What's going on

We cheered on my Dad this weekend at the marathon.  He is an amazing runner.  Max didn't enjoy waiting to see Grampa, but he really wanted to join in and run once he saw him.  He's been telling me all week, "I'm going to race Mommy!" in a very stern voice.  I'm sure he resents me for not letting him race.  

I've been trying to make more fine motor skill activities for Max to work on, and this week we tried putting beads on cord to make a bracelet.  He liked it, but I was surprised that Kyle and Luke both excitedly joined in.  They all worked at it for quite awhile.  

 We made tortilla pizzas for lunch today.  After the boys put theirs together I had to take a picture.  They look so pretty.  

 That's mine with all the extra toppings.  That's what I love about mini pizzas.  I can add olives or whatever I like without hearing any whining.  

Yum!

Science

One subject I've struggled to teach well at home is science.  I want the boys to have a very solid science education, and they seem to have a natural interest in all science subjects.  The problem arises with follow through.  Every year I've planned out books to use, experiments to try, reports for Kyle to write, and many other good intentions.  But often we get busy,  we don't have the right supplies for the experiment I planned, and somehow science gets left off the schedule for the day.

In order to combat this problem, I have started scheduling science for Monday and Wednesday, instead of later in the week.  I plan on Sundays, so we usually start off the week motivated and with lots of fun things planned.  It is helping a lot and we have successfully completed our science plans both weeks this month.   This week we are working on learning the main parts of animal cells.  During nap time yesterday, Kyle, Luke, and I peeled off a very thin slice of onion skin.  Kyle prepared the slide and we all looked at it under the microscope to see the small onion cells.  I pointed out the cell membrane that we had discussed earlier.  Then to demonstrate osmosis through the cell membrane, Kyle added a drop of salt water to the onion slide, and we all watched the cells shrink as the fluid passed through.

Then I decided that it would be easier to see the cells if we used the blue stain included with the slide kit.  The word stain in the name should have been enough for me to stop there, but I was in science teacher mode!   The blue stain bottle was being difficult, and Kyle couldn't get any to come out.  I'm impatient, so I said I would do it for him.  It splattered out all at once!  I've been finding blue stain all over since then.  Somehow it got on Luke's foot, Kyle's elbow, and then on my foot this morning after I guess I stepped on another spot that we missed yesterday.  I hope it is all gone now, but I'm sure I'll find some more specks somewhere this week.

At least we finished science!    

Day in the life

After taking some time off over the holidays we are focusing a lot on school again in January.  I thought I'd share some pictures I took of the kids doing their work earlier this week.

    

Every morning we start with a shared activity.  I rotate through art, geography, Bible, music, latin, poetry, spanish, and history in our morning routine and we cover two subjects each morning.  On this day we read a bible story, and then labeled and colored a map identifying the world's oceans.  

 Max didn't want to color on the map today, so he got out his FAVORITE new activity and went to work.  He picks up the glitter puffs with the tongs and then moves them to the baking cups.  Then he moves them back.  Then he shouts, "I did it!!!" Then we all stop what we are doing to applaud, and the cycle begins again.   

After our morning routine Kyle goes to his room where it is quiet, so he can start his math and writing work in peace.  

Luke and Max usually take a break to play for a bit.  On this day we all put together the solar system puzzle and practiced jumping to the planets as they were named.  And sticking out tongues.  

After our little break Max gets back to his school box activities, and I work with Luke on his reading and spelling while Kyle works independently.  

When Kyle has a break he will sometimes read a book to Max or play together for a bit while Luke and I finish up.  

 One of Max's favorite snacks is clementines.  He peels it himself, so I often give him one to keep him occupied while I do an activity with Kyle and Luke that he isn't ready for.  

That's just a little look at what we do all day.  

Art project day

We do art twice a week around here, although the kids would be happy if we did art everyday.  The first day we do picture study and artist bios, and the second day is always art project day.  Today's project was fish in the ocean.  First we drew fish with oil pastels and added in some other sea plants and creatures around it.  Then we washed blue watercolors over the whole picture.  The oil pastels really pop through the water color back ground, and it makes the whole picture look watery.

Kyle putting the finishing touches on his picture.

 All of our pictures drying

Max is taking a nap now, so his picture will have to stand alone.  I drew the fish, and he colored the orange and painted the blue and brown watercolors.  Sometimes he likes to follow the directions of the art projects.  Sometimes he does not.  Today he stayed at the table for the whole project.   

Fort fantastic

Kyle and Luke are expert fort builders.  Max is starting to cooperate a little bit more, but eventually he always tears it down.  The fort that took over Luke and Max's room this morning lasted several hours, and they had a lot of fun defending it from alien attackers.  

 Grandma Judy and Poppop came over for dinner to celebrate Judy's birthday.  Here's the whole crew with the birthday girl.  

Happy Birthday!

Max and the birds

Max loves our new bird feeder.  

 He spent most of the morning out in the back yard playing in the sandbox and calling the birds.  "Here birdy, here is the seed.  Come eat the seeds!  Birdy, birdy!"
I tried to explain that if you stand right next to the bird feeder the birds would stay away.  He's going to keep trying.
Luke wanted a picture of his angry bird tower.  You can sense his enthusiasm.  

It is a nice Saturday.

Perspective

Yesterday on the way home from gymnastics Luke desperately needed a drink, because he forgot to bring his bottled water from home.  He probably would have survived the 15 minute car ride with out one, but I promised that we'd stop at the next gas station and he could pick out something.  With Luke everything you say is taken very literally, so we stopped at the next gas station even though it was decidedly scummy looking.  As we pull in, three really scary looking guys with tattoos, chains, underwear showing, and other paraphernalia completing their outfits exit the store and head for the nearby apartments through a hole cut in the fence.  I tried to peer through the grimy window to make sure there is not a hold up in progress at the moment, and luckily all was clear.  Luke raced in the door and spied a row of casino gambling machines next to the giant malt liquor cooler, and shouted, "Cool!!  They have games here!"

After ushering him away from the gambling machines, we headed for the juice and water section of the coolers.  Of course Luke had to look at everything, so I had to explain that even though the brightly colored bottles in the other end of the coolers look like juice, they are actually adult drinks.  Finally we make our selections, and Luke rushes down the aisle with his blue "juice" that he picked out.  Normally I would make him get actual juice or water, but at this point I'm just trying to get out before more customers arrive.   Also the entire store smelled like the inside of a lit cigarette.  I think it is still in my hair.

At the register there was a large sign declaring that this store does not accept change.  This is a little concerning, but luckily I had dollar bills with me.  I paid for the drinks through the bullet proof plexiglass, and we headed for the door to the safety of the minivan.

As we opened the door to leave Luke proclaimed at top voice, "Wow that was SO FUN! This store is great!"

Max's school box

Several people have asked what Max does while I'm doing school work with Kyle and Luke.  Keeping Max entertained and non destructive while I need to work one on one with one of his brothers can be difficult, and we've tried a lot of different ideas to make it work.  Usually he does something alongside his brothers for awhile, and then gets bored and wanders off to find something more fun.  On a good day he pulls out a puzzle or blocks, on a bad day he decorates the bathroom mirror with toothpaste.  Recently I put a lot of his favorite toys in a plastic container that only comes out during school time.  He loves it!  I played with him for a few minutes at the start, then he happily unpacked everything and played with it though out the morning.  

 As we had breaks, we all joined him to play for a little bit.  He brought some toys to the table to sit next to Luke for awhile too.  

I plan to change out the toys every week, so that he will not get bored too soon.  He also likes to color and read books with his brothers.  Usually we save really complicated things, like science experiments, for  Max's nap time.    

Chicken pot pie is delicious

Jeff got some pretty soup mugs in one of our family gift exchanges this year, and I have found several ways to use them so far.  Soup worked obviously, but I decided they were just right to make individual chicken pot pies.  

 Yummy, they were very good!

Kyle tried on his fencing uniform and gear, and he looks pretty cool.

Zoo

I am feeling mostly better today, so for Jeff's last day of vacation we went to the zoo with the boys.  

 If there is a statue, they have to climb it.  Every single one.  

 I've taken the boys to feed the giraffes before, but Jeff has not been able to go before.  It is so cool to get that close to the giraffes.  They are beautiful animals, and they love that lettuce.  I thought Max might be scared of them, but he's not at all.  

Jeff got a new little video camera for Christmas, so I'm going to try to share the video that he took of the giraffe feeding.  Hope it works!

Christmas morning pictures

I hate being sick.  I'm sure everyone else does too, but I just wanted to let you know that.  It is no fun.  Cough, cough, cough.  Jeff is such a good husband that he made a delicious breakfast of baked eggs with ham.  He is also taking Kyle and Luke ice skating today, while Max and I have a nap.  I'm blessed.

Here are some Christmas pictures.

 Kyle opening his fencing gear santa brought for him.

 Presents!

 Kyle and his fencing mask

 Luke really wanted Santa to bring him "the dragon that lives in its own castle stuffed animal." Thank goodness Santa figured out what that meant, it was just what he wanted.

 Big brother got him some angry birds, which he loved.

 He's armed!

 Uh oh, Max is too!

 I had a lot of pictures with Max and his brother's presents.  Hmmmm....

 Stockings

 Angry birds game, in non video format

 Santa brought Max a marble run that was all put together for him.  He had a lot of fun with it.  Especially taking it apart and putting it back together again.  And again.