Shopping

The ladies in Keith’s family went Christmas shopping on Saturday.  As I loaded the big stroller into the car, Keith asked me why I didn’t just take the umbrella stroller since the boys would be home with him. 

I told him he just didn’t understand…we NEEDED the double stroller!  It didn’t serve just as a stroller; it was also our coat rack and shopping bag holder!  This picture was taken as proof of the need for the double stroller :D

This little lady was an EXCELLENT shopper.  She behaved so well, and she was such a sweetie.  No matter what clothing department we were in, she found EVERYTHING pink and sparkly.  Too cute!

I never take my kids to the mall.  As a matter of fact, unless I’ve forgotten something, I haven’t been in the mall since last Christmas.  (I’ve been in Kohl’s a few times, but that’s it.)  My kids never get mall treats.  Jensyn was THRILLED when I bought her a pink strawberry lemonade as a treat for being such a good girl!  The best part was she didn’t have to shared it with anyone!

That trip JUST ABOUT finished off my Christmas shopping.  Hooray!  I need to pick up a few stocking stuffers, print a few Amazon gift cards, and buy an item that I can pick up here in town.  Then comes the wrapping….ugh…the wrapping :(  I think I will lock myself in the bonus room with a cup of hot cocoa, Netflix,  and a few good episodes of “Call The Midwife” some weekend day when Keith can watch the kiddos!

Little Hearts For His Glory, Unit 12

Phew!  I think I am finally caught up.  We are working on Unit 13, and I’m posting Unit 12.  Finally.  Caught.  Up.  I hope to get through Unit 14 before Christmas, and then we’ll start with Unit 15 in January.

This year, we are using Heart of Dakota’s Little Hearts For His Glory curriculum.
It is adaptable for children ages 5 – 7.  To read more about our choice, CLICK HERE.

Alex is 5 years, 11 months.
He will turn 6 in December 2013.

Alex is learning right now that history is HIS story – the story of God’s world!

No pictures – we read about Jesus’ baptism, Jesus turning water into wine, the disciples, and the woman at the well.

 

This was a review week, so we reviewed 5 Bible verses that have already been covered this year.

We are finishing All About Reading Level 1 – and moving on to level 2 – this year.


I really should just title this “phonics”, as we didn’t do AAR this week. 
We’re just reading together…enjoying what Alex has learned thus far.

(Please keep in mind that I have the older version of LHFHG, and if you purchase a new guide, your math will follow a different sequence than what we are doing.  I created my own spreadsheet to match the math activities in the older version of LHFHG to the lessons in Singapore Essentials.  It’s not perfect, but it will work for us!)

We mainly worked on liquid measurements with a lot of hands-on practice. 

 

We tallied how many cups of water fit into several different containers.  Alex did some workbook pages about capacity.

Our last lesson of the week involved counting crackers, rearranging them, and counting them again.  No matter how you rearrange them, the number stays the same.  We talked about how it is easiest to count if you put the crackers in order, and then we also counted by 2s and 5s.

Max had to get in on this one.  We read about how Jesus visited the woman at the well, and he talked to her about living water.  We explored water – the shape, the color, the condensation on the outside of an icy glass. 

First we poured water from one container to another, noting how water does not have a shape of its own.  (Alex and Max both already knew this, but it was still fun to play with water!)

After that, we explored ice water and condensation.  We colored the water to prove that the condensation doesn’t come from the water inside the glass.  (Alex took the close-up picture.)

 

We also read about Peter and the others casting their nets & catching fish at Jesus’ command.
After this, we read about fish and their gills.  We learned how fish use their gills to take in oxygen from the water.  Alex then made a paper fish, and we cut gills in it.

Side note – Alex’s cutting skills have really improved lately!  Hooray!

We are using Happy Handwriting and Rod & Staff ABC series.

 

Some days, handwriting is a chore.  Other days, it is a joy.
We got some of both this week.

Alex did SUCH a great job on this letter f page!

The g page turned out okay, but my oh my, was it ever a struggle to get Alex to do this page.
He was having trouble getting the g in the correct place on the lines, and he fought my help.



Do It Carefully – one of Alex’s favorite things about school time!

The boys are both loving this book!  I imagine we’ll be re-reading them with Max in a few years, but he just can’t help but join us to hear what happens next with Danny Meadow Mouse!

We did this weeks’ artistic expression, but I didn’t really find it picture worthy.  It’s just food coloring on wet construction paper.   It was fun to watch the color spread, but it didn’t really look like anything special when we were finished.  (This tied in with the story of Jesus turning water into wine.)

I’m really impressed with Alex’s number writing.  He still struggles with writing letters, but he’s got his numbers figured out.  He writes them neatly and does a great job with the small number boxes on these pages.  I also like that he has to write a sentence each day.  He needs the practice, and it’s a good introduction to simple writing.  We are truly enjoying these pages from DreamBigKinders.

 

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recent Wednesday projects with the kiddos

One of my Facebook friends (Kimberly) posted a cute handprint art project that she’d done with her kids.  Baby Jesus in a handprint manger…too cute! She did it on canvas as a keepsake; we just did it on construction paper.

I was quite surprised that, doing this with 5 kids, it went very smoothly!  No paint all over the house…no giant messes…impressive!  (Now, that all went out the window when I let them ‘free paint’ after this.  Good thing Crayola paint is washable, as there were lots of dirty clothes before they were finished!  I’m also out of tempera paints…time for a trip to Hobby Lobby for more craft supplies!)


On that day, we also did some fun Nativity printable pages together, but there are no pictures of that.

(Since I asked Kimberly a few questions, and since I was asked a few questions when sharing this on FB, it is a brown upside-down handprint.  You can finger paint or brush-paint the hay.  We brush-painted.  Baby Jesus can be made with thumbprints or paintbrushes.  Because we had a houseful of kids, I opted to brush-paint the baby in each manger.  Thumbprints would definitely be a cuter, more kid-centered projected, though!)

On the day before Thanksgiving, we learned about cornucopias, talked about things we were thankful for, made sugar corn cornucopias filled with homemade trail mix, and made cornucopia mini placemats.  (They were only as big as I could fit through my laminator!)

The placemats were quite simple.  I used a pattern found HERE for the cornucopia and the fruit shapes.  I did digitally edit the cornucopia file so that it would print with a fun border, but otherwise, it was ‘as is’ from the website.  After the kids glued on their fruits, I cut out around the border, glued it to colored paper, and ran it through my laminator.  My kids have enjoyed using these placemats for the past week.  (Not that Alex’s face shows that, but her really has!)

Sugar Cone cornucopias – filled with cheerios, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and teddy grahams.  I know it’s an odd combination, but it’s what we had in the house! 

I have permission to share these sweet little faces…aren’t they ADORABLE?! 
We’re so lucky to enjoy their company on Wednesdays!

Max is sometimes very anti-camera, so Max…if you ever read this…you WERE here! 
You just didn’t want your picture taken on this day!



This was totally unrelated to Thanskgiving, but we also enjoyed making homemade pizza together…I love letting the kids take control over their pizza!  It’s barely-organized chaos, but it’s FUN!