Week of September 6, 2015

We had Monday off of CC this week for Labor Day so we enjoyed a day home.  We took advantage of it and made cookies!  The girls were so excited to bake chocolate chip cookies.  While they were baking they made their own cookies out of playdoh.

Monday afternoon, during nap, Katie wanted to play with her pattern blocks and teddy bear counters.  She made an airplane out of the pattern blocks for the bears to ride in.  She had an elaborate story about a bear going to visit his grandma.  Then she made the grandma's house and a bus for the bears to ride in.

Tuesday we had the boys come over.  The kids did their normal routine...CC memory work, math, a little phonics and writing.  Then, of course, lots of playing!

Tuesday the girls got a letter from Grandmother and Grandfather.  They were so excited to get their own mail and carried their cards around all afternoon.

We went to a fun little park on Wednesday.  We played on the playground and watched the fish and crawdads in the stream.

The milkweed in our butterfly garden has lots of monarch caterpillars on it.  We brought two into the house to raise so we could watch them more easily.

 The ones we brought in started out very tiny but, have grown to 3 or 4 times this size already.

Thursday all the girls' friends came over.  We did our normal school then, we talked about how to draw a caterpillar.  For lunch we made a jell-o animal cell with a chocolate nucleus and mitochondria sprinkles.

Our little caterpillars are growing fast and eating lots of milkweed leaves.

Saturday we went on a bike ride to the park.

Sunday morning the girls and I had our traditional muffin breakfast.  Then, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's church for grandparent's day.

After church we went back to Grandma's.  The girls wanted to go see the neighbor's chickens and turkeys.

Week of August 30, 2015

We had our 3rd week of CC and we are getting in the groove at home.  During our community day on Monday Audrey had a rough time.  She just wasn't in the mood to sit in class with Katie and I throughout the morning.  It was frustrating for both Audrey and I because I knew she was having a hard time but, we needed to stay in class and learn the material, too.  But, we made it to lunch time and after that the rest of the day went wonderfully!

Even though Audrey has her eyes closed in the picture below I still love it.  She has been smiling purposely for the camera lately and I love her little camera grin.  We have been working on drawing using some of the techniques we are learning in CC (OILS, mirror image and reverse image).  Both girls drawing has improved since we started and they both have a higher interest in drawing.  Audrey has gone from scribbles to more purposeful lines and loops.  Katie has started drawing more complex objects like bulldozers, cows and unicorns.

We had Knox and Brex over Tuesday then all the kids joined us Thursday for school.  Selah and Audrey had fun coloring next to each other at the big table.

After we got the little kids to bed the big kids did some math, reading and writing.  Then we all settled down for a movie and legos.

Saturday we visited Grandma and Grandpa and we visited Grandmother and Grandfather.

Grandfather had some beautiful bushes growing in his garden.  He also had tons of tomatoes that Katie enjoyed picking.

 Sunday Papa came over for a visit.  On his way out the door he asked the girls to paint him a picture...well they took that very seriously!  Paint was everywhere!

Week of August 23, 2015

So another week has gone by like a flash!  We had our second CC day on Monday.  Katie did wonderful on her presentation.  She brought a picture of her guinea pigs and talked about them.  Audrey did great in class, she kept very busy with a little bowl of trail mix, colored, strung beads and did geography with the older kids.  

Tuesday we had Knox and Brex over.  We all had fun with the memory work and a quick math lesson.  The kids made pictographs of the number of boys and girls in their family.  They had a lot of fun coloring each  family member's face.

After math Tuesday we spent the rest of the beautiful day OUTSIDE!  We have had a lot cooler weather this week so the kids have enjoyed much more outside time.  Tuesday they raked big piles of leaves and played in the sandbox.

Wednesday we visited the nature center.  Our plan was to see the monarch butterflies that had just hatched and to go on a nature scavenger hunt.  Well...it rained so our nature hike was cut short.  But, before the downpour began we got to find a few things on our scavenger hunt...

 ...and try out some binoculars...

 and learn about the different ways that seeds are spread....

 ...and visit the bees...

 ...and play in the treehouse!

We left the nature center before the storm hit and headed for the zoo.  We stayed in the buildings close to the front and got to eat in the desert building where they have an open aviary.  It turned out really well even though we got soaked going from building to building.

Thursday we had Knox, Brex, Boaz and Selah come over for school.  The kids all got to play outside and had a wonderful time together.