Awesome Man

Over the last few months Joe has been obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes.  He now has seven books, six he bought with his own money.  I love to sit outside his room when he’s reading them because he giggles and giggles as he reads them.  One day he came into the kitchen looking like this…

  He calls himself Awesome Man.  In the comic strip Calvin calls himself Stupendous Man.  He took a batman cape that we had and cut the ears off and then came up with an outfit that matches Calvin’s.     I think he is definitely  AWESOME. :-)

Long Time No Post :(

So I had to go to my blog to see how long it’s actually been since I posted something. March.  Really? Could 2.5 months really go by that fast?  Obviously, YES!  So here is a very quick recap.

MARCH

• Girls Basketball Ends. Two weeks later Soccer starts.
• Rachel falls on the playground and gets a concussion.Her soccer season was over before it started. 
• Matt and I went to Detroit for a Redwings Game and overnight without kids! 

APRIL

• Spring Break!  Trip to Tennessee to visit Julie and girls.  Went to Nashville Zoo and enjoyed 80 degree weather in April!
• Boys spent 3 days with Grandma and Grandpa Nicola.  Swam in Papa’s “pool” (hot tub) and went on many nature walks.
• Easter

MAY

• Hannah took the YMCA babysitter course so she is officially ready to start babysitting!
• Band concert, Solo and Ensemble and Music Concert for school.  Rachel performed a solo and did a great job, Hannah was in an ensemble.  They both received 1’s for their performances.
• Matt’s brother, Francis, got married.  Matt was a groomsman.  It was a wonderful weekend with lots of playtime with cousins and of course a TON of food.

The biggest change in May was that Ben went back to school.  We had been  trying to make a decision about what to do for school this fall.  While homeschooling had many advantages there were some areas where we were both struggling.  We decided to enroll him this spring so that he would have placement for the fall.  He is going 1/2 days (reduced schedule) and is doing really well.  He has some stubborn difficult moments but they are able to get him back on task.  The best part is watching him interact with the kids on the playground.  The girls adore him, and follow him everywhere.  Can’t really blame them. For a few minutes out there on the playground he looks like a typical kid playing with everyone else. *sniff sniff* What’s great about this age is that the kids won’t leave him alone.  Especially the girls.  So it forces him out of his own world and into the “real” world. 

So that in a nutshell catches me up to June.  The kids are in their last week of school, the pool is up and I’m busy trying to get things planned for summer. I’m hoping to be a little more consistent with my blog posts over the summer. 

Randomness

		School Pics VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The last month has been pretty blah as far as school goes.  Ben has been very uncooperative and I have honestly been very unmotivated.  We did things but it really was the bare minimum.  So, for the next few weeks we’re working on ocean life.  This is something that interests Ben and I have some pretty cool projects planned.  I’m hoping this pushes us past our funk and we can finish the school year enjoying ourselves. 

Spring Fever

It officially hit this month.  The kids (especially Ben and Jacob) are getting restless and mom is getting very anxious to send them outside! 

 

Joseph brought the hockey sticks inside and set up the net at one end of the basement and pretty soon all three boys were playing.  Ben went out to the garage and found some skates. I was really surprised at how well he did on them.  It took about 45 minutes to agree on who got which stick but after that this kept them busy for almost 2 hours! 

Hannah and Rachel kept busy playing Basketball.  This was the first time for both of them.  The season was only 6 weeks so it was perfect to get them from Christmas to Spring.  Rachel starts soccer this week. 

Jacob has been sick for a few weeks.  He spent a lot of time cuddling with “my Hannah”. 

A is for Astronaut, V is for Valentine

Yay,  we had two weeks of uninterrupted school time!  This post will cover two weeks since I’m trying to get caught up from all the sick days and snow days.  We started a Solar System unit study.  I found some cute activities on another blog and we made them into a Space Lapbook. 

With the nicer weather, Ben was able to go out and draw with the sidewalk chalk.  I “caught” him drawing the solar system.  He named the planets for me and numbered them in order!

Here is Saturn, he was so proud of himself, and so was I. I thanked God immediately for the reassurance that it’s all sinking in!

 

A Verse – A calm answer turns away wrath.  We really worked on the application of this verse.  We talked about kind words vs. harsh words.  Yes, mom always needs a reminder lesson in this area too. 

We needed a new computer so the old one went in the school room.  This has been wonderful to use with them.  Both for educational games and for rewards for getting our school work done.  We’ve been able to pick out new games from the library each week.

Ben’s Space Lapbook

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Our Valentines themed week was really fun.  I found a ton of stuff off the internet to use.  Jacob really enjoyed this week and was really cooperative. 

		Valentines Week VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This week…

• Jacob worked on the letter V, number 8 and color Red.
• Our verse was “We should love one another” 
• We finished our books about the solar system. 
• The boys were very excited because I let them        watch Baby Galileo, which is a Baby Einstein video about the planets. 
• I made a Valentine Sensory Bin
• Painted coffee filter hearts.  Ben painted his black which was appropriate given his mood that day. :{
• We made GF/CF cupcakes for our Valentine dinner. 

We had a really good week and I felt a renewed spirit for school.  After the Cold of 2011 I was feeling defeated and overwhelmed.  I am very thankful for the past two weeks and am feeling motivated to keep on plowing through. 

The Great Cold/Blizzard of 2011

I’m about 2 weeks behind in everything, I mean my posts.  The first week of February we experienced not just the Blizzard of 2011 but the Cold of 2011.  It started with Hannah and very quickly passed through all five kids.  Hannah missed 8 days of school, luckily two of those were snow days.  The other kids missed 2-3 days.  At one point all five were lined up on the couch snuggled under blankets watching movies all day long. We went through 4 bottles of Ibuprofen, 5 boxes of kleenex and more loads of laundry than I could count.  Needless to say, if I wasn’t ready for spring before then I certainly am now! 

L is for Ladybug

This was my first week having both boys at home in the mornings.  Jacob started in the PreK class at school so he is now going in the afternoons.  So I’m now working with both boys.  It is more fun with two but much more challenging.  Ben is  more interested in Jacobs’ work than his own and Jacob can’t still for more than 2 seconds.  I think they enjoy having each other but I need to be more creative in how to work with both boys without pulling my hair out. 

 

 

I taught them the song “This little light of mine” (to go along with our L theme) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We worked on

• Life stages of a lady bug
• Information about insects.  They were so NOT interested in what I had to tell them about insects.  I did get them to sit and listen to some books. 
• Ben’s still working on addition facts, telling time and special sounds
• Jacob focused on the number 1, letter L and color yellow

The highlight of the week was a play date with their cousin Isaac.  They played with trains and then spent over two hours playing “Beach Day”.  They  found the swimsuits, and beach towels, then took turns jumping into the “water”.  It was great to see how well they played together and used their imaginations.