The kids lost their beloved cat, Whitefoot, a few weeks ago. He seemed sick one day and we took him in to the vet right before the kids and I left for Nebraska. While we were down there, Daryl got the unfortunate news that he had both feline leukemia and a virus that affects the immune system. They tried antibiotics but it was no good and he began to get worse. Daryl and I talked on the phone and we went with the vet’s advice to have him put to sleep. Daryl brought him home and buried him behind our garage, where we have buried all of our pets and (ironically) the poor unfortunate birds that Whitefoot killed when he’d escape from the house.
We decided not to tell the kids until they were home, so their week in Nebraska wouldn’t be overshadowed by sadness. The kids asked about him a […]
Original post by Alicia
We had a wonderful time at Grandma and Grandpa’s! I’ll post about the History Fest later, but I wanted to share a few pics I took Friday (before and after getting into jammies!).
Alex is at a stage where he is unfit for enclosed areas so the easiest way to deal with him is to take him outside to roam. We had perfect weather and scenery for roaming after supper and I went a bit nuts with the camera. Jack joined us after a bit and the boys exlored together. I love watching them pal around together.
The kids have such fun at Grandma & Grandpa’s. Me too!
(Note: This photo is deceptive. It appears that these boys ever sit still.)
Grandma & Grandpa’s… Where the sidewalk ends.
Original post by Alicia
Tonight I played computer games with a very heavy 5 year old on my lap. It was the most important work I could be doing.
I was looking something up on the computer and Jack came in and asked if I’d earn him money on Webkinz. Jack feels loved when you do rather odd things for him, and this is one of them. I can do that!
So he crawled onto my lap and I wrapped one arm around him while using my free hand to play “Smoothie Moves” to level 9.
My boy is heavy compared to his one year-old brother but for now he fits on my lap without too much discomfort on either of our parts. We had to wiggle and shift and occasionally hurl ourselves in one direction or another but it was so worth it.
He fell asleep in my arms and I carried him to his bunk bed. […]
Original post by Alicia
Yesterday for part of Jack’s kindergarten we harvested potatoes. As far as Jack was concerned we were digging for treasure though!
The kids really had no idea that I had planted two batches of heirloom potatoes in our neglected perennial garden last summer. It was all piled with dead grass and leaves to hill up around the potatoes, so they’ve been growing away in secret right next to the children’s swingset for months now.
When I gathered Jack, some hand tools and an old pot and headed to the garden, he didn’t know what to expect. I raked away the leaves and grass, dug down a bit, and called him over.
He was so surprised to see our very own potatoes scattered in the dirt right below the surface. He happily raked and dug and searched for treasure with me. He was delighted at how tiny some of the potatoes were (smaller than […]
Original post by Alicia
Since our kids don’t go to SOTH (school outside the home) they don’t get the annual school pictures. They have to settle for Mama always having the camera pointed at them out in the world. Here’s a few pics of my sweetie Jack from our trip to Sioux Falls. The last one is out of focus but it’s one of my favorites. Perfection is overrated.
Original post by Alicia
I haven’t uploaded pics from our trip to the zoo yesterday but I just had to share a few pics from the day before.
This is what happens when you say yes to your small boy’s plans for a bare part of the lawn and a garden hose. I firmly believe that every child must have at least one chance to get this muddy.
I love the way Alex is looking at his big brother in this picture!
The boys ran around and around the swingset and every time they got to the mud puddle they’d slip and wipe out. Then they’d laugh, get up, and take off running in loops again.
Original post by Alicia
Jack continues to push me to do kindergarten every day as much as possible. I’ve told him that we’ll officially start school next week and so we only have to do a little bit of school for now, just to appease him. He’s a demanding little guy!
A few things we’ve done the past couple of days for kindergarten anyway include…
The letter of the day for yesterday was G. I wrote out glitter and he had to read the word before we could cover the letters with anything. It took a bit but he sounded out glitter and was quite proud.
We went to a local pioneer village for a volunteer appreciation pot luck. While there the kids played on an old train, explored historic buildings, played piano, locked themselves in the jail and drove fire trucks.
Jack found a Jump Start First Grade computer game and installed it. He spent a lot […]
Original post by Alicia
Jack has been asking for kindergarten every day this week and so I’ve made time to do something special each day. We’ve made cakes, read books, done leaf rubbings and so on.
Yesterday he said he wanted to make paper dolls. We decided to do them freehand and I asked if he’d like alien or monster paper dolls. Both, he said!
It turns out that aliens don’t wear clothes anyway, so they were pretty easy paper dolls in that sense. They became quite a family production though.
I gave Jack some lavender cardstock to make his first alien. I gave him a glass to trace for the head. He needed to make extra heads though, since aliens have three. Of course!
Then he drew the body and we cut it out.
Even the baby helped.
Okay, help might be a stretch.
Now, he said, we need to make some alien babies. Aliens have 8 babies at a […]
Original post by Alicia
We held our own Olympics yesterday!
The kids started by picking a country to represent and finding its flag on the “flags of the world” poster to copy. They carefully made flags and we taped them to the front of their shirts.
I helped them make 15 medals (gold, silver and bronze for 5 sports). We cut cardboard circles and covered them with slightly crinkled tinfoil. Then they dabbed paint on them with a paper towel and rubbed it in (bronze for bronze, yellow for gold and unpainted for silver) and used a screwdriver to put holes on the tops. We threaded some coloful yarn through and tied it and were done.
Then we made an Olympic torch and talked about what it symbolized. The kids each took a leg of the journey from the flames at Olympus (the corner) to the host city’s Olympic games (the soccer goal).
Daddy came out to help […]
Original post by Alicia
Okay, I was going to wait until Monday to start the 29 Day Giving Challenge but it just worked out too well today.
First I decided that since I was bringing a giant pan of watermelon for all the kids in the play, that it would be a good start to the challenge.
I did that and it was a respectable start.
Daryl, the boys and I attended the play and watched our girls do a fabulous, fantastic, amazing job. The play was wonderful and I got lots of pics that I’ll post tomorrow when my computer isn’t being a pill (I’m typing on the kid computer now).
Afterwards, the girls were hanging out with the fabulous, fantastic, amazing directors, Kevin and Hayley. I thanked them for doing such a great job and making it such fun.
That’s them on the ends in this pic, with Anna next to Hayley in the purple […]
Original post by Alicia
Two funnies from a walk Jack and I took during our “mom & me” time today….
1. We passed a dark lump that I absentmindedly noticed and shrugged off as burnt wood or some other bit of garbage. Jack stopped and squatted down for a better look. He explained, “I thought it was a frog or a really small gorilla.”
SNORT
Now see, it would never occur to me to think of that!
2. Jack kept stopping to pick up nuts and washers that were scattered on the dirt road and shoving them in his pockets. I was getting exasperated after a while because it slowed us down so much. When we met up with the girls at the library he showed them to Victoria and explained matter-of-factly “they’re for my Alicia-bot.”
He told me last week he was going to make an Alicia-bot (a robot extra mom) so he could have Mom and Me […]
Original post by Alicia
Jack chose the letter A to do a lapbook on this week. I have to say it was much easier than usual — no web searches for images or handouts, no intricate cutting and arranging.
We made some letter A’s together, found some stickers of things that started with A, found and drew some other images of A items, and called it done! He also told me to write “A is a Vowel” on it. He says he learned that from “Letter Factory.”
Here’s some pics.
Original post by Alicia
For Jack’s “Mom & Me” day last week, he said he wanted to make some sculptures.
I assembled some odds and ends from the garage and yard, some tape and scissors, and paint. Then we just sat in the front yard and he started to create.
He did such a good job! I love his creativity.
We used packing tape to attach the pieces, and I helped with the taping.
All total he made 5 pieces, which were:
A fairy catcher
A bird relaxer (perch)
An ant diving board/fairy trap
A machine
A doll
He painted them at our picnic table and then added fake fur to make the doll’s hair.
Here he is with his fairy catcher!
Afterwards he put on a little show for the family and explained his artwork.
Anna ended up buying his doll, she liked it so much!
He was very proud of his creations and it was lots of fun.
Original post by Alicia
This weekend our little town is having its annual festival and the kids and I headed out to walk to Main Street and watch the city parade.
It was raining a bit but we don’t melt so off we went!
Truth be told, I’m not a fan of small town parades because of their preoccupations with throwing masses of cheap junk candy at the children watching, and often throwing it right onto the street so small children run out amongst the fire trucks, oxen, motorcycles, tanks and fire equipment to scramble around for stale penny candy.
(Is this a midwest thing? I don’t remember ever having candy flung at me when I went to parades as a kid in other parts of the country.)
Anyway….
By the time we got to Main Street it was not so much drizzling as pouring and there was no parade in sight.
We waited. And waited. And stood under the […]
Original post by Alicia
This week I started having assigned days when I spent about an hour doing something special with each child.
I’ve always made a point of doing one-on-one things daily with each of the kids, but it is often mundane tasks like fixing dinner, doing math or pulling weeds. Even those times do matter since it’s focused on just the two of us, but I wanted to designate one time per week that was truly special.
Monday was Victoria’s day. She chose to go on a bike ride and then play marbles.
Wednesday was Jack’s day. He chose to do a painting craft (I taped saran wrap on a big piece of cardboard and he painted a picture that we hung on the window when it was dry) and play with playdough.
Thursday was Anna’s day. She chose to go to the mall together (a silly excuse for a mall with about 3 stores that […]
Original post by Alicia
Jack, Victoria and I were blowing bubbles in the front yard last week when the newspaper editor went by in his van. He circled the block and a minute later I noticed him parked across the street taking pictures. He spelled my name wrong but he did pretty well for just going by memory. Small towns are good for getting lots of runs in the paper!
Original post by Alicia
We’re not officially doing school at the moment (do we ever? LOL) but it sneaks in anyway. Here’s a few ways the kids have managed to learn despite the (mostly) wonderful weather.
Jack announced yesterday that he could count to 400 by fifties. He did it for me and later counted all the way to 950 by fifties.
Anna and Daddy found a killdeer sitting on her nest in the middle of a dirt parking lot in a nearby wetland. They talked to the DNR worker about her and he said nobody parks there when it’s not hunting season so she should be safe. They researched how long it takes killdeer eggs to incubate (about 28 days) and they visit her every day. That funny little bird sits on her eggs in the middle of the parking lot and if anybody comes near her she either feigns an injury and tries to […]
Original post by Alicia
I’ve been making more of an effort to spend quality time regularly with each of the kids and it’s so tricky.
Ever since Alex’s arrival a year ago, I’ve been conscious of each of the kids needing more of me. We regularly spend a lot of time together as a family — almost all of our time, as a matter of fact. We also regularly break off into smaller sets to do things one-on-one or at least two-on-one.
That said, children seem to have a deep need for regular real, focused time with parents. Or at least mine do. It can be a challenge to do enough of it with all 3 of the older kids regularly.
Today Anna played fashion photographer and I modeled for her outside. I let her choose my outfits, style my hair and do my makeup. She picked her […]
Original post by Alicia
Anna and I made up a set of cards for Jack to play reading games with the other day.
We drew simple pictures on half the cards and I wrote the words for the images on the other half. Then we gave them to Jack to spread out.
He spread them in a big heart shape on the floor and then he matched the words to the pictures.
Some words he knew, some he sounded out, and some he deduced from hints like first and last sounds.
We’re going to try to play concentration with them today, turning them over and taking turns trying to match words and pictures.
The cards were made on a bit of scrap cardstock and only took a few minutes to make. Anna liked being able to help create them too.
Original post by Alicia
It was Jack’s turn to do a lapbook so I asked him today what he’d like to do next. Since he’s working on a broad theme (”the universe and everything in it”), he’s pretty open to suggestions. He finally decided on giraffes.
I did some net searches and printed out an assortment of cool facts, basic info, coloring pages and photos. Then we sat down together and put it together.
We learned lots of cool stuff!
Did you know that giraffes need the least sleep of any mammal– from 10 minutes to 2 hours a day?
Did you know that giraffes are generally quiet but make an assortment of noises including snorts, moos, hisses, coughs and grunts?
Did you know that the lion is the adult giraffe’s only natural enemy but a solid kick from a giraffe can split a lion’s skull or break its spine? Or that in captivity the giraffe has another worry– […]
Original post by Alicia
Jack and I played this reading game this morning. It was quick and easy and he enjoyed it.
All I did was rip some scrap paper in half and write labels on each for common objects: ball, spoon, book, paper, block, frog, hippo, feather, glue, pen and so on.
We laid them out in a row and then lay the objects (mixed up) next to them.
Jack started working on sounding out the words as soon as he saw me start to write. He figured out pen and was quite proud of himself. I explained the game and he happily helped me set it all up.
It took him less than a minute to march around putting all the objects in their proper place. He jumped to a conclusion once and almost put pen by paper because he was looking at the first letter, but he realized his […]
Original post by Alicia
Jack has had an invisible family for quite some time. They’re an odd bunch. His invisible mother was in jail for a while and his invisible father drank a lot of beer. I’m not sure what it means if a child creates an imaginary dysfunctional family! In any case, we’d all sort of gotten used to hearing about his invisible parents and all the stuff they let him get away with.
It seems my baby is growing up, though! This week he got married. I didn’t even know he had an invisible girlfriend.
Yep, Jack married his invisible girlfriend in our back yard 3 days ago. Anna was the only guest. She served grass to the (presumably invisible) guests.
His new wife is named (ahem) Eggnut.
She wears a blue shirt with a pocket on the front that says “Put your special things here.”
I still can’t […]
Original post by Alicia
Jack came up to me a few minutes ago and announced that for his next lapbook he wants to do one on “everything in the universe, including the universe.”
Wow. We’d better get started soon. That’s going to take a lot of paper!
He’s settled on doing one about the earth first. I’m printing out cool pages and he’s started coloring now.
Original post by Alicia
Jack came up to me a few minutes ago and announced that for his next lapbook he wants to do one on “everything in the universe, including the universe.”
Wow. We’d better get started soon. That’s going to take a lot of paper!
He’s settled on doing one about the earth first. I’m printing out cool pages and he’s started coloring now.
Original post by Alicia
Jack had a really good birthday today. He got some neat gifts, saw some neat people and did some neat things! There was lunch with Grandma and Grandpa, playing in the park with friends, a cake made to his specs (a green cake with his name and a little version of him on it!) and a park-hopping jaunt with Daddy and his sisters at the end of the day.
Tomorrow is Victoria’s birthday and she has a busy day planned. We are hitting libraries in two towns, homeschool swimming, a scrapbooking store, a park and a Mexican restaurant. Oh yes, and starting the day making crowns for everybody.
It should be a sweet (and busy) day.
Original post by Alicia
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