It's beginning to look a lot like...THANKSGIVING!

I'm trying not to jump ahead to the winter holidays as Thanksgiving makes its rapid decent upon us!  But it's a little hard not to especially with snow in the forecast!  YAY!!

#615am

workout buddy

a neighbor was "flocked"!  hahahaha...

it was balmy out!!  he insisted that I remove his booties!  hehe...those piggy toes!!

I had the children try on their winter gear today to make sure everything fit.  We had a generally easy day today as we spent two hours reading a book we've been churning through for the last 7 weeks.  The Benedict Society is a great read.  It's full of adventure, mystery and wit.  But it's verbose people and not only to read in one's head but it's SUPER verbose to read outloud.  It's not one I can easily zip through.  Which is great as it's challenging for the kids but it's laborious for me.  I love the story but it's exhausting to read out loud.  But...onward we move!  I know the kids will feel very accomplished when we finish it.  Our goal is to finish it this weekend.

he draws every single day the second he comes into the classroom...and i let him because it's what works best for him!

she will either draw immediately or read first thing...so disciplined and awesome!

snuggled down for reading time!

Kendall is almost done with her research project on the Mandrill.  She has her glossary and bibliography to complete.  She is so excited!  When she is done I will work one on one with Tyler to help him finish organizing his thoughts and will then set him up on the computer to type away!  I can see them take pride in what they've done thus far and it's a great feeling for them! 

We pulled out our "bread fossils and casts" today after setting them up one week ago.  The children pulled out their science journals and made notes on what they observed.  

They noted that the color transferred, the shapes flattened, they made a distinct impression on the "sediment" - wheat bread above and that they started to decompose over time.  We had predictions on what would happen if we left it for a year or more!  We are not doing that at this time but it was a very thoughtful discussion.

quick math time

We had a quick trip to make to a neighboring library and then off to our community farm!  Our dear friends offered us their weekly farm share today as they are away for the week.  The kids had THE best time picking out the veggies, weighing them and loading them into my car.  It was so much fun with the children. They were giggling, running from bin to bin to see what was next, trying to figure out the difference between a turnip and a rutabaga.  Just awesome.  

figuring it all out!

he was SUCH a good boy!

brussel sprouts!

yum!

sweet potatoes

end of the year slushies from Cumberland Farms - c'mon it was 60 out today!  ;)

A Wave For Nessie - is what Ty called this painting - all I have to say is "swoon" - love that kid...

We came home for lunch and then Ari went back down for a nap. 

painting her awesome air dry clay sculptures!  what you can't see in this picture is the nest, eggs and babies she also made to go along with it. She will be an amazing mother someday!! 

The kids did art and played games for a couple of hours until dinner and then we read more Benedict after Ari went to bed. 

I'm off to clean our classroom and prepare for tomorrow!  Nite y'all!

Weekend update and what's happening!

Greetings!!

Woosh it's been a busy and fun bunch of days!  Our weekend opened with an Arlo Guthrie concert!  It was AMAZING!  It was a 600 person venue.  Very small and intimate and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  The kids were SO tired not getting into bed until 11 pm but it was well worth it!

 

We did lots of things around the house on Saturday.  Being productive is one of the biggest challenges, I'm finding, now that we're a homeschooling family.  Lots of the things that I used to get done while the children were in school now have to wait until the evenings or weekends.  I try to chip away at them slowly throughout the day but some days are so full with schooling that the vacuuming, laundry, dusting, toilets, etc all have to wait until the weekend.  This unfortunately causes more work than we used to have on our "days off" but it's a reasonable trade off considering how important our jobs are both as teachers and as parents.

In other news, I've resorted to winter running.  A gym is not a reasonable option for me for a bunch of different reasons so I have to use what I have available to me.  I must exercise daily so this is what I have a pair of sneakers and some warm clothes = winter running.  It's quick, it works and it feels good.  Win win.

#winterrunning

Ice volcanoes for today's science!

reading together =)

snacks and yardwork

zoom!

Starbucks is a necessity

my running buddy (when it's warm enough)

#sunrise

car cleaning and rainbows

Today started off a bit cranky with Kendall.  She's always had a hard time coming back into the week  - even when she was in PS.  Today was extra hard because it was super grey and rainy - which simply makes everyone want to snuggle back in bed.  But we pushed through starting our day with some journaling about what we are thankful for.

kendall's

tyler's 

practicing alphabetical order

group work - proofreading

After some reading comprehension work the kids went off to have their DEAR time.

hahahaha...baby selfie

Poor Ian got called into work late last night and didn't get back home and into bed until 3 am =(  So thankfully for us he was home today!!  Daddy got to sub in to day for math!  He worked on grouping and division with Tyler and pattern recognition for algebra with Kendall.

The kids worked hard this morning so we all went off to our local market for some yummy salad bar for lunch!  We also went to the skating rink to get new skates for both older kids and me!  I'm so excited as I haven't owned my own skates since high school!  We are going to be skating on Thanksgiving Day and I can't wait!!

helping at the skate shop!

coolest baby around

why yes, that IS a sweet new trucker hat from the skate shop!!

His first EVER salad bar!!  I've been trying to get them to appreciate the beauty that is salad...today he got it!!

she was not quite as brave as he was in her selections but she tried!!

awesome!

total YUM!

croutons, sunflower seeds and tomatoes

sparce but yummy!

Daddy definitely looks tired...

When Ari napped this afternoon we read a lot about the Pilgrims and then I let the kids play for a couple of hours with their ice volcanoes!  They had a BLAST!  (no pun intended!)  We used the baking soda mixture that we made last week in our "tar pits" to fill the volcano and then used a whole bunch of vinegar to make the reaction!  It never gets old I tell you!!

Kendall's off to sewing tonight and I'm meeting a homeschooling mama friend - I RARELY get out at night so I'm definitely extending beyond my comfort zone but it's good for me once in a while!

See you tomorrow!