Adventure Day: Playground and Library

The weather has been so beautiful the past few days we have been outside for hours and hours!

Today we went for a nice drive and landed in a wonderful playground for several hours.

There were chases, secret missions, boat rides and such!





And then we ended at another new library.

I always love the responses I get from the librarians when I return a ton of books and tell them they are not from there library.

"You're from what town?"

"These books are from 5 different libraries!"

"Why?"

Simple answer- We love libraries and it is so cool to check out new ones, you never know what you will discover.

I love how I can browse the shelves for an hour and not get disturbed.

My boys are on the floor with about 20 books, absorbed.

Sometimes they play, but mostly they look!

We each have our own bag with one rule- you can check out as many as will fit in the bags.
Our bags have had to get bigger over the past few months because they just couldn't fit all the books we wanted.

I also have had to add many more baskets in their rooms and living room to accommodate the storage.

Books- a crazy but good habit.

Spring is Coming

Spring is Coming
Spring is Coming
Birdies build your nest
Weave straw and feather
Each doing his best
Spring is Coming
Spring is Coming
Flowers are coming too
Pansies. lilies, daffodilies
All are pushing through
Spring is coming
Spring is coming
All around is fair
Shimmer, quiver on the river
Joy is everywhere

(from Enki movement resource)

I'm doing it again.

I have been a bit stressed the past few weeks and wondering if I should use a set curriculum.

Wondering if and what exactly the boys are learning.

Am I doing enough?

And then I get this wonderful reminder........

This you see, are castles with their villages and moats surrounding them.

And this (below) is two days ago when we took out 10 non-fiction books on knights and castles and have been reading them every day,
and soaking up all the info.


So I took a deep breath and relaxed.

All is fine with the world.

Problem Solving

A few times a week William works through a problem from the book below. I copy it into a blank sketch book so it gives him more space for the drawing.
I had this from my previous teaching days. It includes 45 problems for each grade level. There are also books just for each grade level that include 180 problems.

I used these daily in my classroom and the kids always loved them.

William enjoys working through them. He is almost finished with the kindergarten ones; like I said we only do a few each week. (Plus, we are holding back the academics and encouraging play for a bit longer.)

Each level works through numbers in a variety of ways; such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, patterning, shapes, common attributes, fractions and more. It also starts with very basic reading skills and increases in difficulty.

It lets him be creative and gets him thinking about the different ways a problem can be solved.

Baking Day

We made Oreo cake today just for fun. It was mm mm good!

Adventure Day: The Children's Museum

We adventured out today to the children's museum. It is a rather small museum and kinda pricey compared to some others we have been to, but since it is part of a reciprocal program, we decided to check it out.

We saw a huge whale that we could walk inside of. It is the actual size of a real male sperm whale.

There were lots of hands on activities that kept their interest for 5- 10 minutes each.


A pretty cool jeep that they drove to the north pole and beyond.
Mining for special rocks.


Fossil excavating.

Plus there are:

Live animals: reptiles,snakes,turtles, a raccoon, a lynx, and a bobcat.

A room where they can build with Lego's, pop bubbles and become a weatherman.

A planetarium which we did not go to because the kids were not interested in seeing the show. It does cost extra.

It was a nice way to spend two hours.

Rating: B-

A Date

I had a "date" with my little one two weekends ago.(we have been a bit sick so I never got a chance to write about it)
Anyways, we went and had a little lunch- not quite what I has planned- but we got a flat tire on the way to our destination and had to take a little detour to get new tire.

Once our pit stop was done we headed to the "dinosaur" museum (not the official name).

We dug for fossils and felt some real ones.
Colored a hat and being such a sweet brother he had to take one home for William.



We listened and learned all about the dinosaurs: over and over!
It was fun to be one on one with him. In the past when Eric and Will would go out on their date, mine and Landon's would be at home since he needed his nap. But we are branching out. We are trying hard to have a "date" at least once a month with each of them.
It is a time to cherish how special each one of them really are. They are treasured moments had by all.