I've been slowing down with my blogging lately. Since spring has arrived, my work load has doubled. Not only do I have homeschooling, house work, meals to prep and 4 children to care for, but now I have yard work and gardening to add to the list as well. Do you know how hard it is to get yard work done with 4 children at your heels? Almost impossible. Now don't get me wrong, I love doing yard work! Yes, I really do. I love mowing the grass, digging my fingers in the dirt (no gloves here), planting and pulling weeds. I have vision and goals, but never the time to do it! It took me weeks to get a small garden ready for planting (which is still not planted) and from my perspective and probably most everyone else's as well, it still looks like I haven't worked on it! Five minutes after I get out there to work, I find myself stopping to attend to a crying baby, or siblings that are fighting, or helping someone put their shoes on after trampolining or to turn around to who ever is asking me to "Look at me Mommy! Look what I can do!" It's non-stop. How I accomplish anything at all often puzzles me. Anyways, that's my rant on why my blogging has slowed down.
Here's some of what we've been up to over the last couple of weeks in addition to all those things.
Garage sales! A quick bite to eat in between houses.
Mother's Day celebrations!
Spring walks.
A new spelling program! Which we love and are almost done! Abishai has grown leaps and bounds because of this program. It's called All About Spelling.
Our spelling box.
Swimming lessons!
My dad helping to put in a rain barrel to water my garden.
Trampolining with their cousin.
Social Studies: learning about their neighbourhood.
The boys mapping their neighbourhood.
Reading practice about Christopher Columbus and tracking his journey on the globe.
Picnics with fellow homeschooling friends.
Bike rides through local forests.
Riding at the skate park.
Our home life over the last week or so.
Micaiah making tally marks with coloured popsicle sticks.
Micaiah made a math equation out of our supper. Can you see it? "4+3=7 Mommy!"
I took out some easy readers from our library for Micaiah to practice with. He loved these and read them over and over for 3 weeks until it was time to return them.
Science. Red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma and platelets. I often explain how the white blood cells are the super heroes of our body, who fight off the villains, aka germs. I then sneak in the opportunity to talk about the importance of giving the Super Hero's of our body extra boosts of fighting power by eating healthy foods and reducing sugar intake to almost nil (since sugar enhances the fighting power of villains). My boys love this way of talking. It makes sense to them and they quickly get on board.
We also covered how we breathe.
A booklet on the 4 seasons and their months. Abishai did a title page for each one.
Science: magic potion; a chemical reaction.
I started to take apart our Easter Garden, but before I threw it completely in the garbage, I wanted to show the boys how vegetation stops soil erosion. I let them pick up the clumps of soil that had grass growing in them, to show how grass keeps it together. Then, I picked up the soil without grass to show them how loose the soil was and how easily it fell from my fingers.
Three homeschooling families gathered together at Youth For Christ's gym to have a morning of fun and games. Three moms and 11 children. It was a blast! Thanks to my friends who did all the planning and organizing.
More science. Solids, liquids and gases. This was a little taste of what Abishai will be learning next year.
Liquids. Which container holds the most liquid? Micaiah guessed the blue and Abishai guessed the green. I poured all three, one at a time, into a measuring cup to show them that they all contained the same amount of liquid, emphasizing that liquid takes the shape of its container.
More science again: plants. We're growing tomato plants and a mix of sunflowers.
We're still on our journey across the country with Wow Canada. We've just entered Ontario.
Morning devotions and prayer time led by Daddy. Daren reads a passage and then each family member takes their turn to pray to start the day. The other morning Asher (2.5 yrs) prayed, "Help Daddy to write a good sermon. Help mommy have a good night, Micaiah have a good night, Abishai have a good night and Gilead have a good night. Amen" Asher loves to pray and often insists he prays at every meal.
Sibling love!
Abishai's 1st purchase with his allowance money. He saved for 8 weeks to buy the Megatron transformer and waited another 3 weeks for it to come in the mail. It finally was waiting for him in the mailbox after swimming lessons one day. Abishai was so excited and so proud.
Little Gilead! He gets everyone's attention.
Skip counting dot-to-dot. Can you guess who's doing math for fun? That's right: Micaiah!
Our new/used Kijiji purchase.
Baby Gilead maxin & relaxin!
Baby playtime!
