I had a whole bunch of candy leftover from making those fun butterflies and frogs last weekend, but I didn't quite know what to do with it. Then I got a great idea! Courtney has to take snacks to preschool tomorrow, so why not make sugar cookies (or buy them from the store), put frosting on them, and let Courtney use all the leftover candy to decorate them?
Sound like a plan to you? It sure did to me!
We spent an hour or so tonight decorating cookies, Courtney sure made some crazy ones! I would love to be at preschool tomorrow when she hands these out to her classmates. I would love to see their reactions!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The zoo
Here are the two things we went to see at the zoo last week.
The penguins:
the Japanese Spider crab:
I'm sure we will see these many more times!
The penguins:
the Japanese Spider crab:
I'm sure we will see these many more times!Monday, April 9, 2012
Summer School/ Readers/ Math/ Butterflies
Megan informed me today that she wants to keep going to school over the summer.
What?? I thought we would take about a 3 month break!
I guess if she really wants to...she said she really enjoys school and wants to keep learning. She did inform me that she wants to keep learning everything except for math, handwriting, and language arts. That leaves Bible, read-alouds, readers, science, and history.
That made me feel good. :)
Readers: Today we started a new chapter book for our readers. She is supposed to read this to me for the next two weeks. She read me the first chapter today and I put it away. Next thing I know, she has the book out of the cupboard and is reading it to herself! I asked her what she was doing and she replied, "Mom, I just have to know what happens!" Then she proceeds to finish the book. Two weeks ago, she did the same thing (read the book to herself before we could read it ouloud), so I had told her specifically that we were going to read this one outloud. That plan failed! Are we ever going to read books outloud again? I am definitely getting her the advanced readers for next year!
Math: Megan also informed me today that she wants to finish math earlier than planned. We have 27 lessons left and six weeks of school. This almost works out perfectly. (5 lessons every week and we're done in a little over 5 weeks). But her plan is to do 2 lessons each day so she can be done in about 3 weeks! Obviously, math isn't very challenging to her and I think she could easily manage two lessons a day. This might be an option!
Butterflies: Has anybody ever had caterpillars that have turned into chrysallises and then turned into butterflies? Megan's aunt gave her a butterfly kit last year for her birthday and we ordered the caterpillars last week to watch them grow. The caterpillars are already hanging upside down in their cup and are inside chrysallises. This has been so fun to watch! Pretty soon we are going to have butterflies! Then it may be onto lady bug land!
What?? I thought we would take about a 3 month break!
I guess if she really wants to...she said she really enjoys school and wants to keep learning. She did inform me that she wants to keep learning everything except for math, handwriting, and language arts. That leaves Bible, read-alouds, readers, science, and history.
That made me feel good. :)
Readers: Today we started a new chapter book for our readers. She is supposed to read this to me for the next two weeks. She read me the first chapter today and I put it away. Next thing I know, she has the book out of the cupboard and is reading it to herself! I asked her what she was doing and she replied, "Mom, I just have to know what happens!" Then she proceeds to finish the book. Two weeks ago, she did the same thing (read the book to herself before we could read it ouloud), so I had told her specifically that we were going to read this one outloud. That plan failed! Are we ever going to read books outloud again? I am definitely getting her the advanced readers for next year!
Math: Megan also informed me today that she wants to finish math earlier than planned. We have 27 lessons left and six weeks of school. This almost works out perfectly. (5 lessons every week and we're done in a little over 5 weeks). But her plan is to do 2 lessons each day so she can be done in about 3 weeks! Obviously, math isn't very challenging to her and I think she could easily manage two lessons a day. This might be an option!
Butterflies: Has anybody ever had caterpillars that have turned into chrysallises and then turned into butterflies? Megan's aunt gave her a butterfly kit last year for her birthday and we ordered the caterpillars last week to watch them grow. The caterpillars are already hanging upside down in their cup and are inside chrysallises. This has been so fun to watch! Pretty soon we are going to have butterflies! Then it may be onto lady bug land!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Easter Weekend
Easter weekend has come and gone. We celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. As Courtney's Cubbie verses says, "He is not here, he has risen!" And we are so thankful!!!
This year I decided to be a bit crafty for Easter. Not because I have a huge desire to be crafty, because honestly, I don't. I don't like art, I don't like crafts. I don't mind doing crafts though when I am given the instructions and they are simple enough. My kids really enjoying doing crafts, so I thought we could find something to do.
Earlier in the week, I started going through my craft books and found a couple of ideas. I found a way to make an African basket by weaving construction paper (Megan would enjoy) and I found a craft on how to make chicks out of egg cartons (Courtney would enjoy), so I gathered up everything I would need and we made Saturday our craft day. I also had had to make a salad and a dessert for our Easter gathering, so I wanted to do something different for those too.
Saturday came and we got busy with our crafts. Megan helped with the weaving on the baskets and we were so proud of the baskets when they were done! I know it would've been a whole lot easier to just go the store and buy them for $1, but it was totally worth it when Megan said, "Mom, I am having so much fun doing this!" I almost didn't want to give them away today! Once we got the hang of it, we made three in about an hour. Megan was "Snippy", "Gluey", and "Weavy." Such big helpers! Courtney ended up helping me on the last one. We made these for our cousins that were going to be at the family party on Sunday.
Next we made the chicks out of egg cartons. These turned out, but I didn't think they were as cute as the baskets. We had to paint them yellow after the glue dried. I don't have a final shot of them completed, but while Megan was painting them, she kept saying that she was drowing them in mustard. They are on the paper plate, if you want to see what they looked like.
We then put grass in the baskets and made them into Easter baskets. We put jelly beans in the back parts of the chicks and then put those in the Easter baskets too. I thought it all turned out very cute!
The butterfly cupcakes:
And of course, there was sneaky Christian who I caught reaching up over the counter and taking a licorice antenna off a butterfly. I looked over and my butterfly had one antenna and Christian has red licorice in his mouth. Pretty funny little man!
So our craft day was over. We never did get to dying Easter eggs, but we sure had fun weaving, painting, and making our cupcakes into animals!
This year I decided to be a bit crafty for Easter. Not because I have a huge desire to be crafty, because honestly, I don't. I don't like art, I don't like crafts. I don't mind doing crafts though when I am given the instructions and they are simple enough. My kids really enjoying doing crafts, so I thought we could find something to do.
Earlier in the week, I started going through my craft books and found a couple of ideas. I found a way to make an African basket by weaving construction paper (Megan would enjoy) and I found a craft on how to make chicks out of egg cartons (Courtney would enjoy), so I gathered up everything I would need and we made Saturday our craft day. I also had had to make a salad and a dessert for our Easter gathering, so I wanted to do something different for those too.
Saturday came and we got busy with our crafts. Megan helped with the weaving on the baskets and we were so proud of the baskets when they were done! I know it would've been a whole lot easier to just go the store and buy them for $1, but it was totally worth it when Megan said, "Mom, I am having so much fun doing this!" I almost didn't want to give them away today! Once we got the hang of it, we made three in about an hour. Megan was "Snippy", "Gluey", and "Weavy." Such big helpers! Courtney ended up helping me on the last one. We made these for our cousins that were going to be at the family party on Sunday.
Next we made the chicks out of egg cartons. These turned out, but I didn't think they were as cute as the baskets. We had to paint them yellow after the glue dried. I don't have a final shot of them completed, but while Megan was painting them, she kept saying that she was drowing them in mustard. They are on the paper plate, if you want to see what they looked like.
We then put grass in the baskets and made them into Easter baskets. We put jelly beans in the back parts of the chicks and then put those in the Easter baskets too. I thought it all turned out very cute!
My last project was to make cupcakes. I had found two different kinds. One set of cupcakes was going to have butterflies on them, the other set was going to have frogs (or "raw, raw" as Christian says." I kind of had to improvise for the frogs because I couldn't find the right candy, but it worked.
The frog cupcakes:
The butterfly cupcakes:
And of course, there was sneaky Christian who I caught reaching up over the counter and taking a licorice antenna off a butterfly. I looked over and my butterfly had one antenna and Christian has red licorice in his mouth. Pretty funny little man!
So our craft day was over. We never did get to dying Easter eggs, but we sure had fun weaving, painting, and making our cupcakes into animals!Thursday, April 5, 2012
Excited!
Is anybody else as excited to go to the zoo today as I am?? Really, I am excited!
They remodeled the aquarium and it is opening today.
Courtney CAN'T wait to see the penguins and Megan has been taking a class on the underwater animals for the last two months and we finally get to see these things we have been studying about. We are anxious to see the Japanese spider crab, the anemenos, crustacaens, jelly fish, and anything else we can find. It's going to be sooo interesting!!!
Now this is learning made fun!
Anybody have an exhibit on Louis XIV anywhere? Or the Reformation? Or even the Renaissance? (These are our history topics as of late.)
PS Who is having way too much fun homeschooling her children? Oh yah, that would be me!!
They remodeled the aquarium and it is opening today.
Courtney CAN'T wait to see the penguins and Megan has been taking a class on the underwater animals for the last two months and we finally get to see these things we have been studying about. We are anxious to see the Japanese spider crab, the anemenos, crustacaens, jelly fish, and anything else we can find. It's going to be sooo interesting!!!
Now this is learning made fun!
Anybody have an exhibit on Louis XIV anywhere? Or the Reformation? Or even the Renaissance? (These are our history topics as of late.)
PS Who is having way too much fun homeschooling her children? Oh yah, that would be me!!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Bye-Bye!
I love it when I put Christian to bed. I have read him books, said prayers, sang songs and he is finally in his bed. I usually say, "Good night Christian, I love you" as I turn to walk away. Do you know what he says back? "Bye, bye" like he's kicking me out or something.
I think it's cute every single time he does it! But someday he'll get it right!
I think it's cute every single time he does it! But someday he'll get it right!
Monday, April 2, 2012
New Appreciation for Bugs
Learning about bugs lately has given me a new appreciation for them.
After digging in the dirt last week and learning about grubs and Japanese beetles, I don't think they're so bad now and since their life cycle is so neat, I should let them live! Courtney's preschool teacher must have said one day, "Bugs have a life to live too!" so she wants to let them live too.
Well, I had the same thought go through my mind today as I saw a black spider crawl down my kitchen wall during breakfast. My first thought was to kill it! Get a fly-swatter and smack it right there! My second thought was that that would probably make Matt mad. We just had our kitchen walls painted last year and this spider had a pretty thick body. It would probably leave ooze and guts all over our walls (right Matt?).
My third thought was to kill it on the floor. I went and got the fly swatter and batted it off the wall. Unfortunately, it curled up into a ball and went into the heating vent on the floor. I pulled the cover off and started poking around trying to find it. I determined that it was dead and decided to let it be.
After 5-10 minutes, I had second thoughts about the poor spider. I thought we should get a container and get him out of the heating vent. Then we could study him! So I went and found a bucket and a sand scoop and was going to scoop him out. I took the cover back off the heating vent and found him. When I touched him, the spider unwound himself and took off down the vent! I really wanted him now, but he was gone! Apparently he wasn't dead!
I got another good look at him (black with a red spot on his back, short little legs) so Courtney- my new little biologist- and I could find out what kind he was on the computer. We searched and searched and we never found a picture that looked like him. I kept coming up with a black widow, but the legs were different. So I don't know what it was- I am so disappointed.
So now I've got a little arachnophobia. Since he went into the vent, I think he's going to come out of a vent in another room and scare me! I have been on my guard all morning for this little spider.
After digging in the dirt last week and learning about grubs and Japanese beetles, I don't think they're so bad now and since their life cycle is so neat, I should let them live! Courtney's preschool teacher must have said one day, "Bugs have a life to live too!" so she wants to let them live too.
Well, I had the same thought go through my mind today as I saw a black spider crawl down my kitchen wall during breakfast. My first thought was to kill it! Get a fly-swatter and smack it right there! My second thought was that that would probably make Matt mad. We just had our kitchen walls painted last year and this spider had a pretty thick body. It would probably leave ooze and guts all over our walls (right Matt?).
My third thought was to kill it on the floor. I went and got the fly swatter and batted it off the wall. Unfortunately, it curled up into a ball and went into the heating vent on the floor. I pulled the cover off and started poking around trying to find it. I determined that it was dead and decided to let it be.
After 5-10 minutes, I had second thoughts about the poor spider. I thought we should get a container and get him out of the heating vent. Then we could study him! So I went and found a bucket and a sand scoop and was going to scoop him out. I took the cover back off the heating vent and found him. When I touched him, the spider unwound himself and took off down the vent! I really wanted him now, but he was gone! Apparently he wasn't dead!
I got another good look at him (black with a red spot on his back, short little legs) so Courtney- my new little biologist- and I could find out what kind he was on the computer. We searched and searched and we never found a picture that looked like him. I kept coming up with a black widow, but the legs were different. So I don't know what it was- I am so disappointed.
So now I've got a little arachnophobia. Since he went into the vent, I think he's going to come out of a vent in another room and scare me! I have been on my guard all morning for this little spider.
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