January Photo Dump (and a RAK !)

What?!  It’s February 3rd, and I’m posting the January photo dump already?!  Wow.  Don’t worry – it won’t happen again.  You’ll probably have to wait until May to see the February pictures, ha ha!

We haven’t taken the kids bowling in a very long time,
so it was about time to go again…


Alex refused to use the ball ramp, so his score was lower than Max or Jensyn. 
That annoyed him, and he refused to recognize that their scores were higher because
they were using the ball roller.  He was very frustrated.  Everyone else had fun, though!


Birthday party fun

Crazy Lego creations – Alex specifically asked me to take & post this picture.

cousins…boy, do we love this happy little guy!
(And Jensyn, in case you ever wonder, you’re going through a phase
where  you don’t want to match.  I did NOT dress you like this, I promise!)

Now, for the Random Act of Kindness that caught us totally off guard…

After Alex’s Upward game on Saturday morning (31st),  Keith suggested that we go to Steak & Shake and an indoor fun center.  The forecast called for HEAVY snow on Saturday night and Sunday, so he thought it might be nice to get out of the house for the day since we’d likely be spending the next few days at home. 

At Steak & Shake, a lady (around 60ish?) was sitting alone across the aisle from us.  I kept catching her smiling as she watched our kiddos.  When she finished her meal, she got up & stopped by our table for just a moment to say that we had a beautiful family.  We smiled, thanked her, and she went on her way.

20 minutes later, as Keith is pulling out the coupons and getting ready to pay, the waitress walked up and said, “Save your coupons for another day.” 

We looked at her, wondering why she would say that.  Then she said, “Do you remember the lady who told you that you have a beautiful family?  She paid for your lunch.  She wants you to know that you reminded her of her son, who she doesn’t see very often.”

Oh.  My.  You sometimes hear stories of this happening, but we certainly never expected it to happen to us!   My eyes just filled with tears at being the recipients of such a sweet kindness!  We look forward to finding a time to pay it forward!

Moving on to Jak’s…I’d hoped Keith could use his cell phone (which takes great pictures), but his battery died.  So we only have a few lousy pictures from my cell phone.  The kids LOVED Ballocity – a climbing structure with tunnels and slides and lots of foam balls.  They played in there for an hour!

Then the boys tried the lower level of the Sky Trail, which they loved!  Max thinks he would like the big one, but he’s two inches too short.  Alex was tall enough for the big one, but had no interest in trying it!  (It was really high up!  I would have done it, but even I would have been a bit nervous!)

We tried this little music game, where you stomp on the pictures.  Jensyn liked it a lot!

We played a little skee ball, a few arcade & crane games, and just did what we could to use up the points on our card.  Each child picked out a piece of candy and a bouncy ball in the prize shop.  It ended up being a really fun day, and we did get the predicted snow (11 inches), so we’re glad we had a chance to get out and have a great time burning off energy!

MFW K Unit 6 – Turtle (Max)

{CLICK HERE} to view the rest of our MFW K unit posts.
{CLICK HERE} to read our 2012 Turtle Unit post with our older son.

In this unit, we learned the letter Tt for turtle.
Our Bible words were: I don’t quit; I persevere!

These are the books we enjoyed throughout the week – click on any book image below to read the book description on Amazon.  (We love to buy used copies; they’re usually in good shape, and the price is right!)

Too much time has passed, and I can’t remember which non-fiction books we read besides the two shown below.  Whoops!  Oh, and my kids always laugh at Mr. Putter & Tabby Run The Race.  It’s a silly story about perseverance.

Book links are Amazon affiliate links.
If you purchase through these links, you are supporting our family. 
Thank you!

So, let’s just be honest…some days I remember to do calendar with Max.  Other days, I forget.  So we are not getting very far on our calendar board!  He knows his days, months, and numbers.  He’s starting to sound out CVC words. He’s learning every day.  So I’m not a failure (ha!), but calendar?  It happens when it happens.

Perseverance.  Running the race set before us.
Good stuff!

I don’t have any pictures, though.
Poor second child – let’s see if I even manage to post pictures of
Jensyn when it’s her turn for MFW K!

Learning about T and it’s /t/ sound.

Reading words! My little boy is READING WORDS!

Granted, he read ‘Sam’, ‘Ann’, and ‘man’…so it wasn’t much, but those are words, and he could read them!  I wish I’d been able to snap a picture at the moment he realized he had READ!  He looked at me with this amazing look of awe and said, “I can READ?”

Honestly, I think that this is my FAVORITE thing about homeschooling (academically, anyways…).  There’s something so special about being the one who is sitting there with your child as he figures out how to put the sounds together to make words.  It’s pretty amazing to watch  a child’s eyes LIGHT UP with joy when they realize they’ve read a word!  I’m so glad to be the one to watch my children’s excitement at learning to read.

 

Alex neved liked cuisenaire rods all that much, but Max really enjoys this activity!
I love how each child is so different!
 

I don’t think we did anything too ‘science-y’, other than reading lots of good books about turtles.  We did read some great non-fiction, though!

We made this cute little guy with construction paper, tissue paper, and clear contact paper.
Max was pretty proud of his cute little turtle.

 
(Jensyn is 3.5 years old.)

I don’t insist on participation from Jensyn.  She is free to join us or to wander away, but so far, she almost always wants to be a part of MFW K!  She sits with us as we read picture books, does the art or science projects, and completes papers or puzzles at the table.  She loves the Lauri alphabet puzzle included in MFW K!

We’ve filled a canvas bag with preschool workbooks and a crayon box.  She LOVES to sit at the table and do her own “work”!

She loves to sing the “A-A-Apple” song with us, and she loves to sing the Days & Months songs with Max, as well.

She can write her name with a reminder or two if she get stuck on how to make a Y or S.  She can count to 20.  She knows most of her uppercase alphabet letters.  She’s starting to color in the lines, although her color choices are usually hilarious!  She knows all of her colors, and I’m pretty sure she knows her shapes.