Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween festivities are usually stretched out over a few days. Saturday, we attended the Trunk or Treat at our church. Before the Trunk or Treat began, the teens in the church had planned carnival games for the children. Each classroom was set up for each game or activity, such as bowling, fishing, and face painting. Before we went in, I tried to get a picture of all three of my children together in their themed costumes. We are studying medieval times this year in history, so Bridget wanted to be a medieval princess, George was a knight, and Liam was a dragon (a costume George used two years ago). Because there were other children arriving at the church, it was near impossible to keep the boys attention and to look at the camera. 

They had this backdrop inside the church for photos. Again, those boys of mine... I give up.

One of the many games they played. I am glad that they had activities planned this year for the little ones. 

On Sunday, we took a break from Halloween and attended church (which also happened to be the children's primary program). Monday, being Halloween, we finally carved our pumpkin. We had gotten it on Saturday morning at the pumpkin patch, but were too busy to carve it until the last minute. We did it during Liam's nap. I did the carving, of course, and the children had no interest in touching the "guts", so I removed those as well. The children did help removing the pieces for the face once I had carved them. It took a little bit of work but they finally did it. 

Our Halloween meal this year was quickly thrown together because I have a minor cold. I went the easy route with mummies, eyeballs, brains, and blood. Bridget hates when I call them by these names, and insisted on correcting me every time. I guess the gross names make things a little unappetizing for her.

Happy Halloween!

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, we stopped by one of the local pumpkin patches for some family fun. There was a lot to do and see, though we made our trip a quick one because we had a busy day ahead of us. We took pictures with the various cutouts, visited the farm animals (a young piglet was my favorite), and picked out a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. You will have to excuse the pictures, as they were all captured with my phone.

This may sound really bad, but I did not realize that my 7 year old was already 4 feet tall. I still remember her as my little baby. 

Bridget, age 7

George is not far behind Bridget in height. He is also growing way too fast. 

George, age 4

It was difficult to get a picture of Liam, as he was far more interested in everything else around him. He did take a second to lean up against the sign. He still wouldn't look at me.

Liam, age 2

Then it was time to pick out our pumpkin. Liam must have grabbed a dozen pumpkins and didn't quite know what to do with them. I was pretty impressed with his strength.  The few pumpkins he was not able to lift, he rolled. He's a very resourceful toddler.

We are enjoying this autumn season. The weather was crisp and cool in the morning, though it did reach 80 degrees that afternoon. 

Happy Fourth of July...

... from our family to yours!

God Bless America

"Medieval Times" in Myrtle Beach

We ended our first day in Myrtle Beach by attending a Medieval Times show. It worked out perfectly because we will be covering medieval times in history this upcoming school year. 

When we got there but before we were allowed into the arena, we decided to get the kids a special treat. George and Liam got swords and Bridget got a wand. Since the show, the boys have gotten good use out of the swords. Most of the time they will play nicely, but boys will be boys and mom will be mom and have to take the swords away. 

If you've never been to see Medieval Times, it is a dinner show. They offer two types of dinners: a chicken dinner or a vegetarian dinner. We always get the vegetarian dinner, which is a delicious three-bean stew served over brown rice. For the appetizer, they bring out hummus, pita, celery, and carrots. The non-vegetarian dinner is a large chicken drumstick, garlic toast, and corn on the cob. The meat-eaters are required to eat only using their hands but us civilized vegetarians are given a spoon.

For the show, they bring out horses and knights. First they participate in contests with the horses. Afterwards, they participate in combat using all sorts of medieval weapons. It is all choreographed, though the kids don't know that so they're always sitting on the edge of their seats with their eyes wide open.

 
One of the knights threw Bridget a flower. She did not know what to think about that. Any attention from boys makes her nervous and a little embarrassed. After the show, Bridget got a picture with the princess.

Our Last Little Garden

The first of many "lasts" in our current house: planting our summer garden! 

The children love working in the garden with Daddy. Bridget and George went with Daddy to the plant nursery while I stayed home with Liam as he napped. No more than five minutes after they returned home, they were all out in the garden! This year, they are keeping things very simple by only planting tomatoes, bell peppers, and marigolds.

Liam was not too interested in planting anything, as he was too busy playing with the water hose.

George loves being out in the garden and often refers to it as "my garden". He is completely in his element when he is working out there. He does a fantastic job of digging holes and gently putting the plants in the ground and filling in the soil around them. He does it with such great care. I know he is looking forward to our new home and hopefully a much bigger garden.

Bridget is mostly an observer now, though she did want to be the one to plant the marigolds. She does not seem to want to get dirty in the garden anymore. I don't know what I've done wrong, but I was the complete opposite as a child. I'll need to work on that with her.

In our garden, we also have strawberries that have returned year after year, that the birds usually get to the strawberries before we do. Daddy's experiment with growing onions is also continuing from last year. We have another small section of the garden with nothing in it. I suggested squash, but I don't think anyone heard me.

We have enjoyed our little raised bed garden. I do hope our renters enjoy it as much as we have!

Strawberries!

Strawberry picking season is the official start of warm weather season around here. We recently enjoyed a 'family day' at the strawberry patch. We were able to go on a weekday and had almost the entire field to ourselves. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a grand time. 

We let the children do most of the picking. They're old enough now to recognize which strawberries are ripe and ready to be picked. I was able to step back and enjoy the moment, and take pictures of them all having a great time. 

Bridget was off to a great start, finding many nice red strawberries to fill her basket. She is so sweet and is never able to hide the excitement from her face. 

George does things differently than his sister. He is a hard worker and would not stop and look at the camera for me. He did, however, have a lot to say on the process of picking strawberries. Here he is talking about the strawberry he just picked.

I did manage to get this picture of him with his last basket full of strawberries. 

Liam, being only a year old, enjoyed his first real experience picking strawberries. He caught on very quickly and I was impressed at how well he was filling his basket. I did pick a few of them and helped him when his basket started getting too full.

After their baskets were full, they unloaded them into the larger basket that Daddy was holding, then went back to pick more.

Look at all those rows of strawberries!!! I love living in a place where we can pick fresh fruits and vegetables each year, and having the children discover where their food comes from. I imagine that we will be making another trip to the strawberry field before the season is over!

Week in Review 2016: #3

Life

Is it really Friday? I do not know what happened to the week. We've been a lazy bunch this week and stayed indoors as much as possible. The weather is near freezing and we keep getting reports of snow, though I have not seen anything more than a few flakes. The central and western parts of our state have gotten a few inches. This morning, there was a bit of snow/ice on the housetops in our neighborhood, and on our back patio table.

The children have done well with entertaining themselves in the afternoons. While I was in the kitchen cooking dinner yesterday, they emptied out a storage box and pushed one another around. Bridget was pushing at least 1.5 times her weight when both boys were in the box. She got a good workout! She pushed them from one side of the living room, stopped midway and spun them around a few times, then pushed them back. George and Liam had a blast. George kept ordering her to go faster and Liam just sat there with the biggest smile on his face.

I could not decide which picture to share, so I am sharing a few. They all have different expressions in each one, and I treasure them all so much. I love seeing my children enjoy their childhoods together.

After Bridget tired out, George got out of the box and pushed Liam. With not so much weight in the box, George was able to push the box very fast, though I am not sure how much Liam enjoyed this. He looked worried most of the time.

This was our first full week without having Daddy around. The children were all still asleep when he left for work, and George and Liam were sound asleep when he came home, though Bridget was able to see him since she and I were usually reading stories on the couch. I felt that George was missing his daddy so on Wednesday morning, I told him to wake George up and bring him to our bed. That way George would get to see him before he left for work, and then George and I could snuggle before the other two woke up (George is my most snuggly child). 

Homeschool 

Reading

Bridget is still reading this Dick and Jane book. 

She reads to me for 20-25 minutes each day after lunch. She rarely needs any help with the words. When she reads a word incorrectly, she catches it herself and tries again without me needing to stop her and help her. We are almost to the end of the book. I was able to renew it at the library for one last time. 

After we finish this book, we will be back with the BOB Books, though I think she will breeze right through those. She surprised me today when we sat down to read a book from the library we got for one of the animals we are studying in science. I opened to the first page and was about to start reading when all of the sudden she began reading the words to me. I did need to help her along with this book as it did contain some larger words and terms, but she ended up reading the entire thing with minimal help from me. What has happened to my little girl?

Writing

Bridget's sentences this week came from The Velveteen Rabbit, and we focused on the names of the seasons and how unlike the months of the year and days of the weeks, we do not capitalize the names of the seasons. Writing is now our easiest subject. She knows exactly what to do and gets her work done quickly. 

Math

Bridget did an entire lesson this week and took the test. I am glad that she was able to get back on track. Some lessons she needs an extra week, but not this time. I hope in continues, though I am glad that we are able to take the extra time if it is needed.

Linking up to:

Week in Review 2016: #2

Life

I've been in a bit of a blogging funk this week. Almost zero motivation to blog or take pictures. Homeschool and meals are the only things I seem to still be doing this week. Don't worry though, I'm not depressed or anything. I think I'm just cold. All I want to do is snuggle up and stay warm. The kids are still very active. I don't know how they do it. I'm wearing sweaters, long pants, and socks all day and they pick out shorts and t-shirts and they are fine. 

On Sunday after church, I attempted to take a few pictures of Liam, hoping to get a good one to send to my mother-in-law who has been needing one for a particular frame with all of the other grandchildren. Liam is usually pretty compliant and hams it up for the camera, but not this time. I took a few dozen pictures and the poses all seem to be either Liam playing sad/shy or Liam being fussy. He does this thing now where he makes an ugly cry face and pretends to cry, but he can cut it off in a second. The only decent picture I got of him in on the bottom left, though the top of his head got cut off.

Mid-week, Grandma visited us for the day. I planned only a light load of school work for Bridget (reading, writing , and math), since I knew we'd be meeting up with daddy and going out to eat for lunch. Bridget did a good job at getting her work done (although at time she did get a little too excited) and after lunch, she even read to Grandma. 

Homeschool 

Reading

Bridget is still reading this Dick and Jane book. I have tried to find it on Amazon but only used copies are available. I am always hesitant to get those because there is not a picture of each used book showing me exactly the condition it is in. There are a few other Dick and Jane books just like this one, but with different stories. It looks like they had made a 3-part set for this particular collection. 

Writing

Bridget wrote a few sentences on Tom Sawyer this week. She showed some interest in the story so I went out and bought the book. I have waited for her to be interested in a story that George can also enjoy. We have not started reading it yet, but plan to in the very near future. 

Math

Bridget worked on a new lesson this week involving +8 math problems. The first day of the lesson, she watched the short lesson video (she absolutely loves the "teacher" and thinks he is so funny... and I like him because he really is a great teacher). George likes to join in even though he really doesn't understand what is being taught.



She did very well on the first two days of her math work but then yesterday, everything seemed to be erased from her memory. She looked at her worksheets and math blocks, absolutely clueless about what to do. Then she kept trying to guess the answers (and getting them wrong) so I had to stand by her, holding Liam, and have her show me the work for every. single. problem. This was unusual for her and I was disappointed because I had the lesson test ready for her to take so that we could move on.

As I was talking this dilemma over with my husband, we both thought of our own early education and how students were constantly left behind and lost in math class all because the teacher moved on when the majority of the students understood the new concept. Thank goodness for homeschool and being allowed to move at our own pace and taking that extra time to be sure our little students understand the lessons.

Linking up to:

Week in Review 2015: #47 and #48

Life

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house and both sets of grandparents were able to join us. We ate our dinner in the homeschool room, which is really our formal dining area. It is the only place that would accommodate two tables and enough chairs for all of us. This is where you can read about our Thanksgiving in more detail.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we bought our Christmas tree and I let the older two children decorate it themselves. My youngest has done a great job at showing us how destructive he is. Thankfully, he has calmed down a bit and is used to the tree by now. He loves the colorful lights and admires them often.

 
Bridget often sets up the little chairs in the homeschool room to play "church" with her dolls. She sets it up as the primary room at church and has singing time and a lesson. Sometimes she is able to convince George to play with her. George was busy with other toys so this time, Liam became her live student. He was so proud to be included and he sat very nicely in the chair with all of the other students.

Bridget was absolutely tickled with Liam's cooperation. They were both being so very sweet.

After Thanksgiving, Amazon had some really great deals on some toys (I prefer to do all of my Christmas shopping this way... isn't online shopping just great?!?). Along with the more "fun" toys to be saved for Christmas, I also got a few "educational" toys and gave these to the kids early. One of them is this marble run. They had a blast! I put Liam down for his nap and set it up for them in their room so that they could see what it's all about. This occupied them for THREE HOURS, until Liam woke up and I made them put it away.

They just love seeing how things work and building things. I couldn't believe they played so well together for that long. It was a blessing because I have had a cold for the past couple of days. I really needed that break from the children where I can rest my voice and try to get better.

Homeschool 

We started off the week very strong but because of my cold and inability to read aloud without having a coughing fit, Bridget has had to do most of her work independently. This is where I love math drill sheets and writing copywork.

In an attempt to still be productive while I am sick, I spent my alone time at the computer working on notebook pages for history. I had gotten behind on that. I'm also revamping the lessons, adding lessons that are not part of SOTW and changing the SOTW lesson order around a bit. It's our first year of a full curriculum and I knew things would need to be tweaked after we got started.

Family Movie Night

With it being Christmas, we have been watching all of our Christmas movies almost daily. It has been nice and a real treat for the kids. 

Linking up to: