The Little Bed That Papa Made

We have finally reached a turning point. Julia is now sleeping in the "little bed that papa made for her"  instead of sleeping on the floor by her door.  Yay! 

You're Not God

Last week I told Johanna to put her clothes on.  Her response: "You're not God."  I couldn't really argue with that one, but I  reminded her that while that may be true, I was her mother and God does want children to listen to their mothers and fathers.

The First Week of November

We got back into the swing of things this week with our usual school routine.  You know the drill.  Walk, circle time (songs and verses), math review, and penny whistle lesson.  Grant was getting pretty good at playing Old MacDonald by the end of the week, and even picked up the penny whistle while he was playing in the school room after we were done with his lesson, just to play it for fun. 

Here is Grant playing Old MacDonald (With a little added talking from Julia):

On Monday, I told Grant the familiar fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  I think we all know the moral of this one.  I used the wooden figures to act out the story as I was telling it.

Afterward, Grant and I drew our pictures with our block crayons.

Mom's Picture

Grant's Picture

After drawing, Grant did some reading.

On Tuesday, Grant re-told the story using the wooden figures, adding hills to his landscape.  Once he was done with his story he added a few characters of his own (the knight has to ride on the bear because we don't have a horse for him, yet).

We came up with a summary and Grant copied it into his lesson book.  After that we did some LA exercises on the board.  Grant read it through, and then I erased some of the words.  Grant had to figure out which words I erased and re-write them.

We are going to be talking more about punctuation over the next couple weeks, and today we talked about the period (you can see the verse on the upper left hand side of the chalkboard).

On Wednesday, I told Grant another familiar fable of The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs. 

(Grant added to my drawing with his own rendition.)

We challenged ourselves a little with our drawing today, and drew the goose in the "negative" by coloring in the page around her.  Grant was a little worried when I first told him that's what we were going to do, but he did well.

Mom's Picture

 Grant's Picture

After we drew, Grant did some reading, and then I read the kids this book:

It was fun to see all the pictures made from different leaves.

On Thursday, Grant re-told the story in his own way.

Afterward, Grant copied the summary and then I mis-spelled some of the words on the chalkboard, and Grant had to figure out which ones they were and spell them correctly.

We also talked about the exclamation point today.

The kids had a lot of outdoor playtime on Friday. After they had plenty of time to play in the leaves, we came in and painted with the watercolor paints.  We are going to cut these into leaf shapes, and then write things we are thankful for on each leaf.  We will add them everyday to our "thankful tree".

Here are some other pictures Grant drew this week inspired by his new knight:

The Boys

The Colors of Autumn

These zinnias kept blooming all the way up until October 29.  They were awesome!

Happy Halloween!

Our first Halloween activity of the day was carving our jack-o-lantern.  Note the pumpkin "whoopie pies" cooling on the stove in the background.  They are just waiting to be sandwiched with their cream cheese filling.......yum.

With the white sleeves and all, we decided it would probably be best for Grant to take off his shirt so the sleeves didn't end up orange. He wasn't quite sure he liked the feel of what was inside the pumpkin. :)

Grant took these photos with my camera:

Once the pumpkin was carved, and the whoopie pies were finished, we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Uncle Jeff and Crissy's house in Millstadt, Illinois for dinner and trick-or-treating. After an awesome dinner of salad, lasagna, and garlic cheese bread, we got the kids dressed in their costumes.

Johanna was ready to go.

Pretty Kitty

Is it time??

Julia was admiring Jeff's landscaping

Once we were done trick-or-treating, the kids were very excited to check out, and sample, their goodies.

Grant's first time eating pop rocks

They ate some of their candy there, then they got to choose 7 more to save, and the rest was left out for the sugar sprite in exchange for a little gift.  These are what she left for the kids:

Grant's

Johanna's

and Julia's is MIA.  It is a flower girl, and as soon as I find it, I will add the picture.  The kids have REALLY enjoyed playing with them.  Grant said he would like a lot more so he could have an army.  At $25 a pop, I doubt that will happen.  Sorry G! Uuh, I mean, that would take a long time for the little sugar sprite....

Oh yeah, and our finished jack-o-lantern (design by Grant):