Family Week

I'm so behind on blogging. I'm so behind on everything right now.

A lot of bloggable things happened this week, they just weren't really directly related to our theme.

There was problem solving. It's so amusing to me to say, I won't do it for you, figure out how to do it yourselves.

How to get a ball from under the car.

How to get magnetix out of a 2 liter bottle. The eventual solution was scissors.

After our recent rains, we found giant toadstools.

We played with lots of bugs. Our favorite is a preying mantis that lives in our ferns in our front yard. Thing One was braver than me. He really wanted to hold him and he did!
Did you know they can fly? And when they get scared and threatened, they take the most interesting stance where they spread their wings and put their front legs out?

For schoolwork, we mostly read books and played games. Thing One is fascinated by two things right now. The first is the book Anno's Math Games by Mitsumaso Anna. It is really difficult to even describe. It's an introduction to beginning math concepts.

The second is a game I ordered on sale. It's a puzzle game called Cat and Mouse. It has nine tiles and a booklet with many different puzzles of different difficulty levels. The player tries to place the tiles to fulfill the requirements of the puzzle. I love it because it's a one-player game which is often hard to find, and because all the pieces fit inside! It's great for travel or waiting for food at a restaurant.

Thing One went to his first real sporting event this week, a minor league baseball game. Thing Two got his first bicycle (yard sale, $3). We need to get him some training wheels and a helmet.

Here's our list of family books:
The Family Book by Parr
Jesse Bear Climbs the Family Tree by Carlstrom
Henry and Mudge in the Family Trees by Rylant
Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: A Collection of Family Poems by Hoberman
Chicken of the Family by Amato
My Family Plays Music by Cox

Hope you all are having fun with your families this week!

Back to School

Today would have been Thing One's first day of kindergarten, if he would have gone to public school. I've had a strange, bittersweet feeling all day. But I know in my heart we made the right decision for our family.

So, instead, we started back to homeschooling after a two week break. He's so happy to be back. I can tell, even if he hadn't told his daddy this morning that he is excited.

We put together our new wall calendar. Thing Two wanted to "play", too. Then we read the introduction in Story of the World Vol. 1, and talked about Thing One's "personal history." We looked at his baby book, his baby pictures, watched videos of him as a baby, and made a timeline of his life.

We put a big piece of brown paper on our classroom door and made a family tree. Things One and Two decorated it with flowers and butterflies.

We're sending out some questionnaires to family members about their lives.

Then we headed to the library. I love that it is a two minute walk from our house. We loaded up on books about sharks and manta rays, and family. I got some reference books about homeschooling to look over as well. We found a cicada to play with on the walk home.

Now we're eating dinosaur-shaped turkey sandwiches while we watch the Magic School Bus video we checked out. Thing Two's headed for nap time next, while Thing One tries out afternoon center time. It has been a great "first day of school."