Gardens and Bugs

Our homeschool group has been doing unit studies this term.
This particular week was part of our garden and bugs study.
The children REALLY seemed to enjoy the activities and topics for the day!

There was play dough to explore and play with while we waited for everyone to arrive.
All the children enjoyed it but especially the "pre" preschoolers!

Observing AND feeding the Venus Fly Trap was probably the highlight for everyone - adults included!

We examined the root system of this pea plant.

This giant garden slug would have to be Monster's second favourite part of the day.

Having a close look at a Cicada shell.

Then it was time for some craft.
"B" enjoyed making a flower garden.

"A" also enjoyed creating some flowers...

Some of the finished products.

Monkey made his own special creation!

"School" for Monkey

I get lots and lots of questions about how homeschooling works for our family.
So periodically I will address questions and issues that people raise.
One question people ask me a lot is how I manage school with Monster while also looking after Monkey, who will turn three in July.

I don't want to do anything too formal with him yet... mainly because he is showing no interest in formal schoolwork. So we go with the flow and I follow his lead. Most days he plays with toys and does a good job of finding his own thing to do.

But often times he wants to "do school" like his big brother. So I give him a little activity... or he will ask for something specific he wants to do.

On this particular day...

While Monster sat at the kitchen bench (counter) doing his book work...

Monkey sat at the dining room table and drew circles... LOTS of circles...

Then he moved to the art easel and drew even MORE circles...
they seem to be an obsession!!

Hosting Homeschool Group

Periodically only a few families from our homeschool group can attend our weekly session and then we hold it at someone's house. I offered up our house this week and the boys were SO excited to have all their friends come over.

Straight after breakfast we got to work preparing scones for morning tea.
While the dough rested the boys enjoyed eating some plain flour!!
I thought it was disgusting but they both said it tasted nice.

There was even time to read a story together...

Taking turns cutting out the scones.
Monster was happy to do circles but Monkey insisted on other shapes!!

One of the mums teaching the children how to fold origami whales.

Monster preparing his "sandy beach"

I was proud of the Monkey for waiting very patiently to take his turn.
One of the things I love about our homeschool group is that the younger siblings are always included if they want to participate.

Friday Fun Day

Friday dawned rainy and dreary and too yucky to travel to homeschool group so we stayed home and I planned a full day with lots of extra activities. The boys had a blast and I really enjoyed myself as well.

First off, I decided it was high time to let the boys have some fun with water colour paints.
So I draped the dining room table with thick layers of newspaper, put a bib on Monkey, and let them go. I wasn't sure how they would like it or how long they would stick with it, so I was pleasantly surprised when they painted for well over 90 minutes.
I have some beautiful pictures to put in to their new art books for this year.

The weather was cool enough to allow some baking.
We decided to make a batch of ham, cheese, and zuchinni muffins.
The boys LOVE them and Monster really enjoyed helping by grating all the zuchinni for me even though his arms got quite sore.
Below is the finished product and boy were they yummy!!

The boys had received a gingerbread cookie decorating kit for Christmas from some friends of ours so I set them up at the table with everything they would need.

I put the frosting on Monkey's cookie for him, but with the help of the small spoon, he was able to place his sprinkles pretty much exactly where he wanted them.

Monster's finished product was pretty spectacular.

And though this is only one example, we did do some book work throughout the day as well.
I am looking forward to more Friday Fun days!

Mid Week Activities

Our first week of school flew by.
Here are a selection of photos showing some of our activities from Tuesday to Thursday.

An early morning matching game for the Monkey!
He LOVES this set of Thomas the Tank Engine cards he got from some friends of ours.

Chalk drawing on the way to and from library for Monster.

Somehow our walks to the library on Tuesdays almost always turn in to nature walks.
This week we spotted this Cicada skin on the telephone pole.

We got a start on the 500 piece Map of the World puzzle from Auntie Heather.
This was an evening activity as Monkey is simply too young and would have caused problems.

Monkey LOVES to draw while Monster is doing his book work for the day.

Finding information books is a highlight of our library trips now.
This book was a favourite for the week.

The Wii is very helpful for burning extra energy on rainy days.

Our puzzle progress after only three nights - Monster did most of the work - I only helped occasionally.