The Littlest at 18 months

Travelling.

Playing at Nana's.

Disturbing Math Lesson.

Winter Adventures at Cedarwood

We went to Camp Cedarwood for the weekend.  My husband, a pastor, was speaking for our church's young adults retreat.  Cedarwood is one of my boys favourite places to go.  Lots of room to run, inside and out, and lots of fun winter activities.  They had a blast.

Black-light air-hockey table.

While my husband was speaking, I took the boys outside to watch some ice fishing. We tagged along with one of the Cedarwood staff guys and his sons. A perfect ending to our Arctic studies.

The orange flag pops up if a fish is caught.  There were 6 ice fishing holes drilled with the auger.

Abishai and Micaiah love sledding at Cedarwood.  This year they went down by themselves.

Ice skates and broom hockey

A great weekend.

Homeschooling Away From Home

We just came back from a cabin in Kenora, where my husband retreated for a special church writing project.  While he was working, we were exploring a whole new world.  I brought two weeks worth of homeschooling materials. When we arrived, however, I decided to stick to the basics of math, reading and writing, and spend the rest of our time exploring nature, swimming at the town pool and touring the library.

Abishai working on place values early in the morning. Still dark outside.

Hunting for sasquatch.

Asher lounging in the Ergo and pondering the forest ceiling in a sleepy daze.

The steady stepping rhythm soon put him out.

 The boys sharpening their computer literacy.

They made paper plate ghosts, played with lego and computer games, and yes, read some books as well.

Even Asher had a place! 

Back at the cabin, they read their newly withdrawn "cooler" full of books. 

 And then cuddled.

I brought along some activities for Micaiah, for those "just in case" moments of boredom, but this number-sequencing activity is what ended up boring him.  Most of Micaiah's learning is through active play––as Charlotte Mason would advise for preschoolers.

Asher unconscious yet again on one of our wilderness explorations. 

 It snowed while we were there: so enchanting on the coniferous trees.

We found a new plant (to us) to touch and feel.  It was so soft.  I have yet to discover its name.  If you know, please tell me.

We went to church on Sunday, where Asher met ANOTHER Asher, only 7 months older than himself!

Staying Sane While Traveling

We have family who live seven hours away from us, so the drive can get pretty long, especially with two children under the age of three.  On our last trip, I wanted to have a pleasant seven hour ride, so I planned ahead and came up with several activities to keep the boys busy, hoping they would enjoy them.  Some of them are my own ideas, and some came from the Activity Mom (located in her travel section), and some came from Little Family Fun.  Most of the activities went over really well, and we ended up having a great and happy fourteen hour round trip.

I-spy jar.  I filled a glass jar with rice and different objects that the boys had to look for.  This activity didn't interest them.  They handed the jar back to me rather quickly.  Micaiah threw it on the floor. 

Clothes pins, rocks and pom poms for my baby to take out and put back.

Micaiah liked the colors and softness of the pom poms and the smoothness of the rocks.

Buttons and pipe cleaners.  When I saw this activity I thought this would be difficult.  I was wrong.  Abishai played with this for a really long time.

For this activity you're supposed to match alphabet stickers to the letters on the paper roll.  This activity would have gone over really well if I had larger stickers for his tiny hands.  We ended up having to abandon it. 

This activity, "match the pipe cleaner with the identically colored hole", was intended for just Abishai, but Micaiah didn't seem to have any trouble getting the pipe cleaner in the hole.  It became a baby activity as well as a toddler activity.

Abisahi matching the colors.

Snack time is very important for keeping my little ones happy.  We had a range of healthy snacks; raisins, juice, banana chips, bananas, and these crackers.  I normally don't buy crackers of any kind because the ingredients aren't healthy- even the supposedly "healthy" ones.  However, this box was new to the store shelf and didn't have anything in it that sounded like a chemical, so all you ingredient readers out there, my boys gobbled these up.

I-spy book.

A folder of Poo puzzles.

Lots and lots of books.

Matching letters again.  We were missing the E.

I had a few more activities planned like memory and a parking cars game, but we didn't have the time.  Next trip, I guess.