Science - Skeletons

Both kids were up unusually early this morning.  They weren't very interested in snuggling in bed either.  So we came out to the couch and started reading.  After a couple books I suggested they grab the stack of "science books" we got at the library yesterday.  So we read a few books about the human body and the skeleton.  I had them feel each other's spines, which apparently stuck with them as they told Jon about it tonight.  Then we took a break for breakfast.  Afterwards we read one final skeleton book and then set to work on the "experiment".  I taped some paper onto the front window and had them each stand up against it so we could trace them.  I then drew in some of the bones.  We talked about the names of some of them.  Carolyn enjoyed drawing a brain into each head.  She gave James 2 brains - do you think that means she believes he's super smart?  It was a fun project and both kids were excited to show Jon when he got home.  We'll see how long it lasts on the window.

 

I had intended to do an art project of snowflakes this afternoon.  But with temperatures near 50, we had a snack and went outside instead.  The kids played while I took down most of the Christmas decorations.  I packed them all away and organized the garage as well.  We now truly have room to work out in there and I discovered we should have as much room as I want to bring things from AZ.  So I just have to figure out what makes sense to ship.  Felt good to get that accomplished today since Jon starts track 2 weeks from tomorrow.

Tomorrow I had planned to head to the museum.  But I'm going to see whether the forecasted rain develops.  If the weather holds we may go to the Grove instead.  I figure not too many schools are likely scheduled there this time of year.  So we might be able to see some of the cooler things.  Carolyn would love to see some of the things we've read about in her Little House books.

We have a reader!

Today was a really good day, even with it being Jon's first day back at work after break.  James woke up not feeling so great, but we snuggled in bed for about an hour before Carolyn woke up at 8:30.  It was amazing to sit and listen to him jabber away given that Carolyn usually doesn't let him get a word in edge wise.  Seeing him respond to the noises of the buses and garbage trucks outside was awesome.  I will forever treasure our early morning snuggles.

The morning wasn't too eventful, having breakfast and watching the kids color in the seven to put on the wall.  James is having a hard time understanding why Carolyn's gets put up, but we can actually see the number when she's done.  Then we all got dressed and went to gymnastics.  James actually stayed put today and did a great job following directions from his teacher.  Days like today I think he'll be ready for class on his own next fall/this summer.  I wonder what I'll do for 45 minutes with both kids in class.  We came home, had lunch and the kids went down for a nap.  Of course, Carolyn chose not to nap much, having slept in.  So I let her play reading eggs on the tablet while I got in a bit of work.

After James was up we fit in a snack and some reading work.  Carolyn did some worksheets as she loves them.  I think she really likes the attention she gets while doing them as well.  After a few she got fidgety and James was clearly done humoring me as I tried to quiz him on colors.  He's got most of them sorted out now but yellow and orange.  So we headed outside to enjoy the warmer winter weather.  It being 40 in January, we pulled out some toys and the kids rode around while I got in a quick workout.  I am so sore today that I knew I needed to do something to help alleviate the soreness.  The kids enjoyed the fresh air though and I'm really looking forward to spring in this house.

The reading didn't occur until dinner was in the oven.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE our new kitchen?  As I finished up, Carolyn started to ask to do more "work".  I directed Jon to her papers (stowed so James can't make a mess of them) and we spread her things out on the counter.  She filled in the blanks and then read back to us 4 sentences.  I helped her with 1 word in there, and otherwise just pointed to each word for encouragement.  I truly believe that if Carolyn had a touch more patience to sound out new words, she could read an actual book.  I'm considering finding a book with familiar words for her to read to me in the morning so she can take it with to the library in the morning as her first independently read book.  They have a special program for it.  I think it's awesome that she's reading before her 5th birthday!  I would say preschool at home has been a success so far.

Family Time!

I'm thinking we're going to start a new tradition that involves more family time on Sundays.  I'm even thinking of switching my non-work day to Saturdays.  But that has yet to be determined.  In any case, I had a great day today.  While Jon and the kids were at church I got some work done.  I stopped when they arrived home and we all played in the playroom until lunch.  After lunch was of course naps, although James put up a little fight.  I hope he isn't getting sick, because he's become super snuggly and fought going to bed tonight because he wanted to be by me.  I love the extra snuggles, but I hope he's feeling okay in the morning.  After naps the kids had a snack and then we bundled up to go for a walk.  We went down the block and over to Kim's street.  Rang the doorbell but her parents didn't answer (not to self call Kim first so I'm not freaking her parents out).  The kids enjoyed looking at all of the "big" houses.  There are quite a few tear downs around here.  Carolyn declared we could hold her birthday party in them - the mind of a 4yo!  Of course on the way home we can got sidetracked by the park.  The slides were fairly wet so it didn't last long.  When we returned home I worked more on the kids' rugs and we all played in the living room.  It was some really nice family time and I think I'd like to repeate next weekend.  Of course, we also have other Sunday excursions coming up including a trip to my Great Aunt Ollie's (been 2 years I think) as well as Disney on Ice (thanks Dad).  But with Jon starting to coach in about 2 weeks, I think these afternoons together could be a good chance to regroup as a family before heading into another long week together.

We also colored the number 6 and put it up in the playroom.  Tomorrow we will work on some reading either in the morning or afternoon.  It might warm up again, in which case we'll head outside in the afternoon and possibly even go the park.  I decided today that we'll be investing in rain gear for the kids and me this Spring so that we can get outside each afternoon, unless it's storming.  We all seem to sleep better with some fresh air.  Maybe tomorrow I'll even fit in some lifting while the kids play!  Time to get some rest for what promises to be a very busy week!

Back to preschool activities

I had a chance while on the plane to sit and think about activities to do with the children.  I wrote a list of plans for the next few weeks to fill our mornings and afternoons.  Of course, I included our pre-planned gymnastics, library, and swim lessons.  I added in a trip to the museum and one to the Grove.  I scheduled to stay at for science, art, and game days.  This is mostly to keep myself accountable as Jon starts track - to put down the computer.  But also to keep bickering among the kids to a minimum as the cold weather continues.  I'll continue to encourage free play, but when the kids can't seem to play together anymore or are clamoring for video games, I'll start with that day's plans.  I'm looking forward to having some things down on paper.

One thing Carolyn had expressed interest in is counting to 100.  James is starting to be able to count to 10 as well.  We finally got him over "1, 2, 3, 8" and now he does 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10!  Just have to sneak that 7 in there and he'll be good.  But I figured number recognition would be good for both of them.  So today I found some coloring pages and arranged them so I could print 1 page with 2 numbers so they could have matching projects.  I explained to Carolyn the need to color neatly, which she did well with at first.  We are going to do one page a day until we reach the 100th day of the year.  It being the 4th though, they completed 4 pages and when she got to 4 she got a little sloppy.  It's okay though, part of being a 4 year old.  I then took Carolyn's 1-4 and taped them to the top of the wall in the playroom.  Since that will be one of the last rooms redecorated, I figured this would make a good decoration.  We'll go all the way around the top of the room with a new number each day.  James' sheets were bundled into a clip for the kids to look through.

Very much so looking forward to getting back into a routine on Monday!  I'm excited to see what the kids can learn in this second half of the school year.

Memories that last

What a great trip!  We arrived pretty late on Monday evening, but everyone slept in Tuesday and in the morning we headed over to see my grandpa and Doris.  We walked over there and my grandpa met us on the sidewalk, a huge deal as this was his first venture out without a walker since his surgery.  We enjoyed just sitting and talking until the kids got cranky and we headed back to the other house for lunch and naps.  It was great to get out and walk in the sunshine with hats and coats!  We went back in the evening for dinner which was also nice.

On Wednesday my grandpa came over to his house while Jon took the kids to the park.  We went through some things in the house and talked about what he would like to see happen to them.  I will be looking into the price of shipping his stained glass materials including a saw and grinder to our home.  I also might look at the price of shipping some of his other tools and a couple furniture items at the same time.  He really wants us kids to have his things and I think we might really use them.  First we need to clean out our garage to see what we have room for.  There's a sewing table with sewing machine that I have my eye on as well, so we'll see how it all works out.  What was great about this visit though was a chance to talk with my grandfather.  I think I got him to understand that we visit with him because we want the memories.  He tried to say that talking on the phone is just the same, but I pointed to James' phone skills to highlight that not being true.  He lamented his vision being poor and his hearing not so great (he lost a hearing aide) and I told him that our reason for visiting is selfish - we want the memory of being with him.  Unfortunately I made him cry, reminding him that family is what matters.  He has decided to move towards selling the house, although backpedaling a little now that Doris looks to be on the mend.  I told him that even if he sells his house I will still be coming to visit him.  I'll never forget sitting in the room and hugging him as we both cried over the idea that he won't be with us forever.

Another great memory from this trip took place on Wednesday night.  Since Sheri (Doris' niece) treated dinner Tuesday, we brought pizza over on Wednesday.  Everyone ate their fill and then we sat around the table talking and the kids played their video games a bit (thanks for both systems Dad, a major life save on this trip!)  As usual, James continued to nibble at food, telling Jon as he started to clean up plates.  He then found the cup of ranch dressing for the salad and put some on his plate.  Shockingly, he didn't make a huge mess.  He proceeded to dip his pizza into the ranch and take a bite.  My grandpa then commented on this and James offered him a bite.  It was the cutest thing in the world to see him try to hand my grandfather what was left of his piece of pizza.  Grandpa said no, and told James his stomach was full, pointing to the top of his throat.  We had another good chuckle about that at bed time back at the house.  These are the memories life is made of, and time we'll never get back.  I'm sad to think it's possible I may never see my grandfather alive again, but I continue to pray that my kids will continue to make memories with him for a few years.  And I hope that Grandpa will get to meet Tim's new baby in a couple months.

Time to get some rest as it's back to the grind with 2 tutoring sessions and plenty of work tomorrow!

Clean house

We've enjoyed relaxing around the house the last couple days.  But with our trip to AZ on Monday, it was time to get to cleaning.  We took down the tree and all indoor Christmas decorations.  Since the lights aren't in our way and it's freezing outside, we left the outside things up.  I figure we'll unplug them next weekend at least.  I must say, though, that it is very nice to have a clean house.  I even finished finding places for everything in our bedroom from when we moved in.  We found places for everything in the playroom and all floors were swetp/vaccumed.  I am looking forward to starting off the new year in a clean house when we return.

I continue to spend a bit of time working on the kids' rugs each day.  They are both big enough that if I wanted them to be small I could stop and call them done.  But it's really rather easy so I'll continue to work until I discover I no longer have time.  We'll see how big they end up, perhaps these will be the big rugs in their rooms rather than small.  They feel really cool to sit on and so I'm thinking I want them to be big enough for the kids to lay on them.  Just not sure how much work I'll get done once Jon goes back to work.

One thing I had intended to do over break was create a schedule for afterwards.  And that I have yet to do.  So I am committing to doing so upon our return.  Or perhaps I'll take some paper to think about it while on the plane.  Our first week back we only have gymnastics, although I'm thinking we'll head to the library as well.  Second week we're back in full swing with gymnastics, story hour, and swim lessons.  Our free days will be Wed/Fri, so I'm thinking I'll plan activities out on Wed and Fri we'll stay home to relax, do laundry, and work on science projects.  We have lots of cool new art supplies as well.  Looking forward to getting back into a routine and helping the kids learn.  I'm hoping that we can get some snow to make playing outside a bit more fun as well.

Can't wait to visit Grandpa on Monday and get some quality time with him.  Hoping for a calm day tomorrow as I tutor and finish up work for a few days.

Merry Christmas Eve!

We had another nice day today.  I spent the morning making the sticky buns and apple pie.  They look great!  The kids were pretty good and Jon had a chance to do a bunch of cleaning while I baked.  I didn't get anything prepared in terms of real food for tomorrow, but should be okay.  Just have to mix together the cheesy potatoes and sweet potatoes.  As usual I do need to sit down and figure out a timing schedule for everything, but likely in the morning.  Jon even remembered to charge the video camera today!

This afternoon Michelle and Brian came over for a nice visit.  Miraculously, both children slept until nearly 3pm.  We all shared the birthday cake, which turned out pretty well.  I think I'll skip the almond extract next time though, because it was very strong!   Then the kids provided entertainment until it was time to go to church.  It was really nice to see Michelle and Brian and now that we're closer I'm hoping to see them more often.

We went to the 4pm family mass, which was different than when I was growing up.  They moved the children's play portion to before the official mass and the homily was fairly long.  As usual, the church was packed and we ended up sitting on the floor in the vestibule, which was okay for the kids.  Next year we'll go earlier though and hopefully they'll be old enough to actually sit through mass.  And once Carolyn starts Sunday school next fall hopefully we'll start to know some other people involved at the church as well.  It's going to be nice to be settled into one town.  We came home and had our usual special dinner, looked at the Norad Santa tracker, read the Christmas story book, then the kids put out the milk, cookies, and carrots.  They put a bunch out, so we warned them Santa might not eat it all.  I already had a couple things though.  Jon is wrapping some of the presents now while I keep watch for opening doors.  Luckily Carolyn is bad with being quiet when she leaves her room.  I am really looking forward to the look on their faces tomorrow morning.  They each will only have 7 things to open, but they're all things we know that will get played with.  Plus we know others will spoil them!  Looking forward to the big crazy day tomorrow and then a quiet time at home before we head to AZ.  Great end to 2012.

Looking forward to the many blessings that God has in store for us this week!  Merry Christmas to all.