Little Nino's Pizzeria

Little Nino's Pizzeria by Karen Barbour tells the story of Tony, a little boy who helps his father in the family pizzeria until the restaurant gets so successful that it is sold to open a fancier place.  Nino learns an important lesson about being an entrepreneur and about happiness.

Abishai loved this book.  We read it over and over, enjoying all the pictures and taking time to look and observe all the colours and art work.

We observed all that goes into making a pizza - dough, meat, vegetables, sauce.  You can make a wide variety of combinations for pizzas.  We studied the food groups and arranged them into their proper categories.  Micaiah is colouring the foods that belong in each group.

Abishai did a food group sort.  

This activity was kind of a waste of time. By doing this activity, I discovered that the boys already knew their food groups.  I guess as a family we talk a lot about food and health, and the boys have already picked up on all of this.  This is to show you that "unschooling" can be an effective method of teaching children.  But it takes a secure and confident parent to "unschool" and I am not that.

While rowing Little Nino's, we discovered homonyms.  So I picked up lots of books to build on that idea.

Amelia Bedelia loves homonyms, so Abishai read lots of Amelia Bedelia books. Abishai thought she was funny.  He couldn't wait to see what crazy thing she would do next.

We also took a look at idioms.  I even learned two or three new ones myself.  I had never heard of "a bolt from the blue".  I have already used it a few time in conversation with Daren since reading about it.

We took a look at artists like Matisse.  We read about his life and looked at a couple of his paintings.

Abishai loves painting so he asked to paint after looking at Matisse's work.

Pizza is a great way to introduce fractions.  Thank you Melissa and Doug!

 I wrote down some fractions and Abishai added the toppings.

Voila, Abishai's fraction pizza. 

We are learning subtraction in math so I grabbed this book from the library.

We made our own pizza!  Spelt pizza of course.  This was our first time ever.

Grating lots and lots of cheese!

It looks good, but did it taste good?  Noooo it didn't.  I baked it at too high of a temperature for too long.  It started to burn before the crust was cooked.  Next time I will bake it at a lower temperature.  The boys and I thought it was gross, but my husband surprisingly enjoyed it.  He's so easy to please!

Life Science video that recapped some of our previous lessons.

In Life Science we're learning about our body.  Blood vessels this week.

I've been reading Paddle to the Sea to the boys during lunch each day.  A geography story book on the Great Lakes.  

I've also been reading them a chapter or two a day from Charlotte's Web.  Abishai saw the movie before I was able to read the book to him.  How did that happen!  I was so disappointed to learn that. 

Spelling.

Teaching the boys (and my husband) how to set a table.

Snacks and cuddle times.  Saltless pretzels.  Who eats saltless pretzels?

Whats a day without house work?  Asher learning to sort.

Abishai asked for an allowance.  So my husband and I thought of extra things that he could do around the house to make money.  

I found these jars at the Dollar Store and printed off the pigs from fourpiggies.com.  My husband and I are teaching Abishai about long term saving for bigger items and about tithing and giving back to God.  So far, Abishai has shown restraint with his money, especially after discovering how hard it is to work and save up for things.  He took his money to the store to buy something the other day, but came home with nothing because he couldn't find anything that was really worth spending it on.  

Play.  I found these two in library quietly reading.

Asher's daily play.

Outside play.

The Salamander Room

For the last two weeks we rowed The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer.

"A boy finds a salamander in the woods and imagines the many things he can do to turn his room into a perfect salamander home..."

Salamanders need a lot of things to survive, and one of those is insects.  Sooo, we read some books on crickets and butterflies, one of them being a chapter book called The Cricket in Times Square, which solidified what we already learned in Chirping Crickets.  We also read a few of the Crinkleroot's guide books on nature.

We read about how to care for salamanders, and why they're called amphibians, which led to exploring other categories in the classification system of the animal kingdom, especially vertebrates.

Abishai sorted vertebrates into their proper classes. Since salamanders are amphibians, we discussed others animals that fit into that class.

We made a list of things we would need if Abishai had a salamander for a pet.

Abishai then drew a picture of the things salamanders need for survival.

We looked at life cycle pictures of a salamander.

Since bullfrogs were mentioned in The Salamander Room, we looked at the life cycle of frogs as well.  

Another animal that goes through a metamorphosis is the butterfly, and since they were illustrated in the book, we read about them as well. We read a book on the Monarch (shown below) and learned some fascinating things about them.

Abishai dictated a story about a salamander and then illustrated it.

The boys are making clay salamanders here.  I took several pictures but all of them turned out blurry and had to be deleted; too bad.  

Ready to be baked for an hour.

Painting time.

The finished clay salamanders.

Abishai enjoys Arnold Lobel's books.  He finished Uncle Elephant this week.

In grammar studies, Abishai learned how to address an envelope, and also ordered the months of the year.

Micaiah has joined Abishai in gym class this semester.  He's a natural athlete, and is enjoying gym a lot.  

Baby Gilead's bath time.  It became a family event as all 3 boys wanted to watch.

Lots of loving on Gilead.  Micaiah in particular seems to have bonded with him.

Gilead gave Micaiah his first smile.

Asher's language skills are growing more and more each day.  He's becoming such a big boy.

These two get along really well.  Abishai has chosen Asher as a roommate.

Winter rides.

Games.

Micaiah asked if he could help with lunch.  He really is a help.

Our breakfast bar was taken up with puzzling so we had breakfast in front of the fireplace.

Abishai lit the fire––his first time doing it on his own.  Responsibility develops maturity.

Morning breakfast with coffee by the fire!  It was so cozy.

Micaiah and Abishai exploring the Natural History Museum on the iPad.
Cuddle time with my boys.

It seems like lego time happens all day long.  If it wasn't for this memory blog it would feel like lego is all that happens in this house.

Micaiah made this during his quiet time.

Abishai trying to write a story, but being distracted by his brother's antics. 

 

Fort-making.  So much snow this year!