The girls' room

The curtains are finally in and the girls' room is complete. Well, almost, truthfully the inside of the closet is still not totally organized. Anyway, here are the pictures with the closet doors shut! The room is a little cluttered and I wish I could go in there and remake the beds and reorganize their stuff, but I want them to take pride in the way they keep their room. As long as it is picked up and clean basically, I am not going to fix it. So they make their own beds now.

Genevieve's bed: Her room has always been decorated around her Monet pictures. The colors from the few paintings I chose were brought out in the mats and then in the bedding, and, likewise, the themes of flowers and gardens were brought out through the butterflies and flowers. Her part of the room is still decorated that way.

Hannah's bed: Hannah's room has always been decorated around the Degas paintings of ballerinas. Similar to Genna's, it has colors and ballerinas from the paintings throughout her bedding and decor. In the corner, we have made a reading corner with pillows, stuffed animals, and a book shelf chalk full of books. It has a lantern hang above it and Hannah's quilt that was made for and given to her as a baby on the wall.

At the foot of Genna's bed is this toy box that I found at Target. It just matched so perfectly!

So that is their room! They love it and surprisingly share a room remarkably well to date!

Rule Recitation

Isaac may just be taking after Hannah in this rule following business. He recites rules throughout the day. When we climb the stairs we says, "On my knees. Not slide on my bottom." When he sees our cuckoo clock from Germany, he says, "Don't touch it. It will fall on my head. Only Daddy touches it." When we go to Mass he says, "Be quiet and stay with mom." When he starts to run in the house, he suddenly remembers and says, "Ok, don't run in the house. Daddy says." When we are out in a store, he says, "Look with my face." (This is his version of my rule, "Look with your eyes, not with your hands." I. love. it. And I really love him! Who wouldn't?

Cuddly and Lovable Isaac!

Coloring To Go

I love this fabric! This was fun to make, but not a one hour project like I usually prefer (you know with the whole lack of free time thing, it's just more doable.) That said, it didn't take that long.

This is for another birthday party. I added a reading light so she is all set to color in the car even if it is dark. I really want to make more. Maybe as Christmas gifts?

Next time I definitely will make a larger binding so that when it is full of crayons, markers and coloring books, it with fold nicer. And let me give A Girl and a Glue Gun credit for this idea!

Now go color!

The Soccer Decision

Hannah always said that soccer was a boy game and she had no interest in playing. However, after our mini soccer lesson back during B week and they announced at church the extended deadline for registration, she said she wasn't sure. So we were discussing as a family what she was unsure about and it comes out. The truth I already suspected, she wasn't sure about the clothes she would have to wear. Figures. My little princess doesn't like clothes that are tight, itchy, have buttons or zippers, have layers, or are puffy. And the list goes on. We make her wear things she doesn't like sometimes since her list is very limiting. She didn't want to have to wear the shin guards, thick and long socks, and tennis shoes for two hours a week. We talked her through that issue and said it is only 6 or 7 weeks and only a couple of hours a week. She agreed to try it for one season and see if she liked it. Here's my soccer girl!

Ok, so she needed a pre-game pep talk since the shin guard-sock-shoe combo didn't feel good. But she is a cutie despite the pouting.

Warm-up time

She ran a ton!

She tried her best!

She is a little timid, and we will have to work on being a little more aggressive. I think she thought they were supposed to share the ball with her so she could have a turn too. I guess I have to explain this is the only time she is allowed to take things away from someone else, huh?

She had fun, at least until the last thirty seconds when she got the ball kicked into her stomach. That was a bummer, but a learning experience also.

Genna and Isaac are chomping at the bit to play soccer one day as well. I hope some of them play sports long term because I love being a soccer mom! I bet my parents are looking at these pictures think it brings them back to when I played soccer. I think I looked just like this little girl with blond braids running around in a pack of kids trying to learn to play soccer. Go #10!

Nature Center Field Trip

Today we went to learn about birds of prey at one of the local nature centers with our new home-school group called TORCH. The older kids, Hannah included, got to dissect an owl pellet which, in case you didn't know, is basically owl puke. The point was to see what kind of prey the owl was eating by looking at the parts of the prey that could not be digested. Super gross, but cool none the less. Hannah even got to bring home some of the little bones and teeth that she found in her pellet. The boys were entirely more knowledgeable and pumped about e whole subject of birds of prey than the girls, but Hannah's favorite part was the dissecting so I guess it wasn't too gross to her.

Bald Eagle

We met lots of other five year old children. Yea!

Need a smile?

Well, here you go!

C week

You are really going to be sick of the alphabet path if I keep doing this, huh? And we're only on C! Right now the alphabet is my life, so that's all I've got. I'll work on some posts unrelated to any letter in the alphabet soon. I promise! But for now...

Monday: C is for Cezanne. We learned all about him and what a still life is. Here are the girl's still life drawings...C is for Confirmation

C is for Cookie. Dessert, obviously.Tuesday: C is for Career. We read a book and discussed different careers.

C is for Cat. A cat color by number page for the girls and a regular cat coloring page for Isaac.

C is for Creation. We read the story and the kids all created their own worlds on paper plates with food and ate their work as part of their lunch.

My favorite are the ranch dressing clouds!

Wednesday: C is for Coins and Counting. We will read a book about each and learn about coin values to replace their math lessons today.

C is for Collages. We discuss what a collage is and make them.

Thursday: C is for Cows, Carrots, and Chickens. We will read books about them.

C is for Catch-up. We will catch up on anything we haven't completed for the week.

Friday: Field trip to the Nature Center with the homeschooling group. This will be our first get together with the group and I am hopeful that we will meet some people and get more information about the area.

Accidental Learning

Tonight at dinner, the girls were showing their daddy that they learned their months of the year and days of the week after practicing them everyday since school started. The girls both get tripped up on October every time, but they know the rest of the months. When they got stuck after September, Isaac says, "October!" He is the first one to ever remember October! I didn't even know he was paying attention, but apparently he also knows the days of the week. Surprise!

Butterfly Museum

The Smithsonian has a butterfly museum and, let me just say, it is so amazing! It is definitely worth the trip out there, even with getting three little ones on the metro. I went with a friend who has four children and her older kids were out of school that day which proved to be a life saver. We both had strollers and there were escalators everywhere but I never found an elevator. There's got to be one somewhere, but since we had two extra sets of hands, we folded up the strollers and headed to the escalators. Isaac wanted to try getting on and off the escalators without me holding him and he did super. He is pretty good at listening and following directions for a two year old.

In the butterfly museum, we met one of the staff who really took to our group and led us through asking the kids questions and letting them hold butterflies on a paintbrush. Hannah answered some great questions using her observational skills. She noticed the differences between the butterflies and the moths when the lady asked. Genna surprised me with some answers to her questions that Hannah had forgotten. She recognized the monarch from our books, and was interested to learn how to tell a male from a female monarch by a spot on its wings. Isaac really enjoyed the exhibit as well, but he did not like the butterflies landing on him. He watched one hang out for a while on my head though. Hannah was dying for a butterfly to land on her after reading one of the library books the night before called, Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly, where Velma wants one to land on her so badly and they keep landing on everyone else. Right before she leaves one lands on her, and the same thing happened to Hannah. But in the story the butterfly won't ever leave Velma's finger, and Hannah's butterfly friend landed on her shoulder only briefly. My favorite part was watching the butterflies drink nectar with their proboscis rolling and unrolling. Tame butterflies will let you get a lot closer than ones in nature, obviously. We had one casualty. A butterfly was stepped on. I guess my kids did not get my sensitivity for animals since I was much more distraught about this than they were.

Holding a butterfly on a paintbrush

The staff member teaching Genna something

Isaac getting an up close look at a butterfly stupidly landing on the ground

Next to the butterfly museum was the bug zoo. Since bug begins with B, we had to stop by there as well. Isaac got to hold a giant grasshopper and Hannah held a caterpillar. We missed the tarantula feeding unfortunately. But we did get to see a bunch of brand new butterflies just out of their chrysalises. Isaac really liked watching the bees.

The bees

The Grasshopper

Then the bone museum was next. Hannah was excited to see the bones of the ear. She knows the names of all of them because somehow she was asking questions about ears and so she has this random fact. They all liked looking at the skeletons, but Isaac was getting hungry at this point so he was less enthused. We ate lunch and hopped, I mean, slowly made our way onto the Metro again where Isaac fell fast asleep on me for the trip home.

Everyone's favorite moments from the field trip...

Hannah- When the butterfly landed on her, and (and I quote) "When I told the lady the moth's antenna were different and she looked at you like I knew everything." Yes, she seriously said that was her favorite part! The funny thing is the lady did turn and look at me with that amazed look. I am sure she thought Hannah wouldn't know what it meant or notice. I am sure there is a lesson in here that I am supposed to teach her, but that was just plain funny.

Genna- Seeing a chrysalis and holding a butterfly on the paintbrush.

Isaac- He seemed to enjoy the bees the most.

B is for Ball

Instead of crafts, we decided to go to the park and play ball. I tried to teach them how to properly kick a ball which Hannah picked up pretty quickly. Then we practiced dribbling the ball. My secret motive is to get Hannah to want to play soccer. They have a league for kindergartners at our church. I think it is working too.

Then I let them go play on the playground. Isaac enjoyed the big kid swings for the first time. In fact, I couldn't get him off. The weather is really nice here right now, and we will probably be outside a bit more to enjoy it while it lasts.

Feast of the Exhaltation of the Holy cross

The kids all made a cross to adorn our dinner table and I made this basil focaccia bread in the shape of a cross (sort of) adding sun dried tomatoes for the five wounds of Christ. I found this idea online this summer, but I didn't write down from whence it came and I can't find it now, of course. It was yummy!

Travel Felt Board Gift

Here is a travel felt and flannel board I made for a birthday gift for the girls' friend.

There is a pouch to hold the felt pieces which when placed inside like this...

will stay put since it is flannel and there is some velcro to keep the whole thing closed when it is being carried like this...

The last of the A's

Apple dumplings and apples stuffed with maple sausage (not shown) with apples bought from the orchard market.

Finger print ant picnic place-mats: Hannah is putting the finishing touches on hers before bed since the paint had dried.

Now I have to put the clear contact paper over it so we can use it as a place-mat.

Where did I go?

You may have noticed my sudden absense from my blog. We are having some computer problems, so I will be back and have to back-post a lot when my husband gets it fixed.

How did we do?

Overall the week went very well especially considering the surprise doctor appointment and the Labor Day holiday giving us a late start. Here is an overview of what worked and what needs fine-tuning.

Things that worked:

-I got (SOLO) morning prayer time by getting up at 6am.
-We got to Mass on time and it got our day started on the right foot.
-Reading lessons went great with both girls. No complaining thanks to my reward TV incentive.
-Isaac, for the most part, did not distract us too much. He joined in from time to time, and he played by himself well the rest of the time.
-The kids loved the library books and the songs we sang.
-The girls both memorized their memory verse and the definition of a sacrament.
-Both girls know most of the days of the week and the months of the year already.
-I exercised two afternoons with a friend.

Things that need work:

-I was getting to be entirely too late and still had absolutely not one minute to sew or craft all week long. Well, I did sew a pocket for my husband, but it probably took three minutes and that was because I had to wind the bobbin. I am going through sewing withdrawal. Maybe Sunday! But the point is, I think I need just a tad more time to get household things done when the kids are awake and not resting so that one or two days a week I can sew during rest time.
-Dinner was late nearly every night. This made in impossible to do both the rosary and baths and get to bed on time. So on bath nights, family rosary did not happen.
-Isaac really needs room time, but I am having a hard time finding time to retrain him in that area. All summer he hasn't had anything like that.
-We overdid it on the crafts just a bit. I need to pick my favorites and let the rest go. I have a hard time accepting that I can't do everything.
-We spent too much time on math. I think I am going to have to go at a slower pace with the math.

A wonderful thing happened though on Friday morning to affirm our decision to homeschool. We did not go to Mass because we were going to the orchard. When we ate breakfast, Hannah asked if we were going to Mass. I said we weren't and after she cleaned up her dishes, she came and asked me if she could go to her room and pray. Of course! She was coloring after that at the kitchen table when Genna and Isaac got into a fight. She barely looked up and said in this quiet voice, "Genna, don't you remember that a soft answer turns away wrath?" That was our memory verse for the week. Genna just looked at her with a blank expression and said, "No. I just want that cement mixer back." Oh, I am one happy mom! I said earlier this week that I should be paid for this, and I think I just was.

Field Trip Day: The Orchard

The intent was to pick apples, but unfortunately apple picking starts tomorrow and they wouldn't even let us see the apple fields today. Bummer! I guess that means we definitely have to go back soon to get some apples.

Alternate plan, not so A week inspired, was raspberry picking! So fun! I was able to tie in the lesson from our How do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro since the basic parts of the fertilization are the same and the parts of the flower, like the stamen, pistil, etc are all present. We did buy some apples to make apple dumplings this weekend.

Lots of pictures!

Hannah was a great berry picker. She was on a mission and picked more than anybody.

Genna, sfter being instructed not to eat them until after they had been weighed and paid for (and washed,) just kept saying how good they looked and how hard it was for her not to eat them. What a sweetie!

I tried to show the kids a couple of insects I found. When I pointed out (rather excitedly) the bee that was getting nectar from the flower and helping with pollination, Isaac let out a brief girlish scream. He was smashing more berries than he was picking with those giant pudgy fingers of his.

After an hour-ish, they were so done!



We have an ant craft that we did today also, but it needs final touches after the paint dries before I can take pictures and post it. I plan to do an evaluation of our first week tomorrow. So until then...