Because we were taking Monday as a resting day, the kids and I did not do our weekly trip to the library. This meant I needed to find a substitute for Tiny Tummies (Kodiak's infant and toddler nutrition group). Tanya totally stepped up (she'll be taking over as of January 1st), and it was a trial by fire situation for her. She picked up the infant scale at my house and showed up to the library to a packed room! It was one of the highest volume days the group has seen all year. Fortunately there was another mom there that had also taken the breastfeeding peer counselor course that was able to help answer some questions. I'd love to see the group change locations to an area that the toddlers can run and play while the moms talk. I've made a few phone calls and will hopefully get something figured out soon.
By Tuesday morning, everyone was back up to par. We went to another homeschooling family's house for a play date. Between the two of us, there were 6 kids ages 7 and under. Angela told us the story of Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. It had a great lesson to it about being happy with what you have. In the story, oobleck is a substance that falls from the sky after the king gets bored with the weather and wants something different. Then this sticky oobleck become impossible to clean up and is everywhere and will only go away after the king declares that he is sorry for not being happy with what he has. Angela then helped us to make some oobleck out of green food coloring, corn starch and water. It was really cool - it moved like a liquid, but when picked up, felt like a solid. I'm going to have to learn more about the science behind it, because it was really fascinating (or I really am that boring). I brought the camera, but forgot to take pictures. Angela sent us home with a couple of great books to read. Joshua and I are working on a Focus on the Family book, and I am reading The Power of a Praying Wife.
Joshua woke up Wednesday morning with a red, goopy eye. It ended up just being part of Daniel's cold which now went to Joshua. So Joshua missed out on AWANA Wednesday night and I know he would be so disappointed if he knew they played hockey with mini-pumpkins.
School this week went great for both of us. I'm working on a gigantic paper about public health nursing. We are studying about global healthcare issues and the impact that nurses can have in helping to educate the public about preventative care. It feels less like work right now and more like just reading about things that interest me. I printed out my application to grad school and it is sitting on my desk staring at me. My goal is to complete the application and submit it (and have a plan for paying for grad school - yikes!) by January 1st. If I don't have it all together by the first of the new year, then grad school will move to the back burner until after the big move.
More importantly, Joshua is such an awesome learner! Seriously, I can take no credit for this, because he pretty much teaches himself. He has so much of Keith's creativeness in him.
Math has moved into the second unit of study which is shapes. Not your run of the mill shapes, but 3-D shapes. It's not just a circle anymore, but a sphere. Joshua likes that, since he thinks in 3-D.
During reading comprehension this week we read a story called The Country Mouse and The City Mouse. Of course, it is an Aesop's fable. This story opened up a great discussion about the way we live now and the way we will probably live when we 'live close to Grandma'. We talked about traffic, streetlights, thunderstorms, ants, squirrels - all the things we saw at Grandma and Grandpa's house that we don't have here. Then we talked about bald eagles, whale watching, fishing boats, snow, dirt roads - all the things that we have here, that we don't really see much of at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We agreed that there are great things about both the country and the city.
Joshua just completed lesson 40 in his reading book. The story included the word hate. Joshua usually reads the story twice. He reads the story, then we look a the picture, then he reads it again. Today he asked if he could only read it once since it had a 'bad word that I shouldn't be saying because it's not very nice' in it.
We learned about word webs this week. Joshua decided to make one about Daniel. So Daniel goes in the center of the paper and webbed around it are words that describe Daniel. It was sweet.
Joshua is still learning about the 5 senses. But we are also adding some science from the Core Knowledge Series. This week we talked about the weather. Today we discussed the wind. Last night it was very windy and our thermometer that is hanging on our porch blew off. So Joshua put on his clothes, his hunting vest, and grabbed his pop-gun and headed out in the back yard to search for it. He is so funny!
And just for fun today, we make Hand Turkey T-shirts! They are so cute! I traced around each of the kids' hands and then let them color them in with fabric markers. I found Daniel coloring on his actual hand and not the hand on the shirt, so I say, "Daniel, not on your hand, color on your shirt." Oh, yes, you all know what comes next - he colored his shirt that he was wearing not the one on the table! But that's okay, because it was his Superman pajamas and those things take quite a beating since he insists on wearing them almost every day.
Joshua totally got into the project. He is quite the artist. He is a very visual person and enjoys seeing the results of his work. Joshua's turkey is the colorful one, Megan's is the one with dots all over it and a friend drawn near it, Daniel's turkey is the one with the yellow feathers on it. We have plans to go bowling on Tuesday and I think I'll let them all wear their matching shirts, because it will be so cute!!
And because this post isn't long enough, I thought I would add more. Joshua did a phenomenal job helping me shop for items for his Operation Shoebox box today. We went just the two of us during nap time, since Daddy got home early today. I took Megan and Daniel to the commissary for some groceries when they woke up from naps. I did just about all of our grocery shopping for the month today, since I don't want to have to drive back out there again before Thanksgiving, and I really don't like shopping at giant grocery stores, so Safeway drives me crazy. Kodiak could really us a Trader Joe's. I leave you with pictures of the kids I took tonight to show off their adorable fleece hats I made them a couple of weeks ago. They also have matching scarves, but it really wasn't cold enough for that today. Daniel is shaking an empty box of raisins.
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