P is for….

Lots of things this week.  First it’s for Potty!  Jacob is officially potty trained!!  It was one week of constant laundry and then it clicked.  He is so proud of himself and got to go pick out new underwear. (Thomas, because they don’t have Mario underwear) 

Next it’s for Playing in the leaves!  Be sure to click on the picture so you can see their faces better. I love Ben’s face. They had so much fun playing.  We made a fall tree craft.  Which turned out to be one of my favorites.

Ben drew pictures of boys jumping into the “leaf piles” he made on the “ground”.

This is what Jacob did during “Art”.  He wasn’t at all interested in gluing leaves.  I just let him be. 

P is also for Pumpkins!  We are doing everything pumpkins this week.  I made a sensory bin for them to play around in which they loved.  It was great to see where their imaginations took them with this. 

    

 

 

 

 

 

Pics from our “school day”

Joseph loves reading to Jacob at night and then falling asleep next to him.   

 

 

Ben was having a hard time at OT and wanted to get in the “net swing with all the heavy things”.  He had about 60 pounds of weight on him.  I rarely see him this calm.  It made him feel much better.

Sharing is not always a good thing…

The past week we have been passing around a stomach bug.  It started with Joe last Tuesday, Ben on Thursday, Jacob on Saturday, Ben again on Monday, Rachel on Wednesday then Hannah finally got it on Thursday.  Luckily it was only an 18-24 hr. bug but it was enough to totally mess up my school plans.  So, hopefully everyone had their turn and life will return to normal. Whatever normal is…

Ben got to spend a lot of time on his favorite new website called Zoodles.  It is a website that has a ton of educational websites together on one site. 

Here is Ben doing what he loves the most,  playing the computer. 

 

 

Matt is taking some time off again and going to Indiana to work at the store for the Covered Bridge Festival.  Hannah, Joe and Ben tagged along while Rachel and Jacob stayed home with me.  Rachel has volleyball games and Jacob has school.  I’m going to use the time to revamp some of my school plans.  I feel like I should kick it up a notch for him.  Some of the unit studies I had planned for him seem too easy so I just need to gather all my thoughts and ideas and get it all together. 

Here are some photos from our week….

            Matt playing football with Joe and Logan (neighbor) Shelby and Fifi taking over my chairs

                        Hannah’s 12th birthday!

Birthday and Gull Meadow Farms

  I always know that it is officially Fall when we go to the apple orchard and celebrate Hannah’s birthday.  Hannah chose three friends and went bowling for the evening. Later her big birthday surprise was a cat.  She’s been begging us for months for a cat and we happened to have a friend who needed to get rid of hers so we adopted FiFi.  Hannah is so happy and I really enjoy having a cat again.  I think it’ll take Matt a while to get used to her.          

    On Sunday we spent the afternoon at Gull Meadow Farms with the Simpsons.  The kids had a blast with all the activities and we were excited to be able to take Ben and Jacob.  There were a ton of people there and Ben struggled at first but then ending up doing a good job.  It’s very hard for him to stand in line and wait but he did it and found out that some things are worth the wait. We took a wagon ride around the apple orchard and of course the day ended with donuts and cider. 

D is for Dinosaur

It’s also for David and Goliath!  This week I had so much less going on that I felt like we spent more than enough time on “school”.  Both boys loved the dinosaur theme.  Jacob participated a little more this week.  I’m pretty sure it had something to do with getting candy corn after completing an activity. :-)  

                        

Jacob sorting Dinosaurs from biggest to smallest.  Then counting foam blocks

 

This week we

• learned about how BIG God is and he can do BIG things.
• Skip counting by 5’s
• Herbivores and Carnivores
• Different types of Dinosaurs
• What is a Paleontologist?
• Introduce nickels and counting them by 5
• Watched Dave and the Giant Pickle (Veggie Tales) and Land Before Time
• Adding 2’s
• Made a Dinosaur Lapbook

 

    Adding candy corn, reading David & Goliath and handwriting practice.                                               

 

 Joseph stayed home sick one day so he joined in the fun by working on his spelling words.  It was fun having all three boys at home but definitely harder for the “teacher” to work with them all at the same time. 

 

 

                         The finished Lapbook                 Shelby’s favorite spot in the schoolroom

We’re Foster Parents!

We’ve added a new member to our family.  Her name is Shelby.  We’re acting as a guardian family to her for some friends who had to move out of state.  She is an Australian Labradoodle.  She’ll live with us except for when she has puppies which will be about twice a year.  She is such a nice dog.  She seems to be a perfect fit to our family.  The kids LOVE her. She really likes Rachel and tolerates Jacob.  He tends to love her a little too much.  She is pretty easy and super cute.

    

Back to School

Hannah, Rachel and Joe are back in full swing at Heritage.  The girls love their teachers.  Joe says he likes his teacher but overall isn’t too thrilled to be hitting the books again.  This year begins the real craziness.  Matt always comments on how busy we’ve been the last 12 years. Ha!  I just keep telling him to wait.  Well, it’s here.  We now know busyness.  We’ve always been busy at home but now it’s busy with life on the outside.  I personally love it (for now).  It gives me more purpose.  Yes, I know my life has always had purpose but it just feels different.  Rachel started Jr. High Volleyball.  She has practice after school and then games 2 nights a week.  I love going to her games!  I love sitting in the stands with the parents of her friends. It is a huge help that Hannah is able to stay home with Ben and Jacob.  The games would be a sensory nightmare for both of them.  So, Hannah stays home on Tuesdays so I can go to the game and then Matt and Hannah go to the games on Thursdays.  So far Rachel’s team is 2-1.  Joseph is playing flag football this fall.  His first game he caught the ball and ran 40 yards.  The next play his team scored a touchdown.  He was pretty excited.  I told him his Uncle Jason would be proud.  Hannah is taking flute lessons and started youth group, which she loves.  Jacob is doing really well in his class.  I am working with him in the afternoons with Ben when I can. 

                   

              Rachel’s first game…I was so nervous for her!

 

I forgot to take a first day of school picture of Jacob.  Here he is getting off the bus.  As always with Mario in hand.  He has the best bus driver, Patty, who was also Ben’s driver.  Everyday he asks “where is my best friend Ben?”

A is for Apple/ week 3

This week was all about Apples.  I have to tell you, Ben is making this homeschool thing very easy for me.  He comes right down every morning and is ready to head to the schoolroom to get started.  He’d skip breakfast if I’d let him.  He does have sometimes where he gets frustrated so we take a break and come back to it later. He has the most trouble with language but most of that has to do with his dislike for handwriting.  So we compromise and I don’t make him do all of the writing on a worksheet as long as he can tell me the correct answer so I know he is getting it.  I had a lot of exciting things planned for this week but not enough time for them.  So we didn’t get through everything I had planned but it wasn’t a total loss of a week. 

This week Ben,

• Learned to count by 10’s to 200
• Made a StArt project (Story + Art) with the book Ten Apples Up On Top      
• Learned about Adam and Eve and how important it is that we always obey God
• Worked on telling time
• Memorized his address and phone number

The highlight of the week was Tuesday morning Bible study.  Ben is loving his new friends and playing games with them.  When we were leaving he said “I love my new class and my new friends”.

  

    Ben playing an addition game.            StArt project