New Visitor

We have a falcon in the yard. We think its a Merlin Falcon but are not 100% sure. This is truly an amazing bird. Sadly though he has chased some of our backyard birds out of our yard and has eaten a few birds.

Hand Poinsettia's

This was a cute idea and one the kids enjoyed doing. We cut the kids handprints out of green and red paper. Then we glued them to a paper plate with greens on the outside and reds on the insides. In the middle of the reds we placed a yellow circle. After we were done the kids asked to add glitter to the poinsettia's so I let them add a few touches to the flowers. The flowers are now hanging up in the front window for all to enjoy. The idea came from enchantedlearning.com.

Thanksgiving Day 1k for Kids

My sister works at the SDRC and they have this fun race on Thanksgiving Day. There is a 5k and 10 k run for adults and this little 1k run for the kids. My kids love doing this. They talked about going running for Aunt Mary this year and did some practice runs. Last year the twins, age 3, were the last kids across the finish line but this year they all did really good. Noah was the first to cross the finish line out of my kids, followed by Nathan and then Zachary. Zachary was worried he came in last of everyone again but there were still a kids behind him. Overall it was a fun experience for the kids.

Japan's Labor Thanksgiving Day

Tomorrow is Japan's national holiday called Labor Thanksgiving Day. I had the kids make a Japanese Garden, thanks to enchantedlearning for the idea. This was a little more complicated then I thought it would be but it was fun. Instead of using real rocks like the craft suggested we just cut out paper ones.

Thanksgiving Scarecrows

Yet another fun art project. I let the kids pick out the colors they wanted for their scarecrows so some are a little weird. I just let them the freedom to do whatever they wanted and I think they all did a great job. Bet you can't figure out who did which scarecrow.

Pilgrim Art

Another fun art project we did with two of the boys. Noah did not want to join in the fun so he does not have a Pilgrim. Again we used Enchanted learning for the idea and templates. Overall this type of art seems to be more like art in a regular school and loads more fun than the art we were doing. Art is actually looked forward to these days instead of being among the last thing picked to do that day.

McGuffey Reader and Speller

My McGuffey readers finally came! I'm am so excited to get started with this new program. The workbooks tie in the reader and the spelling book. We started the primer today and Nathan did well reading the book and was excited to read it. He thinks its a big person book.

We are reading a Flat Stanley book for literature. After finishing the Flat Stanley book I may try having Nathan mail a picture of himself and see what letters he may get from friends. If your interested in helping us out let me know. I'll send you my email address so I can get your address.