park in the afternoon and had fun swinging. Z is old enough to go on the big swing now, and E was pushing H in the little swing. My, how they are growing up!

more reading

This morning we've been doing reading and writing. E is getting much better at reading... it is so neat to watch her improve. Today we practiced words that start with 'sw', 'squ', and 'tw'. She also was learning to listen to stories and pick out what happened first, second and last. (I was surprised how good she was at that!).

Right now she's doing a workpage that told her to read the sentence and then draw a picture of what the sentence says (the cat is on the mat). This is also testing her story comprehension skills. Of course, she's turning it into a great big story about a girl who is walking into the room looking for her cat who is sleeping on the mat.... so cute.. and the other one (the hat is on Jan), has Jan gardening, with her brother coming out of the house to see what she's doing LOL.

This weekend we had a learning adventure to the hospital to visit their grandpa who had back surgery. We got to see lots of nurses and doctors and beds and sick people.. and we got to ride in the big elevator two times! E brought along a gift for her grandpa: a giraffe she made out of modelling clay.

She also made an elephant for her auntie anna's birthday.

The big excitment around here is the countdown to when mommy and daddy leave for the homeschool conference and the kids get to sleep over at gradma and grandpas house for one night and their auntie melissa's house for two nights!

Elizabeth's Princess Book

Today we started a lesson from Writing in Narrative book A on how to write stories. It teaches a 4 step method: 1)the setting, 2)the problem 3) solving the problem and 4) the conclusion and what the characters learned.

Elizabeth just jumped right in and had a great time doing this. She didn't even need the book to help her at all! She must have a good sense of stories from being read to so much. Here is a preivew of her first story in the book she wants to write:

Ash Wednesday

Today we started the very first day of the season of Lent, and like countless generations of Catholic before us we went to church to receive the 'ashes' to be reminded that we come from dust and we will return to dust... and to help us feel sorrow for our sins. The kids enjoyed the ashes part and kept checking all day if theirs were still on their head (the priest rubs them on your forehead in the shape of a small cross).

It is also customary during Lent to fast from or 'give up' something for the entire 40 days. I am trying to give up most of my computer time each day, and Elizabeth decided she wanted to give up watching movies (wow!)... so yesterday, being Mardis Gras and all, we partied by watching a movie before bedtime, playing on the computer, and having the customary pancake supper (yummy!).

For our lent we have also decided to read a story each evening after dinner about Jesus and his life on earth. I chose the book 'A Life of our Lord for Children' from Sophia Press. The kids love listening to stories and they are excited about this new tradition. Oh! btw, we got a new bench for our table on the weekend. I guess we'll be needing more chairs around our table now that H is growing out of her high chair soon and me expecting number four in the fall. The kids love having the bench to sit on together. We could fit 4 kids on one of those :-) We just need to get another bench and we'll be set for another few years or so. LOL.